Archie Comics

Archie Comics is an American comic book publisher founded in November 1939 as MLJ Magazines, named for its three founders Maurice Coyne, Louis Silberkleit and John Goldwater. It first published superhero titles such as Pep Comics and The Shield, then introduced the everyman teenager Archie Andrews in Pep Comics in December 1941. His Riverdale circle of Betty, Veronica and Jughead proved so popular that the firm renamed itself Archie Comics Publications in 1946. Beyond comic books the characters reached radio, Saturday morning animation in 1968 and a pop hit by the group the Archies in 1969, and the company later published Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Josie and the Pussycats and a Sonic the Hedgehog title. The cited history, written in the mid-2000s, describes a family-owned private company that published more than 25 titles a month.