From Afterlife of Archie to Jughead: The Hunger, horror and Archie Comics go hand in hand. Now you can add to that rather robust list with the forthcoming Archie Comics: Judgment Day.
Set to scare readers on May 22, the story (from writer Aubrey Sitterson and artist Megan Hutchison) sets Archie Andrews on a daring quest to cleanse an alternate version of Riverdale that’s been overrun by demons. Judgment Day also introduces the new Archie Premium Event branding, which will designate upcoming Archie stories that are bigger than a single one-shot release. More horror for your comics-buying buck? A deal so nice it’s nearly terrifying.
To peel back the curtain on Judgment Day, I recently asked Sitterson and Hutchison what we’re in for with Archie’s latest spook-tastic adventure. Does Judgment Day go for the jugular for all the true horror fans out there? What kind of demons are killing it in this series? And what badass level does Archie reach? Read on for more!
Courtesy of Archie Comics.
AIPT: For the Archie fans out there, do you have a favorite run or miniseries, be it recent horror stuff or classic tales?
Aubrey Sitterson: It’s hard for me to pick out a specific run because what always appealed to me most about Archie were the digests. It’s a combination of the format – accessible anthologies with distinct takes on archetypal characters and stories – and their ubiquity.
Megan Hutchison: Hi David! I absolutely adore Afterlife with Archie. I was introduced to it a few years ago and couldn’t put it down. The violence, the action, the characters we all know and love! And it gets so wild! It feels like the classic ’80s horror movies I grew up with.
AIPT: Judgment Day is a horror book, but from what has been revealed so far, it sounds like it’s primed to make Archie a total badass. Am I off-base with that assessment?
AS: Judgment Day is a very different book from what else is on the racks and that’s a conscious choice with buy-in from the highest levels. Megan and I were specifically commissioned to bring you something intense, mean, and viscerally upsetting, inclusive of an Archie that is unlike any you’ve ever seen: vicious, ruthless, and, yes, totally badass.
MH: You’re right on base! Archie is a total badass, but not in the way you’d expect. We’re doing a lot of wild and weird things with Archie that I know people are going to like. There are also some characters that are going to show up as badass in different ways. But yes, without revealing too much, Archie is covered in monster blood most of this run.
Courtesy of Archie Comics.
AIPT: How did this Judgment Day project kick off? What was the starting idea that spun into this cool concept?
AS: Archie editor supreme Jamie Rotante reached out asking whether I’d be interested in doing a book that dramatically and drastically reimagines Archie Andrews as a demon hunter. It was a serendipitous thing, as it provided an outlet for a lot of reading I’d been doing, which I elaborated on during an extended conference call with the broader Archie team. After extensive discussion of how densely woven the book’s thematic work would be, in combination with the storytelling approach we used on Archie vs the World, everyone was on the same page.
MH: I’ve done covers for other Archie series and was contacted by Vincent Lovallo about doing this project with the word “horror” in the email subject line, so I was in 1,000%. I’m known as a horror artist, so being approached to work on a project with characters I grew up reading was a dream.
AIPT: This is the first Archie Premium Event book. How does it feel to kick off this new line?
AS: I’m so grateful to Archie for providing me the opportunity to do so much genre exploration; it’s one of my favorite things, especially when given free rein over a toybox full of iconic characters. As such, it’s even more of an honor that they recognize that we’re striving for something smarter, more complex, and more challenging and have created a brand-new publishing initiative in order to best present it.
It’s part and parcel with the approach I’m bringing to my comics work these days, one that eschews the overwhelming contemporary tendency to view comics as little more than motionless, soundless teleplays broken into pages and panels. Instead, we endeavor to create – first and foremost – an object of visual art and design, one meant to be held in a reader’s hands and that rewards those willing to study and ruminate on it.
MH: Are you kidding me?! This is unreal! It has been so amazing to work with Aubrey and the whole creative and editorial team. When I get notes back to “make it more violent” and “put more blood in it,” you know it’s going to be good. This has been a surreal bucket-list project to work on. The story is amazing, the colors are incredible, the lettering is spot on, and the editorial team behind it is so passionate. This is a powerful project to start a new line and I’m honored to be a part of it.
Courtesy of Archie Comics.
AIPT: Megan, we adore your covers regularly in our Judging by the Cover column. What’s it like to design demons and put Archie through his paces?
MH: First, thank you for all your support! This has been so much fun. Everyone on the project has been so supportive of letting me go wild with the demon designs — and there are so many of them! I pulled influences from horror movies, manga, and heavy metal album covers. But it’s not just the demons that have been the highlight of drawing this book. There are some new horror elements that Archie has to deal with that I think readers are really going to dig.
AIPT: Aubrey, I understand this is your first horror comic. Have you changed your approach to the work due to the different genres?
AS: This being my first horror comic is shocking but more a function of circumstance than any conscious choice. The truth is, while I have my favorites, to be sure, I’m a fan of genre as a concept. I love genre conventions and the opportunities to riff off of, tease, deliver on, and subvert them; it’s an approach that, if undertaken conscientiously, works for any genre.
What’s new about my process on Judgment Day are the formal considerations to which I alluded above; it’s a continuation of what people saw in Jed Dougherty and my Archie vs the World, an approach that we’re further elaborating on in our next, currently unannounced project. I could write volumes on it, but it comes down to prioritizing thematically rich page design, subordinating everything else – plot, character, dialogue, etc. – to ensuring that every single page turn reveals a spread that conveys meaning so rich and dense that it could only be revealed by a piece of visual art worth luxuriating in. At the outset, Megan and I talked extensively about how to play to our respective strengths while achieving this lofty goal; Judgment Day is the result.
Courtesy of Archie Comics.
AIPT: I don’t know why exactly, but the covers revealed so far remind me of Ash from Evil Dead, so I must ask, your Archie vs. Ash, who wins?
AS: If Megan and I are doing it? The readers.
MH: Archie all the way. When he becomes singularly focused, not even a chainsaw arm would stop him. But really, I think they would be friends — fighting back-to-back against evil!
AIPT: If Judgment Day was a song, what would it be and why?
AS: Nobody does creeping, oppressive, hazy, thunderous dread like an Electric Wizard. I’d have to go with their “Funeralopolis” for its absolutely demented build and ecstatic apocalyptic prophesizing.
MH: I listened to a lot of Black Metal when I was doing the layouts for this book, which is appropriate, I think. But to boil it down to one song, I would say “Run” by Zeal & Ardor — hard, fast, and metal as hell!
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