Ten years ago Archie Comics radically reinvented itself. The comics publisher largely known for entertaining children would do a 180 and begin targeting adults. The DeCarlo house style was kaput; in its place was a more realistic, grown-up style and a rotation of professional writers. There would also be “Archie Horror” titles filled with gore and swearing to make it clear (perhaps too clear) that Archie “wasn’t just for kids anymore.” The children’s material would still survive, in the form of the supermarket digests. But at the comics shop it was a new world.
But as the years have gone on, that model has decayed. None of the titles from the 2015 relaunch have been seen in years. Months have gone by without a single Archie-branded title shipping to shops. Most recently, the collapse of Diamond Distributing seems to have curbstomped the majority of the supermarket digests, something that seemed invincible. Now Archie is announcing another reboot…but not through them, through Oni Press. Uh-oh.
In September of 2026, a new mainline Archie series will begin, written by Ice Cream Man’s W. Maxwell Prince and illustrated by Fábio Moon (Casanova). The following month, a new Sabrina series will launch, written by Corinna Bechko (Green Lantern: Earth One) and illustrated by Kano (Gotham Central), Finally in November I guess “Archie Horror” is still a thing because we’re getting Archie in Hell, written by Patrick Horvath (Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees) and drawn by Tyler Crook (Harrow County).
Following this, younger audiences will be targeted once more with a series of stand-alone middle-grade and YA graphic novels set in their own continuity; if you’re familiar with the YA books DC puts out with their heroes in similar roles, you’ll get the idea. Also there may be digests again, though that depends on your definition of one: classic material will be reprinted “in a new series of trade paperbacks, hardcovers, and box sets.”
Yeah, but what about the checkstand? I just wish Archie would stay the way it always was. I need those cornball characters smiling at me every time I go to buy a gallon of milk or three potatoes, just like they were when I was a kid. I wasn’t a fan of the previous reboot and I doubt I’ll be a fan of this one.
