BaBies, Teens
& inBeTweens
What are Half-Million Teens
Reading Each Month?
Comics of Course!
They’ve been in Riverdale High School for 67 years, and Fred Mausser Co-President / Director of Circulation at Archie
there’s still no graduation or retirement date in sight. I’m Comics Publications, says about 515,000 mostly 7-14 year olds,
speaking, of course, of Archie, Jughead, buy an Archie comic per month; and there is a significant
Betty and Veronica. pass-along readership. Archie receives “thousands of letters a
month, running the gamut from likes to dislikes of characters,
Interested in getting kids to read for comments, criticisms and suggestions regarding the storyline,
pleasure? Archie comics range from comparisons to things in the life of the reader, questions on the
32-page magazines, to 176-page history of the Archie characters and requests for additional
“double-digests” – in other words, characters….These are in addition to the “Dear Betty” fashion
books. Although Archie is an average questions.” The website
archiecomics.com publishes “fan art”;
student, in a suburban, non-magical some is quite impressive; all of it shows voluntary effort.
world, his readership numbers rival
those of Harry Potter. While they With or without the optional mail-for-me!-thrill of a
are very dissimilar - one is epic subscription, it’s a noteworthy education tool. Mr. Mausser says
literature, one is a comic book, both “Archie’s been used in curriculums. We’ve done custom comics:
have the magical pull of the series; Archie & His Friends Help Raise Literacy Awareness in
and both draw readers with Mississippi; Archie & Friends vs. Toxic Waste - for San Diego city
recognizable school-life characters. and County of; Archie & His Pals In The Peer Helping Program, for
Archie’s world is populated by Principal the FBI and the ELKS; Archie and his Friends in Westchester - on
Weatherbee, Miss Grundy (English), drinking for Westchester County; Energy & Safety Adventures -
Professor Flutesnoot (science), Coaches joint project with DC Comics for Con Edison. We don’t get
Kleats and Clayton, Miss Beazley preachy in the comics, but we can come up with a curriculum or
(cafeteria), Mr. Svenson (maintenance) a custom comic on anything. Some regular [non-custom] books
and Pop Tate who runs the Chocklit were: The Archies go to the Los Angeles Public Library; Archie
Shoppe, “the perfect place for quality Visits The World Famous Salt Lake City Library. Archie’s a role
time wasting”; students Dilton (brainy), model. Everything’s always on the up and up, there’s never any
Reggie (wise-guy), Moose (dyslexic) violence; Archie respects the law, his teachers, his elders, his
Ethel (boy crazy) and Chuck parents. There are little pranks, but they never get beyond that.
(cartoonist). He’s kept up with the times in terms of clothing, cell phones,
iPods, he uses everything that’s current, he’s always
contemporary.”
34 March 2009 |
www.siparent.com
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