The Archie Babies (Part 4)

Holy. Crap. Are you guys seeing just how friggin' adorable this is??

At around the end of 2010, the decision had finally been made that the content produced for the Archie Babies stories would be published as Archie Comics' first 100% all-original graphic novel. Very exciting stuff! So to round out the page-count for that format, a fifth and final story was commissioned - a tad shorter than the rest at only 17 pages - and written by Sonic-and-MegaMan scribe Ian Flynn.

The twist? It was going to read like a children's picture book!

We changed up the character rendering style a bit to fit this new direction and this is where I got to really punch up a softer, more animated background. To really play up the difference between the real world and "imagination pages," everything is really soft and color held on the former while the latter keeps alot more of the black ink on the page for a little heavier, darker "trudging through the jungle" feel. It's so radically different from everything else we've done, it's probably my favorite of the Archie Babies stuff!

And, that's a wrap! Shortly after this I began work full-time on the Mega Man monthly comic book which was quickly approaching its launch back in Spring of 2011. This project definitely holds a special place in my heart and is one of my favorites!

The Archie Babies (Part 3)

This was technically the last issue of this mini-series, as it was originally planned. When the decision to publish this in graphic novel format was made, a fifth and shorter story was required to round out the page count. But this is another great stand-alone chapter in the book. Not enough single issue stories in comics these days, I think...

Another of the Muppet Babies style imagination sequences which I love so hard - my favorite of them, in fact. You may also notice that in this and the previous chapter that everything is almost always full-bleed now, as opposed to having those nice, cushy white margins along the sides. I kinda' miss 'em, but my guess is that it was a necessary change given the number of panels-per-page this series had.



Another great sequence in this book. These characters really are an ensemble cast and everyone gets a chance to really stand-out in just these 22 page stories! I think my favorites of the gang are Archie himself, Moose, and Jughead.

So, as this was originally conceived as a mini-series that would run in singles, each book featured these really cool activity pages in the back called "Recess Time." They were either just zippy jokes or connect-the-dots, mazes, crosswords, etc. I freakin' loved these parts. It was just something very different to have in a comic! 

The Archie Babies (Part 2)

Woah! So, back in October, I'd meant to post up some of my favorite pages from The Archie Babies, Archie Comics' first 100% original graphic novel... Alas, life got in the way and I didn't post much of anything for the rest of 2011! So, to start off 2012 right, how 'bout we fix that?

The "Stubby-Toot" Teacher storyline from the second issue is probably my favorite! It's like something right out of Muppet Babies, complete with hilarious runaway-imagination sequences.

This technically wasn't my first Archie related work - in summer of '09, I cleaned-'n'-colored up alot of character art that's been used on the company website, convention displays, etc. During that, I was given a spreadsheet that actually has every hair, eye, skin, etc. color mixture for every Archie character mapped-out! Came in very handy for this book.

Love this rainy-day scene! This book is hyper-colorful, so it was great to create this kinda' dark-and-dreary scene. The real challenge was to capture that mood and still be colorful enough to fit with the rest of the book, and I think we managed it pretty well.



The rendering in Archie Babies is pretty simple. Kinda' cel-shaded but not quite, since we really don't get very dynamic with the light source. They're either lit from the side or lit from behind, no matter where the source actually is. It was a creative choice at the very start and I think it looks good on the Archie-characters. In the Archie-verse, color has traditionally been much more of a story-telling tool than a place to show off rendering skills. 

The one thing I probably would do differently now would've been to color-hold more of the background elements - really punch up the animated look to the characters. Alas, it would be a creative vision realized much, much later in the book and to much better effect there...

The Archie Babies

Last year, my editor Paul approached me about a unique and as of then unannounced new comic called "Archie Babies" - everyone's favorite Riverdale posse set in pre-school and written by Mike Kunkel, illustrated by Art Mawhinney. It was a pet project Paul took over for our new president - and the former Sonic the Hedgehog editor who originally hired me. How it would be published (Mini, online, graphic novel?) wasn't quite planned yet and, in fact, the first two issues had already gone through full production... But they were looking for a different approach to the colors, and wanted to know if I was interested.

Absolutely! First, I love the Archie characters. I didn't read them growing up - I was mostly into Sonic and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Adventures Archie published, with Spider-Man and X-Men from Marvel... But these characters are iconic, comic book and American legends. And up until then my only actual Archie-related credits were colors on some stock-art used on the website/conventions/magazines.

Second, I would get to color for Art Mawhinney. This guy was my favorite Sonic the Hedgehog penciler growing up!

All this week, I'll be posting up some of my favorite pages from each chapter. Yep, ultimately Archie Babies was published as Archie Comics' first 100% original graphic novel.