'Riverdale': Who Is Wilbur Wilkin?

takes his vigilante quest to stop the Black Hood far beyond simply starting The Red Circle last [...]

By Nicole Drum

wilbur wilkin
(Photo: The CW)

Everyone has a secret on Riverdale this season and one of Archie's is also clever Easter egg from comics history.

Mild spoilers for tonight's episode of Riverdale, "Chapter Seventeen: The Town That Dreaded Sundown", below.

In tonight's episode, Archie (KJ Apa) takes his vigilante quest to stop the Black Hood far beyond simply starting The Red Circle last week. He heads to the military surplus to purchase some ammunition, holster, and Kevlar vest, but he needs ID for it. But the identification that Archie hands over to the clerk doesn't read "Archie Andrews." Instead, the fake ID reads "Wilbur Wilkins."

Who is Wilbur Wilkins? He's an obscure character from deep in Archie Comics history. The character comes from Wilbur Comics, a book published between 1944 and 1965, though in the title the character's name is Wilbur Wilkin. Wilkin is a contemporary of Archie in comics, making his first appearance in Zip Comics #18 three months before Archie made his first appearance. The character also appeared in several other Archie comics as a backup feature in Pep Comics.

The Wilbur Comics title was originally published by MLJ Magazines, the publishing company that later became Archie Comics in 1946. The Wilbur Comics title ran through issue #87 in 1959 before going on hiatus until 1963. Two further issues ran in 1964 and 1965 when the book was canceled on issue #90. However, the Wilkin legacy continues in the world of Archie. Popular character Katy Keene made her first appearance in Wilbur Comics #5 and, in the late 1960s, Archie Comics borrowed the last name Wilkin for another character, Bingo Wilkin. The Bingo Wilkin character doesn't appear to have any connection to Wilbur Wilkin other than sharing the same last name.


The" Wilbur Wilkin" Easter egg is just another example of the nods to Archie history on Riverdale. Previously this season, Riverdale introduced the drug Jingle Jangle, a nod to the popular novelty song of the same name released by The Archies, a fictional garage band Archie Andrews founded on the animated The Archie Show in the late 1960s.

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