Life With Archie #43

It’s 1965, a time when seeing your friend on a skateboard is still so exciting that it would make you run after him on the street. This is #43 of the Life With Archie series that started in 1958. November, 1965 was a big month for skateboarding in the Archie Comics Group. There was skateboarding on the cover of Jughead #136 and a cover with a story in Tippy Teen #1, a title drawn by the recently defected former Archie artist Samm Schwartz. Sam is credited with developing the Jughead character into a headliner instead of just a bit character.

Archie, Betty and Jughead in “Easy Does It.” It’s pretty clear from Jughead’s posture that the artist only has a vague idea of how people ride skateboards. Jughead looks like he’s sitting on an invisible chair.

This may look like the first curb ollie, but it’s later revealed that he unweighted his front foot and used the wheel bump to hop up, like you would do with a raised crack on the sidewalk. Yes, I am overanalyzing this… Look at how impressed Betty is! Even a smooth turn is enough to excite the spectators.

In Archie’s mind, the only justification for learning to ride a skateboard is being a “sports nut,” but he really get’s “on board” (I’m slaying myself…) when he discovers the skateboard’s properties as a time saving device. Who says Archie isn’t practical?

Archie is quick to dismiss Jughead’s skill and assumes it will be an easy feat. What follows is a rare, sort of serious comic book dissection of learning to skateboard. Of course, it wouldn’t be a story about skateboarding without lots of calamity.

Archie is skating downhill in the grass but decides it’s better to end up in the water instead of jumping off, and of course blames Jughead. Archie did not learn his lesson, and went on to roll off a pier in to the ocean in Pep #331 some 12 years later.