Sunday, March 28, 2010

ARCHIE & the GANG


Last week's Comic Twart subject was ARCHIE & his gang. Here's the piece I posted.

To be honest I was going to skip this week, as I didn't think I had any good ideas for the ARCHIE gang. Then it hit me, I could reinvent the comic as a prison drama :)

There's a made up back story here, and a bit of an expansion on Andy Kuhn brilliant piece. Teen age pregnancy caused Archie's life to start to slide into the wrong direction. Veronica, coming from a wealthy family, was pressured into an abortion. Betty gave birth to Archie Junior. Archie would have to skip college, and take menial jobs to get by. Reggie would rub it in every chance he got,



which would lead to a fight with Reggie. Archie would end up killing him in the process.

Jughead, not being able to bare the idea of his friend going to jail, tries to help Archie hide the body. When they're finally caught, both were given long jail sentences for Reggie's murder. In prison Jughead and Archie would expand on their volatile relationship.



Jughead would also come to understand his issues with women once in jail.



"Moose" Mason's size and clumsy strength would lead him to a career as a correctional officer, but the murder of Reggie would affect him on a personal level. He'd hold it against Archie, but would secretly envy his friendship with Jughead.



Betty, now a single mom, continues to pine for Archie while raising their son. Archie Jr. would begin to develop psychological problems from his father's incarceration, leading to overeating and an attraction to gangster rap music.

Veronica would finally move on and leave Riverdale, which was always too small for her anyway.



Unfortunately her past would follow her when the rumors of her hidden abortion would come to light, based on tips from an "anonymous informant".


It's all a very sad affair ;)

Best,
Mike

PS -I found these images on a cool blog called Bully Comics. Special thanks, and props, to Bully! :)

8 comments:

Winston Smith said...

Mike-

I'd be willing to pay serious money for the Archie in prison sketch. It's epic. I didn't see it when it posted, but the story I made up was somewhat close. It involved double murder because he couldn't take those bitches no more. And, of course, Jughead helped. Jughead, not being an alpha, went gay for the stay.

Alex Miller(Winston Smith is my super secret pseudonym)

Mike Hawthorne said...

Hey, Winston! * wink, wink*

Glad you dig the art. :)

Mike

Dan C said...

Archie meets Oz. Hilarious!(great drawing, too!)

Mike Hawthorne said...

Thanks, pal :)

Mike

davelevine said...

One word: awesome.

The picture is great but its the backstory (how you got there) that I am most impressed by. I love how you've taken this universe and tilted it just slightly and shown where things could lead. As with many comics, Archie often seems like a broken record, playing the same tune over and over again. But what if you fixed it or just changed the premise slightly? You might end up with what you've got here.

This also makes me think of one of those Twilight Zone-type stories where someone attempts to fix what they perceive to be a problem. Instead of making things better things end up worse than they were in the first place. I think they call it the butterfly effect. Whatever its called I think you did a great job taking some inspiration from Andy Kuhn's contribution and spinning it in your own special way.

Mike Hawthorne said...

Thanks, Dave. I do my best :)

Mike

Michael- said...

holy hawk-tits, my head just exploded. I'd still fight Archie in that world though - once a sissy, always a sissy... *pfft

Mike Hawthorne said...

HA! There's some logic to that ;-)

mike