Archie Comics has announced the latest entry in their successful horror line. Chilling Adventures Presents…Betty: The Final Girl is a new anthology one-shot featuring a trio of stories that imagine Betty Cooper as the lone survivor of a slasher story. The three terrifying include “Rosemary’s Babysitter” by Micol Ostow & Laura Braga, “Be Mine or Die” by Casey Gilly & Natalie Nardozza, and “Melody’s Next” by Sam Maggs & Carola Borelli. Matt Herms and Jack Morelli color and letter the issue, respectively.
Here’s how Archie describes Chilling Adventures Presents Presents…Betty: The Final Girl:
Veronica has invited Betty to her luxurious mountaintop chalet for a cozy weekend of skiing. But their girls weekend is interrupted when Archie shows up and whisks Veronica off on their own snowy romantic adventure. What could go wrong at a fancy remote cabin in the mountains all by herself? Betty’s mind races and she can’t tell fact from fiction as she suddenly realizes she might not be so alone. Is Betty believing too much in the horror movies she’s watched, or is someone (or something) really out to get her? Find out in this BRAND NEW horror anthology one-shot that‘s equal parts Scream and When a Stranger Calls.
In a statement announcing the new one-shot, Ostow and Archie Comics Senior Director of Editorial Jamie L. Rotante elaborated on how Archie’s iconic girl next door is a natural fit for the Final Girl trope:
“I’m a diehard horror fan, and I’ve been obsessed with how seamlessly Archie’s been able to integrate different styles, levels, and aesthetics of spookiness into their Archie Horror library,” Micol said. “And while I don’t have *one* favorite scary movie or book, I’ve always been a sucker for the ‘final girl’ trope. It hit me that Betty would make a fantastic final girl: blonde, kick-ass, capable!”
“When Micol Ostow first pitched the idea of doing a ‘final girl’-style story with Betty as the eponymous final girl, I was immediately interested; the idea of a ‘final girl’ is so synonymous with horror that it would be silly NOT to do it,” said Archie Comics Senior Director of Editorial Jamie L. Rotante. “Every good teen/college horror flick utilizes that idea, so fitting it into the Archie universe was a lay-up. In keeping with our practice of horror anthologies, we also wanted to have there be more than one ‘final girl,’ so, the final girls of Betty, Brigitte, and Melody all came into play!”
The issue sports covers by Braga and Megan Hutchison, and Archie Art Director Vincent Lovallo described the process of putting the covers together:
“When considering the covers for BETTY: THE FINAL GIRL, we kept in mind the survival themes of fear and dread. Laura hit the mark perfectly with the eerie atmosphere of the forest, the frightening figure in the distance, and a battle-bloodied Betty who’s prepared to face the unknown. And from Betty’s bewildered expression to the neon-like glow of the surrounding demons, Megan’s variant creates an air of uncertainty; which horrors are real and which are fake?!”
Check out Hutchison’s variant cover for the one-shot below. Chilling Adventures Presents…Betty: The Final Girl #1 is due out in stores and digitally on Wednesday, February 15th, 2023.
