After a perilous year or so which included a surprise hiatus of its flagship title after 78 years and the sudden death of its long-time editor-in-chief, Archie Comics has announced what it says will be the beginning of the future for the publisher.
It all begins under a new lead editor for the company, Jamie L. Rotante. Rotante was recently promoted to senior director of editorial, which will have her in charge of all new comics and graphic novel content, as well as working with various licensors taking the Riverdale characters into other mediums.
Rotante's first title in this new role will be the anthology one-shot Chilling Adventures in Sorcery #1 this November. A sequel to 2020's Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Presents Madam Satan one-shot by Eliot Rahal and Julius Ohta, this new anthology special will see Archie's queen of Hell becoming a story host akin to Twilight Zone's Rod Serling or What If…?'s Uatu the Watcher to tell stories from across the Archie multiverse..
"This horror anthology is the perfect love letter to both classic Archie tales and the more modern stories," Rotante says in the announcement. "The genre lends itself to have a timeless appeal to audiences and I believe that plays a factor into the excitement for Archie horror comics."
Rahal is returning for Chilling Adventures in Sorcery, joined by two other writers - Amy Chu, and Evan Stanley. The artists involved are Vincenzo Federici, Derek Charm, Evan Stanley, Pat and Tim Kennedy, Matt Herms, and Jack Morelli. Julius Ohta is back to draw the primary cover, with veteran horror artist Francesco Francavilla tapped for a variant cover.
"The future of Archie Comics starts here…" reads Archie Comics' marketing for this horror anthology, and Rotante says that anthology one-shots is something she plans for the company to do more of going forward.
"Working in this format gives us the chance to tackle a variety of genres and collaborate with exciting new talent and long-time favorites simultaneously," says Rotante. "We can't wait to share more news soon!"
News already shared is two Sabrina the Teenage Witch ongoing series coming up - the first is a resumption of the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina with issue #9, and the other is a continuation of the Netflix TV series titled The Occult World of Sabrina.
The publisher has no news to share on any plans for resuming its flagship Archie series, which went on hiatus in July 2020 with Archie #713.
Chilling Adventures in Sorcery goes on sale on November 3.
You may not think it, but Archie has become known for great horror in comics - in fact, they have a story on our recommended best horror comics list.
