How a bookseller got India hooked to Archies

Back in 1971, Om Arora had an idea the ripples of which we still feel to this day. The proprietor of New Delhi-based Variety Book Depot went to the US with a goal — to become the exclusive distributor of Archie Comics in India.“They had someone already doing the distribution, but they were not doing a good job,” he says. He managed to get it and started by importing 500 copies of the 17 titles published every month. By the 1990s, this had gone up to 10,000 copies being imported monthly.And so, for generations of urban Indians, characters like Archie, Betty, Veronica and Jughead became companions of sorts, combining the relatability of themes like community and friendship, with the novelty of foreign ideas like kissing contests and teenagers driving each other around in cars (can you imagine?).Now, with Zoya Akhtar’s movie breathing new life into a franchise that has been as much a part of Indian coming-of-age as it has been in America, the hope is to introduce a new generation to the comics. medium106151368Jon Goldwater, chief executive officer of Archie Comics, says that India is their third largest market, after the US and Canada.“We have been in India for over 50 years now, and there are a lot of similarities between Archies and India — the focus on family, friendship, community being the major one,” he says.He estimates they have sold between 50mn and 100mn comics in India to this day, the credit for which he says goes to Arora. This connection between Archies and India is why the idea to set the movie here was a dream for him, one that has now become reality.Given the rather idyllic suburban setting of Riverdale, why is it that Indians across generations — whose upbringing has been rather different— relate to the characters and hold them so dear?Sanjay V Kapur, a 64-year-old Nagpur-based writer, believes the characters made the story. “They were so easy to identify with that we, in our own vulnerable juvenile situations, would find ourselves or someone in our circle, as one or the other character in the comic series. Limited, of course, only by our Indian economic and social situations as compared to the liberal, rich and considerably ‘hip’ environment of the actual story,” he says.Of course, the fact that they were imported made them all the more covetable.A much younger Muskan Tibrewala remembers the Betty and Veronica digests in particular with fondness. “They were full of fun things like friendship and shopping. It was so nice that they had such contrasting personalities but got along so well,” says the 25-year-old.For journalist Soumyadip Choudhury, it offered a broadening of horizons as he grew up in pre-liberalisation India. “When I was a pre-teen, nothing like dating existed. It was my introduction to the concept — it prepared us for a lot of the changes we would see after liberalisation when suddenly there were cafes to go to. It also helped a lot with the social awkwardness that came with interacting with girls at the time,” he laughs.And it’s not just the wholesome content of the comic books — with their pranks, delicious looking milkshakes and hamburgers and love triangles battling it out at the school dance — but the culture of reading surrounding it that has made it a cultural touchstone for some Indians. medium106151598All of the fans that TOI spoke with discussed borrowing them from friends or neighbourhood lending libraries.Reneysh Vittal says that they used to be a form of cultural currency growing up. “As a young queer kid who wanted to fit in, who wasn’t keeping up with cricket or interested in things they were interested in, I could show up to these boys’ houses with Archie comics and we had that in common. We would trade and swap comics, and read them on the floor of someone’s bedroom once their mom would tell us we couldn’t watch TV,” he says.Plus, it was parent-approved in many cases. Arora considers that to be a huge part of the draw. “They are clean comics so parents would want their children to read them,” he says, adding that for many, it became the start of developing a reading habit.Even today, many of the people who buy them are millennial parents who wish to pass on the rite of passage to the next generation.“But older people also read them. Just yesterday, I got a call from a 90-year-old woman who wanted to buy some. She said she didn’t know they were still available,” he says. They still import about 1,000 copies of each title.For many, it was the first glimpse at what we considered American adolescence to be. Rajeev Tamhankar, head of Pratilipi Comics, says that when he encountered Archies at age 11, it was the first taste of what being a teenager could be like, as well as his first look at American pop culture.“We had Amar Chitra Katha and Chacha Chaudhary in India, but they had one or two protagonists. In Archies, each character was unique and you could see parts of yourself in each of them,” he says. medium106151433Jatin Varma, founder of Comic Con India, says that Archies is a constant favourite, much like Amar Chitra Katha. “Whenever we have brought in artists from Archies to Comic Con, it’s been a huge success. People want sketches, most often the iconic image of Archie, Betty and Veronica sharing a milkshake,” he says.One year, they even collaborated with the company to make a special comic book where the gang visits Comic Con Delhi.Goldwater and Arora agree that they feel the new movie directed by Zoya Akhtar should lead to an increase in sales and interest. Arora already sees an uptick in sales. But the culture of reading comics is not what it once was, he points out. Tamhankar agrees, noting that with so many other options of things to watch and read, comics often get left behind.For Goldwater and the team at Archies, keeping up with younger generations and a rapidly evolving world has meant new additions and changes.“When I came into Archie in 2009, we had to live in the current world. Otherwise, you run the risk of becoming irrelevant and unrelatable. It was really important to us to make Riverdale more inclusive,” he says.In 2010, they introduced Kevin Keller, the first gay character. “Now it seems obvious, but back then, a lot of people told us we were going to ruin the company,” he recalls. “We also had to modernise Archie’s relationship with Betty and Veronica. We had no interest in just being a retro, throwback company.”