Archie and his gang from Riverdale have been a part of American culture since the 1940's.

Like all good ongoing pop ephemera, the comics have done much to reflect the era in which they were produced.

In the 1960's however, more so than ever before in it's history, that reflection shown in the pages of all those Archie titles incorporated influences from what was happening in the real world.

Riverdale gradually left behind it's generic Eisenhower-era limbo of the '50's and got more 'with-it'.

(okay, it was still pretty generic)

'Realism' is likely not a term that could (or should) ever be used in reference to Archie comics, but this collection of images circa 1965 - 1970 do pretty well in illustrating some of what was 'happening' in the youth culture and pop culture of that time.

You'll catch glimpses of the surfing craze, the spy craze, the superhero and 'camp' fads.

Fashion, fashion, fashion, and ever-changing fashion.

The British Invasion, trendy boutiques, mad mod happenings, flower power and hippies. The battle of the sexes and the generation gap.

Rock music and counter-culture co-opted into the mainstream, and the rise of mass-marketed bubblegum pop music, all in a time when the teenager with disposable income became a much larger commercial target.

For a bit more info and some links to further such nonsense, please click over to my accompanying blog post.