Archie will die a hero’s death in July – at least in one of the many comic book series bearing his name.
CNN: Can you explain the “Life With Archie” series for the uninitiated?
Goldwater: “Life With Archie” is Archie’s future — it gives readers a look into what his life would be like after high school and college, which has never really been explored. Most fans are familiar with Archie as a high schooler, hanging out at Pop’s Chocklit Shop with his friends. “Life With Archie” shows what happens when Archie becomes an adult and starts dealing with grownup issues.
Each issue is normally split into two storylines — one telling a tale of Archie married to Veronica another with him ending up with Betty. The final issue, however, will show readers Archie’s final fate in both timelines — and they’re the same.
Anyone else tired of the “let’s kill off the main character” story-lines that is so prevalent in comic books these days?
UPDATE: Scott Stantis of the Chicago Tribune expresses the same opinion as me, but in a nice video format.
Is he going to turn into zombie? Maybe it’s the prelude:
http://afterlifewitharchie.com/
Yet another example of the broken business model whereby comic books attempt to cling to the same actual audience rather than working to appeal to the same demographic.
It’s more starkly apparent in newspapers, where the actual audience is sliding from the 55+ to the 64+ demographic and from there into the sunset, but selling comic books to 30-somethings is just as much a case of diminishing benefits.
Archie could appeal to the same age group it always appealed to, just as Superman could have. But that would involve working on genuinely new product for older kids, and then more new things as they transitioned into adulthood ….
Never mind, let’s just screw around with the thing we already have, until we’ve massaged it into something that nobody wants.
I guess they could just change the book title to “Death With Archie.”
If Archie were to reflect a modern high school student he’d be on Facebook and 4chan on his smart phone all day not hanging out at the malt shop.