Dan Parent, the man behind Archie Comics, in Delhi for Comic Con, talks to SHAlINI SAKSENA about his latest comic series and how he became an artist
The 7th edition of the three-day Maruti Suzuki Delhi Comic Con has brought in a spectacular line-up of events and international guests with fans thronging to the Okhla grounds in a mad rush. The highlights this year are Ryan North, creator of the webcomics series Dinosaur Comics and Sonny liew, Multiple Eisner Award winning artist and writer for The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye, and Dan Parent, the artist for Archie Comics.
Parent started reading comics when he was five-years-old. “I became a fan of comics at a very young age and it began with reading Archie and Harvey Comics — Casper and Richie Rich and Hot Stuff the little Devil. I was hooked on to these comics and and that is how it all started,” Parent recounts. His says that his favourite comic character was Richie Rich.
He also regrets that today’s generation doesn’t read as many comics as people did 10-15 years back. The reason is simple.
“It is because people are going on to the Internet more and reading digitally. People are also playing a lot more games as compared to reading comics,” He adds.
Archie became popular because he has been around for so long and has become Americana. He has become a fabric of the comic books and part of superheros like Superman and Batman. Dan doesn’t agree with the view that the grown up version of Archie comics was not popular.
Parent, working on Archie comics for years, says that the experience has been amazing. “I have been associated with the comic for almost 30 years and the journey has been fantastic. I have been very busy — as an artist and writer. It is a great job,” he says, adding that his personal favourites are Jughead, Veronica and Kevin Keller.
Talking about his latest series Your Pal Archie, he tells you that is a return to the classic Archie. “We had been doing a lot of reboot and wanted to go back to the classics. I will be working with Ty Templeton,IJartist-writer. But this one is a bit with a twist where the characters have been given a more modernised look like the characters from the show — Riverdale — but the story is still classical,” Parent tells you.
Interestingly, when Parent decided to create a gay character Kevin Keller, the only people who opposed it were the people who didn’t read Archie.
“When Kevin was created, the Archie fans loved him. The nervousness came from people who didn’t read Archie,” says Parent who feels that events like Comic Con go a long way in creating interest in the young to read comics.
“We have had a lot of young people who have walked into a Comic Con and picked up their first comic and got hooked onto reading them from there on,” Parent says and tells you that there have been times when some characters that he has created have not been so well received.
“Though it is not very often, we make sure that whatever character that we create is loved by our fans, but yes, sometimes it does not happen that way,” Parent says.