Archie & Friends: Hot Summer Movies One-Shot (Exclusive)
Hot off the presses, Archie Comics have announced an upcoming one-shot entitled “Archie & Friends: Hot Summer Movies One-Shot” which tackles three Hollywood blockbusters in a fun, light-hearted and Archie-ified way.
Fans of the worldly famous Archie Comics readers digest will easily gravitate towards this comic book as it has the look and feel of classic Archie Comics stories whilst being a relatively fast page turner at just 32 pages.
Here’s the synopsis they’ve handed out to press:
A BRAND-NEW STORY kicks off this BLOCKBUSTER issue! In “Riverdale Jones and the Burger of Density,” Hero burgerologist (it’s a real job, trust us!) Riverdale Jones is deep in the heart of the rainforest to discover the most delicious, exotic burger recipe! Join our hungry hero Jughead, with his faithful pet Hot Dog by his side, in this fun, an adventure-filled riff on Indiana Jones just in time for the new movie!
I caught up Adrian Ropp (writer) and Bill Galvan (artist) on the ‘Archie & Friends: Hot Summer Movies’ One-Shot and here’s what they had to say:
“With this story, I really wanted to recapture the great adventure vibe I always got reading Explorers of the Unknown by the amazing Rex Lindsey,” says Ropp. “And if there’s another artist who understands what makes Jughead great, it’s Bill Galvan.”
Galvan echoed this, saying “Penciling this new tale was a blast, especially working with Adrian Ropp who wrote such a hilarious script, and my son Ben with his amazing inks!”
The first story, “Riverdale Jones and the Burger of Density,” written by Adrian Ropp, pencilled by Bill Galvan, inked by Ben Galvan, colored by Glenn Whitmore and lettered by Jack Morelli – is an obvious homage to Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny film. With Jughead napping in the diner he dreams of being the famous “Riverdale Jones” and on a sacred quest to find the golden ‘Burger of Density’ as Betty and Archie try to furiously wake him up. He even has an arch-enemy in his dream, Commander Dismantle, because who in their right mind would want to dismantle an epic golden burger?
The second story, “The Legend of King Koala – Part 1,” written by Rich Margopoulos, pencilled by Gene Colan, inked by Rudy Lapick and lettered by Bill Yoshida – is another fun take. This time on the King Kong story. It follows Archie, Veronica and Mr Lodge’s trip to an island to unearth the Legend of King Koala. Which more than appeals to my Australian heritage. Thankfully, Margopoulos avoided the term of ‘Koala Bear’. Koalas aren’t bears, people!
RELATED: Examining King Kong through its Influences and Legacy
The third and final story, “E.T. Travesty,” written by George Gladir and art by Dan DeCarlo, features an alien who encounters Archie and Jughead. An alien which just so happens to look like the original E.T. except sporting a very wild shade of pink and purple. The two Riverdale teens do their best to help the alien on his retail therapy misadventures.
This story is then followed on by some incredible art pages which act as riffs on well-known Hollywood movies. There’s The Spies Who Dumped Me instead of The Spy Who Loved Me, The Hungry Knight instead of The Dark Knight, Rebel Without A Clue instead of Rebel Without A Cause – you get the idea.
Archie & Friends: Hot Summer Movies is available from 7th June at your local comic shop and other online retailers. But for now, enjoy some more of the preview pages below.
RELATED: Archie 2015 #1 Review
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