IDW Celebrates 75 Years Of Archie With Crossover Variant Covers (Or: Archie vs. Judge Dredd Is One Step Closer To Reality)
If there's one thing we have learned throughout the history of comics, it's that if you joke about something ridiculous long enough, then eventually, it's probably going to happen. Which, I imagine, is how we got the upcoming variant cover for IDW's Judge Dredd where the stone-faced lawman of the future finally meets Archie Andrews.
Okay, okay, so right now, it's only a variant cover as part of IDW's upcoming celebration of Archie's 75th Anniversary, which will see a pretty amazing set of covers where IDW's various titles --- including Transformers, Jem and the Holograms and Star Trek --- meet up with Riverdale's favorite teens. Check them out below!
And here's the full list of credits for the variants:
BACK TO THE FUTURE #3 by Fernando Ruiz
EMPIRE: UPRISING #7 by Barry Kitson
JEM & THE HOLOGRAMS #10 by Tania del Rio
JUDGE DREDD: MEGA-CITY ZERO #1 by Francesco Francavilla
STAR TREK #52 by Dan Parent
TRANSFORMERS #48 by Andrew Pepoy
THE X-FILES: SEASON 11 #5 by Robert Hack
ANGRY BIRDS: SUPER ANGRY BIRDS #4 by Dan Parent
It might seem odd for one publisher to be celebrating another's longevity, but IDW and Archie have had a pretty solid working relationship for years, with IDW handling plenty of the reprints of older titles and newspaper strips, like their collections for the legendary Dan DeCarlo and Bob Montana.
As for what this might mean for future crossovers, well, like I said: Betty and Veronica meeting Jem, and Archie meeting Judge Dredd are, as of this writing, only variant covers. But just remember what happened the last time Francesco Francavilla did a variant cover for Archie as a joke.