Starting in the late 50′s science fiction and fantasy elements started popping on the covers of various Archie comics, mostly as gags but usually that’s where the fantastic elements stopped; inside the comics it was pretty much business as usual in Riverdale. But that started to change in the 60′s when the publisher, never afraid to latch onto a passing trend, started to introduce some of the outre genres that were all over the zeitgeist into their output; monsters, space, super spies and superheroes.

Everybody (and by “everybody” I of course mean certain old fanboys) remembers the Super Teens…

…and The Man From R.I.V.E.R.D.A.L.E.

…but not The Kreeps.

In 1965, the year this comic was published, The Addams Family and The Munsters were on TV so naturally Archie had to meet a family of monsters. This is a comic I’ve wanted to read ever since I saw the cover somewhere online, partially because it’s freaking cool, but also because it also always struck me that Archie missed out on an obvious opportunity when they didn’t have a teenage monster enroll in Riverdale High during the monster boom. I realize I’m standing on unsteady ground when I complain that a story (by person or persons unknown, according to the Grand Comic Book Database) about a family of monsters “doesn’t make sense”. But “Archie Meets The Kreeps”, as the GCBD have dubbed it, really doesn’t.

First I have to question the creation of the teen witch Wendy; magical girls were of all over the place in ’65 (Bewitched, I Dream of Jeanie) but Archie didn’t have to go even that far afield for “inspiration”. Their very own teenage with Sabrina had been making regular appearance in Archie’s Madhouse since #22 in October 1962, Plus there’s a “twist” on the final page that flat out doesn’t make sense; I like to delude myself that I’m an expert on 60′s pop culture but the “Jerry Tuna” gag flew directly over my head. The closest I can come up with is its some kind of play on the singer Jerry Vale — but Captain Oblivious, me. If anybody can explain this one to me, I would be most appreciative.

And, finally, it doesn’t do a very good job of introducing the other members of the family; they don’t even bother giving Mr. and Mrs. Kreep given names. But it still seems kind of odd that the publisher just gave up on the concept after just one go, but this appears to The Kreeps one and only appearance in Archie Comics; though of course five years later an entirely different “family” of monsters was spun-off of the animated Sabrina the Teenage Witch; Groovie Goolies,