Tim Hanley - Betty and Veronica: The Leading Ladies of Riverdale

Tim Hanley is a comic book historian and the author of Wonder Woman Unbound, Investigating Lois Lane, and The Many Lives of Catwoman. His work has also appeared in the Atlantic, Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Comics Journal. When he was a child, he had a stack of Archie Comics digests that was taller than he was. This remains the case today, even though he is considerably taller now. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

T here are so many great resources for digging into the particulars of old comics that make research easier and often much more interesting. In particular, the Grand Comics Database (comics.org) and their thorough records are beyond invaluable, especially for the years before proper accreditation. Mikes Amazing World of Comics (mikesamazingworld.com) is immensely useful as well, especially the newsstand feature that shows which books came out in a particular month (I play with that one just for fun sometimes). Finally, John Jackson Millers Comichron (comichron.com) is a fantastic resource for sales information, and I also appreciate his help via correspondence.

My thanks to Cal Johnston and the best comic shop in the world, Strange Adventures, for supplying me with so many comic books. The Halifax Public Library system has been extremely helpful too, between their own collection and the hardworking folks who run the interlibrary loan section, and extra thanks to my local branch in Tantallon. Derek Davidson and Todd Ifft at Photofest have been great as well, and I appreciate the time and care they put into curating my eclectic requests for images.

This is my first book at Rowman & Littlefield, and everyones been wonderful to work with. Stephen Ryan and Deni Remsberg got the ball rolling, and Christen Karniski and Erinn Slanina have taken it across the finish line with aplomb. Thanks as well to production editor Lara Hahn for her fine work and to Kathi Ha for her great cover design.

My agent Dawn Frederick of Red Sofa Literary remains excellent, as always. I make weird things and she finds good homes for them, and I appreciate it very, very much.

Thanks to Mary Kravenas, who always checks in on book things as we discuss the latest nerd news. And to Nicole Slaunwhite, who helps me work through my ideas and listens to me excitedly babble on about the obscure minutiae of comic bookrelated statistics before wisely advising that such things might be better as paragraphs than chapters. Shes usually right.

My entire family is endlessly supportive, but my parents are especially great and I couldnt do any of this without them. Thanks to my sister Katie and brother-in-law Tom as well, who help facilitate the odd particulars of a professional comic book historian and who are also all-around excellent.

Finally, big thanks to my adorable niece Lennie, who interrupted my work on this book on several occasions so that we could go play or read or run around. It was integral to my writing process, and this book is so much better for it.

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. How Valerie in Josie and the Pussycats Was Almost Not African-American!