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Archie Comics

Your eyes are not playing tricks on you: You’re looking at the updated version of Betty and Veronica. I first read about this on Kevin Church’s Beaucoup Kevin blog, and then located the official press release on Archie Comics website.

My first reaction was “Nooo! They’re messing with something from my childhood!” followed almost immediately with “Sheesh, it’s about time they allowed different art styles in the series!” Besides, the current incarnation of Archie and pals looks NOTHING like the original from the 1940s, so why not allow things to evolve a bit and try new things? It’s certainly a good bit more interesting in terms of art direction than their current approach of airbrushed-to-death covers.

Here’s a snippet from Newsarama’s forums:

The move [...] is a continuing experiment and exploration with the characters, showcasing not only their timelessness, but their adaptability as well.

The first of the “new look” Archie and company will appear in May’s Betty and Veronica Double Digest #151, in “Bad Boy Trouble” written by Melanie J. Morgan. In addition to the look, the stories themselves will change format, switching from short tales to fuller-length stories. As such the digests will contain four stories, spanning issues #151-#154 which will run 25 pages each, when fully told.

As for whether or not they’ll be updating storylines along with art and story length, time will tell. I rather doubt it, seeing as the series is still aimed at a young audience. In the long run, I’m not sure that this is going to make any big difference other than generate a lot of press for — Hey waitaminit!!

  • http://www.printfetish.com/ Ralph

    Bad idea. They are not not just updating the style – they are going from A style to NO style at all. Horrible drawings . My teacher Sal Amendola at SVA, who drew Archie in the 70′s, will be horrified.

  • http://www.printfetish.com Ralph

    Bad idea. They are not not just updating the style – they are going from A style to NO style at all. Horrible drawings . My teacher Sal Amendola at SVA, who drew Archie in the 70′s, will be horrified.

  • geoff

    Archie is suffering through horrible slew of artists trying to ape the Archie style (best defined by Dan DeCarlo, imho) and have failed miserably. This is a lateral movement at best. No wait, it’s worse.

    Didn’t Steven Butler draw Mike Baron’s Badger?

  • geoff

    Archie is suffering through horrible slew of artists trying to ape the Archie style (best defined by Dan DeCarlo, imho) and have failed miserably. This is a lateral movement at best. No wait, it’s worse.

    Didn’t Steven Butler draw Mike Baron’s Badger?

  • PhilippL

    I like the new style (in spirit), albeit it’s executed poorly.

  • PhilippL

    I like the new style (in spirit), albeit it’s executed poorly.

  • Sara

    Before everyone gets too upset, let me point out that the cover that’s posted here and all over the internet does not really reflect the interior art. Though the actual comic pages are being done in a more realistic style, but with a little more cartooniness and life than the cover. I think the interior art is more appealing than the cover, though I kind of doubt either is going to result in a lot of new regular readers for the Archie books.

  • Sara

    Before everyone gets too upset, let me point out that the cover that’s posted here and all over the internet does not really reflect the interior art. Though the actual comic pages are being done in a more realistic style, but with a little more cartooniness and life than the cover. I think the interior art is more appealing than the cover, though I kind of doubt either is going to result in a lot of new regular readers for the Archie books.

  • jimmyjrg

    Veronica basically looks the same but Betty looks really young. I can see them getting new fans as the style isn’t as ‘childish’ as the previous style, but The Archies were about their charm so it kind of kills it.

  • jimmyjrg

    Veronica basically looks the same but Betty looks really young. I can see them getting new fans as the style isn’t as ‘childish’ as the previous style, but The Archies were about their charm so it kind of kills it.

  • http://www.spacejack.org/ spacejack

    Yeah the thing about this strip is that it’s pure candy. You don’t read Archie to read a “realistic” teen soap. I don’t understand they’re thinking, with the cute Manga look being so popular these days.

  • http://www.spacejack.org/ spacejack

    Yeah the thing about this strip is that it’s pure candy. You don’t read Archie to read a “realistic” teen soap. I don’t understand they’re thinking, with the cute Manga look being so popular these days.

  • http://le-petit-doodler.blogspot.com/ lepetitdoodler

    BOOOO. The oldies were goodies…

  • http://le-petit-doodler.blogspot.com lepetitdoodler

    BOOOO. The oldies were goodies…

  • Fes

    Urgh…. I was a real fan of Archie when I was twelve (many many many moons ago). The older the pictures the better. They had sooo much character. My initial reaction to this cover is … yuk. How bland.

  • Fes

    Urgh…. I was a real fan of Archie when I was twelve (many many many moons ago). The older the pictures the better. They had sooo much character. My initial reaction to this cover is … yuk. How bland.

  • http://jamesburnsdesign.com/ jpburns

    Next they’ll be updating Peanuts, and have Charlie Brown become a quipping, skateboarding shredder with his own catch-phrase.

    Morons…

  • http://jamesburnsdesign.com jpburns

    Next they’ll be updating Peanuts, and have Charlie Brown become a quipping, skateboarding shredder with his own catch-phrase.

    Morons…

  • http://stormsillustration.com/ Patricia

    Sorry, but I guess I’ve been imprinted with the old, original style. Big thumbs down on this. But perhaps the new generation of kids will enjoy it, and I guess that who the creators are marketing to. But for me, these drawings lack character and life – there is no sense of the true Betty and Veronica in this picture. Would love to see what they’ve done to poor ol’ Jughead…

  • http://stormsillustration.com Patricia

    Sorry, but I guess I’ve been imprinted with the old, original style. Big thumbs down on this. But perhaps the new generation of kids will enjoy it, and I guess that who the creators are marketing to. But for me, these drawings lack character and life – there is no sense of the true Betty and Veronica in this picture. Would love to see what they’ve done to poor ol’ Jughead…

  • http://jeope.blogspot.com/ jeope

    Betty looks like Britney, and Veronica’s gone Goth. Can’t wait to see the new Jughead, tho’.

  • http://jeope.blogspot.com jeope

    Betty looks like Britney, and Veronica’s gone Goth. Can’t wait to see the new Jughead, tho’.

  • http://www.luclatulippe.com/ Luc

    Haha! You’re right Jeope! That’s pretty funny! And yes, what WILL they do about Jughead? And Big Ethel?? And Moose?? And Ms Beazly? And The Bee?? I fear the worst.

    It’s not a change in drawing style that will win over more readers, but this will be interesting to follow. It certainly won’t make me buy the comic, but then again I haven’t bought an Archie comic in years. Well.. OK, I did last summer when I was at the grocery checkout: I thought “Hey I used to love these! Howzabout a little trip down memory lane!” And I was wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. It was not the fun read from my youth. I mean, yes, it WAS the fun read from my youth. And I’ve grown up. I’m a 37 year old gay man who has ZERO in common with the Archies.

    Now, if Ronnie DID go the rebel Goth route, then you might have something intriguing!

  • http://www.luclatulippe.com Luc

    Haha! You’re right Jeope! That’s pretty funny! And yes, what WILL they do about Jughead? And Big Ethel?? And Moose?? And Ms Beazly? And The Bee?? I fear the worst.

    It’s not a change in drawing style that will win over more readers, but this will be interesting to follow. It certainly won’t make me buy the comic, but then again I haven’t bought an Archie comic in years. Well.. OK, I did last summer when I was at the grocery checkout: I thought “Hey I used to love these! Howzabout a little trip down memory lane!” And I was wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. It was not the fun read from my youth. I mean, yes, it WAS the fun read from my youth. And I’ve grown up. I’m a 37 year old gay man who has ZERO in common with the Archies.

    Now, if Ronnie DID go the rebel Goth route, then you might have something intriguing!

  • http://elnegromagnifico.blogspot.com El Negro Magnifico

    My mom worked at a hospital and used to bring Archie Digests back home for me to read. Looking at DeCarlo’s and Bob Montana’s work (yeah, they used to reprint the really early stuff in the 80s), I learned how to draw eyebrows!
    I can’t say I’m a fan of what I’m seeing here, but whatery’gonnado? If it fails, they’ll literally go back to the drawing board.
    I will say that they look disturbingly young. Like early teens compared to late teens. But hey, I’m no longer part of that demographic.

  • http://elnegromagnifico.blogspot.com El Negro Magnifico

    My mom worked at a hospital and used to bring Archie Digests back home for me to read. Looking at DeCarlo’s and Bob Montana’s work (yeah, they used to reprint the really early stuff in the 80s), I learned how to draw eyebrows!
    I can’t say I’m a fan of what I’m seeing here, but whatery’gonnado? If it fails, they’ll literally go back to the drawing board.
    I will say that they look disturbingly young. Like early teens compared to late teens. But hey, I’m no longer part of that demographic.

  • http://jedalexander.blogspot.com/ Jed Alexander

    Well, yeah. Basically a horrible idea, but Archie has been in a state of brain damaged suspended animation for years now. As I mentioned on another blog: what are they going to do next, give Little Archie, tits?

    But, you know, they’ll milk it for as long as they can make a buck. I still prefer the Lee Ditko Spidermans, and Lee Kirby Fantastic Fours. Everything that came after was just–not as good. As for Archie: for me its Bob Bolling Little Archie all the way. And I understand that Archie and gang looked different in the 40s, but the book didnt gel until Dan DeCarlo came onto the scene. Before that it was just a crappy Andy Hardy rip off.

    I saw a couple of interior pages of this new version, and its amazing to me how little it seemed related to what is essentially Archie. The Dan DeCarlo versions were a little cartoon language of their own, a language the new versions seem completely divorced from. Even the crappier stories of old were so instilled with that aura of ArchieBettyVeronicaness, that they nonetheless, were always old friends, even if the most recent versions of those old friends seemed as if they’d been dipped in polyurethane.

    So Betty’s fashion sense is some 8 year old with a beedazzler’s idea of how teenager’s should dress. Sort of like My Little Poney meets–remember Angel? That vigilante teenage hooker movie? And Veronica, the dominatrix we’ve always known her to be. Didn’t that Cherry Poptart guy already cover all this?

  • http://jedalexander.blogspot.com Jed Alexander

    Well, yeah. Basically a horrible idea, but Archie has been in a state of brain damaged suspended animation for years now. As I mentioned on another blog: what are they going to do next, give Little Archie, tits?

    But, you know, they’ll milk it for as long as they can make a buck. I still prefer the Lee Ditko Spidermans, and Lee Kirby Fantastic Fours. Everything that came after was just–not as good. As for Archie: for me its Bob Bolling Little Archie all the way. And I understand that Archie and gang looked different in the 40s, but the book didnt gel until Dan DeCarlo came onto the scene. Before that it was just a crappy Andy Hardy rip off.

    I saw a couple of interior pages of this new version, and its amazing to me how little it seemed related to what is essentially Archie. The Dan DeCarlo versions were a little cartoon language of their own, a language the new versions seem completely divorced from. Even the crappier stories of old were so instilled with that aura of ArchieBettyVeronicaness, that they nonetheless, were always old friends, even if the most recent versions of those old friends seemed as if they’d been dipped in polyurethane.

    So Betty’s fashion sense is some 8 year old with a beedazzler’s idea of how teenager’s should dress. Sort of like My Little Poney meets–remember Angel? That vigilante teenage hooker movie? And Veronica, the dominatrix we’ve always known her to be. Didn’t that Cherry Poptart guy already cover all this?