Archie, Jughead and friends are helping raise money for a Newfoundland fire department
The Harbour Breton Volunteer Fire Department, located on the south coast of the island, has partnered with Archie Comics to release a special edition.
"Harbour Breton just happens to be one of the most beautiful towns that I've seen here on the island. [It's] beautiful scenery down here on the south coast [and a] perfect place for Archie, Jughead, Betty and Veronica to visit," Kevin Hickey, a member of the fire department, told CBC Radio's On The Go on Thursday.
The cover of the comic shows Archie, Betty and Veronica watching Jughead get rescued by local firefighters. Jughead got stuck in a tree while trying to avoid kissing a cod fish — a classic part of Newfoundland's screech-in ceremony.
"It turns out that Jughead, though his appetite is usually quite strong, didn't quite have the appetite for this," Hickey said with a laugh.
The comic came from a desire to have an outside of the box idea to help raise money, says Hickey, who has a relationship with Archie Comics through his career as a comic book retailer. He says the company was eager to help.
"We presented them with the idea for the cover, and they made it happen. So yeah, we're super excited about it," he said. "Everyone in the fire department is super proud."
But it isn't the first time Archie and friends travelled to Newfoundland. The crew found its way to L'Anse aux Meadows in Life With Archie #280, released in 1990.
Hickey says 250 of the collectors' edition comic books have been printed. They will be given to the first 150 people to donate $50 or more to the telethon, while the remainder will be given away through a raffle for anyone who donates $25 or more.
He says he knows it will be a hot-button item, given Archie's large fan base and a Newfoundland connection.
"We think it will be sought after by collectors, including Archie collectors from abroad," Hickey said. "There's going to be people, you know, at home in this province looking for this book, and people all over the world."
The telethon runs from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. NT on Sunday.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CTV News
26-06-2025
- CTV News
Fun events for Regina Canada Day
Regina Watch Find out all about the exciting activities you can look forward to at Regina Canada Day celebrations with Jenelle Lippai #Onthego.
Vancouver Sun
12-06-2025
- Vancouver Sun
Walt Disney cartoon surfaces in Vancouver Press Club memorabilia
In 1933, B.C. boozers could only drink hard liquor at home, in a speakeasy or in a private club. So some journalists got together to form the first Vancouver Press Club, a private bar for the ink-stained wretch. In 1958, the club turned 25, and Michael Dean of The Province decided to write cartoon legend Walt Disney to see if he'd write them an anniversary note. Incredibly, Disney did, or at least got an artist from his company to do it. 'Congratulations! 25th anniversary Vancouver Press Club,' the message read above a sketch of Disney character Donald Duck playing piano accompanied by his nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie playing a standup bass and flute. Get top headlines and gossip from the world of celebrity and entertainment. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sun Spots will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. It was signed, 'Me Too, Walt Disney,' and the illustration was hand-coloured. The illustration was then put in a frame and mounted on a wall inside the club at 595 Beatty St., where it accompanied congratulatory illustrations from cartoons like Blondie (drawn by Chic Young), Archie (Bob Montana) and Hi and Lois (Mort Walker and Dik Browne). The cartoons ran in either The Province or Vancouver Sun. Dean may have been The Province's contact for the companies that syndicated the cartoons, which is why his request got through. Fast forward to Dec. 30, 1970. The original Vancouver Press Club closes and auctions off its fixtures. Antique dealer Uno Langmann bought the cartoons as one lot for $75. 'They were all screwed into the wall, you know, with two screws for each (artwork),' he recalls. Langmann has held onto the cartoons for more than half a century. But he'll turn 90 on Sept. 6, and figures it's time to find them a new home. He's already donated 20,000 photos from his large collection to UBC; he's looking for the right institution for the cartoons. 'I held them back, and because somebody had obviously made the trouble to contact all the cartoonists,' he said. 'I don't care if they went to a new press club, but this should be together.' Alas, there is no physical press club anymore; the last one on Granville and West 6th closed in 1999. There was once a Newsman's Club in the basement of the Hotel Georgia, but it's long gone as well. Even the Media Club by the CBC went under in 2017. The original Press Club opened on March 17, 1933, which is St. Patrick's Day. There is no listing for a Press Club in the 1934 city directory, which was published by The Vancouver Sun, but there is a listing for a Newspaper Club of B.C., which is probably its original name. The Newspaper Club's address was 119 West Pender, suite 525, which is on the top floor of the Shelly building. It was a great location for local reporters and editors, because Pender was newspaper row at the time. The Vancouver Sun was a couple of doors down at 125 West Pender, the printing press of The Province was at 189 West Pender, and the city's third paper, the News-Herald, was at 414 West Pender. In 1937, the Sun had a fire at its Pender location, and moved to the Sun Tower at 500 Beatty. It left downtown for the new Pacific Press building at 2250 Granville in 1965, as did The Province. This probably led to the slow demise of the Press Club on Beatty, which sounds like it was a bit of a dump. Old customer Vern Bethel recalls it had 'shaggy rug walls that were filled with nicotine' from decades of smokers. But it did have great memorabilia, including 13 large 'oil painted' cartoons by Fraser Wilson, a former Sun artist and fiery trade unionist who had been fired during the volatile Province newspaper strike of 1946. Today, Wilson is known for his epic 85-foot long mural at the Maritime Labour Centre depicting Vancouver's working waterfront and B.C.'s resource industries, circa 1947. But in a Dec. 31, 1970, story, Sun reporter Lorraine Shore said Wilson's paintings at the Press Club were more modest, depicting 'scenes of junior reporters peering through keyholes and photographers snapping pictures of shapely blonds.' Shore reported the Wilson paintings were all purchased by Bob Henry of Van-Kam Freightways for $45 to $100 each. Their whereabouts today are unknown. jmackie@
CBC
10-06-2025
- CBC
Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra unveils renovation plans for century-old Pantages theatre
The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra has released the design plans for what it hopes will become a new home for some of its performances. The orchestra, which rents its current performance space at the 2,300-seat Centennial Concert Hall in the city's Exchange District, is looking to move across the street to the currently closed Pantages Playhouse theatre, at the corner of Main Street and Market Avenue. The WSO said in a release Tuesday as part of a long-term agreement as the theatre's "managing tenant," it plans to rehearse and perform many of its programs in the restored venue, which will have nearly 1,100 seats. "The entire stage area will have both the acoustic aspects for … orchestral concerts, but also, like, soft-seat concerts of folk and blues and roots groups and jazz," WSO executive director Angela Birdsell said in an interview with CBC Radio's Up to Speed. "It is going to be a spectacular, intelligent-focused marrying of this beloved, historic venue with all of the amenities of a 1,080-seat venue that we do not have in the city." The orchestra has long said the acoustical shell at the Centennial Concert Hall is in desperate need of an upgrade. The new design plans, led by Number Ten Architectural Group, involved working with theatre design and acoustic experts, as well as digital and audio-video consultants "with experience transforming vaudeville-era theatres into modernized venues," the WSO's news release said. "You don't have to love the orchestra to be excited about this project, because it's hard to find people that don't have a story about Pantages," Birdsell said. "There are so many millions of stories out there that people have of an experience in this incredible hall.… I bet you there are a lot of first-date stories." Pantages Playhouse, which opened in 1914, was once an important stop for vaudeville performers. Buster Keaton, Ella Fitzgerald and Stan Laurel are among the stars who tread the boards at the theatre, which was named a National Historic Site of Canada in 1989. It closed in 2018, and a design team began working on the building in 2023, the WSO's Tuesday news release said. The symphony said it still expects to perform some of its bigger concerts at the Centennial Concert Hall. Project to cost $55-$60M The Performing Arts Consortium of Winnipeg, a charitable organization, assumed responsibility for the management of Pantages in February 1998, until the city agreed to sell it for $530,000 to two businessmen in 2019. That original deal had to be renegotiated in 2020 because of a snafu involving the protection of a monument to the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike in front of the theatre, and in July of that year, the city said the owners had agreed to sell Pantages for $1 to the consortium, which promised to raise $10-$15 million to restore it and install a management team to operate it. The estimated cost for the project is now between $55-$60 million. The WSO said it and the performance consortium have been working with all three levels of government to raise roughly half of the funds needed for the renovation, with the rest to be raised from the private sector. The city allocated $87,000 for capital renovations at the theatre in 2024, with an additional $250,000 allocated annually for 2025-27 as part of a fund to strengthen the city's art sector and the downtown. Nearly $15 million has been raised in private commitments so far, Birdsell said. "We have applications out with the federal government and we're working with the provincial government," she said. "We absolutely need governments to step up and help us with this project. It is a gift to this province and to the people in this city." Tuesday's announcement did not include any timelines, but Birdsell has previously said it's unlikely the theatre will reopen before 2028.
