Archie's 80th anniversary: Debut of Cheryl and Jason Blossom

[alicemacher]

Long before Cheryl and Jason Blossom were the victim and victimizer within a taboo relationship in Afterlife with Archie, or respectively mentally disturbed and dead in the Riverdale TV series, they were more lighthearted elitist troublemakers in the old Archie Comics continuity. That doesn't mean what they got up to wasn't envelope-pushing in its own way for the relatively family-friendly venue. Especially in this, their first appearance, 1982.


From "Dare to Be Bare," Archie's Girls Betty and Veronica #320 (Oct. 1982). Story by Frank Doyle, art by Dan and Jim DeCarlo.





Exit Cheryl. Enter Jason, who shows Betty and Veronica how to get around the "no beer on the beach" rule.








I'd be willing to bet that was the one and only time anyone described one of the Blossom siblings as a "liberal."

Anyway, this was pretty daring stuff for the company's output at the time. Of course, it helped that the story treats the implied public nudity and drinking as The Wrong Thing to Do, thus satisfying both the Comics Code Authority and Archie Comics' internal standards. That said, although Cheryl and Jason were regular characters for awhile, they were abruptly dropped two years later. Rumour has it that the publisher decided Cheryl was too racy for kids, but I've also seen the claim that neither she nor Jason were popular with readers at the time.

In any case, they wouldn't return until the nineties, when Cheryl appeared as the surprise "third girl" ending option for Archie, who'd been pressured to choose between Betty and Veronica once and for all in the four-part 1994 Love Showdown arc. It seems that appearance did the trick, as both Cheryl and Jason have been fixtures of Archie Comics ever since, Cheryl even getting a series and a few minis of her own.

Comments

[tcampbell1000]

Y'know, I was a very "rule-abiding" kid, and I probably would've liked this story for that reason. And yeah, Doyle and DeCarlo probably felt they had to show Cheryl as Absolutely Wrong. But I find Betty and Veronica's characterization tough to fathom now, even with the canon reinforced that Riverdale's a conservative town.

Like, it'd be one thing if they were worried what would happen when Archie got a look at this display (an entirely justifiable concern) or if they experienced a wave of adolescent insecurity next to Cheryl's beauty and confidence. Everyone, teenager and otherwise, sets limits on what they're comfortable wearing, and the story could've touched on what it feels like to stand next to someone who draws the line in a very different place. Might they feel bullied by Cheryl here? Might they be conflicted and craving her friendship? Might they even ENVY her lack of inhibitions?

Even the stand they take against Cheryl here would be interesting if it were presented as a mask for those insecurities or intersecting with them somehow. Instead, they just seem like they've become the Concerned Mothers of America about 25 years too early. "Nooo, not our precious fabric of society! How COULD you, Cheryl? The police would never approve!"

This is, of course, a frequent feature of Archie Comics, especially pre-2010 or so, and it's what gives the newer stuff its subversive edge. Traditional Archie stories perform this delicate balancing act between being "mother-approved" and actually relatable. Sometimes they did really well, and sometimes they... were more enjoyable as camp, in retrospect.

I will give points, though, for Cheryl's "they do things differently overseas and nobody minds" line of argument. Including it in the story could be read as anti-European, I guess, but anti-European and anti-French sentiment weren't really prominent in 1980s America, and Betty's only counter is "that's there, this is here." The cosmopolitan perspective gives Cheryl a little more nuance than the role she and Jason usually took in stories I saw, which was basically "Ha ha, you townie prudes are so cute, clinging to your... MORALS (snicker, snort)!"

[leahandillyana]

^^^

[lilacsigil]

To be fair, they did say "that's a suit to get arrested in"...and then she got carted off the beach in a towel!

And I find it funny, in a sad way, that you absolutely can go topless on the beach in much of France, but you're not allowed to be too "modest" (because you might be a Muslim). I'm very fair-skinned so I cover up!