Adding to their Archie Horror line, Archie Comics will be launching a continuing series spinning out of March’s “Jughead: The Hunger” one-shot. We loved the one-shot and have been rooting for an ongoing, so consider us excited! The series will feature the same writer, Frank Tieri, and will have a new art team in Pat and Tim Kennedy. Especially when taking into account the irregular release schedules of the other two Archie Horror titles, “Afterlife with Archie” and “The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina,” the monthly “Jughead: The Hunger” will be a welcome addition to the line.
We recently got a chance to talk to series writer Frank Tieri about what to expect from the book. We were also given the exclusive first look at both the regular and variant covers for the second issue of the series, due in November. Read on for the interview, and make sure to check out “Jughead: The Hunger” #1 on October 27!
Did you have a plan for a series when you wrote the one-shot?
Frank Tieri: Well, if you remember, when the one shots were announced by the good folks at Archie, they said they would act as pilots if successful. So with that said, we knew that a) we had a good product on our hands and b) since fans dig Archie Horror stuff, we had a pretty good idea that we’d be a hit.
So yeah, we were not without plans to do more… and I think you can see that in the one shot. Seeds were sown there that we’ll absolutely be picking up on in the series. For one thing, there’s the whole backstory of the Jones werewolf legacy and the Coopers chasing them throughout history. We’ll [definitely] be playing with that — the notion that Jug and Betty are not alone. That this is bigger than them, that they’re not the only shows in their respective towns, so to speak.
And fans can expect us to pick up where we left off in the one shot, as well. It may be a few months later but we’ll find Jug is on the run and Betty and Archie are hot on his tail. But as it turns out, they’re not even the biggest threat to our favorite hamburger lover. Something is brewing in Riverdale, something that may prove to be Jug’s greatest threat yet… and I’ll leave it at that.
Will this take on a tone more similar to “Archie vs Predator,” where the classic upbeat Archie universe coexisted with the horrific Predators, or to the initial “Jughead: The Hunger” one-shot, which stuck strictly to horror?
FT: Look, we’ll be taking the “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach to this bad boy. I mean, what you’re suggesting is like going to a restaurant, ordering steak and they give you tofu instead. Well, that’s not what the fans ordered. So yeah, they can expect the same dark tone, same level of violence, same black humor. They wanted steak and goddamnit, steak the fans will have.
The artists on the ongoing series, Pat and Tim Kennedy, have a vastly different art style from Michael Walsh, who did the one-shot. How has this change in artists changed the way you’re writing the series?
FT: Honestly, not at all. Look, it would’ve been great to get Michael on this but he’s busy being world famous now after the awesome job he did on our one shot together (You’re welcome, Michael! Where’s my cut?). So like I said earlier in the previous question, yes, we may have different artists now, but we still intend to give the fans what they liked about that one shot. And we think the Kennedys can do that.
What dimension do you think this title adds to the “Archie Horror” line?
FT: I think more than anything, we’re a classic monster book — and Archie Horror may have witches and zombies, but they don’t really have that. I’m a big Universal Monsters guy—Frankenstein, Dracula, Creature from the Black Lagoon — and I think our book fits right in there.
