Sunday, September 25, 2011

Archie: Freshman Year, Book 1

Archie and the gang seem to have been in high school forever, but this book tells the tales of their early days in that institution. It explains how Mr. Weatherbee managed to be their elementary and high school principal, and it also introduces us to the the teachers and students of Riverdale High. We see the start of many conventions, including Moose and Midge's relationship and the Betty-Archie-Veronica triangle. There is even some drama after Jughead is forced to move when his father takes a new job, and the older students make life unpleasant for the newcomers.

The comics in this book originally were published serially as five issues. The story was written by Batton Lash, famous for his long-running series Wolff and Byrd: Counselors of the Macabre. He also wrote the unlikely yet extremely satisfying team-up Archie Meets the Punisher as well as a number of Radioactive Man adventures from Bongo Comics. Bill Galvan, known for his work on The Scrapyard Detectives, provides art in his variation on the classic Archie style. He explains his work on this book in this interview, and this interview with Mark Haney also touches on the future of this series.

Archie: Freshman Year
has been a success as a comic book and an Apple app. A number of positive reviews of it can be found at Goodreads.

A preview of this volume can be found at Comixology. A preview for the upcoming sequel can be seen here at the School Library Journal blog.

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