It’s understandable that companies want to protect their intellectual property. Archie Comics has been especially litigious over the years. The company objected to anyone sullying the image of squeaky-clean Archie and his friends in Riverdale, so sometimes its attempts were, shall we say, extreme. Here are six notable examples.
1 Goodman Goes Playboy. In 1962, Will Elder drew a parody of Archie Andrews in the pages of Harvey Kurtzman’s Help! In it, the Archie Andrews stand-in “Goodman Beaver” and his friends embrace the “Playboy lifestyle” at Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Club. The characters partied, drank, and caroused; it was quite a scene. Archie sued Kurtzman over copyright infringement and in 1964, they settled on one thousand dollars in damages, an apology, and a promise never to reprint it. Kurtzman and Elder then tried to alter the artwork and reprint the story. Archie Comics stepped in again, this time demanding that Kurtzman turn the copyright on the material over to Archie, which Kurtzman reluctantly did. Interestingly enough, Archie never renewed the copyright, so as of 2011, the story should be able to be printed free and clear.
2 Veronica.org. In 1998, Archie Comics sent a cease and desist letter to David Sams over his website Veronica.org, which he had created for his infant daughter. Archie argued that it was a trademark of Archie Comics (which owned Veronica.com). Sams refused to cave in and made the case public, ultimately shaming Archie into dropping the matter. Amusingly enough, as of August 2011, Veronica.org is not used by anyone.
3 Jughead’s Revenge. In 2001, Archie Comics sent a cease and desist letter to the punk band Jughead’s Revenge to get them to stop using the name, as Archie felt that it violated its trademarks. The band broke up soon after the letter was received (although it seems as though they were planning on going on hiatus anyway).
4 Archie’s Weird Fantasy. In 2003, a new play entitled Archie’s Weird Fantasy was scheduled to debut at Atlanta’s Dad’s Garage Theatre Company. It depicted Archie Andrews realizing that he was gay and moving out of Riverdale. The night before the show was set to premiere, Archie Comics delivered a cease and desist letter, threatening legal action and pointing out copyright violations that would cost in the six figures for each violation. Ultimately, Dad’s Garage Theatre’s artistic director decided to change the name of the play to Weird Comic Book Fantasy, and Archie Andrews became Buddy Baxter, Riverdale became Rockville, and so on. Interestingly enough, the playwright, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, has since written a number of comic books for Marvel Comics.
5 The Veronicas. Teen Australian twin rockers Lisa Marie and Jessica Origliasso began fronting their own group called the Veronicas in 2005, using the name people had given them for their resemblance to Archie’s girlfriend. (The girls also suggest that they were influenced by the film Heathers, in which the outcast among all the popular girls named Heather is a girl named Veronica.) Archie Comics, naturally, did not approve and filed suit for trademark infringement. Rather than fight, both sides agreed to cut a deal and they would cross-promote each other. The Veronicas made their comic book debut in Veronica #167 (along with a card that could be used to download one of their songs) and have popped up in Archie Comics regularly since.
6 Fanfiction.net. Fanfiction.net is a popular website where fans upload stories they’ve written about their favorite characters from TV, comics, and movies. The case for copyright infringement is always hanging over sites like this, and recently Archie Comics sent a cease and desist letter to the webmasters telling them to remove stories using Archie Comics characters. Its main concern was that some of the stories featuring the characters were adult-oriented and reflected poorly on Archie Comics titles. The site has since complied with Archie’s decree.