Archie Comics takes on One Million Moms

Archie Comics is taking a stand today that is going to be very interesting to watch. Recently the group One Million Moms started a boycott campaign against Archie Comics and Toys-R-Us about the sale at the counter of the recent same sex marriage cover of Kevin Keller. The response from Archie Comics this morning posted to Alex Segura’s Tumblr web site this morning pretty much so sums up the entire process of how Archie Comics feels about this issue:

“We stand by Life with Archie #16. As I’ve said before, Riverdale is a safe, welcoming place that does not judge anyone. It’s an idealized version of America that will hopefully become reality someday. We’re sorry the American Family Association /OneMillionMoms.com feels so negatively about our product, but they have every right to their opinion, just like we have the right to stand by ours. Kevin Keller will forever be a part of Riverdale, and he will live a happy, long life free of prejudice, hate and narrow-minded people.” — Archie Comics Co-CEO Jon Goldwater

And this is where this gets interesting. Alternative comics sometimes deal with things that are uncomfortable, and that includes the LGBT lifestyle. It is amazing to say the least that a main stream comic book like Archie would find itself involved with an alternative lifestyle on the front cover of their comic books, and that this would be carried by a chain like Toys-R-Us. Think about what that means to main stream America, as we push back on the same issues that many alternative comics deals with, the main line comics are starting to see this as a viable audience. Nothing against One Million Moms or any other group trying to roll back what is read to some earlier date in history, the LBGT life style has been with us for a very long time. This goes all the way back to Greece, and probably earlier in human history.

Applauding Archie is not enough on this one; we never carried Archie comics in our store at all because we didn’t think there was a market. But given their stand on the idea of Same Sex Marriage, and the willingness to put this on a cover of a main line comic book means we will start carrying them. We fully support Archie comics on this issue, and hope that Toys-R-Us has the same response as Archie Comics CEO, that we are all welcome to our opinion, but sometimes you need to step back and hope that we all have the opportunity for a “happy, long life free of prejudice, hate and narrow-minded people”.

Well done Archie Comics.

More on this story over at Comics Alliance.