Archie Comics has been a sexualized comic book for years

June 9, 2010

Lately, a lot of anti-gay folks and conservatives have come out saying that Archie Comics is trying to introduce sexuality by introducing Kevin Keller, an openly gay teenager. Their basis for this opinion is that they believe that Archie Comics boasts pure, I suppose “conservative” values, especially since the characters were used for Christian-based Spire Comics stories. Well, I hate to break it to the conservatives, but Archie Comics has been sexualized for years, unless they don’t think of Betty and Veronica pin-up drawings as “sexual” (it most certainly is!)

From the very beginning, Archie Comics has focused on the sexual nature of the girls in Riverdale, specifically Veronica and especially the later addition Cheryl Blossom. In fact, when Cheryl was created in the ’90s, she was considered as a character that pushed the envelope too far and too sexual for children. She was later taken out of the comics and re-introduced in a less sexual manner in order for her to be on the same level as Veronica and Betty.

The comic book covers were no stranger to sensual or sexual jokes, such as this one:

or panels such as this:

Furthermore, the artist that truly launched Archie Comics to another plateau by establishing their house style was Dan DeCarlo, a pin-up artist and cartoonist whose works included images such as this:

Much of DeCarlo’s aesthetics carried over to Archie Comics, such as non-threatening sensuality and sexuality, and sexual humor (actually, Archie Comics already had this, but he just made it look a lot sleeker).

The picture that sums up my argument perfectly is a pin-up DeCarlo drew of Betty and Veronica. In it, you can see the girls at their non-threatening cheesecakey best:

Even without all of the pin-up history of Archie Comics, it’s inevitable that the comic book characters would be sexualized anyway. Entertainment, whether it’s made for children or not, becomes sexual. Take for instance, a highly popular children’s show. As those children start maturing during the show’s various seasons, they will start to have favorite characters. Girls might like some boy character, boys might like some girl character(of course, depending on the kid, they might like the same sex character). Of course, the kids in question could just like the character(s) they like because they’re generally cooler or better developed in personality on some level, but in some cases, on some base level, the girls (for instance) might all like one boy character because of sexual attraction (and so on for boys, etc.). How else can you explain why people have crushes on cartoons? Explain to me why Disney purposefully makes their leading male and female characters attractive? It’s not like it’s a necessity for a great story. They know that one good point in making leading characters attractive is to get a certain demographic in the seats. That’s why to this day, girls are wondering when they’re going to find their Aladdin, Tarzan, or Prince Naveen (vice versa with boys and Princess Jasmine and Ariel, etc.)

This goes the same with Archie Comics. As the demographic grows up, they start attaching feelings to certain characters, some of those feelings being amorous. I’ll admit that one of the reasons why I like Jughead–aside from his surprising depth of character–is the way the artists draw him in black pants (I’m human, what can I tell you?)

One thing that is most important to this issue is that a lot of people believe that gay people are solely concerned with sex. That’s not true. There are straight people that are only concerned with sex, but there are also just as many straight people who think of other things. Similarly, there are just as many gay people who are full-rounded people as there are gay people who are absorbed in sex. To say that one kind of person is more sexual than another is totally inconceivable. To counter their argument that Kevin equals sex, ask yourselves about Archie. Is he or is he not totally concerned with sex himself? He’s chasing two girls around while fooling with every other girl in Riverdale, for crying out loud! How can he not be obsessed with sex?! And he’s as straight as an arrow (at least, to our knowledge).

So, in short, adding Kevin isn’t going to make everyone instantly turn in to prostitutes, hustlers, or gigolos or whatever conservatives think is going to happen. Adding Kevin isn’t going to make the focus of the comics solely about sex. Sex was already a character in the comics in the first place.

For further reading about Archie Comics and sexuality as seen through the addition of Kevin, read Kevin, sexuality, and subtext.