Diversity in Comics: Sealed with a Kiss

Upon examination, the comic book career of the Archie Comics character Valerie Smith of Josie and the Pussycats is mighty impressive. From her first appearance in 1969 up to the present, she has been a forceful presence in the Archie Universe. Valerie has always been Josie's equal, and often the main protagonist in Josie stories, even in the early days. Archie Comics can been seen over the years since her introduction to have been fairly mute when it comes to outright discussion of race, and their strategy has clearly been to establish diversity through a passive but very present inclusion, with Valerie Smith and then Chuck Clayton being the main vehicles by which they achieved integration. Given that Archie Comics have a heavy, if humorous, focus on romance, it is perhaps surprising that inter-racial relationships weren't in evidence until recently.This post will start with a look at Valerie's first appearance in Josie and the Pussycats 45 (#1), and then bring us up to date with more recent goings on in her fictional life. We pick up the story where Alex Cabot is offering to manage the newly formed group:

This is leading up to Valerie's first moment in comics, and the very first appearance of an African American character in Archie Comics. When she does appear it's clear that Archie Comics are onto a winner. She's cute without being over the top. She seamlessly enters the plot line and has been there ever since.

Alex's sister, Alexandra, is continuously green with envy, having wanted to be the star of the group and have it named after her. As it is she has not only failed to be part of the group, but any real hope of her participation has been undone by Valerie's arrival. Alexandra is, however, endowed with some mild witch powers, which she uses again and again to try and upset the Pussycat applecart. Her magic can be nullified by the click of some fingers, and anyway things never seem to go quite how she planned.

Now let's take a look at 21st Century Valerie, in Archie 608 from 2010. The Archies and Josie and the Pussycats are going to tour together. They've agreed on equal billing, but Alex Cabot, thinking he's looking out for his band, has tricked them all into signing a contract that has the Pussycats top of the bill, So when the posters go up...

Alex's trickery is exposed in the discussion with the promoter, and it's all sorted out amicably between everybody, leading to...

The practice in Archie's garage (The Ramones they aren't!) goes well, and Archie and Valerie have been working together on a song for the end of the show. Everyone else leaves except for these two...

Some real chemistry is there between Archie and Valerie, and the song quickly takes shape, along with something else that readers might have not expected, except it was way up front on the cover, which we're saving for now!

 

More than 40 years after Valerie's introduction, we have the first inter-racial romance in Archie Comics! I think Archie Comics have to be commended. They have never resorted to blaxploitation. Their African American characters promote a wholesome image, and once diversity was introduced, the company maintained it with a high profile. Once they made that move they never looked back, and its been all positive. For those of you who are hanging on the edge of your seat, here's a bit of what happened in the next ish - starting with the cover, which suggests this romance could end in heartbreak, but it doesn't turn out exactly like it looks. Archie 609 begins with the two bands on the tour. At the end of the set, Archie and Josie sing the song he and Valerie wrote, and this becomes a prompt for both to reflect on the relationship that has developed between them.

Archie and Valerie start seeing a lot of each other outside of work, and inevitably people start to notice

Archie's Dad advises his son that at some point soon he needs to let other people know about his relationship with Valerie, not least because his behavior and inaccessibility has Betty and Veronica wondering. Archie and Valerie agree to keep things quiet until the end of the tour, so as not to disrupt the groups' concentration, but plan on going public once it's over. However, one by one, almost everyone figures out what's going on...

and...

To everyone's surprise, at the end of the last show of the tour, Melody takes matters into her own hands, and introduces a slight change for the last song - it will be sung by the two composers..

Apparently, by now, everybody is in the know, including the audience, with the single exception of Veronica, who reacts quite angrily to the revelation. But it all goes well, with Archie and Valerie, the two 'love birds', wowing the audience with their own song. This leaves Betty and Veronica with a lot to ponder.

Then fate intervenes. Josie and the Pussycats are invited to do a European tour. Valerie insists she won't go without Archie, but Archie points out that he still has to finish high school, and Valerie will lose out on a chance to build her career if she doesn't go. Does this mean Valerie has graduated already? Is she older than Archie? Or does her career as a musician justify her taking time away from school attendance? Any Archie buffs out there with the answers?

Anyway, Valerie's tears on the cover of Archie 609 are actually, we now find out, because she's going off to tour Europe without him, and they won't see each other for a while. They are going to stay in touch, by texting, etc. The final page seems to indicate that this isn't over between Archie and Valerie at all.

So although the next issue gets into a totally different plot line, maybe there will be more on Valerie and Archie in the future. On reflection, it seems to me that the company just can't go all the way and have Archie marry Valerie, even a few years down the road. He's America's favorite teen, and despite the myriad of clones produced by practically every other company in comics over the decades, he's beaten off all the competition and he's still there. If the company produced a series about Archie's future married life (would he and his wife then become a clone of Blondie and Dagwood?), as they did with the two dreams in which Archie married Betty and then instead Veronica, but in Archie 'real life', might it then spoil the uncertainty that has been a driving force in the series since the 40s - will it be Veronica or Betty who wins Archie in the end? It would make all that rivalry pointless for the reader, because we'd know, from the series about Archie's future, who he ends up marrying, even if it's Valerie instead of either of them. So just how far Archie Comics are prepared to go with this Valerie relationship is difficult to predict. From Betty's reaction in this story it does seem that she actually cares more for Archie than does Veronica, to whom Archie is perhaps something of a desirable trophy.

What is also really interesting to me is that this story is actually a romance. It has no sex in it. It's cute, sweet, and innocent, but from what I can gather it was a real hit with the fans. It does suggest that there is, still, or again, a market for romance comics that don't get dirty. Exactly who the audience for Archie is nowadays would be very interesting to find out. For me, this has raised a lot of questions about what's happening in comics.

Diversity in Comics: Chuck Clayton and Archie

Going into Fall of 1971, Archie Comics introduced the second of their main African American characters, Chuck Clayton (the first being Valerie Smith of Josie and the Pussycats). Chuck appeared simultaneously in Life With Archie 112 and Jughead 195, both August 1971. Significantly, both Valerie Smith and Chuck remain major characters is the Archie Universe today. The first of these two stories, "Poor Little Rich Man", has a gentle anti-racist message - unusual for Archie comics, which mainly stick to the inclusion without comment method of establishing diversity. It's interesting that right from the beginning Archie are developing details of Chuck's background, like here where we learn he has a blind cousin called Jenny. In fact it is blind Jenny who undoes the fallacy of discrimination that is based on bodily characteristics, when she says, "When you're blind there is no such thing as prejudice for how a person looks or color of skin. Everybody becomes the same!"

In Jughead 195, there's a short 6-page story featuring Chuck Clayton in which he emerges as the more sensible and level headed out of Archie, Reggie, and himself. The supposed experts at dating, Archie and Reggie, give Chuck advice on how to get Georgette to go on a date with him. Their typically chauvinistic ideas fall flat on their face, while Jughead's simple, straightforward solution is all Chuck needs. Again, we're given some background details on Chuck as he's introduced into the Archie line-up. He's interested in a girl, Georgette, who is also African American, but he's not yet been on any dates with anyone. I'm also impressed by the way Archie comics don't get into blaxploitation. Their African American characters are given positive images.

Chuck's first appearance on the cover of a comic appears to have been Archie Annual 23 (1971-72), but it could also have been Life With Archie 115 (Georgette appeared without Chuck on the cover of 114).

Chuck Clayton was here to stay.

This time thanks to Jojo for some of the scans and to the Grand Comics Database for covers and information on Chuck Clayton's earliest appearances.

Diversity in Comics: African Americans in the Funny Books

As African American characters gradually appeared in mainstream comic books in the latter half of the 1960s, the publishers of funny books began to illustrate greater diversity in their fictional populations. I do seem to remember an African American character appearing in Richie Rich comics around this time, but I'm unable to find an example. Instead here's the second issue of Josie and the Pussycats (#46, art by Dan DeCarlo), which I think is the first Archie cover featuring an African American character, from Feb 1970. Valerie Smith first appeared in the previous issue (Dec 1969), joining Josie's new band, and is now on the cover of issue 46. In this particular story she is not the main focus, but is there throughout. Here's a couple of pages that are typical of her level of involvement:

And again, later on, she's obviously an equal member of the cast of characters in this comic. In this story she's as much in evidence as is Josie.

Almost like a romance comic, there's a double page fashion feature, again including Valerie:

There's no big fuss made about race with Valerie - she's simply included in the new line up as the book changed direction (and the characters became hugely successful!). Also introduced in Archie comics was Chuck Clayton, an African American male character who first appeared in August 1971 in Jughead 195 and Life With Archie 112. His first cover appearances were on Life With Archie 115 and Archie Annual 23 (see images below from the Grand Comics Database).

Below are a few more images I borrowed from the Grand Comics Database that illustrate some other 1970s funny/teen humor comics that featured African American characters. The first issues of Harlem Globetrotters (Apr 1972 - Jan 1975) and Fat Albert & the Cosby Kids (March 1974 - Feb 1979), published by Gold Key are shown here - these two series are related to TV cartoon shows.

Fast Willie Jackson was a short-lived series that had a majority African American cast. Published by Fitzgerald, this Archie-style teen humor book ran from Oct 76 - Sept 77. For comparison, here's an Archie cover from July 1977 with a similar dance scene to that on Fast Willie Jackson 1 - not much change at Archie since Valerie Smith debuted in 1970.

If anyone knows any other information on the early appearances of African American characters in funny comics (not disrespectful stereotypes) it would be greatly appreciated if you could post it in a comment here. The earliest I have heard of is 'Tiny', a friend of Little Audrey in the Harvey Comics' series of that name, in the mid-1950s! What I'm also interested in is any ideas for analyzing these images. Were the Archie books including token African American characters to be politically correct, or did they have a serious agenda through which they aimed to more accurately represent diversity in American society in their very American comic books?