The Walking Dead of Riverdale
October 8, 2013 7:50 PM Subscribe
Afterlife with Archie is a gorgeous new horror comic featuring Archie, Jughead, Sabrina, and the gang in zombie-filled Riverdale.
I remember the weird (to me) introduction of Sabrina The Teenage Witch into Archie Comics. This is darker than anything I remember. (That shaggy mutt Hot Dog? You don't go there... aw, man.)
I'm entirely too old for this, but I kind of want to know how this ends.
posted by quiet earth at 8:09 PM on October 8, 2013
I'm entirely too old for this, but I kind of want to know how this ends.
posted by quiet earth at 8:09 PM on October 8, 2013
Anodyne X Anodyne = Archie Zombie Comix
posted by KokuRyu at 8:22 PM on October 8, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by KokuRyu at 8:22 PM on October 8, 2013 [1 favorite]
Been looking forward to this since I heard about it last month. BTW, if you're not reading Life With Archie (a magazine-sized "What if?" monthly comic following up on Archie & the gang's possible futures from the Archie Marries Betty/Archie Marries Veronica event comic a couple of years ago), you're missing one of the best comics out there right now. Trust me on this.
posted by KingEdRa at 8:47 PM on October 8, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by KingEdRa at 8:47 PM on October 8, 2013 [3 favorites]
I'm entirely too old for this
What? Are you dead?
posted by The Hamms Bear at 9:08 PM on October 8, 2013 [1 favorite]
What? Are you dead?
posted by The Hamms Bear at 9:08 PM on October 8, 2013 [1 favorite]
I don't like the horror angle but I love just about anything Archie. Except horror.
(The fact that there's nothing scary about the world of Archie is one of the best things about Archie).
posted by Miko at 9:39 PM on October 8, 2013 [1 favorite]
(The fact that there's nothing scary about the world of Archie is one of the best things about Archie).
posted by Miko at 9:39 PM on October 8, 2013 [1 favorite]
there's nothing scary about the world of Archie
unless you checked out Midge in front of Moose...
posted by stifford at 10:40 PM on October 8, 2013 [1 favorite]
unless you checked out Midge in front of Moose...
posted by stifford at 10:40 PM on October 8, 2013 [1 favorite]
I was just about to mention that koavf, they actually made a paranormal Archie cartoon show back in 1999! I only found out about it a few days ago, when a friend who often has cause to turn on his TV at two in the morning spotted it. It seems that broadcast stations still have to deal with FCC regulations about educational and informative programming for kids (I thought that had been done away with, huh), and some choose to do it with Archie's Weird Mysteries, which according to the Wikipedia page, qualifies, somehow.
posted by JHarris at 1:50 AM on October 9, 2013
posted by JHarris at 1:50 AM on October 9, 2013
The good news for those who hate zombie things is, now that Archie has jumped the bandwagon, the trend is as good as dead.
Or is it?
Dum Dum Dum.
posted by MartinWisse at 3:17 AM on October 9, 2013 [1 favorite]
Or is it?
Dum Dum Dum.
posted by MartinWisse at 3:17 AM on October 9, 2013 [1 favorite]
So...Zombie Betty or Zombie Veronica?
posted by Renoroc at 4:45 AM on October 9, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by Renoroc at 4:45 AM on October 9, 2013 [3 favorites]
Please. Stop with the zombie thing already. Do something original.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:50 AM on October 9, 2013 [4 favorites]
posted by Thorzdad at 4:50 AM on October 9, 2013 [4 favorites]
Why does zombie Jughead look like Hitler?
posted by Scram at 5:31 AM on October 9, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Scram at 5:31 AM on October 9, 2013 [1 favorite]
Cool! When I saw who's writing it, I remembered many many years ago that I've seen at least two of Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's original plays at Dad's Garage in Atlanta. One was a parody of Archie comics--he couldn't call it that because of copyright laws--and the other was about a gay man falling in love with a hot item that turned out to be the Devil, or the son of the Devil, I forget which.
posted by Kitteh at 6:09 AM on October 9, 2013
posted by Kitteh at 6:09 AM on October 9, 2013
We'll give up our zombie comics when you pry them out of our cold, dead hands.
posted by randomkeystrike at 9:07 AM on October 9, 2013
posted by randomkeystrike at 9:07 AM on October 9, 2013
It'd be great if people that are sick of "the zombie thing" could maybe make an effort to avoid zombie things. It's not even all that hard. What, you have to change the channel when Walking Dead comes on? Anyways, there are still good zombie movies and comics etc to be made, and every now and then something surprisingly good gets made that I enjoy thoroughly. 28 Days/Weeks Later, Zombieland, Dead Snow, Land of the Dead, Planet Terror, Pontypool, REC, the Evil Dead remake, The Crazies, the Dawn of the Dead remake, Land of the Dead, and Shaun of the Dead all came out in the last 10 years and I liked all of them. And that's just the movies.
posted by Hoopo at 9:34 AM on October 9, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by Hoopo at 9:34 AM on October 9, 2013 [2 favorites]
Actually, what would make this fucking cool is if it were set in Al Hartley's Spire Christian Archie universe. Jesus can't save you now!
posted by KokuRyu at 9:50 AM on October 9, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by KokuRyu at 9:50 AM on October 9, 2013 [2 favorites]
Hey, the artist is totally Francesco Francavilla, who was just on the blue for his minimalist Breaking Bad Posters. He does good work.
He also did the cover for this week's Avengers Arena, which I almost bought based on the cover art alone (before realizing that it was Avengers Arena).
posted by dinty_moore at 10:16 AM on October 9, 2013
He also did the cover for this week's Avengers Arena, which I almost bought based on the cover art alone (before realizing that it was Avengers Arena).
posted by dinty_moore at 10:16 AM on October 9, 2013
Please. Stop with the zombie thing already. Do something original.
It's not the trope, it's what you do with it. I can't even imagine anyone saying "Stop with the mafia thing already" or "Stop with the cowboy thing already."
He also did the cover for this week's Avengers Arena, which I almost bought based on the cover art alone
He also did some great posters for Mondo.
(before realizing that it was Avengers Arena).
Is it bad? I read the first issue and thought it was alright, but it didn't grab me enough to keep on. I take it it doesn't pan out well?
posted by Amanojaku at 11:17 AM on October 9, 2013
It's not the trope, it's what you do with it. I can't even imagine anyone saying "Stop with the mafia thing already" or "Stop with the cowboy thing already."
He also did the cover for this week's Avengers Arena, which I almost bought based on the cover art alone
He also did some great posters for Mondo.
(before realizing that it was Avengers Arena).
Is it bad? I read the first issue and thought it was alright, but it didn't grab me enough to keep on. I take it it doesn't pan out well?
posted by Amanojaku at 11:17 AM on October 9, 2013
Your Mondo link seems to be borked.
Is it bad? I read the first issue and thought it was alright, but it didn't grab me enough to keep on. I take it it doesn't pan out well?
It’s just not a concept I’m all that interested in: I’m not familiar with many of the characters (pretty much only the ones that were Runaways), and I don’t want to get invested in them just to watch them die. I read the first two issues for free, but eh. I don’t have a virulent hatred of the series or anything, I just didn’t want to spend my money on it.
I got Rocket Girl instead.
posted by dinty_moore at 1:35 PM on October 9, 2013
Is it bad? I read the first issue and thought it was alright, but it didn't grab me enough to keep on. I take it it doesn't pan out well?
It’s just not a concept I’m all that interested in: I’m not familiar with many of the characters (pretty much only the ones that were Runaways), and I don’t want to get invested in them just to watch them die. I read the first two issues for free, but eh. I don’t have a virulent hatred of the series or anything, I just didn’t want to spend my money on it.
I got Rocket Girl instead.
posted by dinty_moore at 1:35 PM on October 9, 2013
A little more on topic: A glance at comixology’s new releases tells me that there are three other non-zombie related Archie comics out this week. Also, the fact that Archie’s covering the zombie phenomenon must mean that it’s at the end of its cycle.
posted by dinty_moore at 1:51 PM on October 9, 2013
posted by dinty_moore at 1:51 PM on October 9, 2013
The fact that there's a blatant spelling/grammatical error on the very first page of this comic ("Knocking at this hour is always an ill omen, a grim portend...") sure made me not expect very much from the writing. It's a reasonably entertaining little mash-up though. I might check out another issue.
BTW, if you're not reading Life With Archie (a magazine-sized "What if?" monthly comic following up on Archie & the gang's possible futures from the Archie Marries Betty/Archie Marries Veronica event comic a couple of years ago), you're missing one of the best comics out there right now. Trust me on this.
Life With Archie really went downhill after Kupperberg concluded all of the plots that Uslan started, about the time that Norm Breyfogle left as artist. The first ten issues or so were unrelentingly misanthropic, like a Lars von Trier movie. The comic's representation of the transition from responsibility-free childhood to the an adulthood full of worries and changing life goals really rang true to me, and it was doubly crushing to see it happen to Archie and the gang. I know a number of people in their twenties who were really affected by it. But Kupperberg eventually started offering hope to the characters and slowly introduced happiness once again, and the comic lost the features that made it special. Rewriting Mr. Lodge to make him good at heart instead of a money-hungry plutocrat was a huge mistake. I wish they kept Uslan as the writer. And Pat Kennedy is not nearly the artist that Breyfogle is.
Still, the first dozen issues are fantastic, and I'd recommend them to anyone who read Archie as a kid. Chris Sims gives a good review of the first issue here.
posted by painquale at 3:05 PM on October 9, 2013 [1 favorite]
BTW, if you're not reading Life With Archie (a magazine-sized "What if?" monthly comic following up on Archie & the gang's possible futures from the Archie Marries Betty/Archie Marries Veronica event comic a couple of years ago), you're missing one of the best comics out there right now. Trust me on this.
Life With Archie really went downhill after Kupperberg concluded all of the plots that Uslan started, about the time that Norm Breyfogle left as artist. The first ten issues or so were unrelentingly misanthropic, like a Lars von Trier movie. The comic's representation of the transition from responsibility-free childhood to the an adulthood full of worries and changing life goals really rang true to me, and it was doubly crushing to see it happen to Archie and the gang. I know a number of people in their twenties who were really affected by it. But Kupperberg eventually started offering hope to the characters and slowly introduced happiness once again, and the comic lost the features that made it special. Rewriting Mr. Lodge to make him good at heart instead of a money-hungry plutocrat was a huge mistake. I wish they kept Uslan as the writer. And Pat Kennedy is not nearly the artist that Breyfogle is.
Still, the first dozen issues are fantastic, and I'd recommend them to anyone who read Archie as a kid. Chris Sims gives a good review of the first issue here.
posted by painquale at 3:05 PM on October 9, 2013 [1 favorite]
It's not the trope, it's what you do with it. I can't even imagine anyone saying "Stop with the mafia thing already" or "Stop with the cowboy thing already."
I can. In fact, Hollywood has already experienced at least one reaction to a cowboy craze, and after the 30s I seem to remember people were sick of organized crime pics for awhile.
Although, zombies filling up the pop culture mindspace helps delay the ascendance of mermaids.
posted by JHarris at 4:01 PM on October 9, 2013
I can. In fact, Hollywood has already experienced at least one reaction to a cowboy craze, and after the 30s I seem to remember people were sick of organized crime pics for awhile.
Although, zombies filling up the pop culture mindspace helps delay the ascendance of mermaids.
posted by JHarris at 4:01 PM on October 9, 2013
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Alas.
posted by tspae at 8:00 PM on October 8, 2013 [4 favorites]