The Adventures of Little Archie #40
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeThe Adventures of Little Archie #40 (September 1966) marks the first appearance of Little Pureheart the Powerful — the child-aged alter ego of Little Archie — making it a genuine debut issue within the broader Silver Age superhero wave that had already given the teen Archie his own Pureheart persona in the main line. The issue also contains one of the earliest substantial appearances of Fangs Fogarty and his girlfriend Penny Peabody in the context of a named story ('Pest Control'), cementing the dynamic of the snaggle-toothed bully and his possessive jealousy that would define the Little Archie universe's central antagonist for years. As a 68-page giant, it delivered multiple interconnected story threads — superhero parody, adventure, camp comedy — reflecting the editorial ambition Archie Comics was bringing to the oversized format in the mid-1960s.
When Jughead Jones befriends a squirrel he names Waffles at summer camp, the little bear of a pet soon leads him and Archie on a wild adventure—until a grizzly bear appears in the woods, turning their playful search into a tense chase.
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The Little Pureheart concept was not artist Dexter Taylor's own initiative: editor Richard H. Goldwater directed Taylor to transplant the Pureheart the Powerful persona — already running in the main Archie line since Life with Archie #42 (1965) — into the Little Archie series, part of a publisher-wide Silver Age superhero push. Taylor, who had been contributing to the Little Archie series since issue #4 (1957), wrote, penciled, and lettered both superhero features in this issue, while Joe Edwards handled the Li'l Jinx backup strips. The title's giant-size format (issues #19–53 ran at 68 pages) gave the creative team room to run several distinct genres side by side, and #40 takes full advantage of that range.
Trivia · 7 facts
- First appearance of Little Pureheart the Powerful (Little Archie's superhero identity) and Little Evilheart (Little Reggie's villain counterpart), introduced in the 13-page story 'The Venomous Vixen' — script, pencils, and letters all by Dexter Taylor.
- Little Pureheart made only three appearances in the series before the concept was retired; 'The Venomous Vixen' in this issue is his debut.
- The issue also features Fangs Fogarty and Penny Peabody in the story 'Pest Control,' in which Fangs is jealous that Penny likes Jughead — an early showcase of the Fangs-Penny dynamic that parallels Moose and Midge in the main Archie line.
- Fangs Fogarty is depicted as the bully alter-ego figure exclusive to the Little Archie setting; his given first name in the comics is 'Edward,' though a 2000 story in Archie's Double Digest #117 retroactively called him 'Fred.'
- Two creators share the issue: Dexter Taylor (superhero and adventure stories) and Joe Edwards (Li'l Jinx backup gag pages, including 'Flower Girl' and 'Just Ask!').
- The story 'Secret of the Old Cliffs' was later reprinted in Archie Comics Digest #43 (August 1980); the 'Pest Control' story was reprinted in Little Archie Comics Digest Annual Magazine #7 (1980); and 'The Venomous Vixen' lead story was reprinted in Le Jeune Archie (Editions Héritage) #44 for French-Canadian readers.
- The Little Pureheart concept in this issue was part of a coordinated Archie Comics initiative: comics historian Don Markstein noted that Archie Giant Series Magazine #142 (October 1966) reprinted the origin stories of all the Archie superhero identities introduced that year.
Cast · 9 characters
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Reprints
Reprinted in Little Archie Comics Digest Annual Magazine #7 (1980), Archie Comics Digest #43 (1980), Jughead with Archie Digest #44 (1981), Little Archie Comics Digest Magazine #25 (1987), Little Archie Comics Digest Magazine #27 (1987), Archie's Double Digest Magazine #171 (2006), Archie & Friends All Stars #25 (2015), Archie (Jumbo Comics) Double Digest #330 (2022), Le Jeune Archie #44
Key issues in The Adventures of Little Archie
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