Before he created so many of the Archie Comics characters we all know and love today, Bob Montana was just a kid at Haverhill High in Massachusetts, his first permanent home after a childhood spent traveling America with his family. He loved Haverhill so much that when he was asked to do a teen comedy comic book feature a few years after he graduated, he used Haverhill as the inspiration for Riverdale and his characters. And now, tomorrow night I’ll be talking about two of Montana’s most famous creations, Betty and Veronica, in an online Zoom talk for the Buttonwoods Museum in Haverhill, MA, and you can come!
Such is the beauty of Zoom. The folks at the museum are happy to welcome anyone from anywhere, for free. Just email programs@buttonwoods.org to register, and you’ll get all the information you need to jump on the Zoom. It’s tomorrow night, Tuesday, November 16, at 6pm EST, and you can visit the event page for more information.
My talk will be based on my book Betty and Veronica: The Leading Ladies of Riverdale, and I’ll trace the history of the characters from their Haverhill inspirations to their early stories to various reinventions over the decades, all the way to the modern day. Things will be weighted more to the past than the present, on account of it’s a museum and it seems fitting to spend more time in the early decades that everyone might be less familiar with, but we’ll cover their entire history.
Betty and Veronica are fascinating characters, and this talk will allow you to see a lot of the comic stories I mentioned in the book but couldn’t show. The presentation is chock full of old panels, and we do a deep dive on some of my favourite outings. If anything, the visuals are worth tuning in for alone, and you can just enjoy all of the cool art while I blather away in a small box to the side. I’m very excited to get to show these classic stories that made such an impact on how Betty and Veronica evolved over the years!
So if you’re free tomorrow at 6pm EST, register for the Zoom and come on by. The main talk will be about 40-45 minutes, and we’ll have some time after for questions. It’s gonna be a good time, and I look forward to seeing you there!
