Updated on December 10, 2021
On the heels of yesterday’s news of DC Comics dropping the Comics Code comes another surprise announcement—Archie Comics is pulling out of the Comics Code as well:
Newsarama article on Archie’s dropping the Code
As I noted yesterday, Archie can easily get by without the code, as their current output is already family-friendly (Archie’s President in the article notes they aren’t about to “start stuffing bodies into refrigerators…,” in a pointed but amusing jab at DC). With Archie gone, the only remaining major publisher using the Code is Bongo, and I doubt they’ll bother to stick around for long, either. Either way, it looks like the Comics Code may as well fold up shop at this point, as it’s now pretty much dead.
UPDATE: Bleeding Cool reports that Bongo dropped the use of the Code a year ago, replacing it with an “All Ages” label instead. Apparently they didn’t make any fuss about it/nobody noticed. So with all the major players no longer using the Code, the Code is now deader than Elvis.
