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Archie Andrews

Archie Andrews

4,056 appearances · Golden Age · 1941–2026 · 59 key issues
Who is Archie Andrews?

Archie Andrews is a wholesome, red-headed teenager from the fictional town of Riverdale who debuted in 1941, navigating high school life, friendships, and a classic rivalry between girls Betty Cooper and Veronica Lodge. He has no superpowers — just everyday teen charm and endless misadventures.

Few characters in American comics have proven as enduringly beloved as Archie Andrews, the red-headed, freckle-faced teenager who first bounded onto the page in 1941's Shield-Wizard Comics #6 — a Golden Age debut that launched what would become one of the longest-running franchises in the medium's history. Across an astonishing 85 years and more than 4,000 catalogued appearances, Archie has anchored titles like Archie, Life with Archie, and Archie's Girls Betty and Veronica, accumulating 59 key issues that collectors prize to this day. He shares his world with some of comics' most iconic supporting players — Veronica Lodge, Betty Cooper, Jughead Jones, Reggie Mantle, and Moose Mason — a cast so vivid they've become cultural shorthand for small-town American youth. Whether you're a lifelong fan or just discovering Riverdale for the first time, Archie Andrews is the rare Golden Age original who never stopped feeling completely, irresistibly alive.

★ First appearance
Pep Comics #22
Dec 1941

Trivia

  • Archie holds the distinction of being the first major American teen comic-book star to land a long-running network radio show, with The Adventures of Archie Andrews running on NBC from 1943 to 1953.en.wikipedia.org
  • In 1969, Archie became a genuine pop phenomenon when the Archies' 'Sugar, Sugar' climbed to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, cementing it as one of the most famous chart successes ever tied to a fictional comic-book band.en.wikipedia.org
  • Archie Comics made headlines in 2014 when Life with Archie #36 killed off an adult version of the character in a widely publicized storyline framed as him dying heroically while saving Kevin Keller.en.wikipedia.org
  • Among the strangest official-seeming offshoots in the character's publishing history, Archie and friends were licensed in the 1970s into a 49-issue evangelical comic series produced by Spire Christian Comics.en.wikipedia.org
  • Frank Doyle has written more of Archie Andrews's comics than any other writer in our catalog — 880 issues.

Top series

Covers through the years — 1941–2020

Pep Comics #22 1941
Pep Comics #22
Pep Comics #65 1948
Pep Comics #65
Archie Comics #71 1954
Archie Comics #71
Archie #119 1961
Archie #119
Archie's Madhouse #50 1966
Archie's Madhouse #50
Archie and Me #53 1972
Archie and Me #53
Archie Giant Series Magazine #475 1978
Archie Giant Series Magazine #475
Archie #327 1984
Archie #327
Cracked #260 1991
Cracked #260
Archie #443 1996
Archie #443
Archie's Double Digest Magazine #131 2002
Archie's Double Digest Magazine #131
Archie's Pal Jughead Comics #212 2012
Archie's Pal Jughead Comics #212
Afterlife with Archie #2 2014
Afterlife with Archie #2
B&V Friends Double Digest Magazine #276 2020
B&V Friends Double Digest Magazine #276

Appearances (1–150 of 4,056, oldest first)

Shield-Wizard Comics (1940)
#6
Hangman Comics (1942)
Jolly Jingles (1943)
Black Hood Comics (1943)
#10
Wilbur Comics (1944)
Super Duck Comics (1944)
Laugh Comics / Laugh (1946)
Darling Love (1949)
#2
Archie in Mask Me No Questions (1950)
Adventures of the Dover Boys (1950)
#1
Archie's Girls, Betty and Veronica Annual (1953)
Archie Annual (1950)
Archie's Joke Book Magazine (1953)
Archie's Pal Jughead Annual (1953)
Archie's Girls Betty and Veronica (1950)
Archie's Mechanics (1954)
#3
Archie Giant Series Magazine (1954)
Archie's Pal Jughead (1949)
#32
Pat the Brat (1955)
Katy Keene Comics (1949)
Katy Keene Annual (1954)
#3
Archie's Pals 'n' Gals (1952)
#5
Little Archie (1956)
#1
Li'l Jinx (1956)
#1
Jughead's Folly (1957)
#1