Scott Pilgrim's Finest Archie Hour

Scott Pilgrim as an Archie-style comic by Rachel Ordway for The Line It is Drawn’s Golden Age Versions of Modern Superheroes challenge.

Previously on Popped Culture…
Scott Pilgrim Vs. Star Wars
Archie vs. Common People
Scott Pilgrim Vs...

Stuck-Up Riverdale Punks!

Think they're too good for me!

The Filth and the Fury™: Love Kills! by Butcher Billy

Previously on Popped Culture…
Vicious Vangogh
God Save The Princess
Sid & Nancy & Mario & Peach

I Wanna Rock And Roll All Night And Sugar Sugar Every Day

Remember when the Archies turned into KISS? Well, maybe not turned into, but joins them to battle zombies. Yep. Turns out it is happening in the same alt-universe that saw Archie marry both Betty and Veronica. Riverdale sure has changed. (Dan Parent via Comics Alliance)

Previously on Popped Culture...
Archie & Jughead's Double Prison Digest
KISS Meets The Toad Of Mushroom Kingdom
Gene Simmons Slimed Me

The Archie Breakfast Club

A brain, a beauty, a jock, a rebel and a recluse. A great rendition of the Breakfast Club as the Archies, bit I think Mike Perkins got the characters around.

If anyone should be playing Molly Ringlwald (and sorry, I don't think of them by their character names) it should be Veronica, not Betty. Spoiled rich girl? That's Veronica.

Reggie as Emilio Estevez seems to work but he really should be playing Judd Nelson while Archie should be be Estevez. He's always wearing a letterman jaclket. And Jughead should be playing Ally Sheedy, so that makes Betty the nerdy Anthony Michael Hall. (Via 50 Archie Covers)

Previously on Popped Culture...

The Breakfast Club Vs. The Archies

The Breakfast Cereal Club

Archie & Jughead's Double Prison Digest

Alex & The Droogs Of Riverdale

A Clockwork Orange/Archies crossover comic? Can those two worlds even coexist together? Awesome! (Aex & The Droogs by Andrew Bargeron via Ian Brooks)

Previously on Popped Culture...

Archie & Jughead's Double Prison Digest

The Breakfast Club Vs. The Archies

Archie vs. Common People

Riverdale High: Rebooted

Vancouver film company Point Blank Creative portrays the darker side of Archie comics, with drug, teen pregnancy, jealously, violence and homophobia. Awesome! (Link via The Province)

Previously on Popped Culture...
Archie & Jughead's Double Prison Digest
The Breakfast Club Vs. The Archies

Archie vs. Common People

Archie & Jughead's Double Prison Digest

Life took an ugly turn for Archie and the gang after they left Riverdale High. The teen pregnancies of Betty and Veronica led to the death of Reggie and Archie & Jughead's Oz-like existence under the supervision of Officer Moose.

The re-imagination of Archie as a prison drama by Mike Hawthorne for Comic Twart. Get the sordid background on his blog.

Previously on Popped Culture...

The Breakfast Club Vs. The Archies

Archie vs. Common People

Stay Out of Riverdale!

The Breakfast Club Vs. The Archies

"The Breakfast Club done in the Archie’s style. They could have kept the whole John Hughs universe running in monthly books available on newstands everywhere. But they didn’t."

Brian McLachlan imagines a world where movies live on past the final credits, including The Goonies, Mad Max, Red Dawn and below, Heathers done in the style of Little Lulu. (Link via Neatogeek)

Previously on Popped Culture...
The Breakfast Fight Club
Archie vs. Common People
Great Movie Showdowns II

Stay Out of Riverdale!

So, Archie is watching you. Or at least Archie Comics Publications is and they aren't too pleased about any depictions of the Riverdale gang participating in anything related to sex, violence or any other adult situation. But at least they aren't going to sue me, so that's cool. (Those of you reading through RSS will need to see the posted image to see what I'm talking about.) Here is the posting that started it all.

Archie vs. Common People

Take the lyrics to Pulp's best song and toss in Riverdale's class struggle that has always been at the heart of Archie comics and you get Chris Invincible's clever mashup of the relationship between Archie and Veronica.

And for added bonus points, Michael Hanscom set the whole thing to music.

Sugar, Sugar, You Are My Candy Girl

Imagine you're well over 60, but you are still trying to appeal to teenagers who read Japanese manga and worship at the alters of Lohan, Hilton and Duff. How can you possibly compete? A facelift and a makeover seems to be the fashion – just ask Betty and Veronica of Riverdale, USA.

The comic book icons, who often duel over the apparently must-have affections of Archie Andrews, have gone under the pen and emerged with a look that is more Hollywood than Toontown, all in an effort to give the brand a little more realism and romance. This is what female fans are supposedly clamouring for, according to Archie publisher Michael Silberkleit, and how they want to view themselves.

But you needn’t worry that these wholesome young ladies are going to start partying till dawn, snorting cocaine and dropping their underwear before eventually checking into rehab for “exhaustion.” No, no. "There will be no denigrating anybody, no putting down authority or family, no sex, no drugs. The characters will still wear seatbelts. There'll be no smoking. Nobody is going to break the law. It's going to be the same thing from dear old Riverdale that we know and love," says Silberkleit. Phew!

As a kid, I was always more partial to Archie comics, but despite what some may think I am not a prepubescent girl, so I really have no idea what they are looking for in a comic book. Maybe they could make Betty and Veronica more like Ugly and Mars versions currently tearing up our TV screens. They are strong, clever and rarely boy and clothes crazy.

Of course, they could also just leave well enough alone. The desire to changes the characters seems more an exercise in brand expansion than any desire to keep the characters fresh and relevant. Archie comics haven’t been cutting edge since, well, ever. You can pick up an issue and literally read the same stories, with the only concession to the times being our current technological obsessions. And what’s so wrong with that? There is a time for everything and once those readers have grown out of that phase it is as foolish to chase after them as a senior citizen trying to pass herself off as a teenager.