Even as Captain America soars on blockbuster money, his contemporary is all set to breathe his last. Riverdale ka superhero, Archie Andrews, will exit forever this July. The publisher tells Deebashree Mohanty that Archie is going to die in style. In a decade which has seen more than 15 popular comic book deaths, of which most have been resurrected, will Archie’s passing away also lead to a second comingIJ Read on
Archie Andrews survived the Second World War, saw Governments fall, nations being born, Cold War begin and the Internet digitising the world. But he won’t be there to see who lifts the FIFA Football World Cup this year. Conceiving and scripting the death of Archie Andrews was a heart breaking call for the production, but something that had to be done. “Killing Archie was not easy”, is all they say with a heavy heart.
“His popularity was contagious. That is why he was referred to as the world’s best nostalgic artefact. Come July, Archie will die much like he lived — heroically — saving the life of a friend, selflessly. His death will be as charismatic as his life was and we are going to give it all the respect it deserves,” Jon Goldwater, CEO and publisher of Archie Comics ltd said on email.
Goldwater’s phone has not stopped ringing ever since his company made this ‘sad’ announcement. These calls are mostly from frenzied fans. Slogans and placards saying: ‘We won’t let our freckled friend leave, not just as yet’ and ‘Kill Archie only after I am dead’ have become commonplace in london and elsewhere.
Archie’s death has sparked off more FB and Twitter pages than any other event in history. Even the death of Pope John Paul II in April 2005 did not command as many condolence messages as Archie’s has done, that too in just 48 hours.
Sample this: 2,34,000 pages were created on social networking sites in a single day with RIP messages being the most circulated ones. Some European fans even held a candlelight march, praying for a peaceful end to Archie Andrews.
Back in India, Bollywood directors are brimming with ideas for their next blockbuster based on the character, Karan Johar being the first to express his desire to pay a celluloid tribute to his favourite hero Archie.
“Creating a film on his life and times would be great. I have tried to imbibe some parts of him in my films but a comprehensive movie on the Riverdale janata to banta hai boss,” KJo said recently.
While KJo is busy putting the script together, Goldwater and his favourite writer Paul Kupperberg are planning how to deal with the issue at hand. “We went through months and months of debate, discussion and scenarios. Paul and I have been reliving every Archie moment to come out with the best possible scenario to showcase his death. You’ll have to read the issue to find out how things happen, though. We want to save some surprises when life with Archie #36 hits the stands,” Goldwater tells you, triggering a global guessing game.
Will Archie come in between Veronica and a speeding van and get crushed to death in the accidentIJ Perhaps, no. A recent New York poll suggested that accident is the last thing that his fans would like him to fall to. Out of the 67 per cent respondents who took the Internet survey, 43 per cent said they would prefer him to take a shot for Jughead and collapse without enduring too much pain. Two per cent wanted the hero to die of food poisoning, 17 per cent preferred him being stabbed in the worst case scenario.
Meanwhile both Goldwater and Kupperberg realise that this could be an epic series in the making so the treatment has got to be different. “If you go into the issue not knowing what is coming — and I hope some readers will enter it with that mind set — you wouldn’t think he was going to die. It comes as a total shock, as something so major should. There’s the standard mix of drama and humour that’s made life With Archie such a huge hit, and all that gets thrown up when Archie dies,” he says, adding that more than 300 permutations and combinations have been dwelt on.
“Never in his life has Paul faced such a huge dilemma. But he has done a wonderful job with the script and kept the tone light with an undertone of sadness,” the publisher says.
This is not the first time that a publisher has planned to kill his comic character and end the series in the most dramatic fashion and the fan reaction has always been passionate to such losses.
“Comic book deaths are all about making a statement. Since it is a central character, there is always a chance of it being revived at a later stage. Many renowned authors have employed this tactics to good effect. The difference here is that Goldwater is experimenting with a teenage cartoon sensation, not a superhero. It is not the usual superhero comic death that we are so used to. It will be interesting to see how he holds the suspense and what happens thereafter,” Delhi-based author Mrityunjay Sanyal, best known for adventure short stories titled It Goes Beyond The Empirical, says.
While comic book deaths have been done to death, two have stuck to his mind. “For me, the two best-known incidents are the 1980 ‘death’ of Jean Grey in Marvel’s Dark Phoenix Saga and that of Superman in DC’s highly publicised 1993 Death of Superman story. However, there is one big distinction between the two — though it was never intended to make Superman’s death permanent and he was always meant to return to life at the end of the story, Jean’s passing (one of the many temporary deaths among X-Men) was written as the true and permanent death of the character, only to be re-toned a few years later to facilitate her return,” author Saurav Mohaptra (he has created books like Gabbar, Sholay and Moonlight) who excels in Indian superhero comics, says.
In more recent history, the death of Captain America was frontpaged in all most all global newspapers in early 2007 when he met his apparent end. But Steve Rogers returned in Captain America: Reborn, in late 2009. Also, the death of the Flash (Barry Allen) shocked readers, as he is considered the start of the Silver Age, but he would remain dead from 1985 to 2008. The deaths of the Green lantern (Hal Jordan) and Ultimate Spiderman have also shocked audiences as have several others but the death of Archie Andrews seems to have more than just shock value.
“The main reason is that Archie was a true to life character. Many boys have lived his life in many ways. People have a connect with him unlike with superhero characters who are artificial,” Mohaptra argues.
So, is our beloved Riverdale ka superhero really going to die never to surface again, not even with a plastic surgeryIJ “Archie as a comic book character is continuing — in digests, comics and reprints. His teenage and alternate adventures continue in his other series and I’m sure we’ll explore new ways to showcase the character. The company’s named after him, after all,” Goldwaters says.
While the pre-issue 36 reaction has been astounding, the publisher has his work cut out for the after story. For him, while it is important to end on a high note one cannot do away with the essence of the comic — and that’s being positive.
“The second half of the issue, which will also be sold as a comic trim issue #37, tells the story of the aftermath — a year later — wherein we see what Archie’s friends are doing. It’s a surprisingly touching, moving and, most importantly, a celebratory tale that reminds all of just how important a character Archie is to his co-characters, fans and pop culture in general,” Goldwater says.
If Archie Andrews must die, he should have an overdose of romance. One week with Veronica, one with Betty equals to a dead man! But boy! Won’t he be smiling all the way. This twist will also make people believe that love can kill!
— Krishna Manjunath Sharma, author of Chintu and his Herogiri series
I would let Archie be 500 years old if I could. But I can understand where the publisher is coming from. If Archie has to die, I would imagine him pulling his hair out and dying of sheer frustration. Stuck between two beautiful women for 73 years is no easy job and even Archie had to give in at some point
— Advita Mukherjee, author of The World Adventures in Indian Colours
Perhaps the author should make a mystery out of Archie’s death. May be a secret lover of Veronica who couldn’t stand her with Archie shoots him. It will be fun to see how Kupperberg creates a comic out of a murder mystery
— Ashwini Singha, author
I would have Archie and Jughead have a burger eating competition like earlier times. Archie tricks and beats Jughead but dies soon after from indigestion. The author can get sponsors for this title
— Sanjay Mohaptra, author of Gabbar and Sholay series
‘I grew up with Archie & sobbed while writing his end’
58-year-old Paul Kupperberg entered the comic book world by accident and took the industry by storm. Today, he has penned over 1,000 comics and written for almost all superheroes. From Justice league of America to Green lantern to Superman and Spiderman, Kupperberg has kept August company. He is also the man behind the killing of Archie Andrews. Kupperberg answered Deebashree Mohanty’s queries. Excerpts:
Sleepless nights over the death of Archie AndrewsIJ
Not really. long before it was time to write the actual story we had worked it all out, from the lead-up to the big moment and even the aftermath. The tricky part was figuring out how to merge the two storylines — Bettyverse and Veronicaverse — into a “reality” zone where the event would happen. Fortunately, there were some commonalities, namely Jughead’s Chocklit Shoppe and events in Kevin Keller’s story. That did it.
How has your journey with life With Archie beenIJ
An incredible ride, probably one of the best creative experiences of my comic book writing career. I was brought to the project after the ground rules had already been established in the Michael Uslan/Stan Goldberg six-issue story in Archie #600-605 and after Michael had written the first issue of life With Archie. Everything had been set up so well that I slid right into the story. It didn’t matter what outrageous ideas I would toss to Jon, Gorelick and Pellerito. They always managed to out-outrage me. No one ever said, “no, you can’t do that!” The freedom with Archie was total.
Was it a challenge to take up this new projectIJ
life With Archie (lWA) was a total departure for Archie Comics in the type of storytelling that they’d been doing for 70 years. To most of their readers, Archie was a bumbling teen always getting into trouble while trying to decide if he should take Veronica or Betty to the movies. But in lWA, I was telling long-form stories about this bumbler after he’d grown up, gotten married and was trying to navigate adult life. I’ve described lWA as “Archie Comics Meets Melrose Place,” which means there’s a lot of drama, but also humour. Grim and gritty may work for Batman but readers expect a smile from Archie no matter how serious the situation. That was challenging.
Where do you get your inspiration fromIJ
Depends on the project to some degree, but overall, I go to comics, books, films or TV shows that have impacted me. It could be the way an author used language, or a screenwriter portrayed the characters, or even just the mood. I’m open to influences from authors as diverse as F Scott Fitzgerald, Graham Greene and William Goldman, to filmmakers Martin Scorsese, Preston Sturges, Frank Capra, and Jerry lewis, to comic book creators Will Eisner, len Wein and newer guys I like.
Who has been an easy character to portray and which one was the toughestIJ
Most characters are tough until you actually sit down and start writing them. Before I wrote Superman, I was crazy intimidated by the idea because he’s such an iconic figure, one that I’d grown up with. But once I got into his first story, I saw that my fear wasn’t about not understanding how to write him but that I’d been in awe of the fact that I was being allowed to get close to this amazing, beloved man. Archie, I had read my entire life. But he has always been so well-defined and consistently portrayed that when I did my first Archie story, set in his regular bumbling teen universe, I stepped right into the characters sans problems.
How do you conceptualise a comic stripIJ
Depends on the strip, but I try to start with the big idea for the story and work down. What sort of world is it aboutIJ Conflict between the lead character and others. Once you’ve nailed these down, the rest comes fairly easily.
As a writer who’s your favourite Archie character apart from ArchieIJ
In Archie Marries Veronica, Reggie was my hands down favourite. When I started off, I thought he was still the jerk he’d been in High School and I planned to mess with him by dragging him through crummy jobs and tricky relationships. But Reggie wouldn’t have that. Something about him kept making me maintain his dignity. In Archie Marries Betty, Mr Weatherbee as my man, the jolly father figure watching out for his former students. He was married to Miss Grundy who died but he kept soldiering on. Eventually, in the spur-of-the-moment, in a scene that wrote itself without thought from me, he met a new woman while bird watching. I was so happy and couldn’t wait to see where this relationship went!
What is the tone of issue 36IJ SombreIJ
lWA #36 is consistent with the title’s tone. It’s a bit more introspective, but I have tried to maintain the same level of storytelling and humour that I’d been putting into the stories all along. The readers may know Archie is going to die, but Archie doesn’t know it, so he’s going to act as he’s always acted right till it happens. Will readers cry at the endIJ I hope so. I certainly sobbed.