Archic Comics: Archie Marries Veronica!

The Eagle-Tribune

HAVERHILL -- For people who went to Haverhill High in the late 1930s and fans of the "Archie" comics, it has always been the great debate.

Betty or Veronica? The blonde or the brunette? The girl next door or the polished socialite? Who would Archie prefer as his best girl?

That has always been an unanswered question for students of the "fictitious" Riverdale High who were classmates of the real-life people the "Archie" gang was based upon. The late Bob Montana, who attended Haverhill High in those waning years of the Great Depression, created the comic strip, basing the characters of Archie, Moose, Jughead, and of course, Betty and Veronica, at least in part on some of his own classmates.

After more than six decades, the question of which girl Archie would choose has finally been answered.

Montana died in 1975. But the current authors of "Archie" are publishing a six-issue "Archie Marries Veronica" series of Archie Comics, beginning with the recent release of "Archie Marries Veronica Part 1: The Proposal." On the cover, Archie is on one knee proposing to Veronica, who responds, "Yes!" Looking on is a teary-eyed Betty and a surprised Jughead.

The move is causing a stir among fans and people who were classmates of the real-life "Archie" gang almost 70 years ago.

It's something Rita (Trottier) Walker never thought would happen.

A member of Haverhill High's Class of 1940, the so-called "Archie Class" that Montana would have graduated with had his family not moved to New Hampshire at the end of his junior year, Walker always imagined that Archie would stay forever young. Archie would be 88 today.

"I think that's why we don't want things to change," Walker said. "Although it was a bad time, with the Depression and with kids leaving school to go to work, those days were some of the happiest of our life."

Even though most of her classmates are gone, Walker envisions the world of "Archie" as never changing, its characters never aging -- destined to cruise around town for all eternity in an old jalopy and hanging out at the "Chocklit Shoppe."

"Keep the comic strip young and the comic book young," Walker said. "Archie should stay Archie and Riverdale should stay Riverdale. Why would we want him to get married?"

But if he has to get married, Walker agreed that Veronica is the right choice.

"I think (Montana) fashioned her around his favorite actress of the time, which was Veronica Lake," she said.

Longtime Haverhill Gazette reporter and Eagle-Tribune columnist Barney Gallagher, a member of Haverhill High's Class of 1939, was an editor for the school newspaper, the Brown and Gold, for which Montana drew cartoons.

"If he's proposing to Veronica, I think he's got the right one," Gallagher said. "I think she had more color, more character and was more lively and fascinating than Betty."

Gallagher knew the "real" Veronica as Agatha Popoff, a member of his class and the daughter of a local doctor.

"She was a really good-looking brunette. You couldn't miss her," he said. "I think Betty was a composite of girls. Even Montana's wife always said that. But somehow, Betty captured the imagination of people as the girl next door. Veronica was far from being the girl next door."

Fred Malcolm Sr., another member of the Class of 1939, didn't chum around with Bob Montana, but he'd often bump into him in the halls of Haverhill High, which now serves as City Hall. Malcolm doesn't feel that Archie getting married will ruin the story, but he questions his apparent choice.

"It probably should have been Betty; someone I'd be pleased to be married to," he said. "If Archie gets married, I give him credit."

Charlie Hayden, also of the Class of 1939, remembers Montana walking around the school sketching images of students, especially female classmates. The first time he saw an "Archie" comic book was during World War II, when he was serving with the U.S. Army in Italy.

"When I saw it, I said, 'Hey, I know that guy. I was in school with him,'" he said. "If they want Archie to get married, that's fine. I have more things in life to worry about."

Gallagher expects "Archie" to be a hot topic of discussion when the Class of 1940 holds its reunion on Sept. 17, and when the Class of 1939 holds its reunion on Oct. 2.

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