Afterlife with Archie #2
By Robert Aguirre-Sacasa (w), Francesco Francavilla (a)
Archie Comics

Liz says: I finally got around to reading both issues of Afterlife With Archie this week, and I absolutely love it. Not in a ‘my, that-was an enjoyable-read’ sort of way; more a ‘ranting-about-it-for-the-rest-of-the-day-to-anyone-within-hearing-distance’ type way. I was suddenly astonished that every single customer wasn’t buying it.

Okay, so I was late to the party with this book myself and for reasons that may resonate with anyone else who may not have added it to their pull list. For starters, I’ve never been a massive Archie fan. At first glance, I thought it was going to be really silly and jokey and tongue-in-cheek, a sort of satirical cartoony bloodbath. That’s totally not what it turned out to be.

Writer Robert Aguirre-Sacasa is a lifelong Archie fan. His love for the characters shines through on every panel of every page. The story was carefully plotted and surprisingly plausible, from the catalyst of a zombie apocalypse in Riverdale to the ways each character behaves in reaction to it.

And then there’s the art. Nobody could have drawn this book but Francavilla. These are the best interiors of his I’ve seen since his work on ‘Detective’, and that’s saying something! Francavilla does horror so well it’s… scary? (sorry, I had to). It looks fantastic. All in all, I can’t say what a great surprise this was to discover and be able to recommend. It’s just the right blend of Buffy-esque high school horror/comedy, with that same great energy and sense of fun. It doesn’t matter if you’re an Archie fan; you will be after this!