Analyzing Jughead: Jughead is non-conformity and so can you!*
Whether he knew it or not, John L. Goldwater, publisher and editor of Archie Comics, was a genius to have created such an influential character like Forsythe Pendleton Jones III, or, as we know him, Jughead. Actually, I think he was a bit ahead of his time. To many (and probably to Goldwater), Jughead is quirky-someone who follows the beat of their own drummer, in the cliché sense. But Jughead’s off-center personality and nonconformist aesthetic has been reflected in the decades after his first appearance in 1941.
Some background on the creation of Jughead, first. Goldwater was quoted as saying that his high-school friend, named Archie, was part of the inspiration for the character Archie. In turn, Goldwater himself was the inspiration for Jughead. “I felt like Jughead to him,” he said about their days at the New York Teachers’ Training School. “I was a very loyal friend.” It would seem that Goldwater brought a lot more to Jughead’s personality than just his loyalty; Goldwater was an orphan who hitchhiked westward during the Depression, finding work. This rough lifestyle Goldwater led in his earlier years was sure to have supplied Jughead with his loner, self-sufficient, and non-conformist sensibilities and a personality more unique than the other Archie characters.
Jughead in the 1950s-early 70s-Beatnik
examples of real-life members of the Beat counterculture–
Through most of the ‘40s, Jughead was the standard slacker who provided the snappiest comebacks in stories-lines that usually weren’t reserved for characters like Archie and Betty. But in 1947, the Beat Generation-a free-form, alternative lifestyle that rejected the conformist “square” culture and focused on different ways to realizing spirituality-bubbled up from the subculture dregs and this started seeping into mainstream throughout the 1950s. Once the Beat culture caught on, however, and college students started dressing in stereotypical berets and black leggings, the term “beatnik” arose, and this version of the Beat Generation is the one most Americans associate with the 1960s.
With Goldwater’s work with the Comics’ Code, I doubt he would’ve wanted people to view Jughead as a person with Beat sensibilities, but the laid-back, drifter personality he has, coupled with his rejection of his parents’ standards and goals for him (much to his father’s aggravation), Jughead has lends itself to those sensibilities easily. Incidentally, his love of jazz music and jazz drumming also fits eerily well into the Beat aesthetic. (I don’t think this part of his personality was made up during the time when beatniks were the rage, however.) During this time, Jughead’s clothes were either a lot more streamlined than those of other characters (fitting in with the Beat aesthetic), or there’d be something off-kilter that would differentiate him from the dress styles of the other characters:
In the late 1960s to mid-1970s, Jughead’s clothes became a little more psychedelic, again representing the Beat-and now hippie-countercultures of the ‘60s and ‘70s.
click picture for originating website
Jughead in the 1990s-skate punk
real-life example of skate-punk–
When the Jughead comic book reached 1990, there was a huge schism between the old Jughead and the new, revamped, skate punk Jughead. And boy was it drastic. So drastic, in fact, that the powers-that-be quickly changed Jughead back to his old look. But I believe their thought process to change Jughead to fit more with the times were along two lines-first, the street-skateboarding lifestyle was everywhere during the late 1980s and early 1990s, and if it’s the hottest new thing, why not cash in on it? Secondly, Jughead’s personality was all about being the exception to the rule and the counter to the mundane that Archie represented; it would seem natural that he would take up a skateboard and start skating. I don’t know if he would shave his head, as shown in the examples below, but he definitely might take up skateboarding.
Also, one of the characteristics of the punk lifestyle (the original punk lifestyle, not just skate punk) is the D.I.Y. ethic-to make, grow, or find everything you need yourself. Even though Jughead would have to satisfy his Pop Tate-made hamburger cravings every now and again, the do-it-yourself idea seems like it would be something Jughead would take part in, at least for a little while. Being honest, even though the beginning of the ’90s saw the most radical change in Jughead ever, the covers were the most creative and innovative I’ve ever seen. I wish they made covers like these again, sans-Jughead weird haircut.
Jughead today-the all-encompassing non-conformist
Nowadays, there’s so much in our culture that it’s hard to be different. There really is no new counterculture in the ‘00s. Therefore, Jughead seems a little like all of us. We all fit in, and we’re all striving to be different. There are so many ghosts of non-conformist ideologies-ones aforementioned and ones not, like Romanticism and Bohemianism- that Jughead has come to represent each of them in a little way. He’s no longer just a beatnik or a punk; he’s now the everyman who’s trying to stick out.
Want to be a non-conformist, too? Put this music in your repertoire and be well on your way to sticking it to the man!
Also, read up on your counterculture history:
Howl, Allen Ginsberg
On the Road, Jack Kerouac (good book!)
-comic book covers from comics.org
*the title is a play on Stephen Colbert’s I Am America and So Can You!
Wow! Wait, so does this mean that Jughead, as the decades pass, is supposed to be from each ‘laid-back’ counterculture- beatnik, hippie, and punk?
That is SO cool.
I actually think the idea of him being on the ‘punk’ side is really cute- and the skateboarding’s okay, too, because a lot of teens, including my little bro, do it, but that haircut is RIDICULOUS.
Hey, speaking of Archie and counterculture, have you ever seen the ‘goth’ issue? XD Basically, Betty went goth, and then the rest of them did too. (They all looked good, except maybe Archie, but then, I’m rather biased against him…)
Actually, Betty as a ‘perky’ goth would’ve been a rather adorable characteristic of her….
Oh yeah, I think the idea of him being a punk is awesome-it’s just the hairstyle that caught me off guard. And I think the writing on the covers of those issues, like “Ladies and germs” and whatnot is uber ridiculous. It’s like middle-aged men trying to write “punk”. But yeah, I think the actual skateboarding and punk stuff is fine, as long as that haircut never sees the light of day again
Yeah, I’ve seen some scans of that goth issue. I rather liked her look in that issue.
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