Who is this Archie Character?

April 29, 2011 7:36 AM

ArchieComicFilter: Help! I was talking with a coworker and we were reminiscing about old Archie comic strips. I recounted one of my favorite strips but I can't remember who the character was! More information under the cut:

There was this really shy girl that liked Jughead, and she was overweight in the comics and would sneeze when she was nervous. Betty and Veronica took her to get a makeover and stuck her in this awesome dress that turned her into this curvy, voluptuous vixen! Then they took her to show Jughead and his eyes practically popped out of his head and she got nervous and sneezed "out" of the makeover, returning her to her normal self.

Who is she?

posted by meowf to Grab Bag (11 answers total)

Big Ethel?
posted by Admiral Haddock at 7:38 AM on April 29, 2011

On further consideration, prolly not Big Ethel, given that she chased Jughead around mercilessly when all the poor man wanted to do was eat some hamburgers.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 8:14 AM on April 29, 2011

Response by poster: That was who I thought, too... and I think the nervousness was the fact that she looked so... poised when she normally does not. But she did used to chase him around before the makeover, if I recall correctly.
posted by meowf at 8:19 AM on April 29, 2011

Looks like it was Big Ethel - "Although Ethel is usually portrayed as gangly and plain, one story involving a makeover by Betty and Veronica in an attempt to attract Jughead's attention revealed her to be quite shapely and pretty (albeit still with buck teeth). Despite her new look, Jughead was as uninterested as ever." Unless there were two such stories, which wouldn't surprise me all that much.
posted by restless_nomad at 8:25 AM on April 29, 2011

Response by poster: Yeah... I read that as well - but unless I'm losing it, I remembered Ethel to be more.. gangly, and underweight as opposed to quite large. I am very much dating myself, but pretty sure I haven't seen this strip for about 20 years so its entirely possible that I'm making it up in my head.

I'm going to try looking more specifically AT the Big Ethel stuff, thanks to the last two comments - but this colleague of mine actually has all her comics and is endeavoring to find the book itself for me(just trying to narrow it down for her!)
posted by meowf at 8:32 AM on April 29, 2011

Response by poster: In fact, here is the "Pin-Up" of Ethel's makeover which I now recognize after seeing it... its not the same girl/comic strip.
posted by meowf at 8:39 AM on April 29, 2011

Or are you thinking of the story line on this page? I counted this out because it didn't seem to involve the sneezing business, but...
posted by Admiral Haddock at 8:43 AM on April 29, 2011

I totally remember this storyline, but don't remember whether it's was Big Ethel or not. It's not the story that Admiral Haddock mentions.

Great, now this is going to annoy me too.
posted by painquale at 8:48 AM on April 29, 2011

Best answer: There is reference to the story here. It's not Ethel.

I just spent some time looking through Archie panels posted to a sneezing fetish forum. I think I'm done with this for now.
posted by painquale at 9:23 AM on April 29, 2011 [5 favorites]

Response by poster: LOL @ the sneezing fetish forum!! Painquale that is totally the story I was thinking of. Now just need the name, but will poke around for the Ophelia character now.
posted by meowf at 9:55 AM on April 29, 2011

I absolutely remember this strip! The girl definitely wasn't Ethel, but she had an epithetic name (Big Someone?) and messy short red hair. The makeover involved a high bouffant and a total body type change. What I particularly remember was that she spoke in a sort of uneducated patois, overall (some Moose-esque "durr"s), and when B and V were taking her to see Jughead she said something like "Where are we goin'? Are we goin' to see the fights?"
posted by hels at 8:56 PM on April 30, 2011