Archie Comics

In issue No. 6 of “Life With Archie,” which will go on sale Dec. 29, Archie Andrews, the famous redhead from Riverdale, will deal with a death in the extended family. Geraldine Grundy, one of the gang’s high school teachers, will lose her battle with cancer.

The story line is part of an exploration of two possible futures for Archie: one in which he married Betty and another where he is wedded to Veronica. The nuptial story line, written by Michael E. Uslan, created a big splash for Archie, who first appeared in Pep Comics No. 22 in December 1941. The first issue of the story line sold nearly 60,000 copies and led the company to start “Life With Archie,” a magazine-size publication that follows both futures.

Jon Goldwater, co-chief executive of Archie Comics with Nancy Silberkleit, said the death of Ms. Grundy had been planned since the beginning. “The goal was to tell stories with important, real-world issues that people deal with like death, financial hardship and marriage issues,” he said. (Making Riverdale more relevant also led to the introduction of Kevin Keller, the first openly gay resident, who moved to town in September.)

Ms. Grundy, who first appeared in Pep Comics No. 30 in 1942 and worked in the Riverdale pickle factory before becoming a teacher, had recently found love with Waldo Weatherbee, the school principal, who had harbored a secret crush for many years. The couple recently shared a triple wedding with Jughead and Midge and two other faculty members.

The story of her death, “Farewell,” written by Paul Kupperberg and illustrated by Norm Breyfogle, is filled with the gang’s memories of their teacher and everything she taught them, including realizing that seemingly simple-minded Moose had a learning disability and calling out Betty and Veronica for being enablers in Archie’s teenage indecisiveness. Mr. Goldwater said that the eulogies during the funeral service were the same speeches that Mr. Uslan gave for his own teachers.

Ms. Grundy’s death inspires changes in her former students’ lives: Archie and Betty join the teaching staff and Reggie decides to stop being Veronica’s boy toy and starts working at a newspaper (newspapers still exist in this possible future). The final image is at the cemetery, with the gang going their separate ways and Mr. Weatherbee beside his wife’s tombstone. “Ah, well. We were the past, eh, dear Geraldine?” he says. “But what a blessing it was that we had this time together, to see the children go off into a bright, beautiful future…!”