Archie's Double Digest No. 63

John Goldwater, inspired by the popular Andy Hardy movies starring Mickey Rooney, wanted to create a comic about a normal person to whom readers could relate. He created "America's newest boy friend", Archibald "Chick" Andrews. In Pep Comics #22, December 1941, writer Vic Bloom and artist Bob Montana published Archie Andrews' first adventure.It starts with "Chick" Showing off for his new next door neighbor, the famous Betty Cooper. "Archie was based partly on a red-headed friend of his named Archie," Gloria Goldwater, wife of John Goldwater, said. "He also created Betty and Veronica. Then he decided Archie needed a real good friend. That was Jughead. It just grew and grew."[citation needed]
As Archie’s popularity grew, MLJ Magazines changed its name to Archie Comic Publications. In the mid-1950s, the advent of television caused the pulp magazine industry to suffer as TV became a dominant form of entertainment. With slumping sales, Silberkleit and Coyne decided to discontinue Columbia Publications. Coyne stayed on at Archie Comics as CFO until he retired in the 1970s. Louis Silberkleit and John Goldwater shared the same office and ate lunch together for their entire business career.
In the early 1970s, Archie Enterprises Inc. went public. Just over ten years later, Louis Silberkleit’s son Michael and John Goldwater’s son Richard returned Archie Comic Publications to private ownership. Michael Silberkleit served as chairman and co-publisher, while Richard Goldwater served as president and co-publisher, until their passing. John Goldwater served as honorary chairman, a post he held until he died of a heart attack at his home in Manhattan, on February 26, 1999. In 2009, John's son Jonathan succeeded in his family's legacy and was named CEO of Archie Comic Publications.
Although the comic started in the 1940s, it has changed over the years to stay current with the times, said writer and artist Dan Parent. One example is the introduction in 2010 of openly gay character Kevin Keller, who first appeared in Veronica #202. In June 2011 Keller will be featured in his own four-part miniseries, in part because of his popularity with fans. Other changes that have happened in the 70 years of the comic book’s history is the death of teacher Miss Grundy and Archie's wedding. Bill Yoshida learned comic book lettering from Ben Oda and was hired in 1965 by Archie Comics, where he averaged 75 pages a week for 40 years for an approximate total of 156,000 pages.
Archie Comics anounced at the New York Comic Con in October 2011 that it superhero line will return as an all-digital line under a subscription model with back issues archive access.