Archie 361 looks a little 90’s but it’s actually dated October 1988. There’s a wind-skating cover and a brief bit of skateboarding in one of the stories. On the inside cover there’s an advert with an illustration of a kid holding a skateboard and wearing an M&Ms shirt you can order. There’s also a “Mini Frog” prize you can earn in an Olympic Sales Club ad. Boss shot of Barney dressed up as a new-wave punker while trying to steal Fred Flintstone’s Pebbles cereal.

It’s rare to find an Archie Comics Group story with skateboarding that doesn’t focus on Archie, Jughead, or poor Mr Weatherby. Laugh comics #309, published in December of 1976, has a story with a character named Li’l Jinx titled “The Board Game.” The comics seems to be aimed mostly at teens, but they have a small stable of characters made up of little kids as well.

Reggie and Me #111 came out in January of 1979 and has not one, but two skateboard storylines, although one is a short half pager. I might actually be finally starting to appreciate the Archie Comics group… I thought I was vaccinated but I guess not. There’s just so much skateboarding through the years in their titles. No other publisher has given skateboarding that much love, despite how it’s usually the same storyline. I’m surprised Reggie had his own title, he’s sort of the antagonist whenever he does make an appearance. Nobody likes Reggie.

Day 7 (!) of 7 Days of Jughead! I made it! This is volume 2, issue #34 of Jughead published in June of 1992. It has a couple of stories with skateboarding, I Was a Teenage Jughead and Lessons in Skateboarding. Even Jughead himself asks, is this a joke?

It’s day 4 of 7 days of Jughead, and Jughead v2 #29 from 1992 is a big one. The thrust of the main story is the adage don’t judge a book by it’s cover. Major Spoiler Alert: Grandma Jones is friends with some skate punks who buy groceries for her and in return she lets them have band practice in her garage. Meanwhile Jughead is completely out of the loop. Spend some time with your Grandma Jughead, you never know how those punks will take advantage of her kindness… but it turns out the punks are tired of being misunderstood. They give (!) Jughead an extra skateboard, and Grandma Jones’ guitar teacher (wild!) encourages Jughead to be his own person, so Jughead reinvents himself as a skate punk! It turns out this short-lived character transformation was not well received by the Archie community… Yes, there is an Archie community. In any case, there’s a lot to unpack in my favorite episode of Freaks and Geeks… errr… uhm, Jughead.

It’s day 3 of 7 days of Jughead! This is Jughead Volume 2 #28 from December of 1991. The first thing you might notice is the corner box illustration which hints at radicalness as well as an announcement declaring the inside pages are made from recycled pages, which is a change from the recycled stories usually featured in Archie titles. This is actually kind of a crazy cover for this imprint, but it was the 90’s and you have to assume they were trying to stay hip.

Day two of 7 Days of Jughead features the story “Skateboard Fever” from issue 272 of Jughead, published in 1978. I don’ know why I didn’t go chronologically and post this one first, but I’m already posting Archie comics, so all taste and logic has gone by the wayside. This story is once again set in the hallways of Riverdale High. Poor Principal Weatherbee, or “the Bee” as Jughead refers to him, spent decades either purposefully or accidentally trying to learn how to skateboard, but he never gets the hang of it. Highlights include Veronica calling the guys “bean bags,” and Betty acting like a Karen – “It’s against the rules to skateboard in school!”

This is the beginning of the sacred holiday here at Skate and Annoy known respectfully as the 7 days of Jughead. We’ll see if I have the intestinal fortitude to actually follow through with it, so here goes. Let’s start with Jughead #13, AKA Volume 2 #13, from 1989. The first series started in 1949, but volume 2 started in 1987. This issue features story called “Roll Model” that takes place in the hallways of Riverdale High, like half of all Archie-realted skateboarding stories. Oh, the antics… The tomfoolery! Shenanigans!

This is Laugh comics #16 from the second Laugh series that ran between 1987-1991. It looks to be a bit of a sendup on the movie 9-5 but that was released in 1980 and the publication date of Laugh #16 is 1989. I suppose that movie could have been lingering in the pop culture zeitgeist almost a decade later. Then again, Archie comics aren’t really known for originality and they frequently re-use story lines. Everyone looks like a super 80’s yuppy in this flying jet powered skateboard story titled “Working Lass” and inexplicably does not take place in the future. Let’s read on and discover the answer to the age old question: What if Pop’s Pizza and Jet Skateboards were involved in a corporate merger?

Pep #331 (November 1977) features a one page story with Archie skateboarding titled “Tide Ride,” as well as a Youth Opportunity Sales Club ad in which you can earn a skateboard by selling 16 boxes of greeting cards.