DALLAS — When comic-book store owner Dave Luebke heard that after 67 years, the carrot-topped everyman of the comic world, Archie, was proposing to va-va-voomy rich girl Veronica instead of girl-next-door Betty, he decided to protest by selling his copy of the series’ rare first issue.
Luebke’s Archie Comics No. 1 sold for $38,837 when Dallas’ Heritage Auction Galleries offered it Friday. Heritage spokesman Noah Fleisher said the buyer was a longtime Archie reader and collector from Virginia who did not want to be identified.
“Betty is it. Not Veronica,” said Luebke, whose Richmond, Va., store has more than 1 million comics in stock. “This is serious.”
The Archie Comics website shows Archie proposing to Veronica on bended knee on the cover of No. 600, which hits comic-book stores Wednesday. That begins a six-issue story arc that takes place in the future — when the perpetual high schoolers have graduated from college, said Victor Gorelick, editor in chief of Archie Comics.
For those heartbroken by Archie’s choice, Gorelick remains coy, advising, “I just tell them to stick with it. . . . You’ll see what happens.”
