I was reading an online Josie and the Pussycats comic at the Archie Comics website this morning, and learned for the first time that Alexandra is not just a bitch, but also a witch. Casting magic spells and everything.
So is Alexandra related or connected in some way with Sabrina, the Teenage Witch?
And do Josie & company and Sabrina all live in Riverdale among Archie and his friends?
How determined have the powers at be at Archie Comics been about tying their various properties together?
And have these efforts (if any) carried over into other media? Did we ever see Sabrina or Josie on The Archies, or have Archie et al. ever been mentioned on the Sabrina live-action sitcom?
Has Archie Comics ever done an imprint-wide crossover event a la Marvel’s Secret Wars or DC’s Crisis On Infinite Earths?
And has Archie ever done a crossover event with another publisher, other than the Archie Meets Punisher comic book from a few years ago?
I’ve seen Sabrina guest-star in an Archie story not too long ago, and I’m almost certain I’ve seen Josie interact with the gang. I think they’re in a moderately cohesive universe, but of course Archie comics generally have been a lot less concerned with continuity than, say, Marvel.
Don’t really know much about the Archie gang, but Sonic the Hedgehog crossed over with Sabrina the Teenage Witch in a Sonic Super Special, so that ties that corner of the Archieverse in with the rest (although I can’t remember what led to Sonic popping up in the Archieverse).
I guess this is kind of off topic but has anyone else ever notice how every sentence that isn’t a question in the Archie comics ends in an exclamation point?
Is there a particular reason for that?
Nope–ain’t even remotely cohesive and any attempt to make it such would be hopeless. Moose has at least 2 last names (Mason/Manson), Mr. Lodge has at least 3 first names (Hiram/Something/something else–great cite, huh? )–and his wife may or may not exist. (The butler has had a couple of names too–Smithers and Jeeves at least)
L’il Betty (from Bob Bolling’s magnificent L’il Archie strip) has an older brother and sister–MUCH older. They appeared a number of times in L’il Archie…but regular Betty has never mentioned them.
L’il Jughead has a fully grown sheepdog named Hot Dog. So does regular Jughead–15 years later–and the dog isn’t old. Jughead had (and sometimes has) a nephew called “Souphead”…and sometimes doesn’t.
Sabrina, when she started, was a blatent “let’s be trendy” rip-off (cf- “Disco” Dazzler) of Kim Novak in th’ wonderful movie “Bell Book and Candle”. As time progressed, she was de-Novaked somewhat by making her younger and more innocent, was briefly (8-10 years) a regular member of the Archie gang and then split off completely.
Big Ethel’s role was originally filled by a character named “Ophilia Glutenshnablle” (sp) which is a much funnier name, IMO…although the character of Big Ethel is better.
Josie started as “She’s Josie” (which was a sort-of Dobie Gillis knock-off, Dobie being an Archie knock-off) and while Melody existed, Valarie didn’t–but Pepper (who was hot ) did. After the “The Archies” craze started, they revamped “She’s Josie” into “Josie and the Pussycats” and Josie merged with the Archie-verse for a brief time—Veronica would regularly offer to buy Alexandra soup or shoes or something “because it’s important to help peasants and poor people.” As Alexandra’s dad was the second richest guy in town*, this made Alexandra psycho. Right about that time (mid '60s) Alexandra found an old spell-book, found out that her evil pet cat was an uncle who was a warlock burned in Salem and got Satanic powers (much darker than Sabrina’s). Essentially she could entrance someone and only a snap of the fingers (usually delivered by Melody) would return them to normal. Satanic Alexandra was phased out after a couple of years and the Pussycats were pulled further from the Archie-verse (“That Wilkin Boy”, IIRC, never overlapped.)**
And although Archie now says the Pussycats and Sabrina don’t live in Riverdale, they certainly did from the very late '50s through the mid '80s… Which just goes to show that there’s no hope of a coherent Archieverse–which is kinda part of the charm.
Fenris
*Alexandra and Alexandra CABOT
Veronica LODGE.
Geddit?
No? Neither did I 'till fairly recently. Note this olde poem
“Welcome to wonderful Boston
Land of the bean and the cod
Where the Cabots just talk to the Lodges
And the Lodges talk only to God”.
**I’ve mentioned that I worked in a comic store in the days of my yoot’—my boss there was one of the 2 or 3 premier Archie collectors of all time. When I last saw him, he was within 5-10 issues of having every book every published by MLJ/Archie. And he let me read them. Cool, cool guy!
PS–the “Every sentence ends with an exclaimation mark!” thing was standard operating proceedure through the early '70s at least in ALL comics! The reason was that the printing process was so crude that there was a fear tjat a period wouldn’t get printed properly! For that reason, ISTR that comic companies wouldn’t let (or frowned upon) their writers using words like FLICK for fear that the L & I would merge and look like a “U”. (There were other no-no words, but I can’t remember them).
Archie Comics changed Moose’s name to Mason after the Manson killings. Old comics get re-issued often, & sometimes they slip.
False. Recently, there have been a series of stories in which Betty visits her very cool & got-it-all-together older sis. The bro is very gone, though.
They also re-did her after the successful TV shows (plural–animated & live peoples).
“Josie” is based on Josie DeCarlo, the wife of Dan DeCarlo, creator of the Archie Comics House Style. AC fired Dan DeCarlo after 50 years on the job when he asked for his residuals from that crummy Pussycats film.
That feature (along with the “The Man From R.I.V.E.R.D.A.L.E.”) took over one of the two best Archie books of all time*: LIFE WITH ARCHIE which featured full-length three-part novels (complete in one issue!) featuring the Archie cast which got bumped to make way for the two trendier features. So I’m a bit biased against him!
[Nitpick] Actually, John Collins Bossidy’s verse mentioned the Lowells, not the Lodges. However, the decline of the Lowells’ renown, along with the fame of Henry Cabot Lodge, led to numerous rewrites of the lines. [/Nitpick]
As far as Archie Meets the Punisher… It was a pretty decent comic, really. And geographically accurate; Riverdale’s about four-five stops north of 125th street in Manhattan. It used to be a much nicer town, but…
During the 1970s, there also were a few Spire Christian Comics with the Archie Gang. They were done by Al Hartley. I think it was Hartley a few years ago who demanded, without any effect, that Melissa Joan Hart be fired from SABRINA because of her MAXIM photo shoot. What I want to know is how he reconciled the C’tian Archie-verse with Sabrina in the first place.
Btw, I can understand both the MJH show & the resulting cartoon changing the aunts from greenish crones to younger semi-hot AILF’s (Aunts I’d Like…, esp Caroline Rhea), but couldn’t we have at least one episode with the Groovy Ghoulies?
)–and his wife may or may not exist. (The butler has had a couple of names too–Smithers and Jeeves at least)