Mark Waid Gives "Archie" a "Blank Slate Fresh Start" with Relaunched Series

[Hypestyle]

just make it a fun series. Will they show how young Forsythe becomes "Jughead"?

What grade will the gang be in when the series starts? Freshmen? Sophomores?

[gurkle]

I've always been put off by the anachronistic sensibility that seems to permeate through Archie.

Archie does have an anachronistic sensibility, but it also was in some ways the most timely comic on the stands. Its readers were very fashion-oriented, so the artists always tried to keep up with the latest fashions and incorporate the latest fads. So if you read Archie comics from a particular decade, you can usually see the changes in clothes and hairstyles reflected much more accurately than in a lot of more "grown-up" comics, which often go for a more timeless look. I hope they can get some artists who understand that and don't try to keep everything looking timeless.

As for reflecting the way teenagers act or talk, it doesn't really matter. Archie was never for teenagers, it was for young children who wanted to imagine that that's what high school would be like. That's why it never mattered that Pop Tate's place is an anachronism or that Riverdale is an old-fashioned place; as long as the clothes were cool and the girls were pretty and the gags were funny, kids would enjoy it, and by the time they were actual teenagers they'd have moved on to something else.

[skyvolt2000]

I've always been put off by the anachronistic sensibility that seems to permeate through Archie. Perhaps I finally have a reason to read the comic!

I wouldn't say that. I think it was more of a case of we know our audience and we want to play it safe without alienating anyone.

They have always updated with the times in certain situations. There were topics that they took the high road on.

[skyvolt2000]

just make it a fun series. Will they show how young Forsythe becomes "Jughead"?

What grade will the gang be in when the series starts? Freshmen? Sophomores?

I would say Freshman.

[Confuzzled]

Waid: "We've no intention of going "dark" or serving an adults-only audience. That's cheap, that's easy, and anyone can do it. Literally, any chimpanzee with a keyboard can write, "Issue One, Page One, Panel One: Establishing shot, the fetid boys' room of Riverdale High. Jughead pukes into a toilet, a heroin needle still dangling from his vein." Not interested."

This is so spot on. Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. Explicit and extreme and even 'real' in all the worst, most rancid ways of sensationalism is not more mature or more complex by nature. Quite often it's the opposite and it's harder and more rewarding to craft something complex and meaningful without just resorting to all of that.

So true. My love for MW keeps growing. I'm excited to see his take on the Riverdale lot.

[chongjasmine]

I enjoy mark waid's daredevil. Hope he will be good with this archie comics as well.

[hunter_peterson]

Had no interest in Archie, was interested in Afterlife but never read it for some reason. This relaunch is the perfect opportunity for me to stick my head in and have a good look. And the creative team is dynamite! As long as Staples isn't delayed for Saga, this will probably be great.

[ekrolo2]

Am I the only one who hates Fiona Staples' art?

I don't like it much either so no you're not. Nor do I particularly foam at the mouth over Saga.

[tedbragg]

Archie has always stood out with its distinctive visual style. Their wide audience ain't gonna go for this.

[gurkle]

Archie's wide audience doesn't read the monthly comics, it reads the digests. Those have kept Archie afloat since newsstand sales declined in the '70s.

And in the digests, they'll still have the familiar Archie art style and 6-page stories.

[fumetti]

As for reflecting the way teenagers act or talk, it doesn't really matter. Archie was never for teenagers, it was for young children who wanted to imagine that that's what high school would be like.

Which is why I don't understand this reboot. The target audience doesn't read comics.

The actual audience, nostalgic adults (buying for themselves or their kids), stand a considerable chance of being put off by the "edgier" themes. Seems likelier that they'll lose more than they'll gain in the long run.

[Dispenser Of Truth]

Don't worry Mark. From now until the end of time, no one is ever going to be as much of an old guy as Bob Haney.

[Lee Stone]

Which is why I don't understand this reboot. The target audience doesn't read comics.

The actual audience, nostalgic adults (buying for themselves or their kids), stand a considerable chance of being put off by the "edgier" themes. Seems likelier that they'll lose more than they'll gain in the long run.

If they don't read comics, it could be because comics aren't made for them.
It's kind of a catch-22.

One could say they didn't watch tv either. Until CW came along.

I am curious if Archie's last attempt at modernizing Archie was well received or not.

[gurkle]

Which is why I don't understand this reboot. The target audience doesn't read comics.

The actual audience, nostalgic adults (buying for themselves or their kids), stand a considerable chance of being put off by the "edgier" themes. Seems likelier that they'll lose more than they'll gain in the long run.

Well, the violence and edginess of "Afterlife With Archie" has been very successful. So there actually is a market for Edgy Archie.

But I don't think the point of this reboot is to make Archie edgier or more adult, just to make it funnier and more appealing to people who shop at comic stores. As Waid said, his model is the Golden Age Archie comics, which have more comic violence and slightly "edgy" gags, but certainly nothing that would have made them inappropriate for children.

[ultimate jezebel]

You might be. She's fantastic.

Yeah, i like her, she did the cover to my Rat Queens #1 Variant.