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.