Archie? Nooooooooooooooooooo!

The news of the “‘death’ of Archie” (as they put it on the CGC slabs) shocked–shocked–America yesterday. And not just because Archie is now “dead”–the publisher, Archie Comics, announced that he was going to buy the farm back in April. No, the real shock was that it turns out Archie was assassinated. Gunned down while valiantly saving the life of his friend. Who’s gay. And also gay-married. And a politician. Who’s crusading against gun rights. While dealing with Iraq-war related PTSD.

Okay, I made up the last part but everything else is true. A few thoughts:

* Archie isn’t really dead, of course. Only the Archie of the Life with Archie series is dead. The regular Archie in the regular Archie series will keep plugging along.

* How relevant is Archie? I mean, from the hundreds and hundreds of items in the news yesterday, you’d think it’s a pretty big deal. Well in June the regular, flagship Archie title came out with issue #656. It was ranked #327 on the sales chart. Anyone want to guess how many copies it sold? Bueller? Bueller?

4,063

Not a typo.

* But Archie is a dynamo compared to Life with Archie. In May, the most recent issue of Life, #35, sold 2,064 copies.

* The stunt is perfectly in line with a company that’s experiencing massive internal turmoil. But it makes you wonder: Didn’t they get the memo at Archie Comics? Gay is yesterday. The future is trans! You have to wonder why the transphobic writers and artists at Archie are happy to include well adjusted homosexual characters, but have no room for trans-characters in their stories. It’s this sort of cis-gender bias which is holding back sales of comic books and keeping them in their ghetto subculture. It’s not like the character of Jughead hasn’t been silently signaling her true gender identity for years with her tiara. If only they’d be more inclusive.

The lesson we can all take from this, I think, is that the people who run Archie Comics are small-minded bigots and that Archie got what he deserved.