Archie - Review - FA Online

Archie 616 & 617

Alex Simmons is in the wrong job. Judging from the evidence in these two issues, he could make a lot of money as a spin doctor for America’s Republican Party.

This themed issue looks at four successive April Fools’ Days in the life of Riverdale High’s premier prankster, Reggie Mantle. Each story is by a different artist/writer combo, each a little different from the Archie ‘house style’ – retaining enough of the characteristic flourishes so that the characters remain on-model, but still giving a slightly different flavour to each tale.

The Best of Dan DeCarlo/The Best of Stan Goldberg

These two oversize hardbacks reprint material from various Archie titles each concentrating on the work of a single artist. The reproduction is excellent and the colouring, based on the original guides, very sympathetic to the glossy paper.

Archie Firsts

This is a handsome hardback, with good reproduction, containing reprints of early Archie stories; a precursor to an already announced series of Archive volumes collecting Archie strips chronologically.

Veronica 202

It was with surprise, and not a little scepticism, that people heard the news that Archie Comics would be introducing their first openly gay character in Veronica #202.

Sabrina the Teenage Witch 58-100

Before Tania Del Rio became writer and artist, Archie Comics’ Sabrina title had been featuring the same sort of short stories as all of the other titles featuring the Archie Riverdale characters. The most important thing that Del Rio did was to tell a larger story over forty-two issues, something unusual anywhere, let alone at Archie.

Tania Del Rio

This interview is with writer/artist Tania Del Rio, whom Archie Comics Publications entrusted with the task of giving one of their most popular properties, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, a daring new manga-style look.

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