![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
[059] Do or die, baby!
Hello, friends! Pull up a seat, I wish to rap with you guys about something. It's something that I have come to feel very strongly about in a very short amount of time. Normally, this is the sort of drivel I'd spew on Twitter, but 140-character increments simply cannot the breadth of these feelings. They are, as the kids say, srs bidness.
I would like to tell you all about the best current mainstream comic that you are (probably) not reading. Not long ago, if you had asked me what my favourite ongoing title was, my answer likely would have been either The Walking Dead or X-Factor, depending on which was having a slow month at the time (because as much as I love them both (which is a copious amount, you guys should totally be reading The Walking Dead at the very least), they totally have slow months). That is no longer the case, as after mainlining 16 fantastic issues, I have something to look forward to even more every month.
Life With Archie.
Hear me out.
I wasn't expecting all that much when I checked out issue #16 from curiosity over all the gay wedding hubbub and that Million Moms debacle that ensued. A little blandly endearing acceptance, probably, mixed in which the typical antics that kids have loved for generations, only the gang are adults now, I guess.
What I got, however, was something completely different. 48 pages of dense, interweaving storylines putting these characters through the goddamn emotional ringer is what happened instead. Well, and a little blandly endearing acceptance as well, to be fair. But this is not just some goofy joke strip; this is Archie meets Dallas meets Fringe.
Oh, did I not mention there's a long-running plotline involving parallel universes, traveling between them, and correcting the course of history? Because that... that's a thing. Basically, "What the fuck is Dilton up to?" is the new "What's in the hatch?"
Since I am now apparently in full-on pimping mode for this series, I might as well go all-out. A few selling points!
The Premise: Remember all that kerfuffle a couple of years back about Archie marrying Veronica? And then after, they did another story where he married Betty instead? And it was kinda neat in an "ow, my nostalgia" kind of way and that was that? Life With Archie is the ongoing saga of both of these futures, with each issue being split evenly between the two timelines. It's both kind of fucked up and totally awesome. Two comics in one, basically, both sharing most of the same characters living radically different lives. Frankly, it's pretty goddamn genius, if complicated at times, because things overlap. The same events tend to occur in both worlds, only differently, and consequences tend to ripple outward, so remembering exactly where characters stand from issue to issue requires you to pay attention, which just makes it all the more rewarding as things play out.
Not Your Parents' Riverdale: Actually, no, I take it back, this is your parents' Riverdale, and that's what makes it work. If this was just some dark, dramatic version of Archie, that would be one thing, interesting (like this awesome hilarious thing I saw the other day, you should go watch it; it's cool, I'll wait here) but ultimately dismissible as some weird gimmick. The gang is growing up, so they're dealing with adult problems and occasionally ending up in horrifically depressing situations as a result, but they're still the same characters in the same universe (although I guess it's a multiverse now). No swearing, no sex, the same iconic Archie art style and goofy pop culture references -- it's just the nature of the stories that's changed. Even in Riverdale, those first few years out of high school make a huge damn difference.
Bang for Your Buck: As I mentioned earlier, these puppies are 48 pages long. That's two 24-page stories in every issue, which is nuts in today's world of ever-decreasing page counts. And they are dense. This isn't some current decompressed piece of shit that you can read in five minutes with nothing happening for six issues, and in that respect, it's very old-fashioned. It's also ridiculously satisfying.
Relatability: Just as most Archie comics for the past 70-odd years have portrayed candy-coloured versions of the trials and tribulations of being a teenager, so too does Life With Archie dress up and then tackle the issues plaguing young 20-somethings of today. However, there aren't really a whole lot of ways to make those problems funny, so you end up something surprisingly hard-hitting. I can't speak for anyone else, but when it comes to things like Archie and Betty struggling to pay rent...
...Cheryl lying to cover her failed ambitions...
...or a peaked-in-high-school Reggie fighting to keep his dignity while pulling himself together from being a deadbeat...
...this is shit that I can relate to. Now. And it makes their victories and failures mean that much more.
Batshit insanity: And hey, if all that is a little too real for you, there are always the awesome insane soap opera elements to string you along. Death! Disappearances! Proposals! Betrayal! Politics! Intrigue! Romance! Reality television! Mr. Lodge turning into a straight-up supervillain!
And whatever the fuck Dilton is up to! Seriously, you guys. This shit. Is. Bananas.
Okay, I think I've said all that I wanted to say.
In Conclusion: If you like comics, soap operas, ridiculous shit, and/or nostalgia bombs, you should give Life With Archie a shot. I fucking adore it, even if I sort of feel like a crazy person for doing so. If you actually read all this, then I assume you're either somewhat interested or really keen on humouring me, and in either case, just ping me and I'll hook you up.
No regrets~
I would like to tell you all about the best current mainstream comic that you are (probably) not reading. Not long ago, if you had asked me what my favourite ongoing title was, my answer likely would have been either The Walking Dead or X-Factor, depending on which was having a slow month at the time (because as much as I love them both (which is a copious amount, you guys should totally be reading The Walking Dead at the very least), they totally have slow months). That is no longer the case, as after mainlining 16 fantastic issues, I have something to look forward to even more every month.
Life With Archie.
Hear me out.
I wasn't expecting all that much when I checked out issue #16 from curiosity over all the gay wedding hubbub and that Million Moms debacle that ensued. A little blandly endearing acceptance, probably, mixed in which the typical antics that kids have loved for generations, only the gang are adults now, I guess.
What I got, however, was something completely different. 48 pages of dense, interweaving storylines putting these characters through the goddamn emotional ringer is what happened instead. Well, and a little blandly endearing acceptance as well, to be fair. But this is not just some goofy joke strip; this is Archie meets Dallas meets Fringe.
Oh, did I not mention there's a long-running plotline involving parallel universes, traveling between them, and correcting the course of history? Because that... that's a thing. Basically, "What the fuck is Dilton up to?" is the new "What's in the hatch?"
Since I am now apparently in full-on pimping mode for this series, I might as well go all-out. A few selling points!
The Premise: Remember all that kerfuffle a couple of years back about Archie marrying Veronica? And then after, they did another story where he married Betty instead? And it was kinda neat in an "ow, my nostalgia" kind of way and that was that? Life With Archie is the ongoing saga of both of these futures, with each issue being split evenly between the two timelines. It's both kind of fucked up and totally awesome. Two comics in one, basically, both sharing most of the same characters living radically different lives. Frankly, it's pretty goddamn genius, if complicated at times, because things overlap. The same events tend to occur in both worlds, only differently, and consequences tend to ripple outward, so remembering exactly where characters stand from issue to issue requires you to pay attention, which just makes it all the more rewarding as things play out.
Not Your Parents' Riverdale: Actually, no, I take it back, this is your parents' Riverdale, and that's what makes it work. If this was just some dark, dramatic version of Archie, that would be one thing, interesting (like this awesome hilarious thing I saw the other day, you should go watch it; it's cool, I'll wait here) but ultimately dismissible as some weird gimmick. The gang is growing up, so they're dealing with adult problems and occasionally ending up in horrifically depressing situations as a result, but they're still the same characters in the same universe (although I guess it's a multiverse now). No swearing, no sex, the same iconic Archie art style and goofy pop culture references -- it's just the nature of the stories that's changed. Even in Riverdale, those first few years out of high school make a huge damn difference.
Bang for Your Buck: As I mentioned earlier, these puppies are 48 pages long. That's two 24-page stories in every issue, which is nuts in today's world of ever-decreasing page counts. And they are dense. This isn't some current decompressed piece of shit that you can read in five minutes with nothing happening for six issues, and in that respect, it's very old-fashioned. It's also ridiculously satisfying.
Relatability: Just as most Archie comics for the past 70-odd years have portrayed candy-coloured versions of the trials and tribulations of being a teenager, so too does Life With Archie dress up and then tackle the issues plaguing young 20-somethings of today. However, there aren't really a whole lot of ways to make those problems funny, so you end up something surprisingly hard-hitting. I can't speak for anyone else, but when it comes to things like Archie and Betty struggling to pay rent...
...Cheryl lying to cover her failed ambitions...
...or a peaked-in-high-school Reggie fighting to keep his dignity while pulling himself together from being a deadbeat...
...this is shit that I can relate to. Now. And it makes their victories and failures mean that much more.
Batshit insanity: And hey, if all that is a little too real for you, there are always the awesome insane soap opera elements to string you along. Death! Disappearances! Proposals! Betrayal! Politics! Intrigue! Romance! Reality television! Mr. Lodge turning into a straight-up supervillain!
And whatever the fuck Dilton is up to! Seriously, you guys. This shit. Is. Bananas.
Okay, I think I've said all that I wanted to say.
In Conclusion: If you like comics, soap operas, ridiculous shit, and/or nostalgia bombs, you should give Life With Archie a shot. I fucking adore it, even if I sort of feel like a crazy person for doing so. If you actually read all this, then I assume you're either somewhat interested or really keen on humouring me, and in either case, just ping me and I'll hook you up.
No regrets~
no subject
no subject
Goddamnit.
no subject
Also, Ed Brubaker's Criminal: Last of the Innocent is basically 'Archie as criminal,' complete with Archie art-style flashbacks in which they talk about sex and drugs. As dramatic versions of Archie go. XD
no subject
no subject
no subject