Archie Andrews has been in the news lately with the announcement of his upcoming marriage (schedule to hit the stores in August). Over the years there have been a number of great reprints of vintage Archie material from the 1940’s to the present. Most notable among these are the “Americana Series” books that reprint Archie and the Gang stories from several decades. These books are still available and can be found at Amazon and other online retailers.
I was interested to read a press release yesterday from Archie Comics and IDW that an entirely new series of “deluxe” reprints will be available in 2010. Apparently, IDW will reprint classic Archie comic book and newspaper strips in hardback and trade paperback formats. They have not told us exactly what we will see in these books, but it appears we will see material from the 1940’s to the present. I’ve always been a fan of Archie and the Gang, so I welcome this new effort to reprint bits and pieces of classic Archie material.
From the press release:
In addition to reprinting original strips by series creator John Goldwater and original artist Bob Montana, IDW will also present Best Of volumes that showcase the work of Archie artists, such as Montana, Dan DeCarlo, and Stan Goldberg. “Archie has had so many talented artists throughout its history, each with their own take on the characters,” said Goldstein. “We want to offer fans the best from each of those eras, especially since much of this material has not been in print since its original publication.”
IDW will also publish special collections of Archie’s Madhouse and Archie as Pureheart the Powerful, a comedic super hero series that ran during the 1960’s. Award-winning creative director and editor Craig Yoe will oversee many of these special volumes.
I covered Archie in the 16th episode of the Golden Age of Comic Books Podcast in 2005.
