New version of Archie: by Fiona Staples (unfinished)

There are many redheads who can be referred to as timeless. Rita Hayworth, Christina Hendricks, Little Orphan Annie…but for one ginger fella who is technically over 70 years old but is forever young, he’s a national treasure!

The loveable cartoon redhead Archie Andrews was created in 1941 and has been a permanent fixture in the US comic world ever since. He is a bit of a time traveller and has been written as a teenager, a kid and an adult in various comics, which can get pretty confusing!

As a pretty standard teenager from a small American town, Archie is a well-mannered yet clumsy guy with a fabulous mop of ginger hair. He generally spends his time chasing girls, his two favourites being Veronica Lodge and Betty Cooper. Clearly the fact that he’s a player doesn’t affect his natural ginger charm and there are many comic storylines about this love triangle.

Despite Archie being killed off in April 2014 within the ‘Life with Archie’ (which is confusingly an imagined future of what Archie did after college – are you still with me?), the character continued to exist in the teenage Archie series. He is also present in a series of ‘Afterlife with Archie’, where the redhead battles a bunch of zombies!

Although Archie has been kicking about in the comic world for as long as Superman and Batman, he doesn’t garner the same audience in adults as he does with kids or as a nostalgic comic.

Image: Archie Comics, prior to makeover

So now, he’s been given a makeover. The new illustrators and writers hope to bring Archie’s world right up to date while staying true to the essence of the comic’s characters. But we’re relieved to say that he’ll be keeping his ginger hair!

The ‘old’ version of Archie will appear for the final time in issue #666 – read into that number’s devilish connotations at your leisure. Red-haired Archie’s ‘new’ life begins in Archie #1 in summer 2015.

For more information on Archie and his adventures, visit archiecomics.com.

By Bec