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In a manner of speaking.

LIFE WITH ARCHIE, the imaginary time line showing a grown up Archie married to Betty and Veronica in rival imaginary storylines, will end in issue #36 (magazine style) and #36 and #37 in the comic. And as long as you’re ending an imaginary story you might was well have an imaginary death, too, right? According to a press release, Archie will die heroically saving another, as this death of Captain America-type bloodied cover shows. The bereaved memories will take place in the second part of the story.

“We’ve been building up to this moment since we launched LIFE WITH ARCHIE five years ago, and knew that any book that was telling the story of Archie’s life as an adult had to also show his final moment,” said Archie Comics Publisher/Co-CEO Jon Goldwater in a statement. “Archie has and always will represent the best in all of us—he’s a hero, good-hearted, humble and inherently honorable. This story is going to inspire a wide range of reactions because we all feel so close to Archie. Fans will laugh, cry, jump off the edge of their seats and hopefully understand why this comic will go down as one of the most important moments in Archie’s entire history. It’s the biggest story we’ve ever done, and we’re supremely proud of it.”

It is a little sad that this Archie couldn’t life a long full life full of grand kids and AARP and Metamusil but…that’s how the comic book cookie crumbles.

A trade collecting the entire story, by Paul Kupperberg, Pat & Tim Kennedy and Fernando Ruiz, will soon follow.

And of course there will be a gallery of elegiac covers by Francesco Francavilla, Fiona Staples, Ramon Perez, Walt Simonson, Jill Thompson, Mike Allred, Cliff Chiang, Adam Hughes, Tommy Lee Edwards and Alex Ross. That you can see right here!

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13 COMMENTS

  1. Tears in my eyes, and I haven’t even read the thing, just looking at most of the variant covers triggered the waterworks.

  2. That’s crushing–no happy ending for Archie in either life. I’m glad that ARCHIE COMICS is taking this road–they’ve made some really significant books these past few years and they’ve all been groundbreaking without straying far from their source material. From his first interracial romance, to a new gay character, to zombie fighting, to alternate choices in life & death, all of their books stay true to the Archie Universe characterization, and they still keep their core books with their wholesome world unchanged. Kudos to the ARCHIE COMICS crew. Someone should tell DC and Marvel how to make alternate universes and keeping ideas fresh without changing the ideals and core of their characters like the Archie books.

  3. Wow, so now not even Archie is safe from a cheap-heat kill off the protagonist event. So when do we meet his more dark and edgy replacement that’s not your daddys Archie?

  4. @MattComix – Sounds like blind cynicism to me. Of course, they’re going to get some press around it and get some fine artists to make some really tempting covers for the story, but I wouldn’t call it a “cheap-heat kill off the protagonist event.”

    Also, they won’t be replacing Archie, he’s only dying in these alternate timelines. But if you mean a dark and edgy Archie title, well they already have that. It’s the one where Jughead is eating people.

  5. @Hufnage. I was joking. I don’t actually expect them to replace Archie with a gun-armed cyborg or have Reggie Mantle’s consciousness controlling Archie’s body or whatever. The various covers and hype just immediately put me in mind of those kinds of events that the big two go to the well on far, far too often which was surreal given that it’s Archie.

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