Archie Horror: Post Eight: Chillinng Adventures of Sabrina

At the end of a month of reading through Archie Horror, I ended with the new (almost a week old as of this post) Netflix series, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina created by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and starring Kiernan Shipka.

The series, following in the footsteps of the CW's Riverdale, continues to expand the Archie Universe, and although I've only seen the first four episodes (sorry - I was finishing reading Vampironica and I'm not a great TV show-binger!), it has been a pretty fun watch so far...

First of all, for the fans of the original comic book series (also created by Aguirre-Sacasa), the television series ditches the sixties setting (although it keeps much of the look), and hasn't (so far) gotten quite as dark as the comic series either.

In many ways I'm really enjoying the balance the show is doing, working to appeal to fans of Riverdale while at the same time acknowledging that for a lot of people, Sabrina Spellman is either the character from the comics or the character from the 90s TV series.  Is it edgier than I expected?  Absolutely!

For the record, my favourite characters to date are Sabrina's aunts Hilda and Zelda (but that may just be they are closer in age to me than the leads) and the freakiest moment to date was in episode four when the human world storyline got incredibly dark (probably darker than they intended), although I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't seen it yet.

A fun, well acted and intriguing look at how we balance our home lives and personal lives, the show (although definitely not for children), is well worth the watch.

So there you have it, a month seeing what Archie Comics could do with the Horror genre, and you know what? They've done a pretty great job!

Archie Horror: Post Seven: Vampironica

Earlier this year, after the successes of Afterlife with Archie, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and Jughead: The Hunger, the good folks at Archie Horror introduced a new title to the imprint.

Vampironica

Created by Greg and Megan Smallwood, Vampironica follows Veronica Lodge in a Riverdale not quite like the one we know, as she is attacked by a client of her father's, and turned into a Vampire.

Part what what I've always found tricky about the rivals in Archie comics (both Veronica and Reggie) is how easy it is to simply write them off as necessary foils for good guys Archie Andrews and Better Cooper, but in turning Ronnie into a vampire herself, the character is actually able to shine in a way I have seldom seen her; as a no nonsense young woman intent on changing her world to one in which she sees value.

To be honest I wasn't really expecting much out of this title, but found it to be a fun read and one I'd happily recommend to others.

As the title is still fairly new (issue four comes out later this week), I don't want to go into too many details, but I have read that the creators cited by An American Werewolf in London and Fright Night as inspirations, so I think it's safe to say the title is a little closer to Shaun of the Dead than Dawn of the Dead on the Horror/Comedy meter.

Archie Horror Post 6: Jughead: The Hunger

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...

Archie Horror: Post Five: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

First and foremost, it is important to view Archie Horror as an imprint, like Wildstorm or Vertigo, rather than a shared universe like Marvel. Although the different titles begin with characters from Archie Comics, they are not meant to be the same characters across all titles. The Sabrina in Afterlife with Archie (AwA) is clearly a different Sabrina than the one in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (CAoS). Part of how this is shown currently is by having different artists for each title, so while AwA has the Francavilla style, CAoS is given a far different look by Robert Hack.

The first issue follows Sabrina through her childhood and ends up being set in the mid 60s, so we're immediately in a really interesting and specific time period. The witches in the series are definitely the Horror genre standards, worshiping the devil and pledging him their souls (sorry fans of Hilda and Zelda, but these aunts are pretty terrifying). Sabrina is a half witch, half human and the first arc (titled The Crucible) follows her in the last few days before her sixteenth birthday when she's set to devote her life to darkness as her aunts have.

The series has a really great feel to it, and also includes shout outs to a number of horror films and books with similar themes, like Rosemary's Baby and others.

It is fair to say that this title, as with AwA is definitely not for children - there are incidents of extreme violence and not all of your favourite characters necessarily make it through each issue, but the narrative is really intriguing and I'm really interested to see how much of the source material will be making it into the Netflix adaptation later this week.

Afterlife with Archie: Post 4: Afterlife with Archie pt. 2

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...

Archie Horror: Post 3: Afterlife with Archie

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.

Archie Horror Day 2: History Lessons

 So here I was all ready to go with a deep dig into the 2013 Afterlife with Archie comic and then I find out that actually, this is not the first time Archie comics has done horror, and that the series Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is named after the imprints Chilling Adventures in Sorcery series which launched back in 1973 (a few years before I was born).

Luckily for me, however, the first seven issues have been released in a collection called Chilling Tales of Sorcery v.1, which means I didn't have to dig through old back issues in various comic book stores or break the bank using eBay or the like. Instead I got to immediately dig into a little bit of Archie history I wasn't aware of until yesterday.

So Chilling Tales of Sorcery actually starts out in the traditional Archie illustrated style, and for the first two issues is introduced by Sabrina the teenage witch, who, Cryptkeeper-style, sets up each of the stories and often gives a punch line ending as well. The stories themselves feel quite a bit like classic E.C. Comics tales, with monsters and ghouls featuring strongly as well a criminals, mad scientists, and a number of innocents who end up in their clutches.

As the comics were abiding by the Comic Code Authority, they tend to be a little more light-hearted overall, but a number of them end with gruesome fates awaiting the villains (and sometimes misunderstood heroes).

These comics (the collection I have contains the first seven) were a real treat for me and entirely unexpected! Although they don't cross over with Archie comics characters (except for Sabrina in the first two issues), they are well worth the read for anyone who likes a little bit of spooky fun in comic book form.

Archie Horror with Bookmonkey: Day One

Welcome to our 2018 look at the Horror Genre and this year we'll be digging in to the Archie Horror imprint of comic titles, including Afterlife with Archie, Chilling Tales of Sabrina, Jughead: The Hunger, and Vampironica.

Having been an Archie reader for most of my reading life (short stories AND sitting next to the grocery counter - how could I not read these little titles growing up?), and being a huge horror fan from my earliest days the mix of the two in 2013 was sure to peak my interest.

I'm going to spend the next month digging into the various series and ask myself whether they mix well, or work to simply alienate Archie and Horror fans from each other.

Come along with me!