Links: Archie Dies, Fraggle Rock Rises Again

The death of Archie Andrews was in the news this week, as it occurs in this month’s issue of Life With Archie, which is out today. That doesn’t mean Archie is going away, as he dies only in Life With Archie, in which the Riverdale gang are all in their 20s; teenage Archie will continue his pratfalls in his monthly comic and comics digests. If you’re curious about the issue, there’s a preview and a review by Matt Santori-Griffith at Comicosity.

More on Archie: At Comichron, John Jackson Miller traced the sales history of Archie comics and notes that the flagship title, Archie, is the longest-running comic ever that has not been renumbered. The chart looks grim—Archie sales are way down from their peak in 1968, the year the Archie cartoon debuted on TV and The Archies released “Sugar, Sugar,” but those little digests have taken up a lot of the slack.

Henry Chamberlain has the details on Uncle Grandpa, the latest Cartoon Network series to be adapted into comics form by the BOOM! Studios folks.

Jimmy Gownley sits down for a lengthy interview with Whitney Grace about his life and work, including his series Amelia Rules and his new graphic novel The Dumbest Idea Ever, which is based on his own experiences as a teenager.

Papercutz editor-in-chief Jim Salicrup talks about why he loves his job and what we can expect next from Papercutz, which publishes a variety of children’s graphic novels from the Lego Ninjago series to Classics Illustrated.

Archaia is planning a new Fraggle Rock mini-series; previously, they did an anthology of Fraggle Rock short stories and republished the 1980s comics put out by Marvel. The new series will have a single story arc that runs across four issues and will be written by Kate Leth, who has worked on the Adventure Time and Bravest Warriors comics and illustrated by Jake Myler, who worked on the earlier Fraggle Rock anthologies and also was the artist of Undertown, one of the Tokyopop OEL manga.

More news from Archaia: They will launch a new Spera series, titled Spera: Ascension of the Starless.

Previews

Adventure Time: Banana Guard Academy #1 (CBR)
Angry Birds #2 (CBR)
Archie #657 (CBR)
Betty and Veronica Annual #224 (The Mary Sue)
Sonic the Hedgehog #262 (Comicosity)

Reviews

Sterg Botzakis on The Beats: A Graphic History (Graphic Novel Resources)
Drew McCabe on vol. 1 of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (Comic Attack)
Drew McCabe on Roy of the Rovers (Comic Attack)
Sterg Botzakis on Shackleton: Antarctic Odyssey (Graphic Novel Resources)

Filed under: All Ages