Archie Comics: The New Face of Horror

Archie Comics: The New Face of Horror

           

   What’s that I said, Archie Comics, the venerable home of clean cut kids and an all American atmosphere is the new face of horror? How can that be?  If you only have a passing familiarity with the comics, or haven’t read them in decades, then this may come as shock to you. But if you’ve been following the evolution and expansion of Archie comics over the past 10 years or so, then you know what I say is true.

           

    EC Comics, with books like Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror ruled the 1950s. Warren Publishing ruled the 1960s and early 70s with Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella. Marvel Comics took the torch in the 70s with Tomb of Dracula, Werewolf by Night and characters like Satana, Hellstorm, Brother Voodoo and the Man-Thing. D.C. comics took over in the 80s with Alan Moore’s run on the Swamp Thing (maybe the single most important run of a horror comic after the original EC lines). This created an audience for, and paved the way for books like Hellblazer and Sandman. I think it’s fair to say that D.C.’s Vertigo line ruled horror comics through the 90s and the first decade of the 21^st Century with the continued popularity of John Constantine and books like Preacher and revamps of venerable books like Unknown Soldier, House of Mystery and House of Secrets. But Vertigo comics is kaput. They’re moving on. As of 2020 they are closing up shop. It’s time for some new blood. Or rather a fresh take on some old blood.

            

     

   Archie Comics is not new to horror. They have a tradition of horror but they’ve never been a major player in the game before now. Archie Comics began its life as MLJ Magazines in 1939. They originally published mainly super hero comics. Its most recognizable property, Archie Andrews didn’t come around until 1941. The popularity of that character and his friends would prompt the company to eventually change its name. During those early days they published different kinds of stories and one reoccurring character that had her own stories was a succubus named Madame Satan. She was sent from Hell to tempt men and thus damn their souls. This character has been revamped over the years. She appears in the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina comic as one of Sabrina’s rivals. She appears in the Sabrina TV show as Ms. Wardwell, and true to form tempts men to their doom.

            

    Under their imprint brand, Red Circle, during the 1970’s , when such comics were at their most popular, they published a horror anthology series Chilling Adventures in Sorcery (the Sabrina series takes its name from that). Like Tales from the Crypt or House of Mystery, it published short tales of the macabre and they have a similar flavor.

            

    But Archie Comics jumping into horror with both feet didn’t begin until a few years ago with a critically acclaimed title, Afterlife with Archie.

Afterlife with Archie

   

        

    The Archie Horror comics are best viewed as a What If? line of stories (or Elseworlds if you are a DC fan I guess). They are reimaginings of the classic characters in a horror setting. They don’t share a universe, with the same characters being reimagined in different ways in different books. Afterlife with Archie begins with Jugghead frantically seeking help from Sabrina. His beloved pet, Hot Dog, has been hit by a car and he begs Sabrina to use her magic to bring it back to life. Her aunts forbid it but Sabrina, being a willful teenager, does it anyway. Her aunts find out and banish her to Limbo for a year, but the damage has been done.

            

    Hot Dog returns to life, but feral and undead. He bites his master Jugghead, turning him into a zombie. Jugghead spreads the contagion and soon Riverdale, and then the world, is over run with zombies. Archie leads the survivors out of Riverdale. The first few issues are standard zombie apocalypse fair (great, right? Just what we need, another Walking Dead). But with issue 6 the series takes a very rewarding hard turn.

           

    We find out that Sabrina has been plucked from limbo by H.P. Lovecraft who is using her and other gifted children as a means of opening up a gate to allow the Old Ones to return. The entire Hot Dog infected zombie horde is just their tool. Issue 8 features homage to The Shining with Archie drinking alone in a hotel being served by the ghost of Jugghead as the bartender. Issue 10 features the introduction of Josie and the Pussycats in a homage to Interview with the Vampire.

           

    Written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa it was clever and reminiscent of Alan Moore’s run on the Swamp Thing. The art by Francesco Francavilla was beautiful and moody. Each issue had various variant and reprint covers. Some of my favorites were by artist Andrew Pepoy who took the traditional Archie art style and filtered it through a sexy, horror lens. The series was really creepy and enthralling , especially after issue 5. There is really only one complaint and that’s the series ended with no real conclusion or cancellation. Issue 10 came out with a teaser for issue 11 and…nothing. I still can’t figure out why a series that was popular and well received by the critics would just fizzle out. It reminded me of Guns n’ Roses in the 90s. They were the biggest band on earth  knocking out #1 records left and right and fans waited for another album…and waited…and waited. My only hope is that the increased popularity of the Archie brand will encourage them to finish this series.

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

            

    Every comic line, even a line of horror comics, needs a flagship character, a brand that will attract new fans. For Warren it was Vampirella. For the Marvel horror comics of the 70’s it was Tomb of Dracula. For Vertigo of the 90s it was John Constantine. For Archie horror it is Sabrina. And like Constantine, whose humble origin was as a backup character in Swamp Thing, Sabrina (in her current incarnation) began in Afterlife with Archie. Other than her brief appearance in issue #1 and another brief appearance in issue #9, Sabrina is absent from most of the story with the exception of issue #6. That issue is all about her.

           

    After being plucked from Limbo she is trapped in an asylum. Given drugs that suppress her magic and fog her memory, she tries to piece together what has happened to her and what is happening. Over the course of the issue she discovers a conspiracy to bring the Old Ones to Earth. The story’s climax is a parody of a wedding where she is to be married to Great Cthulhu. She is tied up, like Andromeda awaiting the sea monster, on a cliff overlooking the ocean as the great Old One rises out of the sea!

      

     

   

   Though that Sabrina is not the Sabrina of Chilling Adventures, it was that version that inspired her next incarnation. The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina takes place in the early 1960s in a Happy Days-esque small town. Sabrina is an orphan being raised by her aunts. Unbeknownst to Sabrina, her father was a High Priest of Satan, a pupil of Aliester Crowley, and a truly evil man. He has created Sabrina through a sort of supernatural eugenics as the key to an ultimate evil scheme. Plaguing her is Madame Satan, a succubus who was spurned by Sabrina’s father. She decides to take out her revenge on Sabrina. Assisting her are Betty and Veronica, both young witches themselves. 

           

    My single favorite issue is the origin of Sabrina’s cat, Salem, who we find out was turned into a familiar in 1692 after pissing off a coven of witches. It is one of the most disturbing single issues of any comic that I have ever read and truly deserving of being called “horror”.

        

     

    Like Afterlife with Archie, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina was written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. It featured outstanding art by Robert Hack. It reminded me of some of the beautiful art from the Eerie and Vampirella comics of the 70s, except in glorious color! The only possible complaint one could have is (tell me if this sounds familiar) the series never finished !?! Like Afterlife, it just sort of ended. No cancellation, no news, just…nothing.  Again, I can only hope that the popularity of the Netflix show will motivate somebody at Archie to pick the series back up.

Jugghead: the Hunger

            

    This series features Archie’s closest friend ,Jugghead Jones, as the victim of a generations long curse of lycanthropy. The Joneses have always been werewolves. To make matters worse, he is being hunted by Betty, whose family are werewolf hunters. Archie gets caught in the middle, having to join his girlfriend in trying to kill his buddy. It doesn’t have the gothic, creepy feel of Afterlife or Chilling Adventures but it is very gory, right from the start. My favorite part is a POV transformation where we see a victim through Jugghead’s eyes as he becomes a werewolf.

Blossoms 666

            

   Siblings Cheryl and Jason Blossom are a pair of rich teens with a dark secret. One of them is the Anti-Christ! This comic also had its origins in Afterlife with Archie where they likewise harbored a dark secret (though due to the series’ dissolution it was never really explored).

           

   Imagine if Damien from the Omen was raised by Satanists instead of normal people and now mix that with a little 90210 and you have a good idea of what the series is about. Like every other comic in the line, it has top notch art.

Vamperonica

            

    This book is a guilty pleasure along the lines of The Lost Boys. Sure, it’s not as gritty as Near Dark or as classic as Fright Night, but it’s just so cool and fun! It’s very slickly produced with beautiful stylish art and a witty story. Veronica Lodge, Riverdale’s elite snob, best friend of Betty and rival for Archie’s affection is attacked by a vampire. Before she succumbs to the bloodlust she has to find and kill the vampire that turned her. Meanwhile, the nosferatu is turning the rest of the town into vampires that she’ll have to fight her way through. A very compact, succinctly written series, it perfectly lends itself to a movie adaptation.

            

   The story continues with Vamperonica New Blood. And of course, all good monsters deserve a monster mash. She comes into conflict with werewwolf Jugghead in the series Vamperonica vs. Jugghead the Hunger.

The ongoing adventures…

            

    The Netflix series The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is loosely based on the comic (it has turned 8 issues into 21 episodes with another season in the works).  I’ll save a review of that for later as it really deserves its own space. In fact, one could write  an entire essay on the phenomenon of Sabrina Spellman (future project…)Needless to say, it is very good and its star Kiernan Shipka has done an excellent job of creating a memorable character. It combines teen angst, dark humor and some utterly sacrilegious (some might say blasphemous) imagery and themes.

            

    Given the universalness of the Archie characters, they lend themselves to endless re-interpretations. So far they haven’t shown any signs of getting stale and the art is top notch all around. I hope this continues for at least a few more years so we can enjoy more of these creepy, fun stories. After all, I need to see more of Josie and her vampire Pussycats!