Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: archie, golden age, MLJ Comics

Archie & the Riverdale Gang Level Up in Archie Comics #1, at Auction

Archie Andrews and his Riverdale friends hit the big time a year after his Pep Comics #22 debut, getting his own series with Archie Comics #1

Published Tue, 10 Jan 2023 12:27:11 -0600

by Mark Seifert

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Archie Andrews and the Riverdale gang have been entertaining fans for over 80 years, and Archie Comics #1 was a key milestone along the path of that history. This issue, cover-dated Winter 1942 and hitting newsstands around November 15, 1942 is Archie's first true cover (after appearing on the cover of Jackpot Comics as a small inset), edging out his Pep Comics #36 cover by three weeks. Archie Comics #1 is arguably the moment that Archie became a franchise, the first public sign of the concept's success, leading to countless spinoffs both in and outside of comic books. An important moment in American comic book history, there's an Archie Comics #1 (Archie, 1942) CGC Apparent FN/VF 7.0 Moderate (P) Off-white to white pages up for auction in the 2023 January 12 – 15 Comics & Comic Art Signature® Auction #7338 at Heritage Auctions.

Archie was created by Bob Montana, John L. Goldwater, and Vic Bloom for Pep Comics #22, just a year prior to the launch of Archie Comics #1. Outside of also becoming a feature of Jackpot Comics about two months after his debut in Pep Comics, there was little visible indication of the character's rising popularity in that first year. Typically, a break-out feature in an anthology might expect to hit that title's cover early on, start moving up to the front of the comic, or be the subject of reader polls that might indicate the concept's growing success. None of that happened in the character's early months. Even Pep Comics' inside front cover editorial, which often mentioned reader feedback about particular features, never mentioned Archie again within that first year, after noting his debut in Pep Comics #22 by commenting that people wanted some laughs in those grim, war-era times.

Nevertheless, the quick jump to an additional anthology title in Jackpot Comics would seem to indicate that MLJ had faith in the concept from the beginning. As we've noted in other auction posts in recent times, the publisher seemed more astute than most in monitoring market trends, and was not afraid to make moves when they saw such trends coming. It's likely that the shift of the Top-Notch Comics title to become Top-Notch Laugh Comics with issue #28 in 1942, five months prior to the debut of Archie Comics #1, was one of the early signs of where MLJ saw their market heading. While the superhero character Black Hood was still a regular feature in every issue, they began to experiment with a wide variety of humor in the series as well.

However MLJ determined that Archie was destined for stardom, they certainly hit their mark, and renamed their entire company Archie Comics in 1946. A comic that has experienced strong demand for decades, there are currently 70 entries for Archie Comics #1 on the CGC Census, with only six entries above CGC 7.0 in either restored or unrestored condition. This restored copy is an excellent chance to get a nice-looking copy at a less-than-astronomical price. To take part in the auction, new bidders should check out the FAQ on the bidding process and related matters at Heritage Auctions.