In this excerpt, everything you wanted to know about Betty Cooper — and MUCH MORE…
Hard to believe, but there’s never been an Archie Encyclopedia — until now.
Coming Sept. 28, Archie Comics will be releasing a full-color, 304-page paperback that brings you info on all things Riverdale — from page to screen and back again, across more than 80 years. Cool, right?
“This Archie Encyclopedia has been a dream project of mine for many years, and the team’s work is nothing short of amazing,” Archie Editor-in-Chief Mike Pellerito said. “All your favorite characters like Archie, Jughead, Betty, Veronica, Sabrina, and Josie, and all the different universes from Little Archie to Archie Horror universes are here, including new fan favorites like Kevin Keller, Stacy Banks, Eliza Han, and Amber Nightstone.”
Jamie L. Rotante, Archie’s senior director of editorial, added: “The idea to do an encyclopedia of everything Archie came many years ago; this has been something Mike’s been wanting to do and had been working on in the background for some time. It’s just such a large undertaking that it was always difficult to get up and running. During the lockdown, we took some time to really think about it and figure out a plan for how to make it work. I went through and made a quick list of all the characters we could include and built a rough schedule, and from there it came to life.”
Well, I know you can’t wait to see it, so here we have an EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW, featuring the entire Betty Cooper section (she’s my favorite character in the Archieverse) as well as other selected pages.
Dig this:
“The work of Jamie Rotante, Vin Lovallo, Kari McLachlan, Steve Oswald, Cathy Koehl, Ian Flynn, and super-fan-turned-pro Gillian Swearingen is unbelievable, and I couldn’t be happier,” Pellerito said. “We can’t wait for fan reactions to find out who we might have missed and whom they wish to see more of. This is such a beautifully designed book with a great new cover by Dan Parent; a fun spotlight on hundreds of your favorite characters. I hope people love it.”
“Something Mike really emphasized was the voice of this book—sure, it’s information-heavy and an encyclopedia, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun!” Rotante explained. “This is still comics, after all! Mike wanted the tone to be fun and conversational, similar to the narrative voice employed in milestone titles like 75 Years, 75 Stories, and 80 Years, 80 Stories. I took a jab at the first few characters—Archie, Betty and Veronica—and once we were happy with how it sounded, the writing team used that as a guide moving forward. It was a lot of fun seeing the research and history of these characters re-contextualized with modern sensibilities.”
Whoa. Even Clyde Didit and the Madhouse Glads! Well, that should certainly give you a real taste of what to expect — blasts from the past and present.
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The Archie Encyclopedia lists for $19.99. It’ll be available at your local comics shop or favorite bookseller.
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MORE
— FIRST LOOK: ARCHIE COMICS’ Classic Christmas 2022 Line Launches in November. Click here.
— FIRST LOOK: Four More ARCHIE CHRISTMAS COMICS Coming in December. Click here.
September 23, 2022
Wow! I never would have thought of this idea but I will be first in line to buy a copy!
September 26, 2022
Having a baby in my life means book buying… or ANYTHING buying… that isn’t food or clothing has been put on the backburner. (Probably until close to when I die…) But this looks so fun, I might have to splurge a bit!