Part 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!