- Welcome to 2000 AD Online Forum.
Recent posts
#31
Off Topic / Re: Threadjacking!
Last post by JohnW - 15 April, 2024, 01:13:06 PMJust gave blood, so now I'm riding high on a wave of smugness and free snacks.
#32
Books & Comics / Re: Completely Self-absorbed T...
Last post by broodblik - 15 April, 2024, 12:09:04 PMIn general I do not like Archie comics but this was a well-worth read
#33
Books & Comics / Re: Completely Self-absorbed T...
Last post by AlexF - 15 April, 2024, 11:41:02 AMAh yeah this is a great comic. I've only read the trade collection of the first bit, and remain deeply sad that the story was never finished. I guess I should get the digital comics of the ones that were made! Cannot overstate how great the art is on this. (And I don't have to! Colin as ever doing fantastic job on bigging up the art)
For what it's worth, I was a big reader of 'normal' Archie comics in my youth (age roughly 10-13) - for some reason, they were readily available in India, where my best friend used to go (or his uncles maybe) to bring and share massive bundles of them. They're kind of like if Whizzer and Chips had a rom-com story that was less stalker-ish than 'Crazy for Daisy'. At the time I couldn't quite undersatand why Archie was so into VCeronica when Betty was right there, but I get it a bit more now. The TV show Riverdale is much kinder to Veronica than the comics ever were!
Anyway, this Zombie-version of the characters I'd say IS faithful to the basic setup, if that's a concern you have. It shouldn't be.
For what it's worth, I was a big reader of 'normal' Archie comics in my youth (age roughly 10-13) - for some reason, they were readily available in India, where my best friend used to go (or his uncles maybe) to bring and share massive bundles of them. They're kind of like if Whizzer and Chips had a rom-com story that was less stalker-ish than 'Crazy for Daisy'. At the time I couldn't quite undersatand why Archie was so into VCeronica when Betty was right there, but I get it a bit more now. The TV show Riverdale is much kinder to Veronica than the comics ever were!
Anyway, this Zombie-version of the characters I'd say IS faithful to the basic setup, if that's a concern you have. It shouldn't be.
#34
Announcements / Re: 2000 AD - The Ultimate Col...
Last post by don wiskerando - 15 April, 2024, 10:23:55 AMQuote from: castle4 on 14 April, 2024, 05:41:03 PMContents of Issue 173 Scarlet Traces vol 2
Prog 1988-1999,2023-2034,2126-2138,2250-2261.
That being Scarlet Traces right up to date doesn't it?
If so, that means we still have an unknown at volume 176.
#35
Announcements / Re: 2000 AD - The Ultimate Col...
Last post by IndigoPrime - 15 April, 2024, 10:14:34 AMBorn Bad has shipped! As has the tiny little extra I bought alongside it. (Kev's big book o' joy.) I imagine that will beat the Hachette replacement volumes. And I hope FPI's packaging is typically bulletproof, as usual, so that doesn't arrive empty! 
Gideon is an interesting one. I did read a – cough – 'version' of it on my iPad at some point*, and I'd wondered if my desperation to get it in the UC was misplaced. So I'm stoked to find so many are enjoying it and am looking forward to getting a copy myself. I imagine I was just in a grump at the time.
* I mean, I own the original Progs and a reprint of the story already, and have ordered a third volume, so I'm not going to feel too guilty about that...
Gideon is an interesting one. I did read a – cough – 'version' of it on my iPad at some point*, and I'd wondered if my desperation to get it in the UC was misplaced. So I'm stoked to find so many are enjoying it and am looking forward to getting a copy myself. I imagine I was just in a grump at the time.
* I mean, I own the original Progs and a reprint of the story already, and have ordered a third volume, so I'm not going to feel too guilty about that...
#36
Announcements / Re: 2000 AD - The Ultimate Col...
Last post by Barrington Boots - 15 April, 2024, 09:44:49 AMThe B&W Gideon story is probably my favourite one, although I'm very keen on the one shot with the wizard as well. The plot is very unfocused but Gideon himself is a bit neater - firing stakes at vampires and so on - and the art is fantastic. As Fink says, there's a few big splash pages of Gideon that look tremendous.
The AG design is so good, with his massive crazy feet and oddly expressive face.
Re-reading now I find the dialogue clunky in places but the whole book is completely stupid fun. Well worth the wait.
The AG design is so good, with his massive crazy feet and oddly expressive face.
Re-reading now I find the dialogue clunky in places but the whole book is completely stupid fun. Well worth the wait.
#37
Books & Comics / Re: Completely Self-absorbed T...
Last post by Colin YNWA - 15 April, 2024, 09:13:44 AMPart 4
Where to find it
You might be as well to pick these up digitally, that's how I still have them.
You can get a trade of the first arc, containing the first five issues, but the second arc, which was meant to run to issue 12 hasn't been collected yet as it was never completed.
I do keep an eye out for these in the aftermarket, but while the buzz has died down somewhat they are still a little pricey. Not prohibitively though, but enough to keep me hanging on to see if I can get them at a better price.
Learn more
Obligatory Wikipedia page
Archie Comics have a YouTube channel and they have trailers and previews of each issue which give you a fun sense of the series.
Den of Geek has a list of 13 scariest moments from the series. It's pretty spoilerific , but if you can handle that does give a very good flavour for the series.
Vulture has an interesting article explaining how the deals in the comic coming out sounded the death knells of for the series.
There was a lot of fuss and attention surrounding the first couple of issues, the buzz started to die away with the delays and there is little reflection on the series as a whole. Reviews in all the normal places and Multiversity Comics has a nice reflection from 2020 about the first 5 issues for example.
What is all this?
Conscious that this is becoming a long thread and if you're wondering what the heck you've just read and can't be arsed (quite sensibly) to search back to find out I'll link to my opening posts that try to explain all this.
What this all came from
And of course a nerd won't do a list like this without setting 'Rules' / guidelines
Some thoughts on what will not be on the list.
Where to find it
You might be as well to pick these up digitally, that's how I still have them.
You can get a trade of the first arc, containing the first five issues, but the second arc, which was meant to run to issue 12 hasn't been collected yet as it was never completed.
I do keep an eye out for these in the aftermarket, but while the buzz has died down somewhat they are still a little pricey. Not prohibitively though, but enough to keep me hanging on to see if I can get them at a better price.
Learn more
Obligatory Wikipedia page
Archie Comics have a YouTube channel and they have trailers and previews of each issue which give you a fun sense of the series.
Den of Geek has a list of 13 scariest moments from the series. It's pretty spoilerific , but if you can handle that does give a very good flavour for the series.
Vulture has an interesting article explaining how the deals in the comic coming out sounded the death knells of for the series.
There was a lot of fuss and attention surrounding the first couple of issues, the buzz started to die away with the delays and there is little reflection on the series as a whole. Reviews in all the normal places and Multiversity Comics has a nice reflection from 2020 about the first 5 issues for example.
What is all this?
Conscious that this is becoming a long thread and if you're wondering what the heck you've just read and can't be arsed (quite sensibly) to search back to find out I'll link to my opening posts that try to explain all this.
What this all came from
And of course a nerd won't do a list like this without setting 'Rules' / guidelines
Some thoughts on what will not be on the list.
#38
Books & Comics / Re: Completely Self-absorbed T...
Last post by Colin YNWA - 15 April, 2024, 09:13:21 AMPart 3
Copyright - Archie Comics
Oh and speaking of great tropes done to perfection, and things being made close and personal we also get one of the singularly best tear jerking dog as loyal friend and brave companion pieces in any comic I have ever read. If you read my entry for Y the Last Man (no.105) you know how much of a sucker I am for the powerful emotions that can be created by people's relationships with their pets. In Afterlife there are a couple of pieces that really play with that. One in particular, spoiled above, does that as well as I've known it be done in any story in any medium. How a comic about characters I have no history with, told a tale of a dog I'd just been introduced to, reduced me nearly to tears, is quite astonishing.
As that image above shows though in a large part it's in the art. The art in this comic is breathtaking, brilliant. It's - and here's that word again - perfect for a horror comic. Francesco Francavilla's art on the series is such a massive part as to why I love these comics. His dark deep shadows cast so creepily across almost everything he draws, starkly contrasted with reds and deep greys, blues and purples creates such a depth of atmosphere. He makes the horror aspects leap off the page at you, he makes tense, creepy moments catch your breath and grip you. In doing that when he changes his palette and depth of shadow to show the lighter moment or more typically flashbacks they really pop, needing no further clues to the fact you are looking back or the tone of the scene you are joining.
Almost all of what is so great about his art is captured in the single page above. He captures the drama and emotion of a scene with real craft. Archie shifts from sadness to horror and revulsion then finally to dreadful acceptance. The violence is tight, confusing - you know what's happening the storytelling isn't a problem, rather the pace and visceral energy of the action is hard to keep up with, it's a blur of angry motion and terrible violence. Finally the way he superbly captures the affection and love in Vegas (the dogs) eyes as he turns to his 'master' in the hope he will flee is so heartbreaking in those deep loving eyes. A moment of almost calm bonding between the two, a final goodbye with no remorse. Then panicked retreat as Archie releases he has no choice but to go.
The storytelling is sublime. The ability to capture such scope in individual moments yet have them run together in a way that makes perfect sense in a single, fluid, exciting, heart wrenching page is exemplary. The use of colour to at first emphasise the savagery, then quickly switch to focus on the more tender, if desperate character moment is superb. In that single page you get a real sense of how amazing the art on Afterlife with Archie is and how powerful and effective the story the art realises is.
Copyright - Archie Comics
Afterlife with Archie is an absolute triumph. It's simply put one of the very best horror comics I've read, regardless of its unexpected combination of story types. The characters it uses are made real and therefore the horror they face all the more terrifying. It's just such a shame that we only got 10 issues. Just as the world and story was opening up, new threats, challenges and internal conflicts being prepared the series was cruelly snatched away. It really felt like the story had so many places to go and was ready to go there. Even if open-ended, unfinished tales aren't your thing these are worth checking out for the sheer brilliant craft on display and the way it usurps your expectations entirely.
Hey who knows, is anything really dead and in the ground. This one might rise up yet.
Copyright - Archie Comics
Oh and speaking of great tropes done to perfection, and things being made close and personal we also get one of the singularly best tear jerking dog as loyal friend and brave companion pieces in any comic I have ever read. If you read my entry for Y the Last Man (no.105) you know how much of a sucker I am for the powerful emotions that can be created by people's relationships with their pets. In Afterlife there are a couple of pieces that really play with that. One in particular, spoiled above, does that as well as I've known it be done in any story in any medium. How a comic about characters I have no history with, told a tale of a dog I'd just been introduced to, reduced me nearly to tears, is quite astonishing.
As that image above shows though in a large part it's in the art. The art in this comic is breathtaking, brilliant. It's - and here's that word again - perfect for a horror comic. Francesco Francavilla's art on the series is such a massive part as to why I love these comics. His dark deep shadows cast so creepily across almost everything he draws, starkly contrasted with reds and deep greys, blues and purples creates such a depth of atmosphere. He makes the horror aspects leap off the page at you, he makes tense, creepy moments catch your breath and grip you. In doing that when he changes his palette and depth of shadow to show the lighter moment or more typically flashbacks they really pop, needing no further clues to the fact you are looking back or the tone of the scene you are joining.
Almost all of what is so great about his art is captured in the single page above. He captures the drama and emotion of a scene with real craft. Archie shifts from sadness to horror and revulsion then finally to dreadful acceptance. The violence is tight, confusing - you know what's happening the storytelling isn't a problem, rather the pace and visceral energy of the action is hard to keep up with, it's a blur of angry motion and terrible violence. Finally the way he superbly captures the affection and love in Vegas (the dogs) eyes as he turns to his 'master' in the hope he will flee is so heartbreaking in those deep loving eyes. A moment of almost calm bonding between the two, a final goodbye with no remorse. Then panicked retreat as Archie releases he has no choice but to go.
The storytelling is sublime. The ability to capture such scope in individual moments yet have them run together in a way that makes perfect sense in a single, fluid, exciting, heart wrenching page is exemplary. The use of colour to at first emphasise the savagery, then quickly switch to focus on the more tender, if desperate character moment is superb. In that single page you get a real sense of how amazing the art on Afterlife with Archie is and how powerful and effective the story the art realises is.
Copyright - Archie Comics
Afterlife with Archie is an absolute triumph. It's simply put one of the very best horror comics I've read, regardless of its unexpected combination of story types. The characters it uses are made real and therefore the horror they face all the more terrifying. It's just such a shame that we only got 10 issues. Just as the world and story was opening up, new threats, challenges and internal conflicts being prepared the series was cruelly snatched away. It really felt like the story had so many places to go and was ready to go there. Even if open-ended, unfinished tales aren't your thing these are worth checking out for the sheer brilliant craft on display and the way it usurps your expectations entirely.
Hey who knows, is anything really dead and in the ground. This one might rise up yet.
#39
Books & Comics / Re: Completely Self-absorbed T...
Last post by Colin YNWA - 15 April, 2024, 09:12:55 AMPart 2
Copyright - Archie Comics
The setting is also perfect for setting up horror tropes as well. We start the story at a halloween ball at Riverdale's high school. That feels just so fantastically in keeping with so many teen horrors. And introduces both characters and the threat so perfectly.
The character's in Riverdale fulfil the tropes of characters across those teen horror genre delightfully as well. From the adventurous brave heroes ripe for casting themselves into thrilling danger. To the adults more resistant to accepting the status quo has tumbled down and the things they had built their successful lives upon no longer matter. The relationships embedded in these characters create the necessary tensions and conflicts to mean the biggest threat to survival more often than not isn't the shambling zombie herd itself. Rather it's the way personal reactions to that and the existing interpersonal relationships will drive people to poor decisions that elevate the danger far beyond stumbling brain-eaters you could likely smack with a spade and run away from.
Afterlife dives into these tropes but does so with characters you are really made to care about and engage with. Where they have villainous motivations they aren't paperthin they are based on reflections on why anyone might see things the way they do and act in that way. The story is structured in a very smart way. The first opens up the dilemma, throwing our cast into a contained environment so we can spend time with them seeing how they all inter-relate.
The second arc opens things up in two ways, again fairly typical of the horror genre but done here to perfection. Firstly it removes folks from that contained 'safehouse' and pushes them into other situations. Secondly it starts to add focus on specific characters in specific issues to get a closer sense of why particular characters are behaving the way they do. To give you a closer, more personal view of the heroes and villains of the piece you are made to care about. Or issues introduce and focus on new characters to expand the view we have of the world we are following and one assumes appeals to fines of the wider world Archie lives in. It does this while never losing sight of the rest of the ensemble cast or moving the general plot forward.
It might do this in a way that toys with cliche but never feels boring and gives you enough new insight and variations on a theme that it always avoids feeling cliche, while always feeling (un)comfortably familiar. You might know what you are getting, you might well have seen it before, but damn it's never been done this well.
Copyright - Archie Comics
Another thing the Riverdale setting adds, which is used to perfection is Sabrina the Teenage Witch. She is used as a tool to provide a frankly fantastic reason why a zombie invasion has hit. Often in Zombie movies or zombie tales in every medium there are two ways you can handle why the zombies are there. The most successful is just to ignore it, throw your viewer / reader in at the deep end. Accept the fact the person enjoying your story isn't going to worry too much about the how and why but rather just roll with it and enjoy the fun. Maybe you throw in a hint, reports of comets or other stuff such. Just a little something if folks want a little reason to hang onto.
The other way is to try to explain things. To give some 'plausible' scientific or mythical reason as to why the dead have risen from their grave and seek 'Brrrrraaaiiinnnnsss'. These rarely, if ever, work. In Afterlife Sabrina is used to explain why we have a zombie apocalypse in a way that is amazingly satisfying. Again I have no reference to whether Sabrina's actions are in character, my only knowledge of the character is being vaguely aware that she had a Saturday morning telly show in the 90s that seemed cute but I never really watched. Regardless of my ignorance in these comics her actions seem real and relatable. An innocent act with good motivation, gone astray and entirely out of control. This works perfectly with both my shallow understanding of the character outside the series and how she is presented in the series.
Her actions are explored more as the series goes on but I have to say it's such a smart way to use an in situ character to explain the astonishing turn of events in a way that I literally don't think has been done as well as this before. I wonder how many folks were in the writers room who worked to come up with the bumbled guff they came up with in Season 1 of the Walking Dead before they realised trying to explain why the Walking Dead were there before they realised that wasn't what folks needed to enjoy the show. Here we might not need it, but we get in such a satisfying way that it only enhances the enjoyment and makes things feel even more thrilling.
Copyright - Archie Comics
The setting is also perfect for setting up horror tropes as well. We start the story at a halloween ball at Riverdale's high school. That feels just so fantastically in keeping with so many teen horrors. And introduces both characters and the threat so perfectly.
The character's in Riverdale fulfil the tropes of characters across those teen horror genre delightfully as well. From the adventurous brave heroes ripe for casting themselves into thrilling danger. To the adults more resistant to accepting the status quo has tumbled down and the things they had built their successful lives upon no longer matter. The relationships embedded in these characters create the necessary tensions and conflicts to mean the biggest threat to survival more often than not isn't the shambling zombie herd itself. Rather it's the way personal reactions to that and the existing interpersonal relationships will drive people to poor decisions that elevate the danger far beyond stumbling brain-eaters you could likely smack with a spade and run away from.
Afterlife dives into these tropes but does so with characters you are really made to care about and engage with. Where they have villainous motivations they aren't paperthin they are based on reflections on why anyone might see things the way they do and act in that way. The story is structured in a very smart way. The first opens up the dilemma, throwing our cast into a contained environment so we can spend time with them seeing how they all inter-relate.
The second arc opens things up in two ways, again fairly typical of the horror genre but done here to perfection. Firstly it removes folks from that contained 'safehouse' and pushes them into other situations. Secondly it starts to add focus on specific characters in specific issues to get a closer sense of why particular characters are behaving the way they do. To give you a closer, more personal view of the heroes and villains of the piece you are made to care about. Or issues introduce and focus on new characters to expand the view we have of the world we are following and one assumes appeals to fines of the wider world Archie lives in. It does this while never losing sight of the rest of the ensemble cast or moving the general plot forward.
It might do this in a way that toys with cliche but never feels boring and gives you enough new insight and variations on a theme that it always avoids feeling cliche, while always feeling (un)comfortably familiar. You might know what you are getting, you might well have seen it before, but damn it's never been done this well.
Copyright - Archie Comics
Another thing the Riverdale setting adds, which is used to perfection is Sabrina the Teenage Witch. She is used as a tool to provide a frankly fantastic reason why a zombie invasion has hit. Often in Zombie movies or zombie tales in every medium there are two ways you can handle why the zombies are there. The most successful is just to ignore it, throw your viewer / reader in at the deep end. Accept the fact the person enjoying your story isn't going to worry too much about the how and why but rather just roll with it and enjoy the fun. Maybe you throw in a hint, reports of comets or other stuff such. Just a little something if folks want a little reason to hang onto.
The other way is to try to explain things. To give some 'plausible' scientific or mythical reason as to why the dead have risen from their grave and seek 'Brrrrraaaiiinnnnsss'. These rarely, if ever, work. In Afterlife Sabrina is used to explain why we have a zombie apocalypse in a way that is amazingly satisfying. Again I have no reference to whether Sabrina's actions are in character, my only knowledge of the character is being vaguely aware that she had a Saturday morning telly show in the 90s that seemed cute but I never really watched. Regardless of my ignorance in these comics her actions seem real and relatable. An innocent act with good motivation, gone astray and entirely out of control. This works perfectly with both my shallow understanding of the character outside the series and how she is presented in the series.
Her actions are explored more as the series goes on but I have to say it's such a smart way to use an in situ character to explain the astonishing turn of events in a way that I literally don't think has been done as well as this before. I wonder how many folks were in the writers room who worked to come up with the bumbled guff they came up with in Season 1 of the Walking Dead before they realised trying to explain why the Walking Dead were there before they realised that wasn't what folks needed to enjoy the show. Here we might not need it, but we get in such a satisfying way that it only enhances the enjoyment and makes things feel even more thrilling.
#40
Books & Comics / Re: Completely Self-absorbed T...
Last post by Colin YNWA - 15 April, 2024, 09:12:29 AMPart 1
Number 89 - Afterlife with Archie
Keywords: Horror, Riverdale, Zombies, defies expectations
Creators:
Writer - Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Art - Francesco Francavilla
Colours - Francesco Francavilla
Publisher: Archie Comics
No. issues: 10
Date of Publication: 2013 -2016
Last read: 2016
As the 2000s moved into the early 2010s there were just too damned many zombies across all genre media. Walking Dead was making it big as a comic as sales began to soar, it had transitioned to tv and zombies were everywhere. Its curious then that
Copyright - Archie Comics
was the standout zombie story from this time across all media, and yes that includes Charlie Brooker's superb 2008 zombie epic Dead Set. I mean Archie Comics, those are the daft kids comics from the US about school kids in the fictional town of Riverdale. One of whom, Archie of the title, is trapped in an inexplicable love triangle with the school's two teen beauties, Betty and Veronica. Comics that made no impression on the UK market despite years of success in the US as they were just so American. How on earth did these comics, about as safe and saccharine and idiosyncratically American, manage to produce one of the best horror comics I've ever read?
The answer is of course by taking those secure elements of Archie's world and simply using them as a launch point to produce genuinely intense, scary and emotional great comics. To not be bound by people's expectation of what Archie Comics are and just make great comics. It's really quite an astonishing trick to pull off. Add to that pitch perfect art from Francesco Francavilla, making his second appearance on the list and you have a formula for astonishingly good comics.
Archie Comics' bravery to stick with both writer Aguirre-Sacasa and artist Francavilla even when their star rose and other, bigger jobs at bigger companies came calling for their services, is this series' greatest blessing and biggest curse. Their patience meant it took over 3 years to get 10 issues to lumber out and having lost momentum from its early rise to fan adoration and critical acclaim the series floundered. After this the two creators seem to have been just too busy and the series was left to quietly drift into an obscure hiatus driven ending, well before the story was done. Sticking with these two brilliant creators, even as things clearly seemed to be returning the series to its grave also meant that what we have is the near perfect zombie horror comic. The series remains undiluted by a commercial desire to keep riding the wave these comics caught regardless of the impact on quality. So even if the second arc didn't finish, what we have is superb. And who knows, maybe one day.
Copyright - Archie Comics
What Afterlife with Archie does so well is play with the best tropes of zombie survival stories almost ignoring the juxtaposition the setting and its characters offer. It plays things with a straight bat, and avoids the temptation to give knowing nods and winks to the reader about how setting zombies loose in the safe world of Archie is a bit of crazy fun. There's been previous tales in Riverdale - the town in which Archie Comics are set - that seem to play with the fun of things far more. The Punisher has visited, as has one of the Predators and from the outside looking in these seem far more playful than Afterlife. They seem to be gleeful in how absurd the ideas of these safe, homespun inhabitants of Riverdale meeting these extreme characters is. Afterlife has none of that.
It takes the characters and setting seriously and with what seems like genuine affection, but makes the tone less Archie and more zombie horror. The horror element is used well, rather than using the more spoofy, tongue in cheek zombie takes on other tales around this time. It places those characters in their setting, but flips that to be imagined in a genuine horror story rather than go the other way.
This means that even a reader like myself, with no relationship with Archie, Jughead, Betty and Veronica et al are introduced as real characters who I'm made to invest in and care for. It takes the ideas and scenarios from the 'normal' comics and treats them seriously as a launch point to create a world in a very 'real', 'serious' gut wrenching horror story. I say this as an outsider to this world before reading these comics and I felt entirely at home there, with only a very surface understanding of it. Well I say at home as it is played as a true horror story this one quickly does away with the homespun comforts of small town America. I can only imagine how effective this must have been if you were a long term fan of Archie and co. I got a sense that such fans didn't push back with this more 'realistic' take on the world, but embraced it as they knew they were getting an utterly enthralling new take on their favourites. That's certainly the impression I have and oh that all comic fandom was so open minded!
Number 89 - Afterlife with Archie
Keywords: Horror, Riverdale, Zombies, defies expectations
Creators:
Writer - Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Art - Francesco Francavilla
Colours - Francesco Francavilla
Publisher: Archie Comics
No. issues: 10
Date of Publication: 2013 -2016
Last read: 2016
As the 2000s moved into the early 2010s there were just too damned many zombies across all genre media. Walking Dead was making it big as a comic as sales began to soar, it had transitioned to tv and zombies were everywhere. Its curious then that
Copyright - Archie Comics
was the standout zombie story from this time across all media, and yes that includes Charlie Brooker's superb 2008 zombie epic Dead Set. I mean Archie Comics, those are the daft kids comics from the US about school kids in the fictional town of Riverdale. One of whom, Archie of the title, is trapped in an inexplicable love triangle with the school's two teen beauties, Betty and Veronica. Comics that made no impression on the UK market despite years of success in the US as they were just so American. How on earth did these comics, about as safe and saccharine and idiosyncratically American, manage to produce one of the best horror comics I've ever read?
The answer is of course by taking those secure elements of Archie's world and simply using them as a launch point to produce genuinely intense, scary and emotional great comics. To not be bound by people's expectation of what Archie Comics are and just make great comics. It's really quite an astonishing trick to pull off. Add to that pitch perfect art from Francesco Francavilla, making his second appearance on the list and you have a formula for astonishingly good comics.
Archie Comics' bravery to stick with both writer Aguirre-Sacasa and artist Francavilla even when their star rose and other, bigger jobs at bigger companies came calling for their services, is this series' greatest blessing and biggest curse. Their patience meant it took over 3 years to get 10 issues to lumber out and having lost momentum from its early rise to fan adoration and critical acclaim the series floundered. After this the two creators seem to have been just too busy and the series was left to quietly drift into an obscure hiatus driven ending, well before the story was done. Sticking with these two brilliant creators, even as things clearly seemed to be returning the series to its grave also meant that what we have is the near perfect zombie horror comic. The series remains undiluted by a commercial desire to keep riding the wave these comics caught regardless of the impact on quality. So even if the second arc didn't finish, what we have is superb. And who knows, maybe one day.
Copyright - Archie Comics
What Afterlife with Archie does so well is play with the best tropes of zombie survival stories almost ignoring the juxtaposition the setting and its characters offer. It plays things with a straight bat, and avoids the temptation to give knowing nods and winks to the reader about how setting zombies loose in the safe world of Archie is a bit of crazy fun. There's been previous tales in Riverdale - the town in which Archie Comics are set - that seem to play with the fun of things far more. The Punisher has visited, as has one of the Predators and from the outside looking in these seem far more playful than Afterlife. They seem to be gleeful in how absurd the ideas of these safe, homespun inhabitants of Riverdale meeting these extreme characters is. Afterlife has none of that.
It takes the characters and setting seriously and with what seems like genuine affection, but makes the tone less Archie and more zombie horror. The horror element is used well, rather than using the more spoofy, tongue in cheek zombie takes on other tales around this time. It places those characters in their setting, but flips that to be imagined in a genuine horror story rather than go the other way.
This means that even a reader like myself, with no relationship with Archie, Jughead, Betty and Veronica et al are introduced as real characters who I'm made to invest in and care for. It takes the ideas and scenarios from the 'normal' comics and treats them seriously as a launch point to create a world in a very 'real', 'serious' gut wrenching horror story. I say this as an outsider to this world before reading these comics and I felt entirely at home there, with only a very surface understanding of it. Well I say at home as it is played as a true horror story this one quickly does away with the homespun comforts of small town America. I can only imagine how effective this must have been if you were a long term fan of Archie and co. I got a sense that such fans didn't push back with this more 'realistic' take on the world, but embraced it as they knew they were getting an utterly enthralling new take on their favourites. That's certainly the impression I have and oh that all comic fandom was so open minded!