Continuing their growing line of deluxe reprints of classic comics, IDW and Archie Comics are teaming to put Riverdale’s daffy teens into IDW’s Library of American Comics. PR below:
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. The newspaper strip collections will be incorporated into the much-lauded Library of American Comics (Dick Tracy, The Complete Terry & the Pirates), helmed by Eisner award-winner Dean Mullaney.
Coming of age in post-World War II America, Archie captured the hearts of generations of children and adults. Archie and his friends remain hugely popular today, appealing to comic fans new and old with a blend of timeless stories and classic Americana style. Many popular comic book writers and artists cite Archie as their inspiration to work in the genre. Legendary comic book artist Neal Adams did his first professional work on Archie.
“We are incredibly excited to be working with Archie Comics,” said Greg Goldstein, IDW’s chief operating officer. “There are very few comics as influential in popular culture as Archie, and we are looking forward to offering original, never-before-reprinted strips and a wealth of comic book material to fans.”
In addition to reprinting original strips by series creator John Goldwater and original artist Bob Montana, IDW will also present Best Of volumes that showcase the work of Archie artists, such as Montana, Dan DeCarlo, and Stan Goldberg. “Archie has had so many talented artists throughout its history, each with their own take on the characters,” said Goldstein. “We want to offer fans the best from each of those eras, especially since much of this material has not been in print since its original publication.”
“We are thrilled to be partnering with IDW Publishing on these important historical works. IDW is well known for their outstanding work and we look forward to working closely with the team at IDW to create a line that all past, present and future Archie fans will enjoy,” commented co-CEO Jon Goldwater.
IDW will also publish special collections of Archie’s Madhouse and Archie as Pureheart the Powerful, a comedic super hero series that ran during the 1960’s. Award-winning creative director and editor Craig Yoe will oversee many of these special volumes.
Interesting. Both are distributed to the trade by Diamond Books.
IDW designs and markets the books, which would have a separate identity from the Archie Comics trades, which are mostly recent collections. (Archie does have the “Americana” series, but those were more reprint and less archival in nature.)
With Craig Yoe involved, it’s a win-win for both publishers.
These are going to be a lot more interesting than people think. With Craig Yoe along, we can be assured of a great product.
And Josie…?
The Montana newspaper strips are notable for being the longest, best run of material using these characters in one venue (a collection from the ARchie books at any era would be uneven–clunkers made their way into even the best issues) . People will be surprised how great a cartoonist (as and artist and a writer) Montana was. These should be pretty great books.
And people complain about female anatomy in superhero comics! Betty is seen in profile (actually you can see both her arms from behind so she’s actually turned just a bit away from the camera) but her breasts are somehow seen from a frontal 3/4 view. Funny how Archie’s gotten away with stuff over the years that Marvel and DC would get killed for ; )