The iconic comic book character Archie Andrews was back in the news this week when his publisher announced that he will die in an upcoming issue of Life With Archie. Now, it is being reported that an issue of the same series that featured a same-sex wedding has been banned in Singapore.
The ban was discovered by cartoonist Sonny Liew, who wrote that Archie: The Married Life - Volume 3, a collected edition that would feature the Life issue with Kevin Keller’s marriage to his boyfriend, is not available from Kinokuniya, the local comic book distributor.
“We regret that Archie the Married Life 3 is deemed to breach the Content Guidelines for Imported Publications, and removed from sale by notice of MDA. We are not able to sell this title,” the company told Liew.
While Volume 3 is unavailable, Volumes 1, 2 and 4 of Archie: The Married Life are available.
Archie Comics publisher and co-CEO Jon Goldwater told The Hollywood Reporter that the company doesn’t agree with Singapore’s ban of the important volume in Archie history.
“Archie: The Married Life v3—which reprints the now-classic Life with Archie No. 16—is a milestone issue featuring the first gay marriage in comic book history,” Goldwater said. “We stand by that story now as we did when we published it.”
Goldwater made headlines on Monday when he announced that Archie will die in Life with Archie No. 36 and the storyline will continue in No. 37. In the story, Archie will take an assassin’s bullet to keep Kevin Keller alive.