High stakes, demons, and morals are thrown into question. The new miniseries starring the red-headed hero hailing from Riverdale is sure to send shivers down readers’ spines. To kick off its first Archie Premium Event in May, which will launch longer Archie stories rather than one-shots, Archie Comics has released the first issue of Judgment Day, with writer Aubrey Sitterson and artist Megan Hutchison at the helm. Matt Herms is the colorist while Jack Morelli is the letterer. Francesco Francavilla, Jae Lee, and Reiko Murakami contributed variant covers.
Judgment Day is Sitterson’s first horror comic and he revealed he felt quite a lot of pressure to “land on the right approach,” as he was not only working with Hutchison who was “steeped in horror tropes and aesthetics” but also Archie Comics. This approach, Sitterson continued, had to do two things: bring something new to the table for the horror fans of Archie but stay true to the characters’ roots as well as Archie Comics’ history in the horror genre.
“No matter what I’m working on, my process is always driven by and carried through in service of a single, all important consideration: the reader experience,” he said. During the process, he focused on identifying what they wanted to explore and then built the narrative around the visuals that would allow the readers to reflect on those themes.
“Every time a reader turns the page, they’re presented with something stunning, stopping them in their tracks, forcing them to engage with the material and rewarding those brave enough to dig in.”
You can check out the preview pages here:
The synopsis for Judgment Day #1 can be read below:
In a world overrun with demons, Archie Andrews is on a quest to cleanse Riverdale of all wicked-kind. Harnessing the destructive power of a captive fiend, he will have to destroy corrupted and possessed versions of the people closest to him. Questioning his own morality and forced to make difficult sacrifices, are Archie’s efforts truly good, or the work of pure evil?
The mini-series will run for three issues with the first issue of Judgment Day released on May 22. The 32-page issue is available for purchase at $4.99.
Source: Archie Comics
