Archie

I may not know much about Sonic The Hedgehog, but there's one interesting little piece of trivia about the comics that I am absolutely fascinated by. Despite the fact that DC has recently returned Action Comics and Detective Comics to their original numbering, placing them somewhere in the mid-900s, the core Sonic the Hedgehog comic stands at 285 issues and counting as the longest-running monthly American comic book that has not been rebooted,renumbered, or otherwise restarted. It's been on the stands every month since 1993! Throw in all the spin-off titles, and that means that there's a lot of Sonic content out there. So much so, in fact, that with Sonic Universe hitting #89 next week, there's enough Sonic content out there that the reprint-focused Sonic Super Digest is on its 17th issue. So why not celebrate the continued reign of a blue hedgehog who runs fast with a preview of both titles?

Archie and the gang have always had a pretty interesting relationship to music. I mean, "the kids form a band" is a pretty standard plot for virtually any story about teenage characters, but the Archies have the distinction of actually producing the real-life #1 single of 1969, coming in ahead of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, and Johnny Cash. That kind of accomplishment, even almost 50 years later, is going to shape how those comics work. So with that in mind, it's always a pretty big deal when Riverdale's favorite teens break out the instruments and start jamming, and in this week's Archie #11, Betty and Veronica are taking their rivalry to a whole new musical level. Check out the formation of the Ronnies and Betty and the Waves in a preview below!

The cast of the Archie titles are never too far from diving into something that goes far beyond the routine. They've been dropped into just about every weird genre there is, from soap opera drama to religious sermonizing to blood-soaked zombie horror. And then there was the time that the the regular core-universe Archie characters were hired by the government to go undercover and bring down a terrorist operation.

If there's one thing the folks at Archie do better than any other company in comics, it's making their back catalog work for them. I mean, I realize that not everyone is the obsessive Archie fan that I am, but if you did want to jump right in and get a survey of the entire history of the company, it's actually pretty easy to do so, thanks to stuff like the Pep Digital collections and the Archie 75 Series. And this week, the spotlight has fallen on Veronica Lodge. In Archie 75 Series: Veronica, you can get a look at the high points of the Veronica's ongoing series, from her world-traveling first story arc to the debut of Kevin Keller --- and while it's not in the preview, there's also a rare appearance from Marcy, Veronica's nerdy cousin. Sadly, she's no Cricket O'Dell, The Girl Who Can Smell Money, but we'll take what we can get.

The last time we talked about Sonic the Hedgehog, when the current "Panic in the Sky" storyline was just getting started, I mentioned my almost total unfamiliarity with the franchise. But as a potential new reader, one thing I can definitely appreciate is that even here, in the second part of a four-part story, they're still giving everyone identifying captions so that I can at least sort out the characters by name. Fortunately, it doesn't take a deep knowledge to get the basics: There's an attack by an evil army and Sonic's crew of good guys are falling out of the sky --- and someone's very upset that their computer's not working. Check out a preview!

The question most often asked of the ComicsAlliance staff is a variation of, “Which comic books should I be reading?” or, “I’m new to comics, what’s a good place to start?” The Wednesday deluge of new comic books, graphic novels and collected editions can be daunting even for the longtime reader, much less for those totally unfamiliar with creators, characters and publishers, and the dark mysteries of comic book shopping like variants, pre-ordering, and formats. It’s with these challenges in mind that we’ve created Best Comic Books Ever (This Week), an ongoing guide curated by the ComicsAlliance staff. This is where new comics readers and seasoned Wednesday shoppers alike can find our picks of the best books the medium has to offer.

The current Sonic The Hedgehog title by Ian Flynn, Aleah Baker and a host of amazing artists --- plus John Workman on letters! --- is one of the most fun all-ages titles on the stands right now and Archie has provided us with an exclusive preview of the third volume, "Waves of Change," which sees Sonic and the gang travelling the world looking for the mysterious Gaia Temples.

When the Betty & Veronica solicits came out weeks ago, I had a lot of concerns. Like, a lot of concerns. Mostly that Adam Hughes, a man known for drawing pin-ups, was going to be both drawing and writing a series about the best frenemies of the Archie Universe in their biggest fight. It certainly didn’t help that this was going to be yet another book in the new Archie line-up written by a man. But hey, I love Jughead, written by Chip Zdarsky (especially how it confirmed Jughead as ace), and Archie, written by Mark Waid, has been going strong. I tried to keep an open mind, waiting to pass judgement until it came out this month. I’ve read the issue. And it has some major problems. So let’s talk about it.

Since it was announced, we've been keeping a close eye on Riverdale, the CW's updated take on Archie comics. Different from the modernization of the characters over in the main series from creators like Mark Waid, Fiona Staples, Chip Zdarsky, Veronica Fish and Derek Charm, Riverdale is going for high drama with lots of stakes under the guidance of Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. The characters you know and love from the books are all still there, but this Riverdale has a somber undercurrent, as the first season will play host to a murder mystery, secret romances, and tense friendships. The intrigue doesn't stop there though, as the cast of the show can attest. We caught up with KJ Apa (Archie), Cole Sprouse (Jughead), Lili Reinhart (Betty), Camila Mendes (Veronia), Madelaine Petsch (Cheryl) and Ashleigh Murray (Josie) at San Diego Comic-Con to talk about Riverdale's first season, and what makes this version of America's icon so fascinating.

I've been pretty up front about the fact that I know very little about the world of Sonic the Hedgehog, but I do know that it can be pretty shockingly complicated. I know, for instance, that Sonic likes to run fast and is always ready to party, but when it comes to figuring out how the world he lives in was shattered by a global cataclysm, or why he's hanging out with cyborgs and a sentient AI who takes the form of a holographic lynx, I'm a little more hazy. But if you're in the same boat, good news. The next issue of Archie's long-running Sonic the Hedgehog starts off with a series of quick captions to explain everything --- and a More Than Meets The Eye/Arrested Development party to celebrate something that they actually have not accomplished yet. But will the answers themselves become more questions? Decide for yourself with the preview below!