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I read a lot of Archie growing up, and I still have a fairly encyclopedic knowledge of most of the things that happened pre-2000. I picked up Life With Archie on a whim and I ended up enjoying it. The first 18 issues or so had this crazy ridiculous overarching plot where they did their version of Crisis on Infinite Earths; the two timelines were on a collision course and were threatening all of reality. Yeah that was pretty nuts, in a good way. Even outside of that though, I was quite surprised that they tackled a lot of things that you wouldn't see in the main line. Characters die, get arrested for corruption, are being driven to the poorhouse by the recession, etc. And might I add, I am pleased that Riverdale, the idealized America, got gay marriage before most of real America? I won't say that this series is a masterpiece, but as someone who grew up with the Riverdale gang, I find it utterly fascinating. Also, I did not know about that zombie one; zombies may be played out but I am so loving on board with this. Argue fucked around with this message at 05:40 on Jul 26, 2013 |
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Jul 26, 2013 04:45
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I keep wanting Dilton's science buddy Danni to re-emerge in Life With Archie, but it hasn't happened yet. I also want the Time Police stuff to crop up the next time they decide to introduce a fantastical plot element, or a Sabrina plot. Or The Punisher coming back. The 'S' on Jughead's shirt is meant to be one of those mysteries that will never be answered, so no.
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Aug 12, 2013 01:03
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Oh my god this looks amazing. I don't care that zombies are old hat; I am all over this http://www.comicvine.com/articles/preview-afterlife-with-archie-1/1100-146972/ 
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Aug 24, 2013 11:36
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Did something new and Crisis-like happen? I picked up the crossover because I love crossovers but I'm not really inclined to keep following the regular series.
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Sep 26, 2013 02:22
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Really excited for this week; they put out a lettered preview of Afterlife With Archie. And the review here basically left me 
Argue fucked around with this message at 18:27 on Oct 8, 2013 |
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Oct 8, 2013 16:39
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I just picked it up and thought it was quite good. I only found out now that it's an ongoing rather than a limited series, so I can see how some people might drop out after the novelty wears off, since the zombie fare is standard so far. For people like me who grew up on Archie and read it religiously for years, though, the comic is pretty amazing. It's pretty much a love letter to Archie in the same way Life With Archie is. While it matures the characters from their 50s archietypes, it treats them with respect, and makes them more realistic without having them do anything weirdly out of character. Since the mass panic hasn't started yet, I don't have a lot to go on, but from what I've seen, everyone is mostly true to their characters, acting exactly how I'd expect them to act. There's a lot of references to horror movies, but just as many to classic Archie comics, which is always a plus for me (does anyone even remember Carson's Creek from when Bob Bolling used to write Archie?).
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Oct 10, 2013 08:07
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No kidding. I think the reason it strikes such a chord with me is that having grown up on Archie comics, I've had years to care about the characters, instead of just a few issues. It also helps give tension knowing that even counting the obscure ones, there's still only a finite number of characters that they can have in the comic. The letters section says that we may be seeing other supernatural things happening, so it'll be interesting to see how they handle that. I trust that they can keep it grounded even if they introduce some of the more far-out characters.
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Jan 9, 2014 05:20
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Jason and Cheryl Blossom were a pair of rich kids from Pembrooke Academy who often came to Riverdale to make trouble. Cheryl moved to Riverdale for a while and was a third love interest for Archie. In the mainstream comics, they were never incestuous, but since the role they fulfilled was pretty much a wholesome version of Ryan Philippe/Sarah Michelle Gellar in Cruel Intentions, you could see why they went in that direction. Nancy and Ginger (the latter was introduced long after I'd stopped reading) were never really well-developed. Nancy was often just "Chuck Clayton's love interest". There isn't really any precedent for the relationship, so you aren't missing anything. Mayor Martinez is unfamiliar to me, so she's probably new. Vegas is Archie's new dog, who was introduced only last year. And while we're at it... Swedlow Swamp was a swamp from the Archie cartoon, while Carson's Creek is a really old location from when Bob Bolling used to write more serious-ish Archie stories. I don't remember if it was haunted, but Bolling did like ghosts, so maybe.
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Jan 9, 2014 06:12
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Looks like Archie is doing more crazy-cool stuff--Aguirre-Sacasa's been promoted to COO, and his first act as COO appears to have been getting his friend, Lena Dunham, to write for Archie. Well drat.
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Mar 3, 2014 18:06
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Afterlife's writing is a lot better than Life With Archie's. The latter is still more grown-up and serious than mainstream Archie--they deal with real issues like death, cancer, the recession, etc--but, for better or worse, it also feels a lot like a soap opera, so once the (cool/bonkers) plot from the first 18 issues got resolved, it was hard for me to maintain my interest. Sometimes they'll still do something interesting, though; as I recall, Life With Archie had the first gay marriage in mainstream comics, amazingly enough, beating Marvel and DC to the punch.Action Tortoise posted:I'm also loving how things that were running jokes in the main series are shown in a whole new context in this title. Archie's jalopy was the butt of a lot of jokes in the strips but it's his saving grace in Afterlife. I was ready to sperg about Vegas being Archie's dog since he was a kid, since he only adopted Vegas as a teenager, in a comic from last year--but I was pleased to see on the very next page that they hadn't forgotten Archie's actual childhood dog, Spotty. I'm still curious to see if they'll factor in that only Jughead knows Sabrina's secret, or if they'll just treat Sabrina knowing magic as something everyone is aware of. Also, whether or not they factor in that Archie and Valerie from the Pussycats are dating.
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Mar 16, 2014 07:38
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It started off interesting; apart from all the adult issues they faced, there was this whole nutty subplot about Dilton travelling back and forth between the two dimensions to prevent a multiversal collapse. After that subplot got resolved... well, there's not really a decline in quality or anything, but the writing wasn't really amazing to begin with--as I mentioned above, it reads a lot more like a soap opera, so if that thought appeals to you, then sure, give it a go. My biggest complaint is that it's introduced so many characters that I don't care about on account of them having been introduced for the purpose of that series itself, as opposed to using existing Archie characters--the latter being kind of the reason anyone would want to read it. On the other hand, there's some historic value to the series in that this whole thing is a first for Archie, and there's some novelty in that. (And incidentally, I believe it's also the series that beat Marvel and DC to depicting gay marriage in a comic book.) I'm still reading it, but only because I already know that it's ending soon (major major spoiler) with issue 37 or 38, where Archie DIES.
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Apr 14, 2014 05:21
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Choco1980 posted:oh sure, but that is pretty far removed from the 90's tv movie I linked to, where the gang is all grown up and goes back to Riverdale for a high school reunion, and "zany" adult situations ensue, like Archie having now three woman chasing him at the same time with zero subtlety in regards to the sex part of it. I also remember a dumb bit where Jughead does this "rap" version of "Sugar, Sugar" to impress his son. It was embarrassing at the time, so you can imagine how painful it is now. You're welcome?  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBojt6fDVvw I would say that apart from the sex references in the 90s movie, the Life With Archie comic actually deals with more "realistic" adult issues--the film's main conflict IIRC was their attempt to save the Choklit Shoppe from being demolished by Mr. Lodge, which played out in a relatively wholesome way.
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Apr 19, 2014 18:57
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SALT CURES HAM posted:Ah ha ha what Yeah, they establish that every Archie story ever published takes place in some shared multiverse. The resolution of that was probably the peak of the comic; it's entirely mundane matters now with no nutty sci-fi arcs. But basically, this happened: 
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Apr 27, 2014 11:12
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Choco1980 posted:Not going to lie, written today, a gender-swapped Archie might be an interesting read. Also, I like the Archie that's wearing The Shield's outfit. Also Also, I'm pretty sure I had several issues of li'l Archie down in the lower left there. It wasn't all that. http://i.imgur.com/ZrKokr7.jpg Illustrated by Giselle, one of the more frequently mentioned creators in the bad webcomics thread (she made Menage-A-3, aka: Archieme).
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Apr 30, 2014 07:48
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Archie Comics announces new horror series starring Sabrina; it is not a spinoff of Afterlife With Archie, but its own thing, done as a period piece in the 60s, and taking inspiration from Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist. I'm fairly optimistic about this, since that kind of horror is different enough from zombies to be its own cool thing. I know I'm a bit partial towards them to begin with, but it's still crazy to think that some of the best horror comics to be published in The Year of Our Lord 2014 have starred Archie Andrews and his zany friends. Edit: Strictly speaking this is more like a reboot of an ancient horror title Archie used to publish, which had Sabrina acting as the title's Cryptkeeper. I haven't seen a lot of it but they were doing serious horror stories, except the art was all in Archie-style, which had to be jarring. Argue fucked around with this message at 14:50 on Jun 4, 2014 |
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Jun 3, 2014 18:08
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Big Bad Voodoo Lou posted:I've never bought an Archie comic before, but I read a blurb about #656, where they're introducing a cool new girl who just happens to have a disability. I want to buy it for my wife, who isn't into comics at all, but she wrote her dissertation on women with disabilities and their identities of resistance, and she's teaching a class on Critical Disability Studies in the fall. Mainstream Archie comics are ridiculously tame, and even as progressive as they've gotten, I can't say that adults would find them interesting at all. That said, I have not read it, but I imagine that Archie is the last comic publisher that would write a disabled person as a villain. If Kevin Keller is any indication to go by--his being gay has been written as incidental, rather than central, to the character--the writers these days know how to treat minority groups respectfully. There's a preview here, to give you an idea of what it's like: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=preview&id=21913 Actually, although Archie seems to have been promoting this as their first disabled character, I can think of at least one other recurring character off the top of my head--Anita, a love interest for Jughead who was not only paraplegic, but also black; considering it was the 90s, I'd say this was pretty radical for Archie. Of course, she was quickly forgotten about; she lasted only a little bit longer than Jughead's awful haircut. Plus, unlike the way they write now, those comics would always feel the need to include some lines about her disability and how she can still function (or so I'm reading from some site; I'll have to see if I can find my old comics lying around so I can verify).
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Jul 4, 2014 19:24
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drat, Afterlife With Archie just escalated things in a big way. It might sound campy when I describe it, but it was done really well: The entire issue was us finding out what's happened to Sabrina. She's on earth, in the hands of a cult led by HP Lovecraft. I'm only tangentially familiar with the mythos, but there are a lot of references in there--and we learn that by dooming the world, Sabrina has made the time ripe for the Old Ones to return. And by the end of the issue... well... Let's just say Francavilla clearly enjoyed drawing this issue. If this isn't your thing, though, not to worry, because the stuff in here probably won't come into play until later down the line anyway; next month, we're back to Archie and the gang versus zombies.
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Jul 23, 2014 16:56
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The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina #1 came out today; I thought it was okay, but I wouldn't call it a horror comic. When the main character is a witch, you're kind of primed for supernatural stuff happening--Sacasa compares it to Rosemary's Baby, and I'd say that it's more like what you imagine happens after the end of Rosemary's Baby. In any case, I thought it was solid enough that I'd read more. Trivia! The being that appears at the end of the comic is Madam Satan, a horror character that Archie comics published back when they were still called MLJ comics, and before Archie even existed. As far as I know, this is her first appearance since MLJ became Archie.
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Oct 9, 2014 05:15
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Well, that... is certainly a thing that is happening. But if that's the art style they're going for, it's probably going to be more along the lines of Archie Meets the Punisher rather than Afterlife With Archie or even Life With Archie--cute in concept, but very vanilla and safe for the kids. Edit: De Campi just replied to my tweet asking if it was serious like Afterlife or safe for kids like Archie/Punisher: quote:neither. It's not safe for kids in any way. It's extremely wrong, but not as serious as Afterlife. Argue fucked around with this message at 17:04 on Oct 9, 2014 |
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Oct 9, 2014 16:53
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Afterlife With Archie is finally back after a long hiatus--it seems they ran into problems with scheduling, with Sacasa writing a TV pilot and Francavilla being in some kind of accident ( ), but they said they should be fine now.Minor spoilers below! Issue 7 focused a lot more on the characters than on the zombie problems this time around, which is quite welcome. It also tossed in a bunch of references, and I figured I'd list them down here since I'm probably the only person in the world who'd even notice several of them: 1. Betty's Diary - Most of the narration in the series thus far has been from the perspective of various characters, but Betty's Diary is the first one to have actually had its own title in the past. The format was pretty much the same--stuff happens, and we see corresponding narration from Betty's diary. 2. Polly - Yep, Betty has a sister. Prior to the birth of Forsythia "Jellybean" Jones, she was the only one of the gang who had any siblings. I'm not sure when she debuted, but I believe she was in Betty's Diary a bunch. In the main comics, she's friendly with Betty, was not Veronica-like at all, and has a job as a reporter in San Francisco. Betty also has a brother; I'll save that for when (if) he shows up. 3. Sabrina - It's a bit odd; we learn here that everyone knows she's a witch. Traditionally, she's always kept her abilities secret from everyone, until recently, when she told Jughead her secret so that she could help him lift a curse. I thought Jughead running to Sabrina was a reference to the fact that only he knew her secret, but I guess not. More recently, some Archie stories have had everyone knowing her secret, but never explaining how the rest of them found out. 4. Nick - Not sure on this, but Nick could be a reference to Nick St. Clair, the titular "Bad News Boyfriend" in the Archie novel of the same name. He was a terrible person that Veronica fell for, and the gang eventually decided to break the two of them up by exposing him as a cheat (Betty played sacrificial lamb by letting him make moves on her). Polly wasn't even in that book, but since Polly here is compared with Veronica, it could be him. 5. Josie and the Pussycats - Probably doesn't need explanation, but I thought I'd throw in that Sacasa said we'd be seeing them down the road. Possible avenues that could go--they could know each other because Archie had a band too, or they could play up Archie's recent romance with Valerie (that made big news because Archie Comics used to be incredibly conservative and now suddenly they were pairing off their most prominent white guy with their very first black female). 6. Cheryl/Blaze - Well, wow, this is an obscure reference. Back in the 90s, Archie had a short-lived series called Explorers of the Unknown, which cast the Archie characters (Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead, Reggie, Moose, Dilton, Chuck) in an alternate universe as a team of Indiana Jones-types who went on pulp adventures. Each of the gang kept their last name, but had codenames instead of first names. Cheryl was not officially on the team, but showed up in every issue anyway as Blaze Blossom, the government liaison who had a thing for "Red" Andrews. Argue fucked around with this message at 11:12 on Dec 11, 2014 |
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Dec 11, 2014 05:55
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Uhm excuse me but it's called a beanie and aside from it being a good luck charm, it's also been known to turn him into a superhero, and also to enable him to time travel. The beanie stays. < >On another note, I got a couple of goons to start reading Afterlife and because I'm a huge Archie nerd I told them I'd give them some annotations on the references found in the previous issues, like I did above. Would anyone mind if I just posted them here?
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Dec 15, 2014 07:02
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It's only upon reviewing the thread that I realize I've actually posted some of these observations before, but I guess I haven't done it in an organized manner yet. As promised, here are my annotations for Afterlife With Archie 01. These include both references to obscure Archie continuity (insofar as Archie can be considered to have continuity) as well as brief introductions to any new characters appearing in the issues, since I don't think everyone is as familiar with them as I am. If there are any horror references I'm familiar with, I'll mention them, but that's not really my strong suit. Anyway, for the first issue, most of these are pretty well-known already, but I'll try to throw in a bonus obscure tidbit or two to keep things interesting. Sabrina, Hilda, and Zelda Spellman - Sabrina the Teenage Witch might very well be the most recognizable Archie character thanks to her having had a long-running and much-beloved live action sitcom on ABC. She and her aunts were introduced way back in the 60s, and were a lot more lighthearted than what we have here. Sabrina also used to host a "Tales From The Crypt"-type comic, The Chilling Tales of Sabrina, an anthology of horror stories. The property was revived (somewhat) quite recently as The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, an ongoing period piece about occult goings-on involving Sabrina in the 60s. Jughead Jones and Hot Dog - Jughead Jones is well-known in Riverdale for his voracious appetite, his dislike of romance, and his famous beanie. Hot Dog's been his faithful companion for more than 40 years. Jughead's beanie is also known as a whoopie cap, which according to Wikipedia, is made by cutting up... a fedora. Draw your own conclusions there. In the past, Jughead has been in possession of both an explicitly magical beanie (which turned him into a superhero) and an explicitly scientific beanie (which enabled him to time travel). Sabrina's secret - I mentioned this before, and this is a bit outdated now, but when Jughead came running to Sabrina to ask for help, I assumed that this was referencing the fact that he's the only one of Archie's crew that she'd revealed her secret to. Later issues, however, make it pretty clear that in this universe, everyone is aware of her status as a witch. That's more in line with a few rare stories where everyone inexplicably knows she's a witch, such as Archie Meets KISS. Sometimes, dead is better - That's a line from Stephen King's Pet Sematary. Salem - Salem has the smart mouth that more modern versions of him are inclined to have. When he was first introduced, he was just a non-talking familiar, but ever since the live action show, he's been said to be a former warlock, cursed to be a cat. 1692 - Obvious, but this was the year of the Salem Witch Trials. Necronomicon - Also obvious; the book of the dead from Lovecraft mythos and beloved relic in the Evil Dead movie series. Swedlow Swamp - I had to Google this one, but Swedlow Swamp appears to be a haunted swamp of some sort from the old Archie cartoon. I don't know if it ever appeared in the comics, but I'm inclined to think it did, because the name and its alliteration sound like something Bob Bolling might have come up with. Speaking of which... Carson's Creek - This location showed up quite a few times in Bob Bolling's Archie stories. He had quite a penchant for incorporating the supernatural into his stories without making them the focus. Archie Andrews - America's favorite red-headed teenager. He's most well-known for his love triangle with Betty and Veronica. Apart from that, he's always wavered between being an everyman, being a complete nincompoop, and being an ideal role model. You can't really pin down which one he is at any given moment, but much like Superman, the one constant is that Archie has a good heart. Betty Cooper - The archetypal girl next door. She's tends to be treated as "just one of the guys" by almost everyone, due to the many interests she has in common with the boys. By twisting her ponytail, she can transform into her superhero identity, Super Teen. Veronica Lodge - The spoiled rich girl. She always gets what she wants, which is usually the reason why she's after Archie--because she can't have him. The very last of the core gang to get a super-identity, she decided to take on the alias Miss Vanity. Pop culture references - This is pretty unusual for an Archie comic; you'll almost never hear a reference to a real pop culture thing. You wouldn't hear them talking about Psycho and The Birds; in a typical Archie comic they'd be talking about Psychiatro and The Birdies. Reggie Mantle - Riverdale High's resident sleazebag. Normally, his douchebaggery is extremely tame, like placing whoopee cushions on chairs, or at worst, getting Archie in trouble with Veronica. As he says here, though, he's gone next-level terrible. His supervillain identity is Evilheart, but he's been known to team up with the heroes on occasion. Mr and Mrs Jones - Jughead's parents. Pretty bland; not much to say here, but do take note of the absence of Jughead's baby sister, Jellybean. She was a relatively recent addition, created back when Archie was trying all sorts of new things in the 90s. She's very nearly as old as Maggie Simpson. Pureheart the Powerful - Some of you may have been wondering what Archie's superhero identity is. By virtue of the sheer pureness of his heart, Archie is able to turn himself into Pureheart the Powerful--whose costume he wears to the Halloween dance in this issue. Dilton Doiley - Riverdale's resident science genius. Usually has bad luck with women. Once shared a romantic rivalry with Jughead over a black paraplegic girl; progressive for the time, but quickly forgotten as she wasn't actually a very well-written character. Chuck Clayton - The son of Coach Clayton and aspiring comic book artist. He was the second black character to be introduced by Archie comics, the first being Valerie of the Pussycats. Waldo Weatherbee - Affectionately known as "The Bee" to his students, the principal of Riverdale High also functions as Archie's Mister Feeny. His biggest dream in life, from time to time, is to catch the Perilous Pike of Logger's Pond, a legendary fish who's shared a long and proud history with Archie. Geraldine Grundy - She must teach like half the classes in Riverdale High! She's their teacher in basically everything except gym (Coach Kleats and Clayton) and Science (Professor Flutesnoot)! In the series Life With Archie, she dies of (presumably) cancer. They're coming to get you - Reenactment of a scene from Night of the Living Dead. Okay, PHEW. that's it for now. Most of the core gang were frontloaded in this issue, so my notes for the later issues won't be as long since I won't have as many characters to introduce. Argue fucked around with this message at 07:51 on Dec 16, 2014 |
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Dec 15, 2014 17:06
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Afterlife With Archie 02 Wow, did I ever underestimate the number of character introductions I'd need to write up. Not a lot of references in 2, but I'll write them up anyway since most of you probably don't know them past the general archetypes that they represent (which, don't get me wrong, are good enough to read this series with). I'll skip a few characters who weren't explicitly named in this issue. Jason Blossom - Jason and Cheryl are basically everything people hate about the 1%. They're a pair of spoiled rich kids from the elite private school, Pembrooke Academy, who like causing trouble for Archie and the gang--or as they like to call them, "the townies". If there are any characters in pop culture that they'd be best compared to, it would be Kathryn and Sebastian from Cruel Intentions. Of course, their antics are way more wholesome in the main comics, but framing it this way certainly makes the incest angle make a lot more sense. Cheryl Blossom - The other half of Les Enfants Terribles, she's appeared in the comics a lot more than Jason. Back in the 90s, Betty and Veronica engaged in an event that was billed as the "Love Showdown". The 4-part series purported that Archie would finally make his choice between the two, and an anonymous love letter led to an escalating competition between the two. In the end, it turned out that the letter was from Cheryl, who had moved back into town--in a massive cop-out, Archie chose Cheryl. In the time since, she's transferred to Riverdale, and later on, moved away again, on good terms with everyone. Ethel Muggs - Introduced as a foil for the girl-hating Jughead, Big Ethel (these days, just "Ethel") was obsessed with getting him to date her. Her appearances frequently involved schemes to "capture" him and/or his heart, with varied results. They've made her into a much more developed character since then, insofar as any one-note character can be developed. She shares a much less aggressive relationship with Jughead now, and he has been known to take her out every now and then, although he's still not into the whole romance thing. Hiram Lodge - Veronica's father is a wealthy entrepreneur who owns the megacorporation, Lodge Industries. Whenever it comes to Archie's relationship with Veronica, he's often cast as the villain. He makes no secret of his disdain for Archie--not because Archie is poor, but rather because around Veronica, Archie is an extremely klutzy buffoon who's cost Hiram thousands (millions?) of dollars in priceless antiques. Pop Tate/The Chok'lit Shoppe - Pop is the proprietor of the Chok'lit Shoppe, an ice cream parlor with as much history to Riverdale and the gang as the coffee shop does in Friends, or McLarens does to the HIMYM cast. I've lost count of the number of times the shop was in danger of being closed/torn down, only for the gang to find some sort of documents that prove it to be a historical landmark or otherwise appeal to the better nature of the person making the threats (sometimes, it's Mr. Lodge!). Nancy Woods - Chuck's love interest from all the way back when black men were only allowed to date black women, Nancy was portrayed as the girlfriend who Chuck would always neglect in favor of either sports or his art. More recent portrayals have given her a love for the craft as well, sometimes giving her writing/art projects independent of, and even surpassing Chuck's. Ginger Lopez - This is not the same Ginger who would sometimes appear in older Archie comics; Ginger was introduced after my time, possibly in the late 90s or early 2000s, so I don't know a lot about her other than her being "the Hispanic girl with the streak of dye in her hair". As for the lesbian relationship, this is completely new. I'm fairly sure there was no hint of this in the comics, and I don't know if they ever even interacted much--if at all. Big Moose - The strongest person in Riverdale, and occasionally, seemingly the world. He is, of course, Riverdale High's MVP in sports (typically football). Apart from this, Moose has some other claims to fame: For one, his insane jealousy when it comes to his steady girlfriend Midge--he often beats up other guys (typically, Reggie) for so much as talking to Midge or even looking her way. He's also known for his incredible stupidity, but Archie Comics has portrayed this side of him much more sympathetically ever since a storyline in the 80s or 90s where Moose's apparent ignorance was revealed to have stemmed from his having dyslexia. Thrill Hill - This was a fairly common location in Bob Bolling's Archie/Little Archie stories as well. Fox Forest - I got nothing, but any location with an alliterative and/or rhyming name can probably be safely assumed to have originated from Bolling's work. Sneaking into Lodge Manor - Yep, classic Archie. Many an amusing storyline has been written where Archie would find a way past Mr. Lodge and the staff in order to see Veronica.
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Dec 16, 2014 15:34
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Not a lot for Afterlife With Archie 03, but #4 is also included in this post, and that one has a bit more interesting notes. Hermione Lodge - Hiram Lodge's wife. She isn't very well-defined outside of that, unfortunately. However, one big difference is that she is not dead in the main comics. Greendale - Sabrina's current hometown. In the old days, Sabrina lived in Riverdale with the rest of the gang, but in order to keep in line with the sitcom, she moved to Greendale, and these days merely visits Riverdale. For a time, Sabrina also lived in a place called Gravestone Heights, which was a town populated by supernatural creatures. However, Greendale is fairly mundane and not much different from Riverdale. Edit: ffffffffffff owned by the post below (sue me, I barely watched the sitcom  )Smithers - The ever-faithful retainer of the Lodge family. His portrayal varies; sometimes he hates Archie as much as Mr. Lodge does, and other times he's quite sympathetic to the teens. "I'm gonna be waffling for the next seventy years" - Cute. That's about how long Archie has been in publication. Midge Klump - Moose's steady girlfriend. Frequently hit on by Reggie, which almost always results in Moose beating him up. Jughead is just about the only guy Moose trusts with Midge, and even that has its limits. Fun facts: in the Archie Married Life series, she breaks up with him because she worries that her anger issues will lead to abuse, and eventually ends up marrying... Jughead! Mayor Martinez - Okay, you got me. This character was introduced after my time. Afterlife With Archie 04 Fred and Mary Andrews - Archie's parents. They've never been anything but supportive of their son. They tend to be Archie-Betty shippers, but not always. "Our son's a pureheart" - A less explicit reference to Archie's superhero identity. Vegas - Vegas was actually introduced only very recently--like, 2012/2013 recently. Archie only adopted him, and did not own him from childhood--however, that does bring us to... Spotty - Mary's dog, Spotty, was actually Archie's dog in the main comics. Another Bob Bolling creation, he made his debut in Little Archie, and fulfilled the role that Vegas does here. He also appeared in a few teenage Archie stories that Bolling wrote, so presumably, he died some time before Archie adopted Vegas. Archie and Jughead's first meeting - Archie and Jughead's friendship is even older than the Archie/Betty/Veronica love triangle. One of the few things that hasn't changed over the years was that the two of them have been buddies since they were little kids. Maybe this is reading too much into a single panel, but Jughead's slightly antagonistic behavior is consistent with him being depressed on their first meeting, having moved away from his friends in his old hometown. Archie's Jalopy - Even though Archie hasn't driven this car in a long time, it's almost as iconic to Archie and the gang as Archie himself. Until it was eventually written off (destroyed, I believe), he'd been driving this car his whole life. Even within the safe, old-fashioned confines of Riverdale, this was seen as amusingly retro and embarrassing to the girls he dated. Jughead's sweater - I should have noticed this from the start, but Jughead's been wearing his famous S-sweater the whole time. While an explanation for the letter is written into the comics every now and again (each time with a different meaning), my favorite story about this sweater (yep, believe it or not, there's more than one) is the one where Jughead thought he'd be moving away again, and told Archie he'd be entrusting him with the secret of the S to symbolize that they'd be friends forever. He then TOOK OFF HIS SWEATER right out on the street, so that he could do a dramatic topless goodbye before his parents found him and told him that they wouldn't be moving away after all. Argue fucked around with this message at 17:26 on Dec 27, 2014 |
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Dec 27, 2014 17:02
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http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=preview&id=26155 Get hyped 
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Feb 19, 2015 14:06
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Someone in the funny panels thread expressed interest in a writeup about Jughead's love life, so I thought I'd oblige. I should note that I'm limiting myself to one particular run of Jughead comics--this is neither the first time nor the last that Jughead's found himself involved with women. Historically, Jughead's rotated in and out of interest in girls since the 70s--the run I describe is probably his most well-remembered flirtation with liking girls. Similarly, the backstory I describe may or may not be true in any given Jughead story, as most Archie stories don't actually have a real canon, existing instead in some kind of quantum state where you never know whether a previous story happened until it's explicitly brought up.  It was mentioned in another thread that Jughead doesn't like girls bcause he was already in love with a girl named January, but this isn't entirely accurate. While he'd long since evolved beyond his He-Man Woman Haters Club days into someone who actually maintained friendships with females, Archie Comics tried to take it a step further by giving him a new backstory explaining why he didn't want to date anyone. This began the company's first serious attempt at giving Forsythe P. Jones recurring love interests. As we find out later, Jughead was not born in Riverdale--as a child, he had to move away from his old hometown, separating him from his childhood sweetheart, Joani Jumpp. Ever since then, he's been afraid of letting himself love anyone again for fear of getting hurt the same way. Debbie was the first girl since Joani that Jughead had developed feelings for. They first bonded over their mutual love for the drummer, Crazy Willie Jim (that's literally a whole other story), and easily found a lot more in common with each other. Needless to say, Jughead was pretty confused at all the feelings he found welling up inside. At the same time, Joani sent him a letter telling him that she'd be in town for a while and she wanted to see him. And because this is the world of Archie, where you can carry a torch for someone you haven't seen since you were what, five years old? They rekindle their feelings for each other. Eventually, she moved to Riverdale, which upgraded (downgraded?) Jughead's straightforward dating life into a love triangle. Did I say triangle? Apparently, a triangle wasn't enough! It was also around then that Jughead found himself as a member of the Time Police, a task force from the 29th century dedicated to preserving the integrity of the space-time continuum. Bet you didn't see that coming! While this mostly took place inside its own comic, Jughead's recruitment happened during roughly the same run of issues that we met Debbie and Joani. Marshall January McAndrews, Archie's descendant from the future, first established contact with him to save his life--it turns out that Jughead eventually has an idea that leads to world peace, reaching Bill and Ted levels of hero worship. During this time, they also develop an attraction to each other, and after a few adventures, he gets recruited into the Time Police (which is, yet again, a whole other story). I was a kid when all of this stuff came out, and I was actually a pretty big fan of all those developments. However, it seems that I was a minority in that, as Archie Comics deemed the experiment a failure, and in the span of one issue, had all three girls break up with Jughead. This was in Jughead #18. I don't know the specifics of what happened, because this is an issue I have been looking for basically my whole life and I'd appreciate it if anyone could hook me up with it so that I can fill this Jughead-shaped hole in my childhood. However, what I know is that Debbie started seeing other guys, Joani had to move away yet again, and presumably, January couldn't risk destroying the timestream. [timg]http://i.imgur.com/0TYML0t.jpg][/timg] Following all of this, Jughead regressed into being a huge 50s-era Jughead misogynist. Since this was the 90s, thankfully, he was called out on it in the very same issue, where he resolves his feelings and has a heart to heart talk with Ethel, the one girl who was there before and after the soap opera of his life happened. (fun fact: why does Jughead like Pickens Park so much? Probably because HE--yes, he, Jughead Jones--is in fact Colonel Pickens, the very same Civil War hero the park was named after.) There would (and will always be) more romance in Jughead's future, but with this saga being his first real fling with romance, it was probably the most memorable of them. And there you have it, the story of a weird--but nowhere near the weirdest--time in Jughead's life. 
Argue fucked around with this message at 11:07 on Feb 22, 2015 |
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Feb 22, 2015 07:44
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MonsieurChoc posted:Wait, on what side did he fight? Was he a confederate or union Colonel? This is important. You see, Jughead became something of a Civil War buff after seeing what he believed was Colonel Pickens' ghost in Mr. Lodge's study (where Mr. Lodge kept an accurate diorama of the Battle of Riverdale). One day, he was poring through some old books trying to solve the mystery of the ghost, when he realized that he was present in an old daguerreotype, as a prisoner. Concluding that he would one day go into the past and be captured, he decided to go and rescue himself, which as you may have guessed, is what led to his imprisonment in the first place. (the officers who captured him suggested that the "S" on his sweater might stand for "South" or possibly even "Spy", because sure, I guess that's exactly what a confederate spy might wear) However, this triggered an alert at Time Police HQ, which resulted in January asking a much older, retired Jughead for help. He then reveals that he'd always known this would happen, because his older self came to rescue him when he was his younger self--which is also how he knew that he would one day become Colonel Pickens. He travels back in time, stopping at Mr. Lodge's study along the way to refresh his memory about the positions of the confederates; he eventually lands at the Union HQ (at the spot where the Choklit Shoppe would one day be), where he impersonates a Union officer. He gains Lincoln's--yes, Lincoln is there, and they actually address that there is no historical record of Lincoln ever going to Riverdale--he gains Lincoln's trust by revealing his intimate knowledge of the USS Monitor.He gives them tactical advice, then at some point, fakes his heroic death by time travelling home just as a cannonball explodes nearby. Jughead, being his aide, is pardoned, and allowed to leave. Every so often, Archie will do a storyline about saving the Choklit Shoppe, and more than once, it's ended with the shop being declared a historical landmark. Jughead has on at least one occasion helped with this by identifying the shop in old Civil War photos, so I'd like to think his Time Police adventures are still canon, even though they haven't been mentioned since the 90s.
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Feb 23, 2015 03:33
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The last issue before the reboot is #666 so if anything it would involve Betty and Veronica selling their marriages (in their respective universes) to Mephisto in exchange for making Archie live again. Edit: Also, did I mention that Jughead's Time Police was drawn by Gene Colan? Edit 2: To my shame, I made some grievous errors regarding the timeline of these events: While Jughead did meet and fall for January McAndrews during the course of his love triangle arc, the Time Police series didn't happen until AFTER Jughead #18. Thus, she was not in Jughead #18 to break up with him, but rather, to recruit him into the Time Police. This means that there was never a resolution to Jughead's relationship with Jan, who just vanished after the series ended (although she's been seen in backgrounds once in a blue moon, like a Fringe observer). Also, her initial contact with Jughead wasn't to save his life, but to make sure Jughead saved an important senator. Argue fucked around with this message at 09:50 on Feb 23, 2015 |
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Feb 23, 2015 03:46
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Finally, some news on the release dates (and previews) for the next AwA and Sabrina. Sacasa promises there will never be another delay as huge as the Sabrina one, which I find hard to believe considering Archie is putting out a THIRD horror series. While I don't want them to wear out the premise of "Archie characters in horror", I guess the delays do help prevent oversaturation, and the quality of what IS out has consistently been top notch, so sure, I'm excited to hear more about the new one.
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Mar 19, 2015 20:10
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I also liked the one page Sabrina/Hellboy comic, which was placed--oddly enough--in Archie vs Predator #1, despite it using the artist of the Sabrina horror comic. 
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Apr 16, 2015 17:58
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Afterlife With Archie is finally back after a hiatus that Sacasa promises will never happen to such an extent again, and not only is it great as usual, it's also a lot longer than any of the first seven issues. There aren't a lot of references to past Archie things in this one; most of the people and places mentioned are either brand new or (if they occurred in some minor story) insignificant, though I'm sure there are a few horror references I missed. Quick review: I don't know how the team is doing it but they're able to sell quite well that this comic encompasses more horror genres than merely "zombie apocalypse". We got an elder gods thing in issue 6 and now it's doing a haunting. I liked that the Jughead ghost was actually Jughead and not an evil Shining ghost, and I especially liked how they tied in the Cthulhu story to the idyllic nature of Riverdale. Anyway, here's the very few notes I have for Afterlife With Archie #8 Forsythe Jones - Like the other ancestors named in this issue, I don't believe this is a character who ever showed up. I do want to point out that Jughead's real name is Forsythe, which makes this a nice explanation of sorts as to why Mr. and Mrs. Jones would ever give their kid a name like Forsythe. Jellybean Jones - I don't remember if I mentioned this before, but Jughead has a baby sister! In the main comics, she's pretty much a perpetual baby like Maggie Simpson, with a few words thrown in here and there. It seems they've reduced her age gap with Jughead for narrative purposes. She's a relatively new character, introduced in the 90s during another of their great Jughead reinventions. It was a special event spanning multiple issues--a rarity for Archie! I don't recall if fans were asked to vote on who should get a sibling, or on the gender of Jughead's sibling, but as you might expect, it was no contest. And no, Jellybean is not her real name--Jughead gave her that nickname after being too embarrassed to reveal her real one, which was a subject of some mystery for quite a while. If you really want to know her true name, it's Forsythia. Way to go mom and dad.
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May 6, 2015 16:50
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Holy poo poo. Archie just launched a crowdfunding campaign to expand the Archie reboot. Among other things, Chip Zdarsky is writing Jughead. Also included in the Kickstarter are Adam Hughes on Betty/Veronica, and a new Kevin Keller series from his creator. I do hope this makes it to what I think is a pretty ambitious goal for Archie
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May 11, 2015 15:08
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It was a number of factors, I think. Aside from Sacasa's workload, which included scripting a pilot for Riverdale (a show he says will be a bit like Twin Peaks), Francavilla was in a car accident (on his way to an AwA convention panel, ironically), injuring his drawing arm. I'm not entirely certain how that affected Sabrina, since Francavilla's on AwA, but they do talk in recent issues of both series about the delays and how they promise there'll never be such a large delay again.
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May 30, 2015 04:30
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Quick review: Archie #1 was good; lighthearted and kept the spirit of the Archie cast. Mark Waid manages to keep the core of the characters while making them more in tune with what modern readers expect. Just to be clear, this is NOT going to be some dumb gritty Archie thing where Jughead is secretly gay for Archie or where Moose is a junkie or whatever; it's a comic about the lives of an endearing cast of characters. The first issue is also quite ripe for notes, I think; I'll post them tomorrow after people have had a chance to read it.
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Jul 8, 2015 08:07
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very late edit: lol this post was crediting the writing to Mark Millar for months and I didn't even noticeEndless Mike posted:What happened that Archie is publishing so many good comics? New management, basically. Anyway, here are my notes for Archie #1, and boy are there a lot of them this time! I'll have to go by page number here just to keep track of them. I hope this look at Archie history improves the experience  Page 1: Waid mentioned in an interview that a huge priority was to show that Riverdale was a diverse place. To Archie's credit, Staples notes that they already had a tremendously diverse student body, so she drew from a massive dossier of characters. I'm fairly certain that even I'll be missing some people here. Present on the page: Archie Andrews, America's favorite teenager The girl with the backpack is Toni Topaz, who nearly bested Jughead in a cupcake-eating contest The redhead holding a bill is Cricket O'Dell, who has an uncanny ability to literally sniff out money (and to appraise an object's exact value by smelling it) Page 2 Top panel: Everyone here was invented in the last few years, so I actually had to cheat for all the ones on this panel by looking them up! The girl on the left is Riverdale's resident goth, Shrill. The two students to the right are token Native American and Asian Rob and Sheila Wu. Middle row: I say token, but everyone in the world of Archie tends to be one-note, and thankfully, that note is almost never related to their race or disability. Dilton is Riverdale's resident genius, who can build time machines and shrink rays on a whim. Raj is the token Indian, but his gimmick is that he's always trying to film movies. As for Trev... more on him later. Bottom panel: America's sweetheart, Betty Cooper. In terms of comics narrative, she was the very first person in Archie's life, with Jughead a close second. (you don't even need my notes for this, as you can see for yourself in the backup story, which is a reprint of the very first Archie story) That order is paralleled in this comic. Page 3 Archie comics of old (not sure about the modern ones) would frequently punch up the backgrounds with unusual things happening, often with random people having their own subplots or one-off gags in the background. Think that Community episode where Abed's subplot was entirely in the background of everyone else's scenes. I'm glad to see that tradition continues here. Milkshakes with two straws are a typical teenage romance cliche, but also a time-honored staple of Archie illustrations. In fact, in Archie comics, it's even more common to see three straws instead of just two. Page 6 Central to the page is one Forsythe P. "Jughead" Jones, Riverdale's resident chowhound and Archie's best friend. I've posted a more detailed writeup of Jughead things in previous posts. The group pestering Jughead is comprised of Riverdale's first gay character, Kevin Keller, Sheila Wu, and Maria Rodriguez, originally created to be the girlfriend of Frankie Valdez, back in the day when race mixing in media aimed at kids was as unheard of as explicitly gay people are in kids' media today. Page 8 Now this is interesting! Waid and Staples seem to be setting up resident sleazebag Reggie Mantle as a member of Fallout 3's Tunnel Snakes, or possibly one of Biff's gang from Back to the Future--foreshadowing a possible crossover between one of these properties, perhaps??? Page 12 Maybe I should have mentioned this earlier, but chapter titles in single issues of comics are a rarity these days, and Archie is the only one I know that's consistently kept this tradition going. We see for the first time Archie's penchant for being clumsy in cartoonish ways that would basically be impossible in real life. This puts him at odds with some of his peers, and even more grown-ups--primarily, Mr. Weatherbee and Mr. Lodge. This is an interesting change to Archie's father, Fred Andrews. He hasn't been shown to have an interest in guitar in the past, and his musical instrument/interest/ability largely depended on the needs of previous writers, so it's nice to see that they now have something consistent to bond over. Page 14 Pictured in the middle row is Riverdale High principal, Waldo "the Bee" Weatherbee. Archie has been a thorn in his side for years, but he's always acknowledged Archie's good heart. The band isn't anyone I recognize, although they seem so distinct that I wonder if they're pre-existing characters. Certainly not any of the main Archie bands I know of. Page 16 One of the few things that's been mostly consistent about Archie over the years is that he's always been a competent--star quality, even--guitarist. He is (or was, as the needs of the story dictate) the founder of The Archies, a band which was not only a hit in the comic, but also in real life--Archie Comics had an actual The Archies for a while, and they had a little hit you may have heard of--Sugar, Sugar. This song has been frequently played by The Archies in-comic since. Page 17 And hey, speaking of bands, check it out--it's Trev again. He was mentioned earlier as having a sister who won American Idol--this wasn't just a throwaway line! Trevor Smith is the brother of Valerie Smith, one of the three members of Josie and the Pussycats. Quick tangent: A couple of years ago, they finally decided to let Archie start doing race mixing publicly (it's not like it was a new thing for Archie but as far as I know this was the first time they did it on a cover) and date Valerie. This was a pretty big deal because not only was he dating a black character, but it wasn't just some new black character, but the very first one they ever established. They really went whole hog on the whole thing, too--the romance arose organically, with him and Valerie first having a lot of chemistry (or what passes for chemistry in Archieland) during a joint tour, then officially dating, to the point where he actually broke it off with Betty and Veronica. Veronica was jealous, of course, but for Betty, things weren't so bad, because she met Trevor at a Josie concert and they hit it off right away, even eloping in one of the "possible futures" that they started doing in the last few years. All things considered, he was a pretty inspired choice for Homecoming King in this issue. Page 19 Mark Waid preserves the status quo of Jughead owning. Please buy Chip Zdarsky's Jughead comic, coming October 7. Page 21 I love that last panel with Veronica's father, Hiram Lodge; that menacing stare encapsulates his relationship with Archie pretty well. Traditionally, Archie's known Betty and Veronica for nearly the same amount of time, though what amount of time that is has been pretty inconsistent. Sometimes, they've been friends since childhood, and sometimes (as you'll see in the backup story) they meet as teenagers, with Veronica moving in shortly after he meets Betty. The reboot is going for something from both, with Betty being his childhood friend, and Veronica moving into town a few issues later. Inside back cover I can't be 100% sure of this (I've tried asking Zdarsky on Twitter) but the tagline "More than burgers, but mostly burgers" is possibly a reference to the classic Jughead story I've posted about in the past. Argue fucked around with this message at 05:16 on Jan 27, 2017 |
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Jul 9, 2015 05:55
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Guys, does every thread need to eventually turn into an argument about Erica Henderson's art? Anyway, it seems the Archie TV show is still happening, possibly by 2016; Sacasa says it's going to have a little of the weird stuff going on beneath a suburban town, a bit like Twin Peaks. Amusingly, it's going to be on the CW and overseen by Berlanti, so I'm braced for the show to open with "My name is Archie Andrews, and I am a student at Riverdale High." I'm liking that promo art, and I also like that Valerie from Josie and the Pussycats is gonna be in it.
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Jul 11, 2015 09:53
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They've already done zombies too. Needless to say, I don't think anyone counts traditional parody issues.  But yeah, I don't mind the new one, though I'll get pretty annoyed if it's Sacasa again considering how long it takes him and Francavilla to push out issues of their current titles at all.
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Jul 12, 2015 05:08
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Archie continuity is pretty fluid, but the rich boy backstory is a totally new invention. As is the origin story for his name, which is as good an origin as any that we've seen. As for making friends, most origin stories show Archie and Jughead as having been friends since childhood; sometimes Archie is the first friend Jughead makes upon moving to Riverdale, but it doesn't look like that's what's going on here. I enjoyed this issue, and I like that Archie still gets into surrealisticaly absurd accidents despite the rest of the book being fairly grounded. Not much to note in the way of references in this issue; the truck Archie has a part time job at near the start is a reference to Bob Bolling, and the only new characters introduced are fairly well known--Mr. Lodge, Veronica, then Moose and Midge at the party. Argue fucked around with this message at 15:02 on Aug 20, 2015 |
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Aug 20, 2015 15:00
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Archie #3! I like this new Veronica Characters introduced this issue: Professor Fludsnüt - Very cute; in the classic comics, their science teacher's name is Professor Flutesnoot--a name that they probably decided wouldn't fly in the reboot, for any number of reasons. Geraldine Grundy - Teaches any number of subjects, depending on what the story calls for. Bernice Beazley - The cranky old lunchlady/"chef" at school. Usually has a great relationship with Jughead, who (usually) loves her cooking. On splash page, left: Ethel Muggs - A pain in Jughead's side, Ethel is head over heels for him and often schemes ways to get him to take her out. Hubert Smithers - The loyal butler and retainer to the Lodge family, Hubert Smithers should be familiar to anyone who reads Afterlife With Archie, which I still believe will return someday.
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Sep 30, 2015 15:45
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Jughead #1 is out! I don't feel it was as strong as Chip Zdarsky's work on Howard the Duck, but I liked it and will be reading more. I don't have a lot of notes about this issue, so I won't bother, but I'll probably have a bunch to say by next issue, when they pay homage to  Jughead's Time Police.If I have one complaint it's that they missed the opportunity to reintroduce Vice Principal Patton Howitzer, a crazy boot camp sarge who I imagine would behave similarly to the new Principal in a less caricatured world. Plus, Howitzer's first appearance also had him replacing Mr. Weatherbee temporarily, so it would have fit together nicely! Argue fucked around with this message at 04:00 on Oct 8, 2015 |
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Oct 8, 2015 03:39
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