I’ll join you too… The official title of this publication is “Archie’s Girls Betty & Veronica.” Archie’s been skating since the 60’s. His previous appearances here have only cover-only affairs, but this issue (#250 October, 1976) actually has a skateboarding story inside. Archie gets away with murder as far as the ladies go. I don’t know if Betty and Veronica have ever wised up, but you’d think they would have ditched him. Veronica always seemed more appealing to me when I could stomach to read Archie, but in this comic I’m squarely on Betty’s side. Turns out Betty is a good skater. She’s so good that she’s giving pointers to the guys in the gang, who are doting on her purely because of her skills and not because of her feminine wiles. Big surprise, Veronica is jealous of the attention. I wonder if this the origin of the term “Skate Betty?” Sit back and enjoy the “Wheel Zeal” and let me know if you what the heck the”Shu-Fly” variation of the Christie is. UPDATE: The Wheel Zeal title gets used again in a 1999 Betty & Veronica skateboarding story.

July of 1967 and they are still trotting out skateboards for the cover gag on Archie comics. Archie looks a little like Greg Brady in this one, although I think Greg might have had better style. The Twist had it’s heyday in 1960, so it’s kind of funny that by 1967 it was already considered “old-fashioned” by girls in unhip comic books. Seriously. Who was the the audience for these? (Click through, you won’t be sorry.)

I never got Archie, even as a kid it just seemed boring. This is Archie Pal-N-Gals #36 that dates back to April of 1966, a full year after skateboarding supposedly died a violent and sudden death in 1965. Coincidentally, I just read an interview with in the Skateboarders Journal with Patti McGee who mentioned the same thing, conventional wisdom reports the death of skateboarding in ’65, but Patti said she was still touring and making public appearances in 1966. So that’s the most interesting thing about Archie. It sort of corroborates Patti’s story. There’s no further skateboarding in this issue of Gals-N-Pals except for the cover. View it after the jump.