Eisner Awards

The nominees were announced today for the 2011 Eisner Awards, and Life With Archie has landed one in the Best Publication for Young Adults (Ages 12-17) category!

 Congratulations to Fernando Ruiz, Pat & Tim Kennedy, Norm Breyfogle and all the rest of the talented men and women who get this comic out every month. And thanks to publisher Jonathan Goldwater and editor Victor Gorelick for giving me the opportunity to do what I do on the title, and, of course, to Michael Uslan, who got the whole "Married Life" ball rolling!

Archie The Married Life: Volume 1

It's here at last...Archie The Married Life: Volume 1, collecting the first six issues of the Life With Archie: The Married Life Magazine. That's six stories (the first issues of Archie Loves Veronica and Archie Loves Betty were written by Michael Uslan; the rest is all me) of what's been called "the most critically acclaimed storyline in Archie Comics history," 320 big pages of art by Norm Breyfogle, Joe Rubinstein, and Andrew Pepoy, a few introductory pieces by Michael and myself, all for $19.99!

Also hitting comic shops is Betty & Veronica #255, which features a short story I wrote, "Beach Blanket Bash-Up," with art by Jeff Shultz and Jim Amash. Betty versus Veronica in a secret beach Olympics with Archie as the prize! 

Everything's Still Archie!

Okay, maybe not everything, but a lot of my writing time each month goes into scripting two new ongoing series for Archie Comics, a total of 48 pages a month that will appear in Life With Archie: The Married Life, a 64-page magazine format comic (more on that here); Married Life creator Michael Uslan writes the first issue; I pick up as regular scripter with #2!

Well, the art, by the wonderful Norm Breyfogle, has started coming in and I thought I'd share a few pages (click on images to see them at a larger size) with you, all copyright 2010, of course, by Archie Publications:

Life With Archie: The Married Life #1 is on sale in comic shops July 28, 2010 (August 10 on newsstands). My "first" issue, #2, appears in late August.

Everything's Archie!

Archie Comics had such success with their "Archie Marries..." storyline in Archie #600 - 606 that they decided to continue the stories in an ongoing series. Michael Uslan (comic book fan/historian/writer and producer of the Batman film franchise, among others), who originated the idea and wrote the miniseries, was unable to stay on as writer due to time considerations, and, with only a handful of short stories for the regular Archie titles under my belt, editor-in-chief Victor Gorelick tapped me to write the new series (after the first stories were written by Uslan).

Now, according to the story on CBR: ":With the storyline generating renewed interest in the Riverdale brand around the world, Archie Comics recently announced a new magazine containing two brand new storylines launching in July: The Married Life: Archie Loves Betty and The Married Life: Archie Loves Veronica." Michael wrote a series bible for the first six issues, and, even as we speak, I've begun working out the story beats for issues #7-12.

CBR posts a few pages of Norm Breyfogle's pencils from the first chapter of the Veronica story; old friends and colleagues Josef Rubinstein (Archie Loves Betty) and Andrew Pepoy (Archie Loves Veronica) ink Norm's beautiful work.

Life With Archie: The Married Life #1 is on sale in comic shops July 28, 2010 (August 10 on newsstands). My "first" issue, #2, appears in late August).

Oh, sugar! Honey, honey...