Lousy Riverdale Preppies.

Is this racism?

I don't know. Perhaps it is unfortunate that the cartoonist (Stan Goldberg?) drew Archie gesturing in the direction of Riverdale's... um... token black character.

I do know this, though. This is racism.

At some point, someone higher in the Archie Comics pecking order read Matt's outline. Actually, I know exactly who but my libel insurance may not completely cover me in this situation. I'm a coward, so sue me. No wait, I meant to say, please don't sue me. For the purposes of this story, we'll call the boss guy something innocuous, like "Doctor Victor von Doom." So Victor had a talk with Darryl. Darryl had a talk with Matt. "This is a really good story but what if it wasn't Betty dating the black guy? What if it were a friend of Betty's?" Matt pointed out that then it wouldn't be a story about Betty. Anyway, Matt reasoned, the stories are just basic Archie comics love-triangle stuff. They aren't about race. Dexter was to be Betty's new friend and confidant. He was the guy who would show her the ropes on her new job and help her navigate the minefield of newsroom politics. As the stories were written, Dexter was such a nice guy that he quickly became friends with Archie despite their rivalry (much as Betty and Veronica maintain their friendship, despite their tug-of-war for Archie's hand). Darryl went along with Matt's approach, albeit reluctantly as he sensed the potential for trouble. The book was penciled, lettered, inked and colored before Darryl found himself back on the carpet.


Darryl called Matt with the bad news. Dr. Doom had literally thrown the issue at him. He hated the stuff, wanting to know why Dexter was so much more accomplished than Archie, "What is he, super-Negro?" (at least, "Negro" is what everyone who told me this story reported him as saying. I have a sneaking suspicion that they were trying to save my feelings). Darryl was very upset and told off his boss, but to no avail. He was ordered to change the story in the cheapest way possible: Dexter was to be re-colored white. Unfortunately, this fooled approximately no one. Archie's offices were flooded with four or five letters congratulating them on their progressive move of adding that "cool, black guy" to Betty's cast. Uh oh.

I wonder if the real name of "Doctor Victor von Doom" is, indeed, Victor.