Welcome to the Archie Comics Pubwatch for the month of October! I’m Lisa reporting from a corner booth at Pop’s Chock’lit Shoppe, and here’s this month’s news! In this month’s Archie Comics Pubwatch, we’ve got cute kiddie books, Madam Satan, variant cover exclusives, fresh release dates, new shirts, and razzing Riverdale!
Archie Comics Announces New Day-And-Date Releasing with Comixology Unlimited
Via an announcement published in ScreenRant, the deal will allow physical copies and digital copies of the same issue to street on the same day. This is a historic first that makes Archie Comics the first comic publisher to ever offer same-day releasing. The deal went into effect on September 23rd.
Riverdale: The Ties That Bind pushed back to February 2021; exclusive previews released to The Decider
Originally slated to be released in the summer of 2020, this series-spin off original graphic novel will instead be available digitally in February of 2021, to match the series’ (planned) January 2021 season 5 debut, with physical copies showing up in brick and mortar stores by March 9th.
Riverdale: The Ties that Bind will span the events which happened between seasons 3 and 4 of the show, focusing on Jughead’s time at Stonewall Prep and a Veronica/Cheryl team-up.
Read an exclusive interview with writer Micol Ostow and see exclusive preview pages at the Decider here!
Stadium Comics Offers Exclusive Archieverse G.I. Joe Figure Packaging Homage Covers
The series of five covers were drawn by Nuno Pereira and feature the characters as action figures in packaging similar to G.I. Joe figures which came out in the ’80s. Archie Andrews has packaging and is posed similarly to Duke, Betty Cooper as Scarlett, Veronica Lodge as Baroness, Jughead Jones as Snake Eyes and Sabrina Spellman as Lady Jaye. Betty covers Archie’s Halloween Spectacular #1, Jughead covers Archie and Friends #1, Veronica covers Veronica and Betty #1 and Archie cover Archie and Friends: Endless Summer #1, while Sabrina covers Sabrina: Something Wicked #5. Veronica, Jughead and Betty are limited to 400 copies each, while Sabrina and Archie are limited to 300.
Penguin Books Holds Veronica and Betty Sweepstakes
The contest for tweens and teens, which ends on October 13th, offers prize packs including the recently released Betty and Veronica: The Bond of Friendship and Betty and Veronica: Senior Year graphic novels, as well as a Betty and Veronica letterman jacket, three berets featuring the girls, and a Cooper/Lodge tote bag.
Archie Comics Celebrates Halloween with fresh designs in its Threadless store.
In celebration of the upcoming Spooky Season, Archie’s Threadless store has added on six new Halloween-based designs. They range from multiple Afterlife with Archie designs to several Sabrina designs and a few main-line Archie, Veronica and Betty doodles.
Archie Comics to Take Part in New York Virtual Comic Con 2020
The company’s panel, which will take place on October 8th at 7:50 PM EST, will be called Archie Comics: Beyond Riverdale. The panel will address the full scope of the franchise’s offerings, from Archie Horror to the main line to the CW Riverdale series.
Josie and the Pussycats Series Celebrates its 50th Anniversary
The ABC/Hanna-Barbera co-production ran from 1970-1971, and is notable for launching the careers of Patrice Holloway and Cheryl Ladd. Valerie Brown became the first Black female lead character in an American animated program, a decision which caused a production stand-off between Hanna-Barbera, which wanted an all-white band, and Danny Janssen, of La-La Productions, who cast the series’ voice actors and knew that Valerie was already being drawn as a Black woman in Archie Comics. A three-week stand-off resulted in Valerie becoming a part of the show as a Black woman.
Third Collected Betty and Veronica Spectacular Volume to be released In December
For many ’90’s kids, their first exposure to the Archieverse came from the Betty and Veronica Spectacular. Good news: a third volume those stories will be collected and published in December according to the official Archie Twitter.
Archie Comics Twitter Tweet of the Month
Riverdale once said pic.twitter.com/ByOsau6JKP
— no context riverdale? (@nocontextrvd) September 14, 2020
the best lines from the iconic @Trevor_Stines all in one place! #Riverdale https://t.co/rqM6oxP733
— Archie Comics (@ArchieComics) September 22, 2020
Please enjoy these two delightful memes—both RT’d from No Context Riverdale—that follow the (character) once said…meme. At the encouragement of the official Archie Twitter and the actor himself, the compilation on the right was created of the “best lines” of the wholly silent Jason Blossom, as played by Trevor Stines.
Also, this:
This is the official account of Archie Comics.
We are NOT the publisher of "Architectural Digest."
Please stop tagging us in posts about architecture.
Thank you.
— Archie Comics (@ArchieComics) September 24, 2020
Sugar Sugar of the Month
Riverdale Diaries Vol. 1: Hello Betty (TP/HC)
J. Bone (art/cover); Sarah Kuhn (writing)
October 7, 2020
Sometimes, you just want to read something that’s as cute as a box of speckled puppies. The first volume of The Riverdale Diaries, a TP for young readers about a junior high school-aged Betty Cooper, fits that bill to a tee. An enjoyable read for young and old alike, it focuses on her friendship with Val Smith, her friend for ages, and the estrangement the two friends go through when their interests begin to fork as they enter junior high. The big, friendly cartoony drawings by J. Bone and Kuhn’s funny, Beverley Cleary-level writing is sharp-eyed and relatable for tweens trying to figure out who they are. For those in the mood for something non-spooky, it’s delightful.
Vampironica: New Blood (TP)
Joe Eisma (art); Matt Herms (art); Audrey Mok (art and cover); Michael Moreci (writing); Jack Morelli (art); Frank Tieri (writing)
September 23, 2020
And if you fall on the other end of the spectrum and need a little gore in your October, the second arc of the Vampironica series has just been released. This one tracks a vampiric Veronica as she returns from a dimension-hopping attempt to stop the collapse of the multiverse and hopefully return herself back to her normal state. But Veronica knows there’s something wrong with this seemingly idyllic Riverdale, and is determined to right things for once and for all. This is still my favorite Archie Horror title, and the smooth writing by Moreci and Tieri make it worthwhile, along with Mok’s impressive art.
Archie Halloween Spectacular #1
Jeff Shultz (cover); Rosario “Tito” Peña (cover); Various (writing and art)
October 7, 2020
And if your desire for spoop falls somewhere in the middle category, enjoy this volume of Halloweenish Archie tales across various decades and digests! There are adventures from Little Betty and Veronica, costume contests, haunted happenings, ghouls and ghosts featuring the whole gang. A highlight is “Archie in Scary Scary Doo,” which gently tweaks the Scooby Doo mythos. If you remember that Scooby was created in part as a reply to the success of the animated Archie comics television series, this one will be especially delightful.
Hotdogs and Hotshots
Archie and Katy Keene (GN)
Laura Braga (art and cover); Matt Herms (art); Jack Morelli (art); Mariko Tamaki and Kevin Panetta (writing)
October 21, 2020
Reviewing Katy Keene for WWAC definitely made reading this volume a lot of fun. A little soapy and touched with a whiff of humor, this volume collects a five issue miniseries which explores what happens when Katy Keene moves to Riverdale. Her initial popularity gains the attention of Archie, Archie’s girlfriend Sabrina, and the rest of the gang, so when Veronica arranges a deal with a major fashion manufacturer for Katy, the whole gang goes to New York to help out. But Katy flees into the New York night in the middle of the meeting, and Archie, Betty, Sabrina and the others follow to find her. Braga’s art is delightful; Tamaki and Panetta’s writing scores.
Archie Showcase Digest: Jughead #2
Various (art and writing); Dan DeCarlo (cover)
October 7, 2020
If you like Jughead and want one easy, single-stop place to figure out what reading a series about him is like, look no further than the showcase diary series, which wraps up a lot of the funniest digest stories about individual characters into a single graphic novel. This one is all about Jughead, and if you love food, you’re gonna love spending time with him.
Archie’s Girls: Betty and Veronica #152
Various (art and writing and cover)
March 1965
I had to include this vintage cover, part of a spate of older comics that were just re-released digitally, which proves that we as a society have not changed in the last sixty years.
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Presents: Madame Satan One-Shot
Robert Hack (cover); Matt Herms (art); Jack Morelli (art); Julius Ohta (art and cover); Eliot Rahal (writing)
October 21, 2020
This wasn’t my absolute favorite among the various spin-offs and side-tales attached to the Dark Sabrinaverse, but Ohta’s art makes the journey absolutely breathtaking. If you like Madame Satan at all, you’re likely to have a better time with this than I did.
Archie Unlimited Picks of The Month
If you have Archie Unlimited, here are a few highlights from this month’s offerings!
The New Archies: OK, hands up: who started their Archie comics reading with this ttly radical rebooting of the series which featured 90s-era character redesigns for everyone? Betty has a scrunchie! You know you wanna read these!
Complete Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Vol. 2: If you love Riverdale’s favorite young witch, you’ll love this collected volume of her adventures. This one covers the early 1970s.
Picks From The Timecops
Sabrina: Something Wicked #5 (Finale) Sweeney Boo (cover); Andy Fish (art and cover); Veronica Fish (art and cover); Jack Morelli (art); Kelly Thompson (writing) November 25th, 2020
This series has been a lot of fun, and the beautiful art and writing by Thompson and Fish have made it a worthwhile read. Will Sabrina right the universe with a little application of some magical joy? Or will the world tumble apart?
Jughead’s Diner (TR)
Bill Golliher (art and writing); Dan Parant (art, cover and writing); Pat Kennedy (art); Pat Brosseau (art)
November 25th, 2020
If you thought Archie Comics’ penchant for weirdness started with its Horror imprint, you don’t remember the 90’s, when the Ninja Turtles roamed Riverdale and Jughead was sucked into another food-centered dimension where he had to defend the populace against scummy landlord Sal Monella in a bowling tournament.