{"id":36888,"date":"2026-11-07T18:00:45","date_gmt":"2026-11-07T18:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=36888"},"modified":"2026-11-07T18:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-11-07T18:13:09","slug":"archies-weird-mysteries-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2026\/11\/07\/archies-weird-mysteries-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Archie\u2019s Weird Mysteries"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Paul Castiglia<\/strong>, Fernando Ruiz<\/strong>, Rich Koslowski<\/strong> & various (Archie)
\nISBN: 978-1-879794-74-0 (TPB), 978-1-619881-92-1 (Digital edition)<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced in less enlightened times.<\/em><\/p>\n

Win\u2019s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Family Friendly Seasonal Fear Fest… 8\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

MLJ were a publisher who almost immediately jumped on the \u201ccostumed mystery-man\u201d bandwagon following the debut of Superman<\/strong>. They began their own small but inspirational pantheon of gaudy crusaders in November 1939, starting in Blue Ribbon Comics<\/strong> and following up with Top-Notch<\/strong> and Pep Comics<\/strong>. The content was a standard blend of masked heroes, two-fisted adventure strips, prose pieces and gag panels.<\/p>\n

A few years later, Maurice Coyne, Louis Silberkleit and John Goldwater (hence MLJ) spotted a gap in their blossoming market. At the end of 1941 (and cover-dated December) the costumed heroes and two-fisted adventure strips were gradually nudged aside by a far less imposing paragon: an \u201caverage teen\u201d enjoying ordinary adventures just like the readers, but with the laughs, good times, romance and slapstick emphasised.<\/p>\n

Pep Comics<\/strong> #22 introduced a gap-toothed, freckle-faced red-headed goof showing off to the pretty blonde next door. Taking his lead from the popular Andy Hardy<\/strong> matinee movies starring Mickey Rooney, Goldwater developed his concept of a young everyman protagonist, tasking writer Vic Bloom and artist Bob Montana with the job of making it work.<\/p>\n

In six pages, eponymously entitled \u2018Archie\u2019<\/em> introduced goofy Archie Andrews<\/em> and pretty girl-next-door Betty Cooper<\/em>. Archie\u2019s unconventional best friend and confidante Jughead Jones<\/em> also debuted in that first story, as did the scenic small-town utopia Riverdale<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The feature was an instant hit and by the winter of 1942 had won its own title. Archie Comics<\/strong> #1 was the company\u2019s first non-anthology magazine and with it began the gradual transformation of the entire company. With the introduction of rich, raven-haired Veronica Lodge<\/em>, all the pieces were in play for the comicbook industry\u2019s second Genuine Phenomenon (Superman being the first). By 1946 the kids had taken over, so the company renamed itself Archie Comics, systematically retiring its costumed characters years before the end of the Golden Age to becoming, to all intents and purposes, a publisher of family comedies.<\/p>\n

Its success, like the Man of Steel\u2019s, changed the content of every other publisher\u2019s titles, and led to a multi-media industry including TV, movies and a chain of restaurants. In the swinging sixties pop hit Sugar, Sugar<\/strong> (a tune from their first animated television show) became a global smash. Wholesome garage band \u201cThe Archies\u201d has been a fixture of the comics ever since.<\/p>\n

Adapting seamlessly to every trend and fad of youth culture since before there even was such a thing, the host of writers and artists who\u2019ve crafted the stories over the decades have made the \u201ceveryteen\u201d characters of utopian Riverdale a benchmark for childhood development and a visual barometer of growing up. At the end of the last century, one of those fads was for savvy bands of teenagers to fight Vampires and Demons in a small town…<\/p>\n

It led to Archie\u2019s Weird Mysteries<\/strong>: a French\/American animated TV co-production with the regular cast encountering all manner of bizarre phenomena, creatures and situations after Archie starts writing a school newspaper column on mysteries and cryptozoology. That small screen enterprise generated a comic book iteration mostly created by Paul Castiglia, Fernando Ruiz & Rich Koslowski, backed up by letterer Vickie Williams and colourists Rick Taylor & Stephanie Vozzo.<\/p>\n

With parody and contemporary satire leading the thematic charge the company also used the broad church the series presented to reintroduce a number of those early MLJ super-doers, but sadly, they are not included in this all-strange phenomena compilation…
\n\"\"
\nIn this splendidly entertaining collection, the warring gal-pals and extended cast of the small-town American Follies are plunged deep into terror territory as Archie\u2018s Weird Mysteries <\/strong>#2 (March 2000) reveals how the gang are targeted by a spooky movie monster in \u2018Shriek\u2019<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The deft (and suitably daft in appropriate places) spoof of film franchise Scream <\/strong>is followed by a delightful and arch tribute to the incomparable Scooby-Doo<\/strong> phenomenon as \u2018A Familiar Old Haunt\u2019<\/em> (#6 July) sees Archie signing up for \u201cBo and Gus\u2019s Paranormal Investigation Camp\u201d with Jughead, Betty & Veronica joining him in a borrowed panel van. Even Jughead\u2019s faithful mutt Hot Dog<\/em> tags along. The freak du jour is a bizarre vegetable horror, but it\u2019s no match for a bunch of pesky kids…
\n\"\"
\nArchie\u2018s Weird Mysteries <\/strong>#10 (July) found a fashion for manly beards and chest hair at Riverdale High. However, hirsute attractiveness and rampant testosterone can\u2019t explain why girls and boys are all going follicle crazy until Archie uncovers a \u2018Bigfoot on Campus\u2019<\/em>…<\/p>\n

At the height of competitive sports season school principal Mr. Weatherbee<\/em> is kidnapped by aliens who need his (sadly non-existent) baseball expertise to beat a band of bullying space jocks in \u2018U.F.O. Uh-oh!\u2019<\/em> (#7 August) after which \u2018The Scarlet Chronicles\u2019<\/em> (AWM #<\/strong>10 July) introduces vampire hunter Scarlet Helsing<\/em> to readers who might have missed her starring role in the TV show. As seen in the brace of cartoon episodes reprised here, the beautiful young warrior was drawn to Riverdale and allied with the town\u2019s reclusive paranormal expert Dr. Beaumont<\/em> to battle the assembling forces of darkness…<\/p>\n

New ground is broken with #12 (April 2001) as \u2018The Return of Scarlet\u2019<\/em> sees the slayer suborned by a band of bloodsuckers and set upon Beaumont and Archie. Naturally, Betty is ready to lead the gang in their counterattack…
\n\"\"
\nComplimenting the chronicles is a light-hearted cartoon \u2018Guide to Fighting Vampires\u2019 <\/em>from AWM<\/strong> #15 (September 2001) wherein Scarlet lists a number of methods for defeating the Darkness before this fun-filled fear-fest finishes in behind-the-scenes text feature \u2018Scarlet\u2019s Guide to Archie\u2019s Weird Mysteries\u2019<\/em>, interviewing Castiglia & Ruiz on their roles in the TV iteration and how the comic book spun out of it.<\/p>\n

Co-starring all the crucial supporting characters we know and love, these smartly beguiling skits are a prime example of just why Archie has been unassailable for generations: providing decades of family-friendly fun and wholesome teen entertainment – complete with goblins, ghosts and ghouls as required.
\n\u00a9 2011 Archie Comic Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Paul Castiglia, Fernando Ruiz, Rich Koslowski & various (Archie) ISBN: 978-1-879794-74-0 (TPB), 978-1-619881-92-1 (Digital edition) This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. Win\u2019s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Family Friendly Seasonal Fear Fest… 8\/10 MLJ were a publisher who almost immediately jumped on the \u201ccostumed mystery-man\u201d bandwagon following the debut of Superman. They … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Archie\u2019s Weird Mysteries”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[191,141,113,102,66,125,396,225,148,296,107,210,254],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-archie-comics","category-comedy","category-fantasy","category-horror-stories","category-humour","category-monsters","category-mystery","category-romance","category-school-stories","category-science-fiction","category-sport","category-young-adult"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-9AY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36888"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36893,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36888\/revisions\/36893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}