Talking ‘Archie Comics: Judgement Day’ With Aubrey Sitterson And Megan Hutchison

Archie Andrews has always been Riverdale’s golden boy. That might be about to change, however, in writer, Aubrey Sitterson, and artist, Megan Hutchison‘s, upcoming Premium Event series, Archie Comics: Judgement Day. With colors by Matt Herms and letters by Jack Morelli, Judgement Day is Archie Comics’ first miniseries in years. To understand why, check out this interview with Sitterson and Hutchison below:

Rachel Bellwoar: In your newsletter, Aubrey, you wrote about how Archie Comics’ Senior Director of Editorial, Jamie Lee Rotante, approached you with the idea of doing a story about “Archie as a demon hunter.” Was that your experience, too, Megan, and what about that idea made you both want to sign-on?

Aubrey Sitterson: Everyone at Archie has been incredibly trusting and supportive as I’ve probed the boundaries of how far you can take an Archie book without it ceasing to be one. Archie as a demon hunter, with even more freedom to get strange, dark, intense, and push the Archie concept to its absolute breaking point . . . it was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.

Megan Hutchison: Oh, hell yes! “Demon Hunter” was in the email subject line when Jamie and Vincent [Lovallo, Archie Comics art director] asked me about availability for the project. I have worked with Archie before and would sign onto anything of theirs (because they’re the best in the biz and everyone loves Archie) but when they pitched me on the project I was so amped! Archie? Demons? Violence? Blood? I’m in!

Bellwoar: Recently Archie Comics has been releasing a lot of one-shots and anthologies. As someone who’s done both (the one-shot, Archie vs. The World, and the anthology, The Best Archie Comic Ever!, with Jed Dougherty), what was it like having more issues in which to tell this story, Aubrey, and was Judgement Day always planned as a miniseries?

Sitterson: You mentioned Archie vs. The World. That book received rave reviews but with one universal complaint: There should have been more. Well, Archie listened, with a return to the miniseries format and the Archie Premium Event treatment both part of their original pitch to me. The idea came from a desire to afford the creative team the room to create something more complex, challenging, and meaningful than can be accomplished in shorter formats, with an approach to packaging and design that’s every bit as thoughtful. Naturally, it’s incredibly exciting to have room to stretch out and enormously gratifying that Archie chose us for this exciting new presentation.

And, because I know people will ask: I stand ready, willing and able to return to Archie vs The World with my brother-in-arms Jed Dougherty. We’ve been getting our reps in on our next, currently unannounced creator-owned book and it’s an approach that would transition exceptionally well to the Archie Premium Event format.

Bellwoar: Archie talks a lot about destiny in the first issue. Is he right to be so certain that destiny’s to blame for his current path?:

Hutchison: I will let Aubrey speak to that from a story point but I will say that when your destiny takes on a corporeal form, it’s kind of hard to ignore it.

Sitterson: Characters that are so iconic as to be archetypes, characters like the residents of Riverdale, this is the interesting thing about them, right? Their personalities, characteristics, likes and dislikes have been established – in many cases – for decades; their destinies have already been written. In most cases, these predictable idiosyncrasies and predilections are mined for comedy, typically through exploring how the reversion to type expresses itself in different contexts. In Judgement Day, however, we’re going for something else entirely: Tragedy, specifically the tragedy of being locked into a destiny because of choices you’ve already made.

Bellwoar: While we get some clues in your art, Megan, about how the end of days started in Riverdale, not everything is spelled out. Will that continue to be the case or is how less important than whether Riverdale can survive this current plight?

Hutchison: The end of days starts with Dilton Doiley modeled after Jack Parsons (Aubrey’s brilliant idea) experimenting in his garage. Read into that as you will. I’m a big Jack Parsons fan, mostly because I’m super into the occult, but it’s up to the reader to determine what that means. Neither Aubrey nor I will spell out anything for the reader; this is a horror movie, you are in it. But we are hiding stuff in the pages. As for Riverdale, she gets beat up pretty badly, as do most of the characters in the book. I cannot tell you if she survives, but she has been around for 80+ years so I think she has a fighting chance.

Sitterson: On a very basic, foundational, formal level, comics is about what is left out; all of the action happens in the gutter, in the minds of the readers. Thus, in recognition that anything a reader conjures up for themselves will carry more emotional heft, it’s the cartoonist’s mandate to evoke as much as they can, in as visually spectacular a manner as possible. Megan nails that approach throughout the series, but especially on that early spread you’re referencing.

My approach takes this formal thinking about comics even further, extending it to plot and character as well, such that a reader can be rewarded for ruminating upon the work, finding additional meaning as they discover its themes for themselves. Everything you need is on the page, and everything you conjure up around it is true.

Bellwoar: Usually cameos are fun to spot but here a cameo appearance can mean your favorite character’s been taken out by demons (like in the incredible spread from the preview art). Is there more freedom in a Premium Event Series to be less precious about which characters survive and do you have a favorite cameo appearance so far (or one that you can share)?

Sitterson: Archie commissioned us specifically to push things as far as we can, to present a vision of Archie unlike any that had come before but that remained Archie in what was essential. While I’m wary of giving any kind of spoilers, I can say this: Absolutely no one is safe.

Hutchison: There are a ton of cameos in this book. It’s also been fun taking these characters and turning them into demons. Let’s just say we haven’t had to worry about the continuity of characters surviving. That being said, Pop Tate is my favorite cameo and nothing bad happens to him, I promise 😉

Bellwoar: With his letterman jacket, Archie is very much the All-American hero. Did you always have a clear idea of how you wanted your Archie to look in this series?

Hutchison: Working on Archie’s look with editorial was a really fun time. They had a pretty solid idea of what they wanted but they wanted me to have fun with it and inject my weird, witchy, goth aesthetic to it. We had a few iterations going from the normal to the wild, but I think we landed in the sweet spot. Although Archie is in my style, he’s still the good-ole American teen with his freckles and red hair, BUT let’s just say we were able to mess with that image quite a bit.

Sitterson: Archie’s appearance is actually an important part of the Judgement Day narrative in ways that will become increasingly clear as its progresses; how he appears in each scene is utterly crucial to the thematic exploration on which we were embarking. Fortunately, Megan showed up with a bevy of appropriate fashion choices, not just for Archie, but for the rest of our corrupted cast as well.

Bellwoar: Thanks for agreeing to this interivew, Aubrey and Megan!

Archie Comics: Judgement Day #1 goes on sale May 22nd from Archie Comics.