Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Vol. 1: The Crucible
WORK NOTES: illustrated by Robert Hack
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1973
WEBSITE:
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Aguirre-Sacasa * http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2630745/ * https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-killer-career-of-roberto-aguirre-sacasa/2016/05/05/dcb59f82-07f2-11e6-b283-e79d81c63c1b_story.html?utm_term=.d840a02b4fb0 * http://collider.com/riverdale-producer-roberto-aguirre-sacasa-interview/ * http://comicvine.gamespot.com/roberto-aguirre-sacasa/4040-42093/ * http://nerdist.com/archie-comics-roberto-aguirre-sacasa-talks-riverdale-afterlife-with-archie-at-nycc/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born 1973, in Washington, DC; father, a diplomat; mother worked at a bank.
EDUCATION:Attended Georgetown University; McGill University, M.A.; Yale University, graduate degree, 2003.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Worked as a file clerk at a law office, Washington, DC; Shakespeare Theatre, Washington, DC, worked as publicist; Second Stage Theatre, New York, NY, resident artist, beginning 2003; comic book writer, playwright, and television writer, 2003–. Archie Comic Publications, Pelham, NY, chief creative officer, 2014–. Television series credits include staff writer for Big Love (broadcast by Home Box Office), 2010, then story editor, 2011, then coproducer; Glee (broadcast by Fox Television Network), staff writer and coproducer, 2011-14; Looking (broadcast by Home Box Office), writer and co-executive producer, 2015; Supergirl (broadcast by Columbia Broadcasting System), writer and supervising producer, 2015-16; Riverdale (broadcast by CW Television Network), developer, showrunner, writer, and executive producer, beginning 2017.
AWARDS:Roger L. Stevens Award, Fund for New American Plays, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, 2002, for The Mystery Plays; Excellence in Playwriting Award, New York International Fringe Festival, for Say You Love Satan; tied for Harvey Award, best new talent, for Marvel Knights, Volume 4.
WRITINGS
Other plays include Morning Becomes Olestra, presented by Cherry Red Productions; Bride of Bigfoot; and Abigail 1702, produced in Cincinnati, OH, at Playhouse in the Park.
Prolific writer for Marvel C0mics, including Marvel Knights, Volume 4, 2004-06, published as Four, 2006; Nightcrawlers, 2004-06; The Sensational Spider-Man, 2006-07; Dead of Night Featuring Man-Thing, 2008; Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four, 2008; Angel: Revelations, 2008; The Stand: Captain Trips, 2008-09; The Stand: American Nightmares, 2009; Marvel Divas, 2009; The Stand: Soul Survivors, 2009-10; The Stand: Hardcases, 2010-11; Loki (miniseries), 2010-11; The Stand: No Man’s Land, 2011; and The Stand: The Night Has Come, 2011-12. Work for Archie Comic Publications includes Archie Meets Glee, 2013; Afterlife with Archie, 2013–; and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, 2014–.
SIDELIGHTS
Admiration for writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa resonates from the Broadway stage to the comic book universe to the sound stages of Hollywood. The disparate elements of his career are intertwined in a spiral trajectory in which “everything is related,” explained theater critic Nelson Pressley in his Washington Post Book World interview of the author. It began in Washington, DC, where the Georgetown University graduate found work as a publicist for the Shakespeare Theatre, which led coincidentally to a playwriting workshop, which led to graduate study at the Yale School of Drama.
A lifelong interest in comic books and the Archie gang in particular led to his play Weird Comic Book Fantasy. The play opened a door for Aguirre-Sacasa at Marvel Comics, where he created stories for the Fantastic Four and Marvel Knights series beginning in 2004, and The Sensational Spider-Man series in 2006. Aguirre-Sacasa was in the right place in 2011, when Broadway producers needed someone to rework the script for the musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.
Hollywood beckoned later that year when producers sought a writer with musical stage experience for the popular television series Glee. Aguirre-Sacasa continued to indulge his fondness for the Archie franchise when he created the crossover graphic novel Archie Meets Glee, which led in 2013 to the new comic book series Afterlife with Archie: Escape from Riverdale. In 2014 the parent company tapped the multidimensional writer to become the chief creative officer of Archie Comic Publications. Aguirre-Sacasa went on to develop the television series Riverdale, which introduces adult versions of the familiar Archie characters living in a hometown that grows stranger and darker with every passing day.
From the very beginning, the stage offered Aguirre-Sacasa the freedom to exercise his imagination, and to experiment with unusual genre combinations until he found ways to make them work. The Muckle Man was a serious drama with a science fiction flavor. Weird Comic Book Fantasy, originally titled “Archie’s Weird Fantasy,” introduced Archie as a gay adult living in New York City. Rough Magic reinterpreted the theme of Shakespeare’s Tempest. “The way one thing leads to another for Aguirre-Sacasa is perpetually strange,” observed Pressley, adding that “in Aguirre-Sacasa’s mind, stories and characters are ripe for adapting and expanding, naturally hopping boundaries.”
In 2016, while developing the television series Riverdale, Aguirre-Sacasa accepted the challenge of adapting the 1991 novel American Psycho, about a hedonistic Wall Street serial killer, into a stage musical. The production moved to Broadway in 2017, but Aguirre-Sacasa had already moved on. He hinted to Pressley about a potential stage version of the film Magic Mike and a gay version of Glengarry Glen Ross.
Afterlife with Archie, Volume 1
With Aguirre-Sacasa at the helm, Archie Comic Publications began to release the Archie stories as full-length graphic novels. His earlier venture, The Stand, Volume 1: Captain Trips, had proven that he could successfully adapt a Stephen King novel into a comic book miniseries, and then repackage it as a graphic novel with a more permanent shelf life.
Afterlife with Archie, Volume 1: Escape from Riverdale contained the first five issues of the comic book series that debuted in 2013. It is not a story for children. The beloved redhead and his pals have grown up, and “the tone of this series is unquestionably dark,” cautioned Charles de Lint in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Perennial foil Reggie Mantle has run over Jughead’s beloved pet, Hot Dog. Jughead turns to his friend Sabrina (the teenage witch) for help, and she resorts to dark magic to resuscitate the pet. Hot Dog comes back to life as a zombie dog and promptly bites his owner. Jughead succumbs to the zombie plague and heads for the Halloween costume dance to satisfy his new hunger for humans. One by one Riverdale turns into a zombie town, and the Archie gang takes refuge in Veronica’s family fortress, Lodge Manor. It offers a temporary reprieve, but readers presume that the carnage will continue in future episodes.
De Lint reported that “Aguirre-Sacasa and artist Francesco Francavilla do a terrific job, retaining the essence of each character” in their adult and darker personas. The mature rating of “teen plus” enables them to explore a secret affair between characters Nancy and Ginger, and the rivalry between Betty and Veronica takes on escalating intensity. “This is a tough, sad story,” observed Daniel Kraus in Booklist, as the writer and artist cast a horror story against a backdrop of “sweet memories” from a bucolic past. Aguirre-Sacasa told Washington Post contributor David Betancourt: “The chance to tell this kind of story … has been, well, … a dream come true.” In Horror Novel Reviews, Matt Molgaard commented: “There’s nothing that can be deemed ground breaking in these pages. However, Afterlife is such a well-written and beautifully illustrated book that putting it down becomes an impossibility. … Aguirre-Sacasa’s narration is brilliant, and his knack for combining vintage innocence with contemporary lingo is nothing short of sensational.”
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Volume 1
Aguirre-Sacasa delves further into the dark life with The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Volume 1: The Crucible. This volume contains the first five issues of the comic book series introduced in 2014. Sabrina is the daughter of a warlock and a mortal woman. As she approaches her sixteenth birthday, she faces a choice between life as a mortal, with all of the angst and romantic yearnings of a normal teenager, or life in service to the devil, with infinite supernatural power but no capability for love.
Anna Murphy wrote in School Library Journal that the issue comes to a head “in a diabolically creepy cliff-hanger” that she deemed “a welcome and frightening addition for lovers of horror, suspense, and graphic novels.” Molgaard reported, again in Horror Novel Reviews, that Aguirre-Sacasa “continues to make the world of Archie wildly entertaining.” The author told interviewer Christina Radish at Collider that the Archie characters have “been such an obsession for me, my entire life, that to be the guardian of them, for a few years, is a huge honor and a responsibility that I do not take lightly.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, August 1, 2014, Daniel Kraus, review of Afterlife with Archie, Volume 1: Escape from Riverdale, p. 56.
Library Journal, March 1, 2013, review of Archie Meets Glee, p. S6.
Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, January-February, 2015, Charles de Lint, review of Afterlife with Archie, Book 1, p. 40.
Publishers Weekly, September 5, 2016, review of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Volume 1: The Crucible, p. 65.
School Library Journal, October, 2016, Anna Murphy, review of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Volume 1, p. 118.
Washington Post, January 8, 2014, David Betancourt, author interview.
Washington Post Book World, May 7, 2016, Nelson Pressley, author interview.
ONLINE
Collider, http://collider.com/ (January 26, 2017), Christina Radish, author interview.
Comic Vine, https://comicvine.gamespot.com/ (May 21, 2017), author profile.
Horror Novel Reviews, https://horrornovelreviews.com/ (January 9, 2015), Matt Molgaard, review of Afterlife with Archie, Volume 1; (June 6, 2015), Matt Molgaard, review of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Book 1.
Nerdist, http://nerdist.com/ (October 16, 2015), Rachael Berkey, author interview.*
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa by Gage Skidmore.jpg
Aguirre-Sacasa at WonderCon 2017
Born 1973 (age 43–44)
Washington, D.C.
Occupation Comic book writer, playwright, screenwriter
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (born 1973)[1] is an American playwright, screenwriter, and comic book writer best known for his work for Marvel Comics and for the television series Glee, Big Love and Riverdale. He is Chief Creative Officer of Archie Comics.[2][3]
Contents
1 Early life
2 Career
2.1 Playwriting
2.2 Comics
2.3 Film and television
3 Awards
4 Works
4.1 Comics
4.2 Published plays
4.3 Television
4.4 Movies
5 Productions
6 References
7 External links
Early life
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa was born in Washington, D.C., the son of a Nicaraguan diplomat,[4] and raised in both the United States and Nicaragua.[5] He attended Georgetown Preparatory School in North Bethesda, MD followed by Georgetown University where he studied playwriting under Donn B. Murphy. Later he received a Masters Degree in English literature from McGill University, and graduated from the Yale School of Drama in 2003.[6]
Although he wrote some plays in high school, it was after college, while working as a publicist at the Shakespeare Theatre, that he had an opportunity to attend a week-long playwriting workshop under Paula Vogel during her 1998-99 residency at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. Vogel had invited area theaters to send their "resident playwrights" and company director Michael Kahn sent Aguirre-Sacasa. She told him to "get serious" about writing plays and so he started applying to graduate programs in playwriting.[7]
Early plays during his first year at Yale include Say You Love Satan, "a romantic comedy spoof of the Omen movies", and The Muckle Man, "a serious family drama with supernatural overtones"; good reviews on summer productions of those helped him get a professional agent.[7] Rough Magic, an interpretation of Shakespeare's The Tempest where Caliban escapes from Prospero's island and finds himself in present-day New York City, was produced at Yale during his last year there.[7]
Career
Playwriting
On April 4, 2003, Dad's Garage Theatre Company in Atlanta was scheduled to debut Aguirre-Sacasa's new play, Archie's Weird Fantasy, which depicted Riverdale's most famous resident coming out of the closet and moving to New York. The day before the play was scheduled to open, Archie Comics issued a cease and desist order, threatening litigation if the play proceeded as written. Dad's Garage artistic director Sean Daniels said, "The play was to depict Archie and his pals from Riverdale growing up, coming out and facing censorship. Archie Comics thought if Archie was portrayed as being gay, that would dilute and tarnish his image."[8] It opened a few days later as "Weird Comic Book Fantasy" with the character names changed.[9]
Other plays produced in 2003 were The Mystery Plays in New York, which had won a writing award the previous year from the Kennedy Center, and a hit production of Say You Love Satan at the 2003 New York International Fringe Festival.
Playwriting continued along with comic-book writing, with several productions of new and old works. In 2006, his semi-autobiographical Based On A Totally True Story (about a comic-book writer/playwright struggling with new-found success and boyfriend problems) was staged at the prestigious Manhattan Theatre Club in New York. When asked by The Advocate, "Which came first, being a comic-book geek or being gay?" he answered, "I would say I was probably a comic-book geek before I knew anything about being gay or straight. I certainly loved superheroes before I knew I was gay..." He also noted the play was, "thankfully", not about his current boyfriend.[10]
Good Boys and True, about a graphic sex tape that begins circulating around an all-boys prep school outside Washington, D.C., premiered at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre in winter 2008.[11]
In mid-2009, the Round House Theatre in Bethesda, Maryland, premiered his play The Picture of Dorian Gray, based on the novel by Oscar Wilde. That same year, Aguirre-Sacasa and artist Tonci Zonjic finished Marvel Comics' Marvel Divas miniseries, and he began working as a writer for the HBO series Big Love, a position he continued in 2010 during the show's fourth season.[12][13] In February 2010, he was announced to write the book for the musical adaption of the novel American Psycho.[14]
South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, California, presented the premiere of his play Doctor Cerberus in spring 2010.[15] He also revised Robert Benton's musical It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman for the Dallas Theater Center production in Dallas, Texas, in June 2010.[citation needed]
In 2011, Aguirre-Sacasa was approached by the producers of the troubled Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark to help rewrite its script.[16][17][18]
In May 2011, Aguirre-Sacasa was hired as a co-producer and writer of Glee.[19] Two months laters, he was hired to write the comic book Archie meets Glee, scheduled to be published in 2013.[20]
London's Almeida Theatre said in April 2013 that Aguirre-Sacasa is writing the script for a musical based on Bret Easton Ellis' novel American Psycho, to run December 3, 2013, to January 25, 2014.[21]
Comics
Aguirre-Sacasa grew up liking comic books, recalling in 2003, "My mom would take us out to the 7-Eleven on River Road during the summer, and we would get Slurpees and buy comics off the spinning rack. I would read them all over and over again, and draw my own pictures and stuff."[7] He began writing for Marvel Comics, he explained, when "Marvel hired an editor to find new writers, and they hired her from a theatrical agency. So she started calling theaters and asking if they knew any playwrights who might be good for comic books. A couple of different theaters said she should look at me. So she called me, I sent her a couple of my plays and she said "Great, would you like to pitch on a couple of comic books in the works?"[7]
His first submissions were "not what [they were] interested in for the character[s]" but eventually he was signed for the Fantastic Four, with the first issues published early in 2004. The 11-page Fantastic Four story "The True Meaning of..." was in the Marvel Holiday Special 2004.[22] He went on to write Fantastic Four stories in Marvel Knights 4, a spinoff of that superhero team's long-running title; and stories for Nightcrawler vol. 3; The Sensational Spider-Man vol. 2; and Dead of Night featuring Man-Thing.[23]
In May 2008 Aguirre-Sacasa returned to the Fantastic Four with a miniseries tie-in to the company-wide "Secret Invasion" storyline concerning a years-long infiltration of Earth by the shape-shifting alien race, the Skrulls [24] and an Angel Revelations miniseries with artists Barry Kitson and Adam Polina, respectively.[12] He adapted for comics the Stephen King novel The Stand.
In 2013, he created Afterlife with Archie, depicting Archie Andrews in the midst of a zombie apocalypse; the book's success led to Aguirre-Sacasa being named Archie Comics' chief creative officer.[2]
Film and television
Aguirre-Sacasa wrote the screen adaptation of the remake of Stephen King's Carrie, released in October 2013. In June 2013 was scheduled to write Warner Bros.' planned live-action Archie movie.[25] He also wrote The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014 film) the sequel of the cult-classic horror film The Town That Dreaded Sundown.
Aguirre-Sacasa wrote for television episodes of Glee, Big Love and Looking. He is the series developer of Riverdale.
Awards
In 2002, The Mystery Plays received the Roger L. Stevens Award from the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays.[5] He received GLAAD Media Award nominations for Golden Age[15] and for Say You Love Satan,[15] with the latter also winning a New York International Fringe Festival Excellence in Playwriting Award.[26] He tied for a Harvey Award for Best New Talent for his work on Marvel Knights Four.[27]
Works
Comics
Marvel Knights 4 #1–27 (April 2004 – April 2006), continued as Four #28–30 (May 2006 – July 2006)
Nightcrawler #1–12 (Nov. 2004 – Jan. 2006)
The Sensational Spider-Man vol. 2, #23–40 (July 2006 – Oct. 2007)
Dead of Night featuring Man-Thing #1, 4 (April & July 2008)
Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four #1–3 (July–Sept. 2008)
Angel: Revelations #1–5 (July–Nov. 2008)
The Stand: Captain Trips #1–5 (early Dec. 2008 – March 2009)
The Stand: American Nightmares #1–5 (May–Oct. 2009)
Marvel Divas #1–4 (Sept.–Dec. 2009)
The Stand: Soul Survivors #1–5 (Dec. 2009 – May 2010)
The Stand: Hardcases #1–5 (Aug. 2010 – Jan. 2011)
Loki vol. 2, #1–4 (four-issue miniseries) (Dec. 2010 - May 2011)
The Stand: No Man's land #1–5 (April–Aug. 2011)
The Stand: The Night Has Come #1–6 (Oct. 2011 – March 2012)
Archie Meets Glee #641-644 (March 2013 - June 2013)
Afterlife with Archie #1 - present (Oct. 2013–present)
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina #1 - present (Oct. 2014–present)
Published plays
The Mystery Plays, Dramatists Play Service, 2005, ISBN 978-0-8222-2038-1
Say You Love Satan, Dramatists Play Service, 2005, ISBN 978-0-8222-2039-8
Based on a Totally True Story, Dramatists Play Service, 2008, ISBN 978-0-8222-2224-8
Dark Matters, Dramatists Play Service, 2009, ISBN 978-0-8222-2218-7
Good Boys and True, Dramatists Play Service, 2009, ISBN 978-0-8222-2318-4
King of Shadows, Dramatists Play Service, 2009, ISBN 978-0-8222-2356-6
The Muckle Man, Dramatists Play Service, 2009, ISBN 978-0-8222-2333-7
Rough Magic, Dramatists Play Service, 2009, ISBN 978-0-8222-2332-0
The Velvet Sky, Dramatists Play Service, 2009, ISBN 978-0-8222-2331-3
The Weird : a collection of short horror and pulp plays, Dramatists Play Service, 2008, ISBN 978-0-8222-2255-2
Television
Big Love (2009, staff writer; 2010, story editor; 2011, co-producer)
3.05 – "For Better or for Worse" (written by) (February 15, 2009)
4.03 – "Strange Bedfellows" (written by) (January 24, 2010)
5.09 – "Exorcism" (written by) (March 13, 2011)
Glee (2011—2014, staff writer, co-producer)
3.05 – "The First Time" (written by) (November 8, 2011)
3.14 – "On My Way" (written by) (February 21, 2012)
4.06 – "Glease" (written by) (November 15, 2012)
4.16 – "Feud" (written by) (March 14, 2013)
5.06 – "Movin' Out" (written by) (November 21, 2013)
5.18 – "The Back-Up Plan" (written by) (April 29, 2014)
Looking (2015, writer, co-executive producer)
2.04 – "Looking Down the Road" (written by) (February 8, 2015)
2.09 – "Looking for Sanctuary" (written by) (March 15, 2015)
Supergirl (2015—2016, writer, supervising producer)
1.04 – "Livewire" (written by) (November 16, 2015)
1.08 – "Hostile Takeover" (written by) (December 14, 2015)
1.12 – "Bizarro" (written by) (February 1, 2016)
Riverdale (2017-present, developer, showrunner, writer, executive producer)
1.01 – "Chapter One: The River's Edge " (written for television by) (January 26, 2017)
1.02 – "Chapter Two: A Touch of Evil " (written by) (February 2, 2017)
1.11 – "Chapter Eleven: To Riverdale and Back Again" (written by) (April 27, 2017)
1.13 – "Chapter Thirteen: The Sweet Hereafter" (written by) (May 11, 2017)
Movies
Carrie - October 2013
The Town That Dreaded Sundown - 2014
Productions
Morning Becomes Olestra, Cherry Red Productions[28]
The Ten Minute Play About Rosemary's Baby, July 11, 2001, Summer Camp 7 Fest at Soho Rep, New York City, New York[1]
Say You Love Satan, September 14, 2001, Dad's Garage Theatre Company, Atlanta, Georgia[1]
The Muckle Man, August 8, 2001, Source Theatre Company, Washington, DC.[29]
Weird Comic Book Fantasy, April 2003, Dad's Garage Theatre Company, Atlanta, Georgia[9]
Rough Magic, April 24, 2003, Yale School of Drama New Haven, CT[30]
The Mystery Plays, June 21, 2003, Second Stage Theater at McGinn/Cazale Theatre, New York, New York[1]
Dark Matters, December 3, 2003, Source Theatre Company, Washington, D.C.[31]
Golden Age, 2005, Horse Trade Theater Group/Tobacco bar Theatre Company at[Kraine Theater, New York, New York[1]
Rough Magic (world premiere), July 29, 2005, Hanger Theatre, Ithaca, NY[30]
The Velvet Sky, January 30, 2006, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Washington D.C.[1]
Bloody Mary, April 6, 2006, The Thursday Problem at 45th Street Theatre, New York, New York[1]
Based on a Totally True Story, April 11, 2006, Manhattan Theatre Club, New York, New York[1]
King of Shadows, 2006, The Working Theater, Arena Stage, Washington, D.C.[1]
The Muckle Man (revised), January 25, 2007, City Theatre, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania[4]
Rough Magic (revised), January 27, 2007, Rorschach Theatre at Casa del Pueblo Methodist Church, Washington D,C.[1]
The Picture Of Dorian Gray September 9, 2009, Round House Theatre, Bethesda, Maryland[1]
Doctor Cerberus, April 11, 2010, South Coast Repertory, Costa Mesa, California[15]
It's a Bird, It's A Plane, It's Superman! (revised book), June 18, 2010, Dallas Theater Center Dallas, TX,[32]
The Weird, January 19, 2012, 12 Peers Theater, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania[33]
The killer career of Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
By Nelson Pressley Theater critic May 7, 2016
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa at the Broadway restaurant Sardi’s. His new musical “American Psycho” just opened in New York. (Jessica Antola)
NEW YORK — What’s the best way to tell the tale of a D.C. kid who grows up to live his showbiz dreams — TV? Comic book? A splashy musical?
In his multi-platform career, the bicoastal Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa is juggling all three. Most recently, he has been shooting a new pilot based on the “Archie” comics in Vancouver, B.C., at least during the week. Weekends have been dedicated to shepherding the glossy, bloody new musical version of “American Psycho” to Broadway, where it opened April 21.
“The schedule is intense,” Aguirre-Sacasa says over lunch in New York after one of his red-eye flights from Canada.
Even so, the tall, cheerful Aguirre-Sacasa seems to have lost none of the eager edge that marked him as an unusual playwright — genre-oriented and darkly funny — back when he was trying out scripts on his home turf at D.C.’s Source Theatre. In 2001, his sci-fi fable “The Muckle Man” made an unexpected splash, and in 2009, his 1980s-tinged adaptation of “The Picture of Dorian Gray” premiered at the Round House Theatre.
His writing credits since then have ranged from TV’s “Glee” and “Supergirl” to the reboot of the calamitous Julie Taymor-U2 musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.” Since 2014, Aguirre-Sacasa has also been the chief creative officer of Archie Comics, which explains “Riverdale,” the pilot he wrote and is executive-producing with Greg Berlanti (“Arrow,” “The Flash,” “The Mysteries of Laura”).
How do the Archies connect to “American Psycho,” the controversial 1991 Bret Easton Ellis novel about a materialistic Wall Street slasher? For Aguirre-Sacasa, <
“I’m all over the map talking about these things,” he says. The Archies have moved into the 21st century: “Riverdale” is conceived with a “Twin Peaks” tone, and Aguirre-Sacasa has created a zombie/horror series for the gang called “Afterlife.” The horrific “American Psycho” came his way because of “Dorian Gray”; it features a thumping club score by Duncan Sheik and stars Benjamin Walker as the preening murderer Patrick Bateman.
[‘American Psycho,’ the musical, has more frills than chills]
“Dorian Gray is such a precursor to Patrick Bateman,” says Aguirre-Sacasa. “He was obsessed with fashion, society, good looks and youth. He’s obsessed with art in the way that Patrick Bateman is obsessed with pop art. And, he’s, you know” — he flashes a fleeting, sinister smile — “a killa.”
“His wit is really in tune with Bret’s,” says Rupert Goold, who directed the 2013 “American Psycho” debut in London and now on Broadway (where the reviews have been bloody — “Slick and tedious,” Peter Marks declared in The Washington Post). “It’s literary, caustic at times and able to embrace a pulpy kind of camp.”
Dave Thomas Brown, Theo Stockman, Benjamin Walker, Drew Moerlein, Jordan Dean and Alex Michael Stoll in the Broadway musical “American Pyscho.” (Jeremy Daniel)
The widely spaced professional dots connected pretty quickly for Aguirre-Sacasa, 43, even though he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do growing up in Washington’s Spring Valley neighborhood. His mother worked in a bank, and his father at the World Bank before becoming Nicaragua’s ambassador to the United States. The younger Aguirre-Sacasa went to Georgetown Prep, Georgetown University, then to McGill University in Montreal for a master’s degree in English literature.
Back in Washington, Aguirre-Sacasa worked in a law office as a filing clerk, wrote for City Paper and was even the Shakespeare Theatre’s press rep for a stretch. One of playwright Paula Vogel’s famous one-day “boot camps” at Arena Stage persuaded him to get serious about writing, so he signed up for Yale’s graduate program.
“These were life-changing things,” he says. “Boot camp with Paula. David Carr at City Paper saying, ‘You’ll be better at creative writing.’ I was terrified to tell [Shakespeare artistic director] Michael Kahn I was leaving, and he said, ‘It’s time.’ Even that benediction meant a lot to me.”
Aguirre-Sacasa wrote short plays for Source with such punchy titles as “Bride of Bigfoot” and “Say You Love Satan.” Before he was finished at Yale, he had an agent and a writing commission from the respected Manhattan Theatre Club.
He moved to New York to start a residency with Manhattan’s Second Stage Theater, and at the same time, Marvel Comics invited him in. It was 2003, just before Marvel morphed into a movie-making machine.
“They were looking to bring new blood into the comic-book- writing ranks,” Aguirre-Sacasa says. “They were looking for novelists, screenwriters and journalists who were clearly fanboys.”
Aguirre-Sacasa got noticed by Marvel thanks in part to the Archies. An assignment during Vogel’s boot camp was to write about two things that don’t go together, so he mashed up the Archies — his favorite as a comics-obsessed kid — with the killers Leopold and Loeb. What if Archie fell in with those young psychos and tried to stop their crime? The resulting play prompted the Archie corporate office to send a cease-and-desist letter; Aguirre-Sacasa took the opportunity to say he’d love to work for them.
An “Afterlife with Archie” comic from Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Francesco Francavilla. (Courtesy of Archie Comics)
A Marvel Comics recruiter heard about the Archies kerfuffle, and also liked the genre elements in the “Muckle Man” script. Soon Aguirre-Sacasa was writing a “Fantastic Four” comic to support the big new movie.
He kept a foot in Washington as Rorschach Theatre staged his 2007 “Tempest” riff, “Rough Magic,” and then television hunted him down. “This was when L.A. was really cherry-picking playwrights,” Aguirre-Sacasa says. He wasn’t interested: “I was really snooty about it.” But he went to California to interview with the “Big Love” team, which led to an offer he advised his agent to refuse. Almost instantly it felt like a mistake, and Aguirre-Sacasa begged his agent to somehow allow him to go back and say yes.
“I knew you were going to change your mind,” she told him.
After three years in Los Angeles with “Big Love,” Aguirre-Sacasa returned to New York — and the phone rang. The humongous Broadway musical “Spider-Man” was in trouble. Would he help rewrite it?
While waiting for the contractual dust to settle before starting the “Spidey” re-weave, he returned to L.A. and took a meeting with “Glee” creator Ryan Murphy about a top-secret project called “American Horror Story.” At the end of the meeting, Murphy said, “By the way, do you like musicals?”
Aguirre-Sacasa replied, “I love musicals. In fact, I may or may not be working on ‘Spider-Man.’ ”
A week later the offer came — not for “American Horror Story,” but for “Glee.”
Roderick Hill (as Dorian Gray) and Sean Dugan (as Harry Wotton) in Round House Theatre’s 2009 production of “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” (Danisha Crosby)
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A “Carrie” remake with Julianne Moore? Stephen King’s “The Stand” as a comic book? Why not? “He’s the go-to guy,” Robison says of Aguirre-Sacasa’s shape-shifting, “because he holds that idiosyncratic place in the industry.”
<
“Even though ‘Spider-Man’ was this $70 million machine, it was the exact same job I had playwriting and on ‘Big Love,’ ” Aguirre-Sacasa says. “Rewriting, cutting, punching up jokes, trying to build the connection between characters, trying to land story and dialogue.”
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Next up is a musical of “Magic Mike” with composer Tom Kitt and lyricist Brian Yorkey, the team behind “Next to Normal” and “If/Then.” (Aguirre-Sacasa says it’s a prequel of sorts to the first “Magic Mike” movie.) He’s working on a play titled “Press the Flesh,” which he describes as a gay “Glengarry Glen Ross,” dealing with cutthroat Hollywood agents. His fingers are crossed that “Riverdale” will get picked up as a series.
“He follows his passions maybe more than anyone I can think of,” Robison says, explaining the rare variety of Aguirre-Sacasa’s projects.
“Yeah,” Aguirre-Sacasa says with fanboy enthusiasm about all the doors that keep opening, “I hope this is the life!”
American Psycho Now playing at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, 236 W. 45th St. Visit telecharge.com or call 212-239-6200.
‘Riverdale’ EP Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa on the Evolution of Archie & Possibilities for Future Seasons
by Christina Radish January 26, 2017
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On The CW series Riverdale, from executive producers Greg Berlanti and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (Chief Creative Officer of Archie Comics), the new school year begins as the town is coming to grips with the tragic but mysterious death of high schooler Jason Blossom. Archie Andrews (KJ Apa) would prefer to pursue a career in music rather than follow in his dad Fred’s (Luke Perry) footsteps, while girl-next-door Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart) is deciding whether to continue to keep her crush on her best friend and neighbor a secret. Throw in new student, Veronica Lodge (Camila Mendes), a curious Jughead Jones (Cole Sprouse) and Queen Bee Cheryl Blossom (Madelaine Petsch), who is happy to stir up trouble, and secrets are bound to surface.
During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa talked about what it means to him to get to bring the Archie Comics characters to life, in this way, the evolution from coming of age movie to a darker TV series, why they needed a dead body, the perfect casting, which character dynamics will be most surprising, and the format they’re looking to follow in future seasons. Be aware that there are some spoilers discussed.
Collider: What does it mean to you to not only be the Chief Creative Officer of the Archie brand, but also to have the responsibility of this being the first exposure that a whole new audience will have to this world?
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Image via The CW
ROBERTO AGUIRRE-SACASA: I do feel that, but I’m not thinking about that 24/7, or else I’d be paralyzed. Listen, I love these characters. No one is more protective of them than me. I made it my personal mission and said to Jon Goldwater, the Head of Archie Comics, “I believe I was put on this earth to help you bring these characters to three-dimensional life.” It’s truly been a dream come true. I’ve worked with Greg Berlanti for a couple of years, and he’s always said, “The first show you create and run should always be the show that’s closest to you and that you’re obsessed with because it will define you. You’re going to go on and do other things, Roberto, but it’s so perfect that your first show is Riverdale because it’s so your sensibility, you love these characters, and you work your ass off on it.” And he was right, when he said that. They’ve <
Because this is a different version of this world than people familiar with Archie are used to, what was the process for deciding what this show would be and could be? How much did you want to live up to the expectations that people have, and how much did you want it to be something completely fresh and new?
AGUIRRE-SACASA: Honestly, it was a little bit of trial and error. Originally, we were just going to do a straight coming of age, slice of life show. And before that, we were actually going to do it as a movie. We went out and pitched an Archie movie, and people really responded to the characters. They really loved the characters, but studios were wary because gone are the days of John Hughes. Big studios make big movies, and what we were pitching was a small character movie about first love and first kisses. The first big shift that happened was realizing that it’s not a movie, it’s a TV show. And then, when we took up the TV show, it was again a slice of life, coming of age show, like My So-Called Life or Freaks and Geeks. Again, people really loved these characters and really wanted to get in business with Archie and make the show, but everyone felt like, as much as people loved Freaks and Geeks and My So-Called Life, those shows only lasted a year. The way TV has shifted, over the last five years, may not support that kind of show anymore.
Greg Berlanti is the one who first said, “I think you’re gonna need a dead body. I think you’re gonna need some kind of hook, or some kind of genre element that will hook the viewers.” That gave me the permission to explore darker themes. The story really is a loss of innocence story. I thought of the coming of age movies that I really liked, like Stand by Me, which is about four friends who go see a dead body, or River’s Edge, the Keanu Reeves movie where he’s a high school student and his group of friends all know there’s a dead body by the river’s edge. Those were coming of age movies, and I, Roberto, probably liked them more than the John Hughes movies. I loved the John Hughes movies, but those were closer to my sensibilities than the others were. So, I thought, “What would a coming of age story be like, if David Lynch made it, or if Stephen King wrote it? And how could we take these characters and test them?” The show Riverdale is what we arrived at. It’s a show that’s the Archie comics, pop and aspirational, but also darker, mysterious and moodier, and like a David Lynch movie, like Blue Velvet.
The casting for this show is awesome. Aside from finding actors that perfectly fit the Archie characters, you also have my teenage dream cast, with the actors playing the parents. What’s it like to have this amazing cast, and were you worried you wouldn’t find them?
AGUIRRE-SACASA: I was petrified. We spent six months looking for the cast. Archie was literally the last kid we cast. You read about projects that fall apart because the right actors don’t reveal themselves. In the dark part of my soul, I was like, “We’re not going to find an Archie. We’re not going to do this TV show.” And then, KJ [Apa] arrived and we were like, “Yep, we’ve got an Archie! We have a show!” We have Luke [Perry], Madchen [Amick] and Marisol [Nichols] play the three main parents, Robin Givens is the mayor and Josie’s mom, who you’ll get to know more, and Skeet Ulrich, who you’ll get to know more. The show would not work without them. It’s very hard, on shows like this, to cut to the grown-ups. It’s much easier to cut to the grown-ups when it’s Luke Perry, Skeet Ulrich, Madchen Amick and Marisol Nichols. It’s much easier to imagine those stories with them. They are luxury casting. I now have reached a point in my life where I associate more with the parents than I do with the kids. It’s a real testament to the casting director and to the care everyone took to find this group of people.
We get to see a bit different version of the Archie characters in this. The Archie-Betty-Veronica triangle is different from what we’re used to, the Betty-Veronica dynamic is different, and the Archie-Jughead relationship is different. Which of these character relationships do you think will most surprise people?
riverdale-evil-touch-image-1
Image via The CW
AGUIRRE-SACASA: I think people really love the idea that Betty and Veronica are true friends and not frenemies. And when we go a little bit deeper into the season, Archie and Jughead’s friendship is really terrific, and weirdly not something we see a lot of, or at least I haven’t. And then, I think Fred (Luke Perry) and Archie have a great relationship. It’s one of the pillars of the show.
How far ahead have you thought about and talked about where things are headed? Do you have a good idea for what Season 2 would be, and have you talked even further down the road than that?
AGUIRRE-SACASA: We definitely have started conversations about Season 2. It won’t be a reset, completely. Obviously, the show is serialized. It’s not a mini-series, or anything. There will always be a mystery/noir/crime aspect to it. It won’t always necessarily be a murder mystery, but it might be.
If this version of Riverdale were a real place and someone asked you whether or not they should move to town, what would you tell them? Would you encourage them to move there, or would you tell them to stay away?
AGUIRRE-SACASA: I love everything about the show, so I’d say move! I’d move into the glamorous Pembrooke Apartments, though. That’s where I’d go. I’d like to be there with the Lodges.
Riverdale airs on Thursday nights on The CW.
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Person » Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa is credited in 236 issues.
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa is a writer of many successful marvel series like 4:Marvel knights, Nightcrawler and the comic adaptation of Stephen King's "The Stand"
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa was born in 1973, in Washington DC.The son of a prominent Nicaraguan diplomat, Roberto was raised both in the United States and in Nicaragua. He started writing comics for Marvel with Marvel Knights:4 in 2004 writing all the series's 30 issues. This series was soon followed by Nightcrawler a 12 issue series which ended in 2006. In 2008 he wrote 17 issues of The sensational spider-man and the Secret invasion:Fantastic Four mini series. In 2009 he penned the Angel: Revelations mini for the Marvel Knights imprint and the four part Marvel: Divas mini series. In 2010 he did a four issue Loki miniseries and in 2012 he penned the Fantastic Four: season One graphic novel. He has also penned various comic book mini series inspired from Stephen King's novel the Stand like The Stand:American Nightmares and The Stand:Hardcases for Marvel and various one-shots like Fear itself: The Worthy in 2011 and Avengers Origins: Ant-Man and the Wasp in 2012
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Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's Marvel Knights:4 greatly prompted his comics career.
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's Marvel Knights:4 greatly prompted his comics career.
Roberto is a play and television writer. His most famous works include Big Love which he keeps on writing from 2008 and co-producing from 2011 and Glee, which he started writing in 2011.
Archie Comics’ Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa Talks RIVERDALE & Afterlife with Archie at NYCC
Archie Comics’ Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa Talks RIVERDALE & Afterlife with Archie at NYCC
Posted by Rachael Berkey on October 16, 2015
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Archie Comics had a great showing at New York Comic Con—and with good reason. It feels like every time we turn around the publisher’s announcing television adaptations, new titles, and rebooted takes on old favorite characters. Which is why we were thrilled we had the opportunity to chat with Archie’s Chief Creative Officer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, to hear straight from the source about everything going on. Read on to hear more about the success of Afterlife with Archie, find out more about the CW’s new Riverdale show, what he thinks of the Archie musical coming to Broadway, and more.
Nerdist: How do you feel about the new Adam McKay Broadway adaptation of Archie? Are you excited to see it go to stage?
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa: Absolutely. We’ve been talking about trying to do an Archie musical for years. I would say the first conversation I ever had with John Goldwater, the head of Archie, was about the musical, or trying to do a musical. Adam McKay has a huge passion for these characters and he actually kind of reached out to us and we think that the pairing of Archie with Adam McKay with Funny or Die. It’s actually going to be called Funny or Die Presents: Archie the Musical. It’s going to be really terrific. I think it’s going to honor the characters while also, obviously, being very very funny. It’s going to be a musical comedy.
N: I was wondering with all of these other adaptations that are happening, the TV shows, are you hoping to see some of the horror elements you’ve written in Afterlife with Archie and in your film work come into all of it? I keep hearing ‘subversive’ when people mention Riverdale.
RAS: Right. Right. If you took Afterlife with Archie and subtracted the zombies and subtracted the HP Lovecraft that is sort of what the tone of Riverdale is. It is a little subversive; it is a little darker and deeper. It’s still very emotional. It’s still got humor in it. It has Josie and the Pussycats, and music in it as well. I would say that it’s overall tone is a little bit weirder than you might think.
archie-riverdale
N: I have to ask, what is it like to be named the CCO over the characters that you read as a kid? Did you ever think then that this is where you’d be now?
RAS: Never in a million years is the answer. I always had been a comic book fan, and I always loved the Archie characters, but no I did not for a second think that I would ever get to write these characters, let alone help work with the company that’s behind it. It really is a dream come true.
N: That’s fantastic. Where you guys are is a bit Riverdale-like—I’ve been to the office. I feel like that part of New York is a very small town.
RAS: It’s a very small town.
N: There’s something almost Pleasantville-like about it in the comic books. Can you talk a little bit about how you guys are taking it from the page to the screen?
RAS: What we’re hoping and what would be my dream come true is… The studio that’s producing the pilot, the show, is Warner Brothers, and I think it would be amazing to do a show on the back lot at Warner’s. They have a street that’s like a small town main street and a small town residential street. If you’ve ever seen the show Pretty Little Liars that show is shot on the Warner Brothers back lot. I think it would be great for Riverdale to be on the back lot as well, to give it that feel of out of time and universal in timelessness.
N: And what are you reading and looking forward to that’s not your imprint right now?
RAS: That’s a really good question, what am I reading?
N: TV, everything.
RAS: I read — I wish I read more. I read a lot of the Image books. I read Scott Snyder‘s Batman, I read Greg Cox, Super Action Comics I think he’s writing. I read Dan Slott‘s Spider-Man always, I read anything Mark Wade writes; I read anything Grant Morrison writes, same with Neil Gaiman. I’ve been consulting on the CBS show Supergirl. Every week we get a huge box of DC comics so I find myself reading all the DC comics as well.
N: Amazing.
RAS: Yeah.
N: With Afterlife with Archie, I have a hard time even picturing it in my brain even though I’ve seen it and I’ve read it, because they’re not zombies to me.
ALWArchie1FFvar
RAS: Right.
N: How did you come up with that? I know it sound like you pitched it when you were still play-writing. It’s just so different.
RAS: I have to give credit to the artist Francesco Francavilla. He is a huge horror and pulp fanatic, and he did a variant cover for Life with Archie the magazine comic book that had zombies on the cover. It had Archie recoiling from Jughead, Betty, and Veronica zombies, and I picked up that comic book thinking, “Oh this is a zombie comic book! How brilliant!” It was just a variant cover. I was having breakfast with John Goldwater and his son, Jesse, and I was like, “This should be a comic book.” And then we all kind of looked at each other and were like, “Let’s make this a comic book.” It started as simply as that.
N: That’s so much fun.
RAS: Yeah.
N: I saw the trailer that was released at Comic-Con for Afterlife with Archie. Are we going to hopefully see some more trailers soon?
RAS: I love those trailers. I think they’re really really fun. Yeah we may. I think Dark Circle put out a ‘Black Hood’ trailer. We don’t do them for every issue, but I think it’s something that we could do again.
Riverdale is in development at CW. We here at Nerdist are pretty excited to see the world of Archie, Jughead, Betty, and Veronica come to life, and can’t wait to see what they do with the show. Likewise, Afterlife with Archie is being worked on, but no release date has been announced as of yet. Tell us which you’re more looking forward to in the comments below.
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Vol. 1: The Crucible
263.36 (Sept. 5, 2016): p65.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Vol. 1: The Crucible
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Robert Hack. Archie, $17.99 trade paper (160p) ISBN 978-162738-987-7
Set in the 1960s, this Archie spin-off draws heavily on the tropes of pulpy teen horror comics. Warlock Edward Spellman marries a mortal wife instead of a witch, gaining a powerful enemy. His daughter, Sabrina, is taken from him and raised by two aunts--who happen to be witches. Years later, teen Sabrina is faced with all of the usual preoccupations: a football-star boyfriend, auditions for the school musical, swirling hormones, and a bloody Satanic ritual that will mark her coming-of-age at 16. Unlike most young witches, Sabrina has a choice: to live as a normal human or to dedicate her soul to the devil and gain access to unlimited power. Both choices come with a terrible price. Hack's brushy line work captures Sabrina's youthful naivete and decay and murder in dark forests. Aguirre-Sacasa's (Afterlife with Archie) well-realized characters and humor bring depth to what could have been a rather dreary tale of revenge and gore. (Aug.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Vol. 1: The Crucible." Publishers Weekly, 5 Sept. 2016, p. 65. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA463513586&it=r&asid=748f4c3c618a7927cff63fc48e70e1c0. Accessed 2 May 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A463513586
Afterlife with Archie
128.1-2 (January-February 2015): p40.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2015 Spilogale, Inc.
http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/
Afterlife with Archie by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa & Francesco Francavilla, Archie Comic Publications, 2014, $17.99.
I read Archie comics as a kid but stopped reading them many, many years ago. I know there were changes made as time went by, but in my mind Riverdale was a timeless place. Archie was forever trying to decide between Betty and Veronica, Jughead's appetite never lessened, Reggie was always going to be a tool. Glancing at the covers of the various Archie family digests at the checkout line in grocery stores over the years merely reinforced that impression.
Now, comics don't often make the news, but the Archie Andrews character is as much a pop culture icon as Superman, so it makes sense that every outlet would carry the news that Archie had died, sacrificing his life to save that of a friend. What I found confusing was that this was an adult Archie--at least I was confused until I discovered that there'd been a magazine published for some time called Life with Archie that depicted two ongoing story lines. In one, Archie had married Betty,-in the other, Veronica. The issue in which he dies combines the two story lines and is very coy as to who is actually his wife when he dies.
What surprised me about all of this attention is that months earlier, another comic was launched called Afterlife with Archie in which Riverdale is overrun by zombies, and it didn't seem to get the same coverage.
Both are imaginary stories within the confines of the Archie universe, but it strikes me that Afterlife with Archie is the more shocking. For anyone who grew up on these comics, the idea that an adult Archie would give his life for a friend doesn't have quite the same impact as having a zombie apocalypse imperil the teenage boy and his friends.
I'm not a big fan of zombie stories, regardless of the medium. Some are better than others, but they all boil down to us being introduced to a cast of characters, some likeable and some not, and then watching them get picked off one by one until we get to the end. There are variations, of course, and some creators do a better job than others of making characters that we can invest in, but the bottom line usually remains the same. It was shocking when George Romero first had them come shambling into our consciousness. Now, not so much.
Except when you take a bunch of wholesome kids like the Riverdale gang, kids that many of us have known all our lives, and put them smack dab into the middle of a horror show such as this.
It starts with Reggie running over Jughead's beloved dog, Hot Dog. Desperate to save the dog, Jughead brings Hot Dog to Sabrina (of Teenage Witch fame) who makes the mistake of playing with the dark arts to revive the dog. The characters of Pet Sematary and any number of other horror novels and films could have told them that this is a Bad Idea. The dead can come back, but they're never the same when they return.
In this case, Hot Dog bites Jughead and the goofy, food-loving teen is the first to fall victim to the contagion.
Cut to a Halloween dance at Riverdale High where Jughead shows up in his "amazing costume" and all hell breaks loose as he starts to chow down on his classmates and their chaperones.
<
Unfortunately--for the characters--this is an ongoing series and considering what's happened so far, I'm not sure if any of them will survive in the long run. If the previous history of zombie stories holds true, there's a lot more carnage to come.
Writer Roberto <
Afterlife with Archie isn't a kid's book, with its graphic psychological and physical violence, but it's very well done. You don't need familiarity with the characters to follow the story, though without it you'll certainly lose some of the shock value and resonance.
But I'm not sure I'll read much further. The next issue (#6) features Sabrina and a whole Cthulhu Mythos take on the cost of her helping Jughead in the first place. Coming up--I suppose--the survivors of the first trade paperback will continue their struggle with the zombie menace and no doubt get picked off one by one. But this five-issue collection is really outstanding.
de Lint, Charles
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Afterlife with Archie." The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Jan.-Feb. 2015, p. 40+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA399255404&it=r&asid=ad17b23991a409ebffbb10a9accd3dec. Accessed 2 May 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A399255404
Afterlife with Archie, v.1: Escape from Riverdale
Daniel Kraus
110.22 (Aug. 1, 2014): p56.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2014 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
* Afterlife with Archie, v.1: Escape from Riverdale. By Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. Illus. by Francesco Francavilla. 2014. 160p. Archie Comics, $17.99 (9781619889088). 741.5. Gr. 9-12.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Archie: The Married Life turned the Archiverse upside down to revelatory effect, so it's saying a mouthful that this latest gamble is even better. The cast is familiar--Archie, Betty, Veronica, Moose, etc.-- though matured in both style and substance. (You'll encounter such verboten words as sexy and dammit.) It begins when Jughead's pet, Hot Dog, is killed by a car. He takes the carcass to Sabrina (you know, the teenage witch?), who, in a moment of pity, enacts a bit of necromancy. Hot Dog comes back, all right, but as a frothing devil-dog whose first victim is his owner. Zombie Jughead then storms the Halloween dance, eating Big Ethel in front of everyone and spawning the Riverdale plague, while the rest of our gang barricades themselves in Lodge Manor. The fact that this sounds humorous is Aguirre-Sacasa's best weapon: readers have 70 years' worth of warm memories to serve as sepia-toned flashbacks while Arch and the gang fall apart physically and mentally. Francavilla dials up the garish colors and compositions of comic-book horror, but it's the wrenching sadness that sticks with you; for example, Archie's bludgeoning of his undead dad is intercut with <
Kraus, Daniel
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Kraus, Daniel. "Afterlife with Archie, v.1: Escape from Riverdale." Booklist, 1 Aug. 2014, p. 56+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA379569465&it=r&asid=56c5d999dbf6a5acde23cba331e30dc4. Accessed 2 May 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A379569465
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa; illustrated by Dan Parent: Archie Meets Glee
138.4 (Mar. 1, 2013): pS6.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2013 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa; illustrated by Dan Parent ARCHIE MEETS GLEE
This item collects a 4-part comic book event that features a crossover with Fox's hit show Glee. A high-profile graphic novel crossover written by Glee co-producer and illustrated by an Archie fan-favorite.
978-1-936975-45-7 | $12.99/$14.996 | 50,000 Archie Comic Publications | TR | August
GRAPHIC NOVEL
RA: For Riverdale and Glee fans!
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa; illustrated by Dan Parent: Archie Meets Glee." Library Journal, 1 Mar. 2013, p. S6. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA320590767&it=r&asid=058425b9ef855706561288e3f20cbdcc. Accessed 2 May 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A320590767
Aguirre-Sacasa, Roberto. Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: Vol. 1
Anna Murphy
62.10 (Oct. 2016): p118.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
* AGUIRRE-SACASA, Roberto. Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: Vol. 1. illus. by Robert Hack. 160p. Archie Comics. Aug. 2016. pap. $17.09. ISBN 9781627389877.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Gr 10 Up--This horror flick reimagining of Sabrina the Teenage Witch is a lushly cinematic and refreshingly grim departure from the charmingly sweet heroine of yesteryear. This isn't your mother's teenage witch: although Sabrina is dealing with common adolescent woes, she's also consorting with the devil and feasting on a sacrificial goat. The story takes place in the days before Sabrina's confirmation into the coven, coinciding with her 16th birthday. In the upcoming ceremony, she must choose to either live as an immortal witch, infinitely powerful but incapable of romantic love, or as a mortal, destined to die but also able to spend her life with her dreamboat boyfriend, Harvey. Meanwhile, Madam Satan, a powerful witch with a vendetta against Sabrina's father, is accidentally raised from hell by two familiar Archie-universe figures; Betty and Veronica are wryly reinvented here as ditzy but powerful witches. The five-issue collection ends <
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Murphy, Anna. "Aguirre-Sacasa, Roberto. Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: Vol. 1." School Library Journal, Oct. 2016, p. 118. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA466166990&it=r&asid=128493a05ef18c7b1683b17f6e7ddb4d. Accessed 2 May 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A466166990
'Afterlife With Archie': The Walking Jughead? The art of bringing zombies to Riverdale High
David Betancourt
(Jan. 8, 2014): News:
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2014 The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Byline: David Betancourt
It isn't such a far creative leap, apparently, from Jughead to the Undead.
Archie Andrews and the rest of the eerily eternal youngsters at Riverdale High have been deftly riding the trends for more than 70 years - from burgers and shakes at Pop Tate's, to texting and tweeting on smartphones. So it's only natural that they now sink their teeth into...zombies.
In "Afterlife With Archie," perhaps the most popular redhead in comics has more to worry about than choosing between Betty and Veronica - assuming Archie's favorite gal-pals make it out of this series alive.
Riverdale has seen better days. Hotdog, Jughead's pooch, has just been hit by a car. Jughead goes to the one person he thinks can help: Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Sabrina acts against the wishes of her powerful witch-aunts but fails to revive Hotdog - who becomes one undead dog.
The zombie dog goes home to Jughead, who thinks his canine pal has come back to life. Jughead gets bitten instead, turning into a zombie himself - and thus launches the contagion/horror tale in "Afterlife With Archie."
"Archie and his gang have alway been my favorite comic-book characters - the Fantastic Four are a close second," writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa said. "So to get <
"The horror stuff is obviously a lot of fun," continues the "Afterlife With Archie" writer. "The zombies, the witches, the other creatures of the night that will start popping up soon, but the real thrill has been telling these weird, deeply emotional, personal stories with these iconic characters. Treating them as real people, in extreme situations. Peeling back the layers to reveal their true cores. That's been the best part for a lifelong Archie fan like me."
Compared with other Archie books, there is a much more mature tone in "Afterlife With Archie" (the publisher says that the title is rated Teen+ and that Archie Comics is not targeting children with this title). Yet many of the things people expect from an Archie comic are still there:
Veronica's father despises Archie with a passion. Reggie is always up to something. And Jughead is always an arm's-length from a burger.
Aguirre-Sacasa says the iconic rivalry between Betty and Veronica is a lot more intense in his story, given "Afterlife With Archie's" teen rating.
"Betty and Veronica are best friends in 'Afterlife With Archie,' no question, but that friendship will be tested majorly during our second arc, 'Betty RIP," explains the Harvey Award-winning writer. "In Issue 5, there's a great scene between Betty and Archie that Veronica witnesses that is a real game-changer. [With the threat of death imminent] the girls are basically like, 'We don't know how much longer any of us is going to be here, Archie - you need to decide, once and for all, which of us do you love. It's endgame for the love triangle."
The mature themes meant that the standard template for fun - and the visual style most familiar to those who read Archie Comics - wouldn't be applicable with this series.
Eisner-winning artist Francesco Francavilla took on the challenge of giving Archie and his friends an updated, more mature and darker look for "Afterlife With Archie."
"We needed a more realistic approach to the design look of all the Riverdale crew to make this work as a horror book, so I was very happy we got carte blanche from [executive] Jon Goldwater and everyone at Archie from the get-go," Francavilla said. "That definitely added a whole new level of fun approaching this book."
Despite the new look in the zombie stories, Francavilla says that it's still obvious who's who.
"Even with my more realistic approach, all the characters are still very recognizable and faithful to the original designs" - facial features, hair styles, clothes, etc., says Francavilla. "Some characters were a little harder to render in my style - Jughead with his pointy nose - but in the end, everything fell in place like clockwork."
Such other Archie characters as Nancy and Ginger are also around in "Afterlife," but not in the same way. Nancy, who in the Archie books is normally seen dating Chuck Clayton, is instead in a secret relationship with Ginger. When asked whether the recent popularity of the gay Archie character Kevin Keller paved the way for this new situation, Aguirre-Sacasa says he understands how that can be assumed, but that wasn't specifically the case.
"I think Kevin Keller paved the way for a lot of things at Archie, including the entire 'Afterlife With Archie' comic," Aguirre-Sacasa says. "But in terms of Nancy and Ginger, I wanted to include these characters and I wanted to do something different with them. So I thought: 'What if they're secretly dating?' More for the story possibilities than anything else. What will happen to their secret relationship now that they're in the middle of a zombie apocalypse?
"Historically, Nancy has dated Chuck Clayton in the main Archie-verse, so we're definitely going to be playing the tension between him, Nancy and Ginger in upcoming issues," the writer continues. "And Kevin, who's been in the background the first few issues, will also be a part of that story."
So is writing horror for the Archie gang the same as trying to write Spider-Man for Broadway, as Aguirre-Sacasa did with "Turn Off the Dark"?
"Oh, wow, the biggest difference is that one is told through live performance, and the other is told through sequential, static images," Aguirre-Sacasa said. "On Broadway, it's one story, told over the course of 2 1/2 hours. In comic books, each issue is its own chapter, but you're hopefully telling your story over months, or if you're lucky, years.
"At their core, they're both forms of storytelling. You have characters with big needs, big obstacles, villains, set-pieces. And in most cases, in comic books and in Broadway shows, you have a love story you're following."
As for creating an undead Riverdale, Aguirre-Sacasa says that bringing in the horror genre "does seem incredibly obvious. Teenagers and horror go hand-in-hand like peanut butter and jelly."
So is anyone safe in Riverdale as hungry zombies are unleashed?
"No, unfortunately," said Aguirre-Sacasa. "And we have a finite cast, so people have to stop dying soon."
By David Betancourt
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Betancourt, David. "'Afterlife With Archie': The Walking Jughead? The art of bringing zombies to Riverdale High." Washington Post, 8 Jan. 2014. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA355079358&it=r&asid=27f194509c402a5fe48d9631df25fe3d. Accessed 2 May 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A355079358
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Francesco Francavilla ‘Afterlife with Archie: Escape from Riverdale’ Review
Posted on January 9, 2015 in Authors A-L // 7 Comments
2 Votes
Written by: Matt Molgaard
Here’s a confession: I’ve never read an Archie comic book in my life, and I’ve read a good 10,000 of them. Okay, that’s not true. I’ve now read some stuff. Afterlife with Archie, the prototypical American teen’s first showdown with the undead, makes me wonder why I’ve prolonged the familiarization with this iconic character. There’s something so ridiculously charming about Archie Andrews and his band of buds that tells me a horror sheen isn’t required to leap into this picturesque existence.
Now don’t get that twisted up, nothing is picturesque in Afterlife with Archie. In fact, it’s hell on earth as the suburb of Riverdale morphs from ideal location to a wall of fire and ghouls. Jughead’s dog, Hot dog is hit by the toolbag known as Reggie Mantle, and passes shortly thereafter. A Pet Sematary inspired resurrection follows (believe it or not, it works), and Jughead gets his dog back. But he doesn’t really want that dog back. It returns as a savage, flesh-eating zombie (Hot) dog, and takes a chunk out of Jughead (yep, Jughead gets it just about immediately!), who then finds himself shambling for the Halloween dance at the local high school. It’s Carrie meets The Walking Dead as chaos erupts. Kids are all but devoured, and the spreading of the zombie plague is in full effect.
Archie is (of course) at the dance, as are his love interests Veronica and Betty. They avoid any bites or scratches, scattering for Veronica’s home, which is basically a fortified mansion. Initially it seems the group can hold up behind closed doors and wait out the craziness. But this seemingly impenetrable fortress threatens to crumble under the weight of countless corpses and Archie and company are forced to flea before escape becomes an impossibility.
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Robert Kirkman’s The Waling Dead has long been my favorite zombie graphic novel. That changes today. As much as I adore The Walking Dead (and I do indeed love the book, despite my general lack of love for zombies in printed fiction), Afterlife with Archie just boasts a completely different level of infectiousness. The book transcends great zombie fare. Aguirre-Sacasa and Francavilla should be insanely proud of this masterpiece.
Order the first collection right here.
Rating: 5/5
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Robert Hack ‘Chilling Adventures of Sabrina #1’ Review
Posted on June 6, 2015 in Graphic Novels // 1 Comment
2 Votes
Written by: Matt Molgaard
Archie Comics does it yet again. Perhaps I should say Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa has done it again, as the man <
Robert Hack’s superb artwork doesn’t hurt the cause as we get a full and aesthetically stimulating introduction to this polarizing young witch. The story tracks Sabrina’s early years, her troubles growing up as a witch and her eventual relocation from Westbridge, Massachusetts to Greendale, which appears to be a neighboring town to the home town we’ve all come to know: Riverdale. Sabrina’s issues aren’t typical, but they’re rooted in the same conflicts the typical teenager faces… things just tend to get a bit darker in this world.
This is an excellent read that’s going to sit well with fans of Afterlife with Archie. The tone is there. The artwork is haunting. The realism within the characters remains intact. And the vintage vibe of the book as a whole won’t disappoint long time Archie fanatics.
If you’re looking for another standout graphic novel/comic, we’re being gifted something special right now, and you’d be wise to climb on board early, before catch up is required. Another masterful piece from Archie Comics, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is all but guaranteed to win the masses over within just one single issue!
Order it here.
Rating: 4/5