Archie comics, almost all of them are both humor and romance. The humor often has taken precedence over the romance though and we honestly could discuss that publishers history for awhile as it has been varied for sure.
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Re Archie
I treasure my reprints of circa 1959 reprints of two Simon and Kirby Titles
The Adventures of the Fly
The Double Life of Private Strong.
That version of the Fly lead to a version.of Spider Man develiped by Kirby, whose design was rejected by Stan Lee for the leaner Steve Ditko versions.
Versions of both characters lived on the recent Red Circle team of Crusaders
The Simon.estate own The Fly and Lancelot Strong
But Archie still owns Fly Girl and the original 1940s Shield
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I know we’re digressing, but do you remember the short lived Impact! comics? That was my first exposure to the Red Circle heroes.
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That is a very compelling arguement for Romance Comics and I tend to agree with you. I think Romance comics paved the way for a lot of important developments in comics as you already said so eloquently. There’s really nothing more I can add to what you’ve already said.
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I still have some of those comics.
Except for no Fly Girl, I liked The Fly as a teenager. Simon.and Kirby had him initially.as a child, very much like Captain.Marvel
Never liked Shield as person in super suit
Loved Lancelot Strong’s powers. First read him in a barber shop.
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Archie comics owe their origin to The Andy Hardy films.
Which while technically were comedies which in a pre-WWII era meant (not drama, adventure or westerns) they often had some elements of romances as well. The first two dealt with “the danger of adultery among the younger generation”. They certain do not fall into the category of humor as the Bob Hope and Jerry Lewis comics did.
In fact one could regard many of the Hardy films, along with many Archie comics as “romantic comedies”. Certainly one of the historical comedic elements of Betty and Veronica was comedy based off romance or a base of romantic interest.
In that sense, I think Archie comics are really a hybrid of comedy & romance comics. Look at Riverdale in CW. (A modern reinterpretation of the dynamics of that world.) where would one say that show falls closer to the mark, a teen comedy or a teen romance?
I’d tend to argue, as with most CW shows (DC included), there is always a romance element. Where as comedy can come and go. LoT has comedic elements but there is always at least one romance plot as well. Arrow or Flash doesn’t really do comedy, but no doubt both shows have a romance angle in them.
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@ralphsix, I’ve got every Impact comic, all bought when they came out. It was a pretty awesome little universe. There were some reaches back into the history, but you didn’t need to know the history. I was disappointed when they got pulled.
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I think I still have mine, as well. Every issue except one Comet, I think. They weren’t bad, especially the Fly.
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