Little Archie
Encyclopedia
Little Archie was a comic book
published by Archie comics
from 1956
until the mid 1990s, lasting 140 issues. Little Archie #1 is considered to be "scarce" by the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide
(only 20-100 copies exist).
-aged children. It is arguably the most successful of the alternate versions of Archie. The world of Little Archie is remarkably similar to that of his teenage counterpart. Most of the same characters are featured, albeit usually in younger versions. Miss Grundy
and Mr. Weatherbee
appear as a teacher
and the principal at Riverdale Elementary School. Little Archie is always referred to and addressed as "Little Archie". Although stories featuring one of the other characters would be titled "Little Jughead", "Little Betty" and so on, the characters themselves were always addressed by their regular names. Keeping in mind its younger target audience, Little Archie stories tended to have more educational and moral content than standard Archie stories.
In the early 1990s, partly due to declining sales, there was a radical redesign of the Little Archie universe. Renamed as "The New Little Archie", it featured the Little Archie characters with contemporary fashions, hairstyles, and sensibilities, and with a more modern-looking art style. One notable change was that Archie was now addressed merely as "Archie" and no longer "Little Archie". This relaunch was by and large unsuccessful, and the Little Archie universe soon went back to its old style.
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
published by Archie comics
Archie Comics
Archie Comics is an American comic book publisher headquartered in the Village of Mamaroneck, Town of Mamaroneck, New York, known for its many series featuring the fictional teenagers Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Reggie Mantle and Jughead Jones. The characters were created by...
from 1956
1956 in comics
- Year overall :* Fredric Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent and the United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency hearings continue to negatively affect the comics marketplace...
until the mid 1990s, lasting 140 issues. Little Archie #1 is considered to be "scarce" by the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide
Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide
The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide is an annually published comic book price guide widely considered the primary authority on the subject of American comic book grading and pricing in the hobby/industry....
(only 20-100 copies exist).
Overview
Little Archie featured Archie and his friends as elementary schoolElementary school
An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...
-aged children. It is arguably the most successful of the alternate versions of Archie. The world of Little Archie is remarkably similar to that of his teenage counterpart. Most of the same characters are featured, albeit usually in younger versions. Miss Grundy
Miss Grundy
Geraldine Grundy is a fictional character of the Archie Comics series.-Fictional history and character:In the comics, she is the homeroom teacher at Riverdale High School, occasionally teaching English and Math, as well. In Jackpot Comics #4, she is referred to as "Mrs. Grundy, the principal",...
and Mr. Weatherbee
Mr. Weatherbee
Waldo Weatherbee is a fictional character in the Archie Comics universe. Mr. Weatherbee is the principal of Riverdale High School, where Archie Andrews is a student. To Riverdale students and staff, he is commonly called Mr. Weatherbee, due to his authority position. Sometimes, Archie and his...
appear as a teacher
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...
and the principal at Riverdale Elementary School. Little Archie is always referred to and addressed as "Little Archie". Although stories featuring one of the other characters would be titled "Little Jughead", "Little Betty" and so on, the characters themselves were always addressed by their regular names. Keeping in mind its younger target audience, Little Archie stories tended to have more educational and moral content than standard Archie stories.
In the early 1990s, partly due to declining sales, there was a radical redesign of the Little Archie universe. Renamed as "The New Little Archie", it featured the Little Archie characters with contemporary fashions, hairstyles, and sensibilities, and with a more modern-looking art style. One notable change was that Archie was now addressed merely as "Archie" and no longer "Little Archie". This relaunch was by and large unsuccessful, and the Little Archie universe soon went back to its old style.
Characters
Many recurring characters appeared only in Little Archie, though several were later introduced in the mainstream comics and are now regarded as canonical.- Abercrombie and Stitch: Two aliens that have visited Little Archie on some adventures.
- Caramel: Betty’s golden-haired cat. She originally appeared in Little Archie, but would later become a frequent character in the main continuity. She continues to make occasional appearances. Betty has owned many cats (Max, Susie, Buddy, Samantha, etc.), but Caramel is the best known and the most frequently appearing.
- Polly and Chic Cooper: Betty’s older sister and brother introduced in Little Archie in the 1960s as teenagers. Polly mainly appeared in stories about her "older sister" relationship with Little Betty, while Chic mostly appeared in the adventure-based stories as Little Archie's teenage friend who could fill the role of "adult" when the plot needed a character who could drive a car, fight with the villains, etc. For years, they were not canonical characters in the mainstream Archie comics. However, by the 1990s, they had been integrated into the main continuity. Both have strawberry-blonde hair, are currently in their twenties and are close to each other in age, but are significantly older than Betty (Polly still affectionately calls her "baby sister" on occasion). To explain why they rarely appear in the comics, it was established that Polly works as a television news reporter in San Francisco, and Chic works as a secret agent for the United States government. Both occasionally visited their family, though Polly made more appearances. Around 2005, it was revealed that Polly had accepted a job in Riverdale, and she now appears often, mainly in the Betty comic book.
- Mad Doctor Doom & Chester: Not to be confused with Marvel ComicsMarvel ComicsMarvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
' Doctor DoomDoctor DoomVictor von Doom is a fictional character who appears in Marvel Comics publications . Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in Fantastic Four #5 wearing his trademark metal mask and green cloak...
, Mad Doctor Doom is a green-skinned mad scientistMad scientistA mad scientist is a stock character of popular fiction, specifically science fiction. The mad scientist may be villainous or antagonistic, benign or neutral, and whether insane, eccentric, or simply bumbling, mad scientists often work with fictional technology in order to forward their schemes, if...
who has terrorized Archie and the gang since they were children, as they constantly foiled his plans of gaining great wealth and conquering the world. Doom was assisted by Chester, his nitwitted, teenaged slacker of an assistant (occasionally said to be his nephew). Chester looks and acts like a stereotypical 1950s juvenile delinquent. They both made at least one appearance in the mainstream comics. - Evelyn Evernever: A young girl who was acquainted with Archie and friends when they were young. Evelyn was a shy girl with a bit of an inferiority complexInferiority complexAn inferiority complex, in the fields of psychology and psychoanalysis, is a feeling that one is inferior to others in some way. Such feelings can arise from an imagined or actual inferiority in the afflicted person...
, with tenuous relations to the rest of the gang. Her only real friend was her doll, Minerva. Evelyn Evernever likes to think of herself as a "bou'tiful" gal. After a long hiatus Evelyn Evernever reappears as a teenage girl who kidnapped Archie in a recent all-out action issue of Betty & Veronica Spectacular. It was shown in a recent issue of Veronica that Evelyn was Archie's first kiss. - Fangs Fogarty: A fat, snaggle-toothed bully who tormented Archie, Jughead and Reggie in their younger years. Fangs was an unreasonable thug who brutally battered his classmates, either because they looked at his self-appointed girlfriend Penny, they insulted him behind his back, or for no reason at all. He was, however, good friends with Dilton. When, in one story, Archie and Reggie (not yet knowing this) learned that Dilton is a karate expert—surpassed, he says, only by his friend Edward—they persuaded him to confront Fangs, presuming Dilton could beat him up. In preparation for the encounter, Archie and Reggie deliberately provoked Fangs into a fit of rage. However, when Dilton arrived, he cheerfully greeted Fangs as "Edward." Presumably, Fangs moved away at around the time Moose MasonMoose MasonMoose Mason is a fictional character in the Archie Comics universe. He attends Riverdale High School where he is typically depicted as the best athlete but the poorest student. His difficulties with school were later attributed to dyslexia...
arrived in Riverdale. Fangs eventually showed up in the mainstream comics in a story titled "Blast from the Past", first printed in Archie's Double Digest #117 (August 2000). Now a tall, muscular, handsome young man nicknamed Smiley after getting his orthodontic work, he had returned to Riverdale to apologize to those he had formerly antagonized. In this story Fangs' first name is given as Fred instead of Edward. - Bubbles McBounce: Bubbles McBounce was an obese girl from Little Archie. Being heavier than the other kids, she is known for such moments as the time she saved the day by holding down an air balloon that risked taking Archie and the gang on a magical voyage.
- Penny Peabody: Fangs Fogarty’s girlfriend. Their relationship is exactly like Moose and Midge’s: Fangs will hurt any boy who even talks to Penny.
- The Perilous Pike: A pikeEsoxEsox is a genus of freshwater fish, the only living genus in the family Esocidae — the esocids which were endemic to North America, Europe and Eurasia during the Paleogene through present.The type species is E. lucius, the northern pike...
that lives in Logger’s Pond, a large pond near Riverdale. No one has ever caught the Perilous Pike, though some people have almost caught him. In some stories, attempts to fish for him cause the Pike to attack a member of Archie's gang. - Ambrose Pipps: A small, shy boy with a large nose and an outsized baseball cap pulled over his face. Like Fangs Fogarty, most of his appearances have been in the Little Archie series. Ambrose was the tagalong of Archie's gang when they were young. Although Ambrose's loyalty was unflagging, Little Archie took pride in bullying and exploiting him, without ever letting him join the "good ol' gang." Although a teenage Archie was apprehensive when Ambrose returned to Riverdale after several years' absence, Ambrose held no grudges, and the two became good friends. In the story "The Great Quiz Whiz Contest" reprinted in Archie's Pals 'n' Gals #108, Archie pulls out his lucky double sided penny from his pocket that his pal Ambrose gave him. Both Ambrose and Fangs have very brief cameos in Tales From Riverdale #24.
- The Southside Serpents: A gang of kids who were the rivals of Little Archie’s gang and lived in the southern district of Riverdale. They filled the role of Central High Students when a rival group was needed.
- Spotty: Little Archie’s brown dog with black spots. He appeared primarily in "Little Archie", as an honorary member of the gang, so he has been known to tag along with them on their adventures. He has a close relationship with his master, and Little Archie often worries about him being in danger. Spotty has made a few appearances in the main continuity, usually shown as an older, less active dog. His most recent appearance in mainstream continuity was Archie's Double Digest #196 in 2009
- Sue Stringly: Sue was a poor little girl who knew Archie and the gang when they were young. Sue's family didn't have much money, and they lived in a shack near the railway tracks. Despite this, Sue was an upbeat, cheerful girl who never complained or despaired over her predicament. While most of the school students didn't want anything to do with her, eventually Sue became good friends with Little Archie and Veronica. Her father was sometimes said to be working in a pickle plant. Sue also lived next to a coal mine. In one story, she was called a cousin of Veronica Lodge. Although her hair is blonde, she bears a resemblance to Big EthelBig Ethel"Big" Ethel is a fictional character by Archie Comics. She is a student of Riverdale High School, known to her schoolmates by the nickname Big Ethel, though this nickname has virtually fallen out of use since the 1990s...
. After a long hiatus right after Evelyn Evernever return Sue Stringly reappears as a teenage secret agent who rescue Archie and befriends with Betty & Veronica (Agent B & Agent V) in a recent issue of Betty & Veronica Digest.
See also
- List of Archie Comics Publications