Archie Comics Is Getting Its Boldest Revival Yet since ‘Riverdale’, and I’m So Here for It
Archie Comics has been a staple of our popular culture for decades, whether through the brightly-colored and lighthearted comics, the genre-bending horror titles like Afterlife with Archie and The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, or the indescribable art that was The CW’s Riverdale. And now, the franchise is headed into a new era.
Over the weekend, the publisher announced an unprecedented collaboration with Oni Press to publish new comics and graphic novels based on Archie’s iconic roster of characters. The initiative will also include a massive effort to reprint previous Archie titles, in formats like compact digest editions, deluxe hardcovers and omnibi, and comprehensive box sets. In 2027, it will also span into original middle grade and young adult graphic novels, which will be set in their own accessible continuity for new readers.
The line of monthly comics will launch in 2026, to coincide with the 85th anniversary of Archie’s first appearance in 1941’s Pep Comics #22. It will be overseen by Oni Press Editor-in-Chief Sierra Hahn, with additional contributions from both the Oni and Archie teams. A new Archie series will launch in September of 2026, written by W. Maxwell Prince (Ice Cream Man, Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum) with art by Fábio Moon (Daytripper, Casanova) and Nick Cagnetti (Spirit of the Shadows, Pink Lemonade).
It will be followed in October by Sabrina the Teenage Witch by Corinna Bechko (EC Comics’ Blood Type, Green Lantern: Earth One) with art by Kano (EC Comics’ Cruel Universe, Gotham Central), and Archie in Hell by Patrick Horvath (Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees, Free for All) and Tyler Crook (Out of Alcatraz, Harrow County) in November.
This sounds perfect!
As a comic reader, I have witnessed some of Archie’s modern evolutions in real time. The buzzworthy series of the late 2010s, followed by the cultural attention brought on by Riverdale and The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, both felt like a moment. But in recent years, Archie’s publishing output has been a little scarce, outside of digests, the odd seasonal anthology, or one-shots like Tom King and Dan Parent’s brilliant Archie: The Decision.
That scarcity would have led me to be excited for any new effort to publish more Archie books… but every new detail about this partnership with Oni honestly sounds incredible. The creative teams for the new ongoing books are inspired choices, and I am particularly excited to see how Prince and Horvath bring their evocative writing styles to this world. And the idea of getting new collected editions, especially in an age where DC Compacts, DC Finest, and a slew of omnibi are upping the ante every month, is so exciting to me.
In a statement tied to the announcement, Hahn said that the two companies are “hoping to forge an All-Star Superman moment for Archie’s brilliant constellation of characters.” Using Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s iconic DC miniseries, which carried the spirit of Superman and his world firmly and ambitiously into the 21st century, as a touchstone has me sold. September 2026 can’t come fast enough.
(featured image: Archie Comics)
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