Monday, January 6, 2014

Best Issue of 2013: AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE #1

I suppose you could be sick of zombies by now...but when a zombie book/film/show is done right, it can be insanely creepy and totally entertaining. This issue was both. The reason it was creepy and unsettling in a sense is because Archie and Jughead and Betty and Veronica and the crew from Riverdale are as innocent and carefree as can be. "Let's fuck up their world!" is not really something anyone has probably ever said (unless you're, like, evil). When a zombie outbreak occurs in their world it's not just a gimmick, it's something fresh and new. Writer Roberto Aguire-Sacasa (a play write and Glee writer) does a terrific job at creating a realistic way that a zombie outbreak would happen in this world (how many zombie movies or TV shows or comic books give a reason for the outbreak? NONE!). And the way he writes all of the characters makes it feel like a typical, gee-shucks Archie book except there's a sadistic undercurrent that bubbles up towards the end. The art, by Francesco Francavilla, is super-spooky and perfectly atmospheric. It's such a cool concept that it's almost a shock that it turned out as great as anyone thought it could've-should've-would've been.

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