CBSNews.com has a brief article about the much-discussed “makeover” for Archie and the Riverdale gang, apparently culled from a Saturday Early Show segment.
It’s fairly standard, and relatively information-free, stuff, until we get to this little exchange between Early Show host Tracy Smith and Archie Comics chairman Michael Silberkleit:
Betty and Veronica are getting the most dramatic makeovers: long, voluptuous hair, softer features, but also their new fashions bare more skin that Riverdale High is used to. Low-riding jeans on Betty?
“They do look a little sluttier,” Smith told Silberkleit.
“No, not sluttier,” he said.
“Don’t you think they look like they have a little less clothing on?”
“No, this is the way kids dress today!”
The art-style change — planned for just four issues — begins with Betty & Veronica Double Digest #151, due in stores May 14.
May 1st, 2007 at 9:35 pm
Given how Silberkeit went ballistic when Melissa Joan Hart appeared on magazine covers in bikinis when the live-action “Sabrina” was at its peak of popularity, it’s understandable how he’d respond to any charge of icons Betty and Veronica appearing “sluttier.”
Somewhere, Dan DeCarlo is no doubt laughing.