Western Comics

So! Let's talk "Slice of life"
And I know what you're thinking; does that genre even exist in Western Comics?
What if I told you not only does it exists, but one such title has been ongoing since the 40's and has sold over 85 million copies?

Yes my lovely friends, for this first entry into the Western Slice of Life we are just going to glance at the tip of the iceburg comic empire that is:



Although he's gotten a few makeovers over the years, Archie Andrews and his pals have been strolling through the post ww2 decades as an ever shifting, cartoonish reflection of teen life. Capable of short slapstick gags or long running drama.
No lie, I'm a bit overwhelmed trying to figure out where to even start on this subject. I was born in a time when Archie was ever present in the background of my life. There was always at least one archie cartoon, although sometimes they would be kids, orin a bandand other times fighting werewolvesand that's not even touching on the rest of the archie-verse like Sabrinaor Josie, the later of whom would also go to fucking space.

Basically if you like something, anything, there's an archie comic, cartoon or tv show for you.
But before I get too caught up in explaining how, yes, they've done everything from being superheroes to joining the french foreign legion, let's talk about the switch from this:


to this:



As I mentioned early, Archie is no stranger to change but amidst all this change the "Archie Digest" books would always be running with their usual style and their short and sometimes baffling, uh, "jokes"




(Nothing in this scene is anything but surreal)

But the thing with this new style, this latest reboot, it was actually going to REPLACE the main Archie comics. For long time archie fans this was akin to DC announcing the death of Superman. So how did it do?
Well, in a word, fantastic. The reboot worn awards, brought in fans of the show and pumped new life into the franchise.
But of course, I wouldn't expect you to just take my word for it.
You know I made you a preview.

And in my person opinion? Well, like I said, I grew up with Archie so the normal books are still a bit too familiar to hold me long term, but the other new Archie titles like Archie 1941 break my heart in all new ways.


So that's uh, not even an intro to Archie really, but a small taste of the latest era in the long timeline of Riverdale's favourite Red Head.
I can return to this topic and expand more on it if people would like, but I'll probably post something a bit different next.

Before I leave you all to let this soak in, if you need something silly to brighten your day please google "archie out of context"
Almost every result is a winner.