Interview: Archie Meets Riverdale in TV Show & Comic Crossover
Worlds collide in Archie Meets Riverdale, and writer Daniel Kibblesmith gives Screen Rant an exclusive preview of the long-awaited comic crossover.
The world and characters of Archie Comics were given a major update and overhaul when adapted into The CW's Riverdale. And now the crossover fans have dreamed of is finally coming true, giving the classic Archie Andrews a look at the hunky, melodramatic star he's become on TV. But a collision of Archies is just the beginning of what's in store when Archie Meets Riverdale this May.
Written by Emmy-nominated writer Daniel Kibblesmith (Black Panther vs Deadpool, Loki) with art by Archie institution Pat & Tim Kennedy, the special one-shot twists the fabric of reality itself, allowing Archie, Jughead, Betty, Veronica, and most of Riverdale to collide with their modern counterparts. And to say that both sides are shocked to learn what "normal" means in this alternate dimension... would be an understatement. Sreen Rant got the chance to ask Kibblesmith about the origins of the crossover, the not-so-strange synergy between the zany comics and zanier TV show, his dreams for future Archie crossovers, and more. Readers can find our full interview with Kibblesmith, and an exclusive preview for Archie Meets Riverdale below.
Screen Rant: Before even diving into the specifics of Archie Meets Riverdale, I have to ask about how this project started development: how it was pitched to you? In what form was the story at that point, or how much of the premise was in place?
Daniel Kibblesmith: This was a long journey. I met Mike Pellerito, the now Editor-in-Chief of Archie comics at a 2019 Free Comic Book Day event at AW YEAH! Comics in Harrison New York (of which Mike is a co-owner). I found out he worked at Archie and immediately pulled out my official Capcom licensed Ice Man keychain and pitched him on Mega Man on the spot.
He politely indicated that Mega Man no longer lived at Archie, but we should talk about doing something else. Mike was the one who, later, pitched me on doing Classic Archie meets CW's Riverdale and my initial reaction was shock that it hadn't been done already -- and then further shock that they would trust me to do it, especially as my FIRST Archie comic. I would've thought they'd try me out on a three-panel Hot Dog gag strip or something.
SR: On one hand this crossover idea (the classic Archie world colliding with The CW Riverdale's) seems inevitable. But coming up with the 'how' of it is a different story. How did this take shape into a special one-shot, as opposed to the thirty-issue maxi-series fans will obviously demand?
DK: Actually, this WAS initially going to be a much longer miniseries, but then Covid struck, and my day job revved up, AND we had a baby -- and the comic kept condensing. Usually that's a bad thing, but the serendipity of this particular project is that nothing interesting ever seemed to get CUT. The more we boiled down the outline, the more the things we cut out revealed themselves to be things we didn't need, and all my favorite ideas still made it into this extremely wild 20 page one-shot.
SR: You have recently written stories starring Loki, Deadpool, Black Panther... how do those established worlds compare to stepping into the 80-year canon of Archie Comics (if you can even call it "canon")? And how much of that were you familiar with, versus research for this specifically?
DK: I knew the basics of the Archie-verse from general pop culture, much like most people, but as a kid I went straight from superheroes to alt comix without buying that many all-ages titles, with the exception of my complete (as of this date) collection of Garfield Books. It wasn't until I started hanging out with comics creators and cartoonists that I realized what I was missing out on in the all-ages space, whether it was Don DeCarlo's Archie or Carl Barks' Scrooge, or just stuff I hadn't previously been drawn to because it wasn't EDGY enough, like the unparelleled Usagi Yojimbo. So my introduction to Archie was more of an crash course of reading big collections of Archie through the ages then picking it up if I was good at the grocery store.
Writing for Archie is actually pretty similar to writing for a superhero universe because I approach it from the angle of honoring what I love about the characters' established voices, and looking for untapped opportunities to put them in new situations where they can challenge or satisfy my expectations for how they'd behave. As a fan, and as a writer, I have an idea of what I think would happen if you put Archie in a room with Jughead, or Black Panther in a room with Deadpool, or (ideally) Archie in a room with Deadpool. Don't roll your eyes, there's precedent.
SR: Despite first impressions, the loose connection to reality is something that Archie Comics and Riverdale (especially in its recent seasons) both have in common. This crossover really embraces that, but was it part of your strategy from the start? Did the story change on that front at all?
DK: I'm laughing out loud. One BIG difference between writing for Archie and writing for superheroes is that superhero universes really contort themselves in order to "make sense," at least in terms of their own continuity and internal logic. But Archie's internal logic is all over the place (something we have a lot of fun with in this one-shot). My biggest writing obstacle on this script was talking to Mike Pellerito about a pretty complicated logical conceit that would've been the framing device of the whole story and he said something like, "You might be over thinking it. You know Archie is friends with Santa Claus, right?" After that breakthrough, the final script was done in about 48 hours -- and I think it's much stronger than if I had forced it to "make sense." My advice to anyone writing Archie stories is keep your brain handy in the passenger seat, but let your heart drive.
SR: You make some very easy-to-miss references for the diehard Archie fans, so how in the world did you choose the ones that made the cut?
DK: Oh, that's easy, I just didn't cut any references. Every gag, every easter egg, every bit of fan service that I wanted to do is in this comic. One classic Archie reference didn't even come to me until I was moments from turning in the final script and it ended up being, not just a bit of fan service, but a crucial bit of exposition, and now one of my favorite moments in the whole story. My feeling was that this might be the only time these universes collide (and the only time I get to write them), so we'd better try to do EVERYTHING fans want to see.
SR: Then on the Riverdale side, you really capture the voice and feel of some key characters and moments. How much mastery of a show's tone or style does that take?
DK: Thank you for this huge compliment (Riverdale Writer's room, please DM me). The Riverdale stuff was enormously fun to write because, like original Archie, the show is weirdly consistent within it's craziness, and there's a particular CW-dialog-aesthetic-turned-up-to-eleven that is one of its signatures. I didn't want this comic to feel like "Classic Archie Meets Our Real World" because Riverdale is FAR from the real world, despite having live-action humans in it. It's an extremely heightened universe, with a sort of bleeding-edge hipness that is risky to try to capture in dialog that is meant to be read rather than spoken aloud by good looking young people. But luckily with Riverdale, there's no such thing as going too over-the-top.
SR: Obviously you can't spoil anything, or get any fans holding their breath -- but IF this issue is received well, is the door open for another (maybe even a bigger) collision?
DK: Funny you should ask -- one reason we cut that complicated framing device I mentioned is because it was big enough to be its own story, if I ever got the opportunity to do a sequel. I won't reveal the details here, but my favorite Archie-verse character, both in the comics and on Riverdale, is barely in this one-shot, despite being a huge cast member in both universes. If we did a sequel, it would definitely focus on that person. I'd love to see them meet their double. Or, in this case, quadruple.
SR: Finally, one question, sort of a two-parter: if you could choose another comic to invade Archie's world, what tops your list? And for Riverdale, what TV show crossover would you want to see (or write)?
DK: I already pitched Archie Meets Deadpool, so I'll keep the rest of my ideas a secret, because you never know what they'll actually let me write a year from now. You know Archie met The Predator, right? Anything can happen. As for Riverdale meeting another TV show? That's tough, because when Riverdale wants to do a bold new story, they just BECOME a different TV show. I could answer "Squid Game" as a joke and they could have Jughead in a tracksuit running through "Serpents Game" before I hit send.
Archie Meets Riverdale #1 arrives wherever comic books are physically and digitally sold on May 11, 2022.