Afterlife with Archie #1 Review

What started as a variant cover for Archie Comics has spread like zombie virus into a full series.

In Afterlife with Archie #1 Jughead’s dog, Hot Dog, gets run over by a car. He asks Sabrina the Teenage Witch for help but her Aunts, Hilda and Zelda, inform him that they can’t heal the dog because it’s already dead. Sabrina feels sorry for him so she resurrects Hot Dog using the Necronomicon, the Book of the Dead. The dog comes back looking like something out of Pet Sematary. A dog bites turns Jughead, who appears at the school dance in what his friends assume is a zombie costume.

What’s really scary is Sabrina’s punishment by her aunts, who transform into hideous creatures that make zombies look good. They magically seal her lips and banish her to the Nether-Realm for a year of silent reflection as she witnesses the consequences of her actions.

It’s a very adult comic and not just because of the violence and gore.

Veronica debates whether to go to the school dance as a sexy witch or a sexy gypsy, which is basically what she wears every day according to Betty. Just using the word “sexy” is a big departure for the family friendly Archie comics. She ultimately decides to go as a sexy vampire, specifically Vampirella. Her version of the costume is slightly more modest but it still shows a lot of cleavage.

The letters page “Afterwords with Archie” features a Q & A with writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and artist Francesco Francavilla, who reveal that it doesn’t look good for the rest of Riverdale.

“At this point, I’m doing my best to keep them from all being zombified,” Aguirre-Sacasa explained.

Francavilla added, “Pretty sure we are gonna cover them all by the time we are done with this ;)”