Afterlife With Archie Volume 1

Afterlife With Archie Volume 1

Afterlife With Archie is written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, art by Francesco Francavilla, letters by Jack Morelli and published by Archie Comics. When I think of Archie Comics the first thing that comes to mind isn't usually Zombies, black magic, death, incest, sex and violence but that is exactly what Afterlife with Archie delivers in a spectacularly gory fashion.

The comic begins with Jughead desperately racing his beloved dog, Hot Dog, to Sabrina after Hot Dog was hit by a car. Jughead hopes to use Sabrina's magic to heal Hot Dog but it is too late as he has already died from his injuries. Sabrina, moved by Jughead's grief, uses forbidden magic from the necronomicon to bring Hot Dog back to life. Hot Dog does come back to life but not as the same lovable dog he was before, biting Jughead when he tries to greet him. Like all good zombie stories this bite ends with much more than a simple tetanus injection. The consequences of the Jughead's zombie dog bite becomes shockingly apparent at the big school dance the next evening.

The art of Afterlife With Archie is incredibly different from anything you'd expect from an Archie comic, be it classic Archie or the recently rebooted Archie. Afterlife is reminiscent of a Noir Film with a lot of emphasis on shadows, angled panels toned with blue, red or yellows. Afterlife manages to be extremely violent without showing much violence leaving the most gruesome details to the readers imagination.

The thing that makes Afterlife so different from any other Archie comic (besides the zombies) are the characters. while the characters personalities are mostly intact, Archie being the brave hero, Veronica the spoilt rich girl, Betty the sweet girl next door and Jason and Cheryl still trying to make trouble for the gang, a lot about the characters have been made much darker. Some of these changes include Betty and Veronica, usually good friends in the Archie comics, are now bitter enemies, it heavily implies that twins Jason and Cheryl have an incestuous relationship, friends Ginger and Nancy are hiding a secret homosexual relationship with each other with a few love triangles thrown in for good measure.

What is it with weird twins?

Archie comics have done strange crossovers such as Archie vs Predator, Archie meets the Punisher Archie vs Sharknado but usually keeps its happy go lucky tone, Afterlife throws that sugary sweet tone completely out the window from the first page setting it completely aside from any other Archie comic. Afterlife with Archie will be a hit with anyone who is a fan of post apocalyptic stories or zombie stories but may lose more traditional Archie fans due to its dark tone and reworking of the characters.

I give Afterlife with Archie 4 out of 5 Zombie Jugheads

Find out more about Afterlife with Archie here.