'The Archies' To End in May

Archie Comics's The Archies will play its final notes in May, with a coda that books the titular band on a double bill with Josie and the Pussycats.

The series launched in October with an interesting gimmick: each month, the band would play a show as the undercard to a headlining act of real-world bands, making up a number of unlikely crossovers as they teamed with groups like Chvrches, The Monkees, and Tegan and Sara.

"When we jammed on The Archies one-shot, it was always in the hopes of having the book become an ongoing, so it was great to see the positive response that made it possible," said co-writer Alex Segura when the series was announced last year. "Adding real bands in the mix gives the series a must-read twist and opens the door for Matt, Joe and I to get our favorite bands into Riverdale."

Bringing in Josie and the Pussycats to close out the series seems like a fitting end: around the same time the aforementioned one-shot was released, The Archies appeared in the final two issues of Marguerite Bennett, Cameron DeOrdio, and Audrey Mok's Josie and the Pussycats ongoing series when it ended.

Segura, his co-writer Matt Rosenberg, and a variety of artists spun The Archies as a fun road-trip comic that took the band out of Riverdale and onto the road.

The Archies was one of a number of one-shots that Archie Comics tried last year to test the market for properties like Li'l Archie and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch series. While neither of those made it to series, both The Archies and Frank Tieri's Jughead: The Hunger did.

Jughead: The Hunger is a horror series that reimagines Jughead's bottomless craving for burgers as a flesh-hungry urge that comes to life when he is transformed into a werewolf by night. Like Betty & Veronica: Vixens and other recent hits Afterlife With Archie and The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Jughead: The Hunger is not canonical within the world of the Mark Waid and Ian Flynn-penned "New Riverdale" universe.

Back in Archie, written by Waid and Flynn and featuring the art of Audrey Mok, the band will continue to play, although it is most likely that The Archies (and Josie and the Pussycats, for that matter) will stick to the local scene a bit more.

You can see the solicitation text for the final issue of The Archies below.

THE ARCHIES #7


This is it! The band has reached the end of their tour. Are they ready to play the show Veronica booked for them way back in THE ARCHIES #1? Have they learned enough to open up for JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS? The hard rockin' conclusion to the beloved rock 'n' roll comic is here!
FINAL ISSUE.


Script: Alex Segura and Matt Rosenberg 

Art: Joe Eisma, Matt Herms, Jack Morelli

Cover: Greg Smallwood 

Variant Cover: Cliff Chiang, Fiona Staples

On Sale Date: 5/2

32-page, full color comic

$3.99 U.S.