.jpg "The Great Ganesha header image 2")
Growing up, Archie Comics were despised by my parents for their lack of literary value ("You should be reading books instead of wasting your time with comics!"), but no less than wolfed down by me. There was nothing like spending an entire afternoon going through a pile of new Archies. In fact, when there were no new comics in the house, I had no qualms about reading the old ones again. Each could, in times of desperation, easily make it for two or sometimes even three readings. I remember, we would fight over which character we most resembled. Was I Archie? No he's Archie, I'm Jughead! Love food, hate girls…life is good!!
I was definitely an addict. I would look forward to going to the "library" (which, in 80s Bombay were basically privately run places where you could borrow books for cash) and picking up a stack of Archies. The "magazines" were good, but the "digests" were even better. I could go through a magazine in, like, fifteen minutes. In retrospect, it was almost like those things were made for "slow people" with the oversized graphics and lettering. But a digest, on the other hand, was packed with stories and could sometimes even be read over two sittings.
It would not be a stretch for me to say that one of my reasons for coming to the US was the stuff I read in those comics. The Archie world was the American suburban ideal. Blocks of houses with two-car garages and lawns to mow. Teenagers whose idea of being "naughty" was to mix two of the wrong chemicals in the chemistry class which invariably ended up with an explosion. Life where the best way to spend a summer afternoon was making money by mowing lawns and spending time at "Pop's" with your friends. Man, I think I even wanted to mow lawns then. This was the perfect world with colourful (literally and figuratively) characters and, no matter what happened, everything ultimately turned out allright.
Of course, real life is not like that. And, as I've become older, ostensibly wiser and definitely more cynical, I realize that the stories were hackneyed attempts at humour and/or adventure, with a lot (and I mean a lot) of recycling. And after spending a considerable amount of time here in the US, I feel that nothing could be further from the truth than the stuff in those comics. Although, I am sure, there are quite a few people who wished otherwise or worse yet, are in denial. In fact, so many of today's animated series on TV (The Simpsons, Family Guy) are essentially parodies of that suburban myth of the perfect "American" family, just like Archie Andrews'.
Well, I guess that is another piece of innocence and perfection (or, at least, the belief in perfection) lost with age…*sigh*
So what prompted me to write this long piece on Archie Comics of all things? Well, The Onion's A.V. Club has just written up a review on the Archie Americana Series, a seven volume set covering Archie from the Forties up to the Eighties. Who knows? I might just buy me a volume or two…
Postscript: If you are unfamiliar with Archie Comics and the antics of Archie and his gang, no worries: Tell me about your "Archie." Everyone has something which represents that period of innocence and happiness in childhood. The one right before adolescence hits and ruins everything. You know, when all is well with the world. What was yours?
Post-Postscript: On the off-chance that you're curious to learn more about Archie Comics, here's the Wikipedia article.
Liked this post? Subscribe to us. Print It. Share it:
17 responses so far ↓
1 Chick Pea // May 17, 2006 at 8:21 pm
love archies, bought them in india when we went..those and twinkles and amar chitra kathas ;)…
2 The Intellectual Masturbater // May 18, 2006 at 9:14 am
chick pea,
it’s not twinkle - it’s tinkle! sacriligeous…:)
check out this website for something funny about tinkle (got it from this post on chapati kid’s blog)…
also, you now get ack online. check it out here. takes forever to load, though…
3 Chick Pea // May 18, 2006 at 9:36 pm
dammit. i knew i forgot the title. don’t mind me. i’m the ever tired bean.
4 The Intellectual Masturbater // May 19, 2006 at 7:19 am
chick pea,
no worries - methinks saving cancer patients is a bigger priority…
what the hell is up with no one leaving comments, though? i *know* people have been reading this post. it was on desi pundit yesterday. [thanks, desi pundit].
oh well, at least it leaves enough space for me to have conversations with my legume-oriented buddies…
im
5 The Desi Nole // May 19, 2006 at 5:08 pm
Just a related thought.
I have posted the question of “Did you guys ever read Archies?” to every American “kid” of my age and the answer has always been “no”.
Ask someone who is about 10 years older than I am, they remember.
Somehow the current generation here, seems to have lost this awesome comic.
6 The Intellectual Masturbater // May 19, 2006 at 5:53 pm
desi nole,
you’re absolutely right. none of my american friends have heard of archie as well. well, i should say there are a few (but they fall into a small, small minority).
that is a strange phenom, i agree. and i’ve had this discussion with several of my other desi buddies as well.
it’s too bad, though. but they probably had their own “archie”. ask the same people about scooby doo or the flintstones and i’m sure you’ll get your fill of an answer.
im
ps: glad to hear that at least *someone* had something to say - thx for the comment.
7 The Chapatikid // May 21, 2006 at 11:54 am
Look, even I’m saying something. “Something.”
By the way, it appears that no one really leaves any comments on Desi Pundit either. Which makes me wonder…
8 The Intellectual Masturbater // May 22, 2006 at 7:12 am
see now that’s the kind of quality humour i have come to expect from reading too many archies…;)
yeah - don’t understand this phenom of being silent…
9 vijay // May 22, 2006 at 10:08 am
I was most definitely Jughead. Love food and hate girld (angoor khatte)!
10 The Intellectual Masturbater // May 22, 2006 at 10:18 am
hey vijay,
as they say: great minds think alike!
11 Kanchan // Jun 17, 2006 at 12:43 am
I found yr blog via Sepia - was checking around reading random entries when I came across your Archie title..and this post just took me straight down memory lane. I was around 10 years and we lived in Mahim (or maybe Matunga?) - anyway, there was this lending library, like the kind you talked about in your blog and when my mum would go shopping on the weekend, she would give me Rs5 and I’d run to that library and get a supply of Archie comics for the week
I loved those Comics and it was a standing order what I’d like for my B’day… fast forward some years and as a teenager, moved to a small town in Tennessee, and I just couldnt belive it - no one my age had ever heard about these comics and they just couldn be found in the local stores either. It was as if these comics didnt exist. When we visited Nashville, I saw one at the bookstore but gulp! it cost $3.50 something and as newly arrived from India, I did the math and didnt get it…..! Thanks for reminding me about this 
PS - I like your blog’s title.
12 The Great Ganesha // Jun 17, 2006 at 9:09 am
hey kanchan,
totally agree - it’s ridiculous how expensive they are over here! once i saw one at the grocery store checkout somewhere and those thin mags were, as you say, $3.50 or something. damn! still, i splurged, for old time’s sake. call me a sucker, why don’t you?
thanks for dropping by though. glad you liked it…
gg
13 The Simple Leaf // Aug 30, 2006 at 7:30 pm
I always found the “double digests” much more satisfying….
Aaah, to be back in that world surrounded by Mandrake, Asterix, Obelix, The Phantom, Archie, Jughead, Shikari Shambhu, Nasruddin Hodja and Supandi!
Did you guys ever read Chacha Chaudhary? As a kid, it was my staple purchase at railway station book shops before every cross-country train ride.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/99/Chachachowdary2.jpg
14 The Great Ganesha // Aug 31, 2006 at 6:35 pm
@simple leaf: yeah, dude. i remember chacha choudhry, tinkle, chandamama, mandrake, the whole kit and kaboodle. in fact, someone had a posting about this several months back. i sent him to this website. check it out. it’s hilarious. he even talks about johnny sako and the giant robot! -gg
update: i think that website is offline, for some reason. that sucks. anyhow, this one should keep you entertained while the other one gets back online.
15 Chapatikid // Dec 4, 2006 at 9:53 pm
I have just one word for you. Metsons.
16 The Great Ganesha // Dec 5, 2006 at 12:33 pm
you can say that word again! in fact, i’ll say it: metsons! damn straight!
wonder what happened to the bald and demure sindhi gentleman who sat behind the counter?
17 David // Oct 28, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Have you noticed that the Archie comics contain only exclamation marks, question marks, three or more periods (in a row) and commas? Why must they be yelling all the time?
Leave a Comment