Fiona Staples

Marvel unveiled its July variant cover theme at C2E2 this past weekend, and the pictures definitely tell a story. As a follow-up to March's "Women of Power" covers, which highlighted the strength of Marvel's heroic women, the July covers are dubbed "Mighty Men of Marvel." While "covers with men on them" might seem like an unremarkable theme, given that it describes most Marvel covers already, it's clear from the art released thus far that the concept was meant to be more bold than that --- but it's equally clear that Marvel missed its target.

Since its first issue, debuting on this day in 2012, Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples’ Saga has become the benchmark for independent, creator-owned series that solidified Image Comics as the place for exciting new indie series, and paved the way for the likes of Sex Criminals, Rat Queens and The Wicked and The Divine to follow.

To say that last year's reboot was a success for Archie comics might be underselling things a little. Not only was it a surprising move that grabbed headlines right from the first announcement --- and ended Archie's reign as the longest-running American monthly comic that hadn't been rebooted, at 666 issues (an honor that has now passed to another Archie title, Sonic the Hedgehog) --- but the stories themselves were a breath of fresh air that showed exactly how to twist these familiar characters to get a whole new wave of drama out of them. With that first arc set to be released in paperback soon, ComicsAlliance talked to writer Mark Waid about the difficulties of rebooting characters whose major appeal was their timelessness, why Jughead had the biggest changes (and the most murderous impulses), and whether or not we'll ever see Jingles the Christmas Elf again. Spoiler warning, but it's not lookin' good for ol' Jingles.

Our judges have adjudicated; our readers have voted. We’re proud to present to you the outstanding artist of 2015 — and four exceptional runners up.

Our judges have adjudicated; our readers have voted. We’re proud to present to you the best character redesign of 2015 — and four great runners up.

If you've missed out on this year's Archie reboot, which saw Riverdale's favorite teenagers updated for a modern world of hashtags and selfies, then I'm going to assume you have your reasons. Sure, you've seen me talk about how much I like it here at ComicsAlliance, but maybe you have an overwhelming fear of change, or maybe Jughead's signature "crown" reminds you of your embarrassing history dabbling in monarchism in college. Or maybe, just maybe, you've been waiting for someone to collect the first three issues for your reading convenience. I can't help you with the monarchist thing, but if it's that last one that's been holding you back, there's good news! Archie is collecting the first three smash-hit issues by Mark Waid and Fiona Staples in a "Collector's Edition" that will introduce new readers to the new versions of Archie, Jughead, Betty, and Veronica, and the new status quo of Riverdale.

For a long time, the fact that Archie Comics didn't change a whole lot wasn't just a trademark of character, it was a major selling point. After all, stripping things down to those simple gags meant that there was a whole library of mostly timeless stories that could fill up those Double Digests at the grocery store, and when you're a kid who wants to read as many comics as you can for as little as you can, they end up being a pretty appealing purchase. But with Mark Waid and Fiona Staples' reboot of Archie this past summer, they were given a unique opportunity to rebuild everything about comics' favorite teenagers. This week, with the release of the third issue, all of the major players are finally in place, so it's time to take a trip up to Riverdale to see how much has changed --- and how much has remained the same.

Last weekend at Baltimore Comic-Con, the 27th annual Harvey Awards were held, and in one of the least surprising developments in the history of the Harveys, Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples' Saga took home a few more awards to add to a shelf that I'm sure is already collapsing under the weight of its many honors. Named for MAD Magazine editor and cartoonist Harvey Kurtzman (who, interestingly enough, did not win the award he was nominated for this year), the Harveys are voted on by industry professionals, and this year's winners represent a pretty interesting crop of current comics, including CA favorites like Lumberjanes, Hellboy In Hell, and even Dick Tracy. Check out a full roster of winners and nominees below!

Getting Fiona Staples to be the artist on the new Archie series was quite a coup for the publisher, but there's a price that comes with hiring superstar artists: They don't hang around forever. Staples will be exiting the book after the third issue. That's the bad news, according Archie Comics President Mike Pellerito. Here's the good news: The publisher already has the next two artists lined up, and they're both very exciting in their own right: First, Annie Wu (Hawkeye, Black Canary) will step up for issue #4, and after that, Veronica Fish, who is the artist behind the promo image for the upcoming CW series Riverdale, will take over through the sixth issue.

If you've been reading ComicsAlliance for long enough, then you already know that Jughead Jones rounds out our (my) illustrious list of the five greatest characters in comic book history, a list that is etched in stone and will never be changed. So as you might expect, with the relaunch of Archie, we've been on the edge of our seats wondering what the new take would be on Archie's perpetually sleepy best pal. As it turns out, we didn't have to wait that long. In this week's second issue of Archie, from the team of Mark Waid and Fiona Staples, Jughead takes the spotlight for the origin story of his true name!