Okay - so what if Jughead was a werewolf.
Hey, where are going? Hear me out!
You know how Jughead is always ravenously hungry? Well what if that was just a symptom of the fact that he's actually a werewolf?
That's pretty much the concept behind a one-shot Archie Horror title that came out last year (2017). Jughead: The Hunger, written by Frank Tieri with art by Michael Walsh, opens in a Riverdale hunted by a serial killer called "The Ripper".
This killer turns out to be our own Foreyth Pendleton "Jughead" Jones III and using some pretty clear influence from The Wolf Man, follows Jughead as he becomes aware of just what his monstrous side has been up to in the last few weeks. In a fun twist, it also turns out that Betty Cooper comes from a long line of Werewolf hunters, and she's been waiting and watching in case Jughead were to change.
The initial story was well received and an ongoing series started soon after. As with Afterlife with Archie and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, it exists in it's own world (although Ms. Spellman has yet to appear), and, although extremely gruesome, tells a pretty interesting survivalist horror story of exactly what a young man tries to do once he discovers his own inner demon.
My only complaint of the series is the lack of a letters column, both for the interactions with the fans and as the creator comments have been a personal favourite part of the previous two titles.
In the end, a pretty fun read for werewolf fans, and one that begins to move beyond lycanthropy in issue nine...
So now we get into a more sensitive, potentially spoiler-filled section (I'll do my best).
Afterlife with Archie issues six through ten (most of the Betty R.I.P.) storyline, moves forward a few months and has the Riverdale survivors moving away from their small town into the larger world. Issues focus on secondary characters (Sabrina, Reggie, and Josie and the Pussycats all get issues dedicated to them), and although I didn't find the story quite as compelling as the first arc, it is still really great and has me chomping at the bit for more.
Although I'll be taking a break from this series until more issues come out - I can strongly recommend it and am really looking forward into my next deep dive in Archie Horror, into the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina...
After that delightful little trip into an aspect of Archie comics I didn't know existed, it's time to get to the main even, Afterlife with Archie written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa with art by Francesco Francavilla. At the most basic level, the story is really simple;
What if there were a zombie outbreak in Riverdale?
Archie comics have done many crossovers and genre switches in the past, most famously with the crime-noir adaptation that is the current CW show Riverdale, but previously including crossovers with The Punisher, KISS, and even The Predator.
What I love about Afterlife With Archie is the simplest thing, not the fact that Dilton is now an encyclopedic expert in horror trivia, nor the fact that Betty and Veronica have also become horror fans in this world. Nope, it's the fact that I know everyone.
When watching zombie series like The Walking Dead, you definitely feel for the leads, but as wave after wave of the undead move towards them, it becomes increasingly easier to forget that these were all regular folk once, with there own goals, hopes, and dreams, and instead focus on the cool visuals.
The genius of what Aguirre-Sacasa and Francavilla have done with this comic is to populate it with people I've grown up reading, I know all about the rivalries, friendships, and back stories of all theses characters, from dedicated readings as a little kid, to watching the animated series, and even occasionally leafing through the issues now as I wait in the grocery line. By using these characters that we know so well, they make every single new zombie in the outbreak personally heartbreaking, because we've been reading about these characters forever, even if only ironically we have a degree of investment and it hurts a little every time a new character falls to the zombies and rises again...
Which to be fair, makes it even more horrifying.
Well played gentlemen, well played.
Ok, so back in 2013 I started collecting my first Archie comic in about thirty years, Afterlife with Archie. The comic, written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and with art done by Fansesco Francavilla, takes the familiar characters from the small town of Riverdale and throws them into a full-blown zombie apocalypse. The art was great, the story significantly more emotional than I was expecting, and the the throwaway lines and references to the horror genre ensured this comic would be immediately addd to my ongoing comic collection.
Then a year later a spinoff was announced, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, which would follow the teenaged witch into her own horror-themed story. As Sabrina makes only one small (but crucial) appearance in the first collection of Afterlife with Archie comics, I wasn't sure at first if the new series would be a companion series or start something new all its own.
Then, as with virtually every title I've been enjoying this month, I dutifully collected each issue as it came out, stuck it in my "to be read" folder, and ignored the entire collection until last month when I began putting this theme month together for my blog.
The series, written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa with art by Robert Hack, follows Sabrina through her teen years during the 1960s. Other than being part of the Archie Horror imprint, it has no connection with Afterlife with Archie, and feel a lot like the devil-focused witch movies brought out by Hammer Horror in the 60s.
The stories largely focus on Sabrina's backstory, as well as that of her nemeis, and like Afterlife with Archie, includes cameos by original Sabrina characters but shown in a very different light. The overall story is really quite eerie, and does, at times, get fairly gruesome.
Definitely not for kids, but if you grew up reading Sabrina, or (like me) are even vaguely familiar with the character, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is a title well worth a look.
Happy December Everyone!
Having entered the final month of 2014, I’ve got eight books ahead of me and hopefully a couple weeks I can dedicate to clearing out the various magazines, comics and trade (collected comic) collections I’ve gathered over the last year.
Most exciting for me will be the first three volumes in Phillip Jose Farmer’s The Dungeon series, a six-volume collection that has intrigued me for years as I came across various volumes at various used-bookstores, and as I found earlier this year that volumes three and five were written by Charles de Lint, I’ve now got the excuse to finally buckle down and check them out.
Each year after I’ve finished my various pre-selected reads, I hit the magazines and comics I’ve added to my collection – top spot this year goes to the zombie-themed Afterlife with Archie, followed by the Hack/Slash Army of Darkness Crossover, and hopefully catching up with Astro City again.
At the beginning of 2014 I look back and realize that although I wrote a lot about the various books, games, movies and television shows I enjoyed last year, I didn't really talk about the current comics I was reading.
As I am, traditionally, someone who tends to focus my comic book reading on trade paperback collections - where a run of comics (for example, issues 1-7) of a series are collected in one book, I tend to be four to six months behind the current story lines of whatever I'm reading.
Last year however, I did check out two new series, Marvel's new Guardians of the Galaxy title (written by Brian Michael Bendis), and Afterlife with Archie (written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa) and I've got to say that both are pretty amazing.
Not at all familiar with Guardians of the Galaxy before I started, I'll happily admit that I began collecting this series as to get an idea of what to expect in this years upcoming adaption of the material - the fact that it was written by Bendis was a strong point in my choosing of it, but once I read the first few issues I was sold. The art is fun, the story works a lot like classic Star Wars and Buck Rogers, and I can't seem to stop smiling while I read it.
Afterlife with Archie was recommended to my by one of the helpful staff at Happy Harbor Comics in Edmonton, and it basically combines Archie Comics with a zombie outbreak - working very hard to keep itself a fair representation of both the world of Archie Comics and a classic Zombie story. This comic is incredibly fun, and after trying the first issue, I knew I had found a new favourite title.
Both series are currently ongoing, and if you haven't tried them yet, I strongly recommend you take a look.
