Myles:
Archie’s brand renaissance continues this week with Chilling Adventures of Sabrina #3 by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Robert Hack, and Jack Morelli. As with Afterlife With Archie, this book is set in a darker world than what longtime residents of Riverdale are used to. However, unlike Afterlife with Archie or the zany insanity of Archie vs Predator, there’s not an ounce of novelty here. That’s no slight to either previously mentioned title, but what the creative team has done here is taken the stripped-down concept of Sabrina as a teenage witch who lives with her aunts (and yes, Salem, the talking cat) and removed all of the Sunday Funnies sitcom-style humor frrom it.
Morelli and Hack’s stunning painted artwork hammer this home brilliantly, complimenting Aguirre-Sacasa’s macabre story by presenting it as a legitimate classic EC comic. And it’s not just some kooky throwback darkness, or popping well known characters into a zombie apocalypse, this is a horror comic. Plain and simple. In #3, it’s the eve of Sabrina’s sixteenth birthday, and she has to make the decision to either accept her lineage as a witch by completing a ritual to gain forever access to the Dark Lord’s power, or turn her back away from it all to be a normal girl.
OK, that doesn’t sound too bad, right? Simple witch story. No. That’s Dark Lord in the classical sense. The kind one sacrifices goats to and who appears with a ghoulish cow skull instead of a normal face. This extremely serious take on Sabrina is another example of Archie understanding how to expand its brand in different and fascinating ways. It’s definitely not guaranteed to please the more PG oriented crowds, and it’s certainly not a children’s book, but it’s absolutely a good comic. With this, and the new wave of Archie comics coming out this year, I’d venture to say this is the most vibrant and inviting the Archie brand has ever been. If you’re a fan of horror, or enjoy serious/twisted takes on classic characters, Sabrina is your girl.
Patrick:
So this week came the much hyped and lauded release of Dark Horse comics’ “Fight Club 2” Issue 1 by Chuck Palahniuk and with art by Cameron Stewart and ink by Dave Stewart. We got a taste of what this series was going to be about on Free Comic Book Day and my appetite was officially whetted then, and today I am happy to report that the first issue delivered. This first issue wasted no time in introducing us to the man calling himself Sebastian that was once two people. Its a world that I remember fondly on screen and in book form that is fully realized here in comic book form.
One thing that struck me right off the bat about this issue is that it feels like condensed Palahniuk. I was worried that the transition from book to comic might leave something out, but it actually fits well in the visual medium in much the same way the book translated perfectly to the big screen. In this issue we get a few cinematic splash pages, a lot of great and obtrusive art covering character’s inner monologue (much like audio in a film overtaking the character’s dialogue), and we see the characters ten years on in a new status quo.
I think some people were a little depressed at some of the previews for this book because it sends the main protagonist seemingly backwards as he is once again a bland pencil-pusher that his alter-ego sought to liberate, but by the end of this issue that and a lot of the other introduced status changes are turned on their ear in a way that makes me intrigues to see what Palahniuk has to say about these characters over 20 years since he wrote the initial short story about a character letting go of a steering wheel and letting the car take us where it wants. I am buckled in next to Sebastian, Marla and Tyler for this ride and am eager to see where it goes. “Fight Club 2” is on stands today.
Drew: