IT'S official - gay marriage is now as American as apple pie.

At least, it is if you believe all-American hometown boy Archie is any kind of window on US society.

Because in January, the folk of Riverdale will turn out to celebrate war hero Kevin Keller's mixed-race marriage to his boyfriend.

It all happens in the Archie offshoot series Life with Archie, which specialises in future scenarios involving the characters which have remained so popular for some 70 years.

Even more controversially, the storyline set for Life with Archie #16 reportedly sees Kevin and his beau tying the knot just as Archie himself is in the midst of separating from his wife Veronica.

The plot was first announced back in September, when it met with the usual array of praise and criticism.

Now what is reported to be the cover of the landmark issue has been released and published online by BleedingCool.

Archie himself has been married twice - in dreams - but Kevin's wedding will be the first time a gay couple has tied the knot in Riverdale.

“I think it’s great that the reality of America’s loving couples are being portrayed in as many places as possible,” Evan Wolfson, the founder and president of Freedom to Marry, told Fox News back when the big announcement was made.

“We all want to be part of family and community - that’s what marriage is about,” he said.

“Gay people share the same dreams.”

Things weren't so clear-cut for Archie's publishers even eight years ago, when they threatened to sue a theatre company in Atlanta which planned to depict Archie himself emerging from the closet in Archie's Weird Fantasy.

At the time, they told the theatre's director that Archie being portrayed as gay "would tarnish and dilute his image".

Life with Archie #16 will be released in January.