[positronic1]

Freckles may have started earlier (and younger), but HAROLD TEEN (May 4, 1919 - Nov 18, 1959) started out as a teenager and stayed that age for 40 years. When it comes to Archie, he and his pals may be the most visible group of teenagers, but they're far from the earliest, in any medium. The Andy Hardy movies (starring Mickey Rooney) and the long-running radio series "The Aldrich Family" (especially their teenage son Henry, around whom many if not most of the plots revolved) were big influences as well. "Archie" was less an original creation than a distillation of many previously-existing archetypal teenagers. Where Archie and his related spinoff comics excelled was in the refinement of a style, and in ringing in many clever variations on a fairly limited range of situational-comedy gags. It's also worth noting that what were the darkest days for most comics in America (the post-Code period from 1955 onwards) were a boon for Archie Comics, setting them well on the road to the peak of their popularity. Not coincidentally, Archie Comics' president, John Goldwater, was instrumental in the CCA. Archie Comics finally hit their peak in the late 1960s to early 1970s, with a proliferation of spinoff titles -- a period that coincided exactly with the popularity of the Filmation Saturday morning animated cartoons that had rushed in to fill a vacuum created by the removal of so many action-oriented superhero cartoons (due to protests from various "children's television action groups") from the Saturday morning lineup.

Link to the book: Freckles and His Friends 11