[a fool in paradise]

Betty & Veronica were identical cartoons, differing only in hair color. Social status & attitude were character overlays. MAD Magazine’s “Starchie!” got the strip’s number back in 1956. `Biddy & Salonica’ were two acne-ravaged druggies while Starchie, Bottleneck, & Wedgie van Smelt were juvenile delinquents dealing in petty crime. It’s a comic strip, come on folks!

Kurtzman and Elder revisted Archie in a Goodman Beaver story in Help (and reprinted in the Executive Comic Book paperback in the 60s).

Archie Comics won the artwork and publishing in a lawsuit. And it all still rings true.

[elcid1970]

That’s some heavy satire! By the masters themselves, Kurtzman & Elder. I was digging Little Annie Fannie at the time.

The “Starchie” lampoon was mild by comparison. The teens are smoking cigarettes and only mention alcohol. Their weapons are rubber band guns with a linoleum square, except for the Mercury sports coupe with the .50 cal pointed rearward. And Starchie ends up in the jug for life (presumably for the death of Wedgie). Even in a lampoon, crime does not pay.

The only violence in the real Archie comics came from the ever jealous Moose. Wonder how life was like later on for Moose & Midge?