Archie has been a highly successful teenager for close to 60 years. He began life humbly, created by cartoonist Bob Montana and writer Vic Bloom, as a backup feature for the MLJ company's Pep Comics #22 in the winter of 1941. At that point, Pep Comics was inhabited predominantly by serious heroes, such as the Shield, a superpatriot, and the Hangman, a vindictive costumed crime-fighter. The redheaded, freckled Archie Andrews, along with his two girlfriends, the blonde Betty and the brunette Veronica, and his pal Jughead, gradually became the stars of the comic book and within a few years ousted all of the heroes. MLJ, who had been publishing a string of comic books, changed its name to Archie Comics Publications early in 1946.

The public had discovered teenagers a few years earlier, and fictional youths were flourishing in all the media. There was Henry Aldrich on the radio, Andy...