It’s AnA week here at OTV, lets’s kick it off by taking a look back at the original, specifically, the origin of our two favorite characters and how they met.

Archer

Archer was the son of a the Reverend Joe Earl Archer and his wife. Archer, as a youth, finds out that he has an uncanny knack to make any shot he wants, which in his youth, means he makes a lot of basketball shots.

Archer discovers the truth about his parents

Wanting desperately to share this gift with his parents, who don’t seem to take interest in his ability, he spends an evening honing this ability with paper and the wastebasket. Excited to show his parents his ability manifesting itself, he runs into their bedroom to discover that they aren’t the loving parents he thought they were, they are in fact, deviants and murderers who prey upon young kids that they gather from their flock.

Archer’s parents try to kill him by burning the house down, but he uses his newfound powers of throwing things very accurately to escape. He is taken to the hospital, and his parents make it very clear that they plan to return the next morning to finish the business they started.

Archer meets Armstrong

Archer does what any self-respecting youth would, he runs off to Ladakh, to become a zen monk-warrior. Here he develops uncanny marksmanship and fighting skill.

When his training is complete, he returns to America to find his parents and take his revenge. He discovers that they are already sitting in jail for their crimes, and is left a little directionless, when he meets Armstrong, a homeless bum with tall tales from the past.

As Archer continues to wander around Los Angeles, he is approached by a member of The Sect, and asked to combat the devil incarnate. Archer, always one to do good, obliges, only to discover that the devil incarnate is the boozin bum he met earlier, Armstrong.

That of course leads us too:

Armstrong

Aram is the youngest of three brothers (the oldest was retconned in several issues later), in Anatolia, in the Mesopotamia area.

Aram and Gilad in Mesopotamia

As a youth, he has some competition with his older brother, Gilad, who is quickly becoming the tribes champion. Aram, the younger, is a bit upset, because despite all of Gilad’s skill, Aram is stronger.

As Gilad and Aram get older, they discover they are stronger and more durable than regular men, and that their lifespan is much, much longer.

While Gilad uses his strength and spirit to continually fight the evil in the world, Aram finds that he prefers wine and women to the eternal fight. Aram wanders from place to place, settling, taking wives, and generally living the good life.

Jump forward 5,000 years, and Aram is in Los Angeles, hanging out at bars, getting drunk, and generally being homeless.

He runs in to members of The Sect, a worldwide conspiracy trying to destroy him, because they believe he is the devil incarnate. Mixed up with this group of The Sect, is none other than Archer.

A Beautiful Friendship

Of course, they fight.

Archer and Armstrong Fight!

That’s what all buddies do when they first meet (it’s in the by-laws). Just as they are about to be fried by a Sect madman with a flame thrower (which would make Armstrong peel for weeks), they get whisked away to the Lost Land to help defeat Erica Pierce, the Mothergod.

That’s when the adventure really begins.

Archer and Armstrong in over their head

Come back tomorrow, when we will be taking a look at some of the better adventures that Archer & Armstrong have had over the years.