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Archie had something of a creative renaissance when the publisher launched Afterlife with Archie in October of 2013 with Archie Creative Chief Officer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (Spider-Man) on writing duties and Francesco Francavilla (Batwoman) on art. However, fan haven’t seen a new issue of the series since May. Only eight installments of the series launched between 2013 and 2015– with no […]

Riverdale TV Series on CW (Illustration by Veronica Fish)

Archie Comics has exploded onto the mainstage of the comics world in the last few years, just as many thought they were a relic of the golden age. Series like Life With Archie and the enormously popular Afterlife with Archie, along with the introduction of the openly gay character Kevin Keller a few years prior, introduced these characters to a new generation in a surprisingly mature and modern way. At Comic Con today in a packed room full of fans, we got a glimpse at what is coming up for the progressive company and it’s growing band of creators.

Perhaps the biggest news to come out of the panel is the announcement that the long talked about Riverdale TV series will not be on Fox, but will premiere on CW. This came out of working through Greg Berlanti, who will be producing the show. This begs the question about the tone of the show, which previously sounded a bit like Twin Peaks in its adult and surreal nature, but now is being compared more to Glee. “It has a lot of music in it,” said Robert Aguirre-Sacasa, Archie’s Chief Creative Officer. They also mentioned that Josie and the Pussycats will play a big role, as well as Kevin Keller. Veronica Fish did some excellent promo art for the show, and will hopefully be working on a high profile comic soon, the publishers teased.

Archie #1 by Mark Waid and Fiona Staples

Four of the main creators involved in the New Riverdale group of books were onstage in Mark Waid (Archie), Chip Zdarsky (Jughead), Dan Parent (Kevin Keller) and Adam Hughes (Betty and Veronica). Waid said of the whole crew, “No one’s setting an iron-clad continuity that we have to fall into, we’re just enjoying what we’re all doing,” and that they are all sort of riffing on each other to create this new Archie universe. The first issue has been getting good reviews all around, and Waid teased that although Veronica shows up a little in issue two, but will be “like a wrecking ball” in issue three. He also noted that he felt like it was important to put Betty in that awkward phase that many girls go through when they transition from being “one of the boys” to being looked at differently by the men in her life–Fiona Staples, who is drawing the book, provided a lot of input on that part of the story.

Jughead #1 by Chip Zdarsky and Erica Henderson

Zdarsky talked about how he got involved with the forthcoming Jughead book that he is writing, saying he asked to do a variant for Archie #1 and then really wanted to get involved with New Riverdale: “Do you need someone to staple the comics?” he jokingly asked. Apparently, he had done an art project in school that involved building a 3D Archie panel around his head, with himself playing the role of Jughead, so his fandom of the character is nothing new. Zdarsky’s take on the iconic burger-eater is that “he’s a bit like me: he’s smarter than everyone in the room, but doesn’t feel like he has to show it.” Jon Goldwater, CEO and Publisher of Archie Comics, said that the book, which comes out on October 8th, is “really, really funny.” The book sounds like it will be the most irreverent of the group, with Jughead using his daydreaming imagination to figure things out, which involves the Superteens and more fantastical elements.

Hughes’ take on Betty and Veronica is the least developed so far, as he has only just begun to work on it. “Betty and Veronica are two characters I never thought I’d be allowed to work on,” Hughes said. The book will aim to be “a laugh riot,” and Hughes says he’s thrilled to be able to write and draw these iconic characters. Dan Parent showed some early pages from the new Life with Kevin Keller series as well, revealing that he will be living on his own and a little older now, which Parent notes means “the sky’s the limit” for the character.

Vampironica Cover by Francesco Francavilla

Aguirre-Sacasa loosely announced a new title in the horror line that Francesco Francavilla will in some way be a part of that “may or may not” be called Vampironica. which included teasing a beautiful cover by Francavilla featuring a Vampirella-looking Veronica in a graveyard within a silhouette of Jughead. As if that wasn’t exciting enough for Archie Horror fans, the audience was treated to a preview of Afterlife with Archie #9, which focuses on Reggie and the guilt he feels for his part in causing the zombie apocalypse. For at least one page of the issue, Francavilla and Aguirre-Sacasa take a Goofus and Galant approach in an Archie and Reggie sequence. There were strong hints that something bad will happen to Reggie when the issue releases in a month or so.

Coming up for the Afterlife with Archie series in #10-12 involve the whole Riverdale gang stumbling onto a farm that seems untouched by the apocalypse. Unfortunately, it may not be the paradise it seems as the gang starts to notice that no one here is over 18–and Betty’s 18th birthday is coming up soon. Said by Aguirre-Sacasa of working with Francavilla: “It’s an auteur book, and the auteur is Francesco.”

Archie vs. Sharknado One-Shot Variant Cover by Francesco Francavilla

In other news for the horror line, Aguirre-Sacasa promises that issue #4 of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is “the creepiest book we’ve ever done.” That issue involves the Riverdale gang arriving in Greendale to assist in the search for Sabrina’s missing boyfriend, Harvey. This first arc ends with issue five, while six will be a one-shot story that explores Salem the cat’s medieval origins, and seven starting the Witch War arc in which the witches of Greendale and Riverdale square off.

In the longstanding tradition of ridiculous crossovers, the publishers talked a bit about the newest to join the ranks in Archie vs. Sharknado, which comes out in time for Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No. Anthony C. Ferrante, director of all three Sharknado movies, wrote the one-shot comic, and talked about how fun it was to put together. “I fell in love with some of the characters, so I couldn’t kill them off!” he noted.

Archie Comics has unveiled the “Here’s Juggy” variant cover for Afterlife With Archie #8. According to the press release, artist Francesco Francavilla designed this piece.

We’ve embedded the full image above—what do you think? The Archie Horror imprint has set the release date for May 6th.

Francesco Francavilla is an Italian comic-book artist who’s fame has skyrocketed the last 5 years. He’d been working in the independent comics scene since the mid-2000’s on projects like The Black Coat, and Sorrow. Francavilla’s first high-profile project came in 2008 when he collaborated with Matt Wagner on a new Zorro series for Dynamite Entertainment. From there he got to infuse his classic pulp style art on Marvel’s Black Panther, and Scott Snyder’s first Batman story arc in Detective Comics.

In 2012 Francavilla introduced his own noir vigilante, The Black Beetle, to the world in the pages of Dark Horse Presents. Since then, 2 volumes of the critically acclaimed series have been published(No Way Out, 2013 & Necrologue, 2014).

Most of Francesco Francavilla’s recent work has been focused on the mega-hit Afterlife with Archie, which gives readers a more mature, horror take on those classic Riverdale characters. He also continues to work on various personal, and professional illustration projects, including some exclusive movie posters for Mondo.

Francavilla is frequently updating his blog with new art, so if you like what you see click here for more!

For more comics related art, you can follow me on my website comicstavern.com - Andy Yates

Claiming he was just so excited by yesterday’s teaser reveal, artist Phil Noto has created probably the first Episode VII fan art, integrating the John Boyega and Daisy Ridley characters and the already infamous cross hilt lightsaber in the iconic floating head style beloved of Drew Struzan and other classic movie posters.

While we don’t know exactly who Boyega and Ridley are playing, the latter is rumored to be playing Han and Leia’s daughter. Given her resemblance to Natalie Portman, that’s not much of a stretch. Boyega is rumored to be playing another main character. Noto has done a fine job of setting the standard with a very well executed and thought out piece using the few clues we have.

Francesco Francavilla has also put up a beautifully simple image.

We won’t know until next December, but if you think you are going to be sick of these kinds of images in 13 months time, you are totally correct. But given the previous track record for Star Wars character seeping their way into the collective unconscious, get used to it.

If there’s one person who loves Halloween and scary monsters more than us it’s artist Francesco Francavilla who has been running his own 31 Days of Horror event on his twitter feed with daily art and process posts. You can more or less follow along at the hashtag #fffear but here’s a sample:

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The Valiant is the lynchpin of  Valiant Next, a new hopping on point for readers from Valiant. A prestige format limited series with art by Paolo Rivera, and a variant cover by Francesco Francavilla, there’s no chance we’re not going to run a preview any time it gets into our  inbox.  The story by Matt Kindt and Jeff Lemire doesn’t hurt either—and they’ve also collaborated on a variant cover.

The Immortal Enemy has crawled out from the black depths of history to destroy this generation’s Geomancer and send Earth back to the Dark Ages! Now…the Eternal Warrior, Ninjak, and Kay McHenry must overcome their worst nightmares before the unlikeliest of white knights rides in to save the day. Will he be enough to battle back the unyielding evil that threatens to plunge the Valiant Universe into the darkness?

Be here on January 21st as the world’s most formidable heroes join a battle ten millennia in the making, only in THE VALIANT #2 – featuring covers by Paolo Rivera (Daredevil), Jeff Lemire (Trillium) & Matt Kindt (Mind MGMT), and Francesco Francavilla (Afterlife with Archie)! An entirely self-contained comics event spotlighting Bloodshot, Eternal Warrior, Geomancer, and a cast of heroes and villains from across the Valiant Universe, THE VALIANT is a visionary new adventure from three of the greatest creative talents in comics today. 

THE VALIANT leads into a number of new series that sound intrguing, including,

• IVAR, TIMEWALKER #1 by Fred Van Lente and Clayton Henry in January
• DIVINITY #1 (of 4) by Matt Kindt and Trevor Hairsine in February
• IMPERIUM #1 by Joshua Dysart and Doug Braithwaite in February
• NINJAK #1 by Matt Kindt and Clay Mann in March
• BLOODSHOT REBORN #1 by Jeff Lemire and Mico Suayan in April

THE VALIANT #2 (of 4) [VALIANT NEXT]
Written by JEFF LEMIRE & MATT KINDT
Art and Cover by PAOLO RIVERA (NOV141677)
Interconnecting Variant Cover by JEFF LEMIRE & MATT KINDT (NOV141678)
Variant Cover by FRANCESCO FRANCAVILLA (NOV141679)
$3.99 | 32 pages. | T+ | On sale JANUARY 21 (FOC – 12/29/14)

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Thought Bubble 2013 have announced a second list of guests for their convention this year, which, I notice, means the convention has a brilliant gender parity. Of the 21 guests so far announced, 10 are female!

That might not sound like much, but British conventions have struggled with this in the past – last year’s Kapow Comic Convention was widely criticised for not having any females on the guest-list, to which Mark Millar at the time responded:

“The reason the comic guests are mostly male is because the biggest names in UK comics are male.”

Well, this year’s Thought Bubble Convention currently has a guestlist of ten female creators and eleven males (with that slight disparity being caused by Paul Cornell, ironically!) in total. And joining the previously announced Ming Doyle, Emma Rios, Robin Furth, Annie Wu, Isabel Greenberg, Becky Cloonan, Fiona Staples, will be Jordie Bellaire (a colourist, at a convention?!), Hope Larson, and Emma Vieceli. 

So… I think that pretty effectively shuts down Millar’s argument, eh?

Also just announced are Paul Duffield, Declan Shalvey, Antony Johnston, and Francesco Francavilla. A full guest list can be found here.

TweetHello and welcome! We are starting a weekly art thingy and have -rather thoughtfully- set it for Friday, that interminable day where the weekend is within touching distance and yet you still have to be at work. Hence, pretty and cool stuff that will help tide you over- forget words, just feast your eyes. This [...]

TweetIf you somehow didn’t know it already, then this is breaking news for you: this year marks the 50th anniversary of the longest running science fiction TV show in the world: Doctor Who. Long-running in some cases might mean plodding, but not in this case. The Doctor’s recent incarnation, actor Matt Smith, became the first [...]