ARCHIE'S WEIRD MYSTERIES!!!

So what's your favorite scary-silly comic book series?

Back in December I did a post about a book collection of some of the "Archie's Weird Mysteries" comic book stories I wrote. If you want to re-read that post, you can do so by clicking here.

But... you don’t really need to because I’m going to repeat most of the same information here.

Here’s the deal: last time I wrote about how you can pre-order the book from Amazon and that it’s due to hit in mid August. Well...

It seems that the book will actually be released earlier to comic shops, which is great news. It’s due to hit those comic shops in mid-July. So NOW is the time to go visit your LCS (that’s comic industry jargon for “local comic shop”) and tell them you want a copy of ARCHIE & FRIENDS ALL-STARS: ARCHIE’S WEIRD MYSTERIES.

Now... there still may be some of you out there wondering what I’m talking about so I’ll repeat the following from the earlier post to fill you in: "Archie's Weird Mysteries" was an animated series based on the long-running comic book series about small-town high school teens... except with the added overlay of weird phenomena like ghosts, monsters and aliens being thrown into the mix!



Of course, flip-about is fair play, so it wasn't long before the TV cartoon show based on the comic book series spun off a comic book series based on the TV cartoon show based on the comic book series! While I wasn't the only writer (artist Fernando Ruiz contributed a few scripts of his own), I'm proud to say I wrote stories that appeared in all 24 issues (plus the additional 10 that followed when the series dropped the "Weird" to become simply "Archie's Mysteries"). You can learn more about the comic series by reading a 2009 interview intrepid reporter Billie Rae Bates did with me by clicking here.

Writing the "Archie's Weird Mysteries" comics was one of the highlights of my career, not just because I got to combine horror and comedy in ways that paid tribute to everything from "Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein" to "Kolchak the Night Stalker" to "Night of the Creeps;" (which I still say is the closest anyone's ever come to capturing Archie in live-action) but also because the amazing array of artistic talent contributing to the series included such top-notch folks as the aforementioned Fernando Ruiz plus Bill Golliher, Rich Koslowski, Stephanie Vozzo, Rick Taylor and Vicki Williams (hopefully I haven't forgotten anyone).

So again, I wanted to give all "Scared Silly" fans a head's up on this book's pending release. To reiterate, it will be in comic shops in July and available from online retailers in August. Please consider ordering it in advance from your local comic shop (to find the comic shop nearest you use the Comic Shop Locator Service). Or you can preorder it from Amazon. Here’s what the cover looks like so you can easily spot it:



Now here’s the coolest part: good sales for this book could possibly make this just the first in a series of paperback reprints of my “Archie’s Weird Mysteries” stories. Of course, I would love that. The editor has told me he would love it, too. And I know Fernando the artist would also love it. And it could very well possibly lead to some new stories from us, too! The best way you can do your part to help us is to support the project – so if you have any interest in "Archie's Weird Mysteries" at all I'd truly appreciate you placing an order with your local comic shop or Amazon or wherever you can find someone selling the book. Much thanks!