fictional character
In fiction, a character (or speaker, in poetry) is a person or other being in a narrative (such as a novel, Play (theatre), play, Radio series, radio or television series, music, film, or video game). The character may be entirely fictional or b ...
in the
Archie Comics
Archie Comic Publications, Inc., is an American comic book publisher headquartered in Pelham, New York.Riverdale High School.
History
Characters resembling Dilton (in appearance and personality) appeared quite early in Archie stories. One can be seen, unnamed, in ''Archie Comics'' #1 (Winter 1942). The ''
Pep Comics
''Pep Comics'' is the name of an American comic book anthology series published by the Archie Comics predecessor MLJ Magazines Inc. (commonly known as MLJ Comics) during the 1930s and 1940s period known as the Golden Age of Comic Books. The titl ...
'' #27 (May 1942) featured a Dilton prototype named Theodosious and a character named Dilbert in ''Archie Comics'' #34 (September–October 1948). On 16 February 1948, Dilton Doiley officially made his first appearance in the ''Archie'' newspaper comic strip, yet his surname was spelled without today's "e". The name Dilton was first used in ''Pep Comics'' #78 (Mar 1950).
Character background
Dilton is depicted as a stereotypical nerdy teenager; he is highly educated, interested in all academic subjects, especially science, speaks in detailed and superfluous language, wears glasses, and is shorter than his friends. It is also stated that he has an IQ of 198 when Archie and the gang all take part in a class IQ test. While he is not particularly interested in dating, he is widely admired by Archie and the gang. Dilton uses his garage as a science laboratory. He is a skilled amateur inventor, although many of his creations do not work out as planned. His intelligence has also won him numerous science awards. His teachers, particularly Professor Flutesnoot, are very proud of his achievements.
Though Dilton often spends much of his time in his lab, he has a secret ambition to be a Riverdale High athlete. Coach Kleats rarely has confidence in him, so Dilton more commonly shows his school spirit by wearing the team mascot costume. However, he has been shown to be able to use his mathematical ability to pitch baseballs like a professional. Even when he is relegated to being Riverdale High's baseball team scorekeeper, he is still a valuable asset, even though he once disappointed a girl interested in him who thought he was a regular player. This happened when he noticed that a team winning against Riverdale had committed a batting out of turn error, he then told
Coach Kleats
Riverdale is a fictional town in the United States where most of the characters live and appear in Archie Comics. Conflicting details on its geographic location have been given over the years. It is located near the fictional town of Greendale, ho ...
. They then informed the umpire as required in the rules for a judgment, and the umpire declared the offending player was out, which allowed Riverdale to win with the opportunity Dilton made possible.
Writer Alex de Campi was excited to include the character when she wrote the 2015
limited series Limited series may refer to:
*Limited series, individual storylines within an anthology series
*Limited series, a particular run of collectables, usually individually numbered
* Limited series (comics), a comics series with a predetermined number ...
Dilton's parents appear occasionally, but almost never play a significant role. Both are typically depicted as dark haired and bespectacled like their son. His mother who is both proud of and perplexed at her son's inventiveness, appears more often than his father. Like the teenaged characters, many of Dilton's relatives were simply created for one particular story and were never seen again.
In one story in the 1970s, it was revealed that Mr. Doiley is actually Dilton's stepfather. None of Dilton's friends know this except for Chuck Clayton. Dilton, not feeling that he could deal with the shock after it being kept a secret all this time, almost ran away from home. However, after confiding in Chuck about his problem, Chuck made Dilton realize that Mr. Doiley cares about Dilton like a real father and that he would be heartbroken if Dilton ran away from home.
Moose Mason
Marmaduke "Moose" Mason (often referred to as Big Moose) is a fictional character in the Archie Comics universe. He attends Riverdale High School where he is typically depicted as the best athlete but the poorest student. His difficulties with sch ...
is Dilton's closest friend. Despite their completely different personalities, their closeness stems from a mutual understanding of how well they complement each other. Moose considers Dilton his "little buddy" and will do anything to protect him. In current stories, this relationship is increasingly being portrayed as symbiotic, with Dilton standing up in favour of Moose—in one story, he even pounces on
Reggie Mantle
Reginald "Reggie" Mantle is a fictional teenager in stories published by Archie Comics; he is introduced by writer-artist Bob Montana and John L. Goldwater in ''Jackpot Comics'' #5 (cover-dated Spring 1942). He also appears in CW's '' Riverda ...
in defense of Moose, when the latter was insulting Moose.
Dilton's other close friends include
Archie Andrews
Archibald "Archie" Andrews, created in 1941 by publisher John L. Goldwater and artist Bob Montana in collaboration with writer Vic Bloom,
Jughead Jones
Forsythe Pendleton "Jughead" Jones III is one of the fictional characters created by Bob Montana and John L. Goldwater in Archie Comics who first appeared in the first Archie story, from ''Pep Comics'' #22 (December 1941). He is the drummer of th ...
. He has helped the
gang
A gang is a social group, group or secret society, society of associates, friends or members of a family with a defined leadership and internal organization that identifies with or claims control over Territory (animal), territory in a communi ...
many times with his various inventions or with his vast knowledge when they are faced with a problem. He is also willing to help his friends if they have difficulty in school. These are just some of the ways that Dilton manages to fit in with the gang.
Series
Starting May 1989 and ending May 1990, Dilton briefly became the star of his own magazine named ''Dilton's Strange Science''. The magazine featured Dilton and Danni Malloy, a red-haired girl and amateur inventor, who shared his intellect and interests and served as his best friend and love interest. They shared a number of humorous
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imagination, imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, Paral ...
stories, involving their inventions.
Dilton features in a recurring one-page gag in the comics called "Open the Door, Dilton". There are three gags on a page, each covering two panels. On the first panel, Dilton approaches a door with a label saying what is inside. However, the words have a
double entendre
A double entendre (plural double entendres) is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to have a double meaning, of which one is typically obvious, whereas the other often conveys a message that would be too socially a ...
. On the second panel, looking into the room, he finds that the words do not refer to their usual meaning, which is what he was really looking for. For example:
: Behind a door marked "Hand Bags", someone is selling bags shaped like hands.
: Behind a door marked "General Trucking", army generals are dancing.
: Behind a door marked "Flea Collar", someone is putting tiny collars on fleas' necks.
Dilton also appears in other spin-offs with the rest of the gang, serving as the "brains" of the group as he does in the main series. He was a member of Archie's racing team in "Archie R/C Racers", and featured in "Explorers of the Unknown" as team inventor Gizmo. He rarely appears in "Archie I" or "Archie 3000", but in the former, he makes prehistoric discoveries, while in the latter, he makes use of the highly advanced technology.
In other media
Television
Animated
* Dilton appeared in ''
The Archie Show
''The Archie Show'' (also known as ''The Archies)'' is an American musical film, musical animated sitcom television series produced by Filmation for CBS. Based on the Archie Comics, created by Bob Montana in 1941, ''The Archie Show'' aired Satur ...
'', a 1968 cartoon series produced by
Filmation
Filmation Associates was an American production company that produced animation and live-action programming for television from 1963 until 1989. Located in Reseda, California, the animation studio was founded in 1962. Filmation's founders and p ...
voiced by
Howard Morris
Howard Jerome Morris (September 4, 1919 – May 21, 2005) was an American actor, comedian, and director. He was best known for his role in ''The Andy Griffith Show'' as Ernest T. Bass, and as "Uncle Goopy" in a celebrated comedy sketch on Sid C ...
.
* Dilton was promoted to one of the main characters in ''
Archie's Weird Mysteries
''Archie's Weird Mysteries'' (French: ''Archie, mystères et compagnie'') is an animated television series based on the characters by Archie Comics. The series premise revolves around a Riverdale High physics lab gone awry, making the town of R ...
'', voiced by Ben Beck. Appearing in a majority of the episodes, his scientific knowledge and inventions are often used to solve the titular mysteries, although sometimes they might be the cause of such problems. Unlike most incarnations, this version spends most of his time working in the school lab, as opposed to his own garage.
Live-action
* Dilton was planned to appear in the 1990 TV film '' Archie: To Riverdale and Back Again'', but his parts were written out due to a combination of time constraints and his actor getting sick during production.
* Dilton appears in '' Riverdale'', a drama series for
The CW
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in ...
portrayed by Daniel Yang in the pilot and by Major Curda onwards.