Adding to their slate of classic comics reprints, Dark Horse is set to publish the Archie Archives, hardcover reprints of every Archie story starting from the very beginning, starting early next year. According to Dark Horse publisher Mike Richardson, the series will run indefinitely. “The first story, some readers may not recognise the style,” he told The Beat. “It evolved quite a bit after that, but even the earliest stories are fun to look at and read.”
The books will be in the hardcover, dust jacketed format used for other Dark Horse reprints such as Tarzan.
Richardson said he’s looking at reprinting other Archie characters, as well.
In addition, Dark Horse is also putting out more material from the Harvey Comics historical archives, with a Casper 60th Anniversary Special Edition, a hardcover reprinting of the very first Casper story. Dark Horse has already published several collections of Harvey characters, including Richie Rich and Hot Stuff, and more is on the way. Richardson said he’s happy to put out more material for younger readers, and this classic material has been well received by kids and collectors alike.
Is it just me, or did IDW announce that they had acquired a license for these properties about two weeks ago?
The IDW deal was for the newspaper strip. This is a very interesting twist on that.
Casper! More Casper! Yay!
The Press Release said:
“IDW Publishing is proud to announce a partnership with Archie Comics to reprint some of the property’s most iconic stories in deluxe hardcover and trade paperback editions. Under the agreement, IDW will reprint sequential newspaper strips for the first time, offer multiple collections of the very best Archie comics material from the past seven decades, and add to the brand’s digital presence.”
I suppose the terms are vague enough so that they might only apply to the newspaper strips, but you can see where the confusion comes from…
Ooh, I can’t wait for them to get to Sabrina. I wonder how long it will take them to get to the TV series-induced relaunch– those were my first comics.
You and others might be interested in this history of Sabrina, by Archie Comics archivist Paul Castiglia. The first SABRINA series began in 1971; the relaunch happened in 1996.
ARCHIE comics were some of the first comics I read. A cousin kept her copies at her grandfather’s house. I read SAD SACK comics before I ever read any superhero comics, but that’s because I didn’t buy them, either.
SRS
Yes!!!!! Woo-hoo!!!!!
I dunno. IDW’s press release said something about collections of Pureheart the Powerful and the other Archie heroes, as well as artist-centric collections, so it seems as if they plan on reprinting the comic books as well.
With Archie Publication still around, this seems kinda weird. O.o
Here’s text from the Archie Comics press release:
Dark Horse’s more comprehensive project will apparently include material that is mainly of historical interest.
SRS
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