Zombies come to Riverdale in new Archie series

If Archie thought dealing with Betty and Veronica was tough, he’ll soon be facing the undead.

Mamaroneck-based Archie Comics is launching a new ongoing series called “Afterlife with Archie.” For the first time, this company will place age-appropriate restrictions on its readership and cater to adults.

It was originally conceived as variant cover with our series ‘Life with Archie’, Steven Scott, director of marketing and publicity at Archie Comics, said. The company’s artist Francesco Francavilla did a play on the ‘Afterlife of Archie’ with a zombie motif, and one of our current writers Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa saw the cover with Francesca’s artwork and thought it could work as a series, he added.

“Afterlife with Archie” will hit the shelves Oct. 9 with plans to run as an ongoing series.

Francavilla, an Italian artist based in Atlanta, not only sketches but does all the inks and colors for the comic series. Last year, he won the Eisner Award as a cover artist. The Archie four-part series, “Archie Meets Kiss,” was under the banner of work he won the nomination for.

Aguirre-Sacasa, based in Los Angeles, is the writer of the TV show “Glee” and pitched Archie the idea for a recent series “Archie Meets Glee.” Aguirre-Sacasa will be the writer of the first-ever Archie Comics movie, which is scheduled to debut in the summer of 2015.

The business model of Archie Comics changed overtime to reach a global audience over the past 70 years.

“We had to completely re-brand ourselves and take advantage of the 70 years of goodwill that this company had achieved through its beloved characters,” Jon Goldwater, publisher and CEO of Archie Comics, said. “When I came in, Archie was doing things the same that it had done for the past 25 years and the business suffered for it. We have added new lines of comics. We have placed our books in stores that never before carried Archie. We took advantage of the opportunity in the digital arena, and we’ve expanded our global reach.”