by Steve Barghusen & Tom Burton
A #22 cover dated December 1941. That issue
rchie Andrews made his debut in Pep Comics
also featured the first appearances of Betty Cooper
and Jughead Jones. Archie was destined to take
over the entire contents of Pep, and spawn a publishing empire over the next few decades. Foreign
Archies were quick to follow and were published in
Canada, England, Australia and Mexico during the
‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s. Other countries followed with
Archie titles of their own, however they are typically
of more recent vintage.
The following is a discussion of what we know
and can glean from sources such as the Grand
Comics Database and the CGC boards. Many of
the foreign books do not list such helpful information as publication date or even publisher in some
instances, so proper cataloging is difficult to say
the least.
In the late ‘40s, short runs of Canadian color
reprints of Archie (starting with #31), Laugh (starting with #25) and Pep (starting with #67) were
published by Bell Features. Those were followed by
a few issues of Jughead, Betty and Veronica and
Reggie. After the discontinuation of publication of
these titles, Canadian demand for Archie was met
by books imported from the US. The only distinguishing characteristics of these later books were
that the 25 cent giants were printed with 35 cent
cover prices for the Canadian market. This practice
ended in the mid ‘60s, although Canadian price
variants returned to the market in the ‘80s.
England
The history of Archie
comics published in
England is shorter and
less well known. Gerald Swan published
a few titles in the
Canada
‘50s including Archie,
Archie’s foreign debut was not long in coming afBetty and Veronica,
ter the publication of Pep #22. His first foreign apJughead, Archie’s Pals
pearance was in a Canadian edition of Super Com- n Gals and Archie’s
ics, which reprinted in black and white the contents Christmas Stocking.
of Pep #22. This was followed by six more issues of Most of these were
Archie one shot
Super which all contained black and white reprints
published in black and
Canada
of various issues of Pep. Finally, there is a one-shot white and some featitled simply “Archie Comics” which features the
tured cardboard covers.
cover to Pep Comics #49. These books, published
The first Archie Comics (designated “British edition
by F. E. Howard are all Canadian Whites, which
No. 1”) was a slightly undersized book and the inwere Canadian comics that arose during World War terior was printed in black, white and red. It reprints
II. Import restrictions on nonessential goods made
the cover to the American Archie title issue #39,
American comics difficult to come by during the
while the interiors are a somewhat truncated reprint
war. Thus, Canadians had to turn to manufacturing of Archie #41. It was presumably published around
their own comic books. All seven of these books
1950, as the two reprint sources were from 1949.
are extremely scarce and highly sought after by
All of these British Archie titles appear to have been
collectors.
relatively short lived and are very scarce on the
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