>>149778239

>Archie was never really a thing in my country, I knew they were wholesome (at least until someone storytimed that Clerks crossover, I guess things have changed) but I didn't know they veered into outright proselyting.

Archie comics really aren't "wholesome". They're the equivalent of Disney\Nickelodeon teen sitcoms, basically content for teens to read. In their long history, you can find comics of various quality and various "wholesomness", which is part of their fun and charm.

In the 1960's a Marvel Artist, Al Hartley, became a Born-again Christian, and was able to convince a Christian book publisher to license the Archie name for some Archie comics. Since the Archie publisher was find with whoring out Archie to everyone and everything out there (There were archie movies, Archie radio shows, Archie RESTARAUNTS, basically anything they could slap Archie on, they did), he agreed and so a bunch of Archie Christian comics came out.