#mike pellerito

[sonicpanels]

Sonic Universe #1: "Living Weapons"

Writer: Ian Flynn Pencils: Tracy Yardley Inks: Jim Amash Colors: Jason Jensen Letters: Teresa Davidson

Editor/Managing Editor: Mike Pellerito

[onedegreeofsoniccomics]

Sabrina the Teenage Witch (2000) #68: "Wish You Were Here"

Story Credits

Writer/Pencils: Tania del Rio

Inks: Jim Amash

Colors: Jason Jensen

Letters: Jeff Powell

Editorial Team

Editor: Victor Gorelick

Assistant Editor: Mike Pellerito

[paulagnewart]

Sonic the Oz-Hog Act 5/12: Best Laid Schemes (of Mikes and Mobians)!

Sonic the Hedgehog issue 134 AU Publication Date: 17th May 2004 Price: $5.40

For the first time in its life, Sonic fandom truly understood the meaning of war.

Never let it be said humanity will someday exhaust new and depraved ways to destroy one-another. From religious to political spats, extortion to embezzlement schemes, even petty squabbles in carparks. All it takes is a bruised ego and makeshift weapon to bring one or more life to a violent end in the barbarous pursuit of perceived justice.

The tragedy yielded upon thousands of innocents during September 2001 left the western world reeling. Months of anguish soon devolved to hatred, citizens and politicians desperately seeking answers and faces to paint as "the enemy". Taking a leaf from Ronald Reagan's book, US President George W. Bush proudly proclaimed his mission to "lead the world to victory". The media lapped it up, declared him "the avenger" in "a monumental struggle of good versus evil", and by the dawn of 2004, multiple nations were swept into the 21st century's first war.

Fictitious children's entertainment was far from safe. Swaths of "Mah Paytriatizm!" echoed across message boards and group chats. Fans projected such sentiments through art and stories, depicting their favourite characters decked out in full realistic militaristic garb, ready to fight their cause. In time, they too descended into anarchy when fansites boasted about going to war with each other.

Restoring the environment after Summer bushfires ravaged Dubbo and Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park was inconsequential. When not gleefully orchestrating the modern equivalent of Harold Holt's "All the way with LBJ!" speech supporting Bush's war in Afghanistan, then-ruler of the land John Howard (one day I'll get a chance to discuss a different Prime Minister, I swear!) waged war on migrants and contraceptives. Responding to a droop in national birthrates, the government hoped to persuade voters by dangling $3000 over their heads. The "Baby Bonus" announced in May 2004's budget instantly went down in infamy after offsider Peter Costello emphatically begged Aussies to "Have one for mum, one for dad and one for the country!". A temporary boost which totally wouldn't backfire on the housing market decades down the line.

After nine years dominating the war on morning entertainment, not even Cheez TV escaped its clutches when news of cancellation leaked online two weeks prior. In a move mirroring the final fate of longtime rival Agro's Cartoon Connection, Monday 3rd May 2004 saw 30 minutes permanently stripped from its timeslot, host segments reduced to barely a minute, and parody songs/skits virtually nonexistent. Any few remaining Cheezoids tuning in 17th May watched the premieres of Dragon Ball GT episode 'Saying Goodbye', and Pokémon Master Quest finale 'Hoenn Alone!'. How ironic. Both franchises at one point the hottest craze in the country, now long past their prime and cast aside in favour of new, more exciting animated imports.

And Sonic fans verged on a little civil war of their own.

To think 2004 began with such promise. Having boasted on IGN how 2003 was "Year of the Sonic", the only way was up for SEGA's mascot. New games like Sonic Heroes and Sonic Advance were on their way to shifting over a million units each. A new anime pulling respectable ratings in Japan and the US. Merchandise and fast food promotions sold well, and with annual profits up 300 percent, other companies were taking note. Archie Sonic equally enjoyed success with increased circulation figures and media attention thanks to co-creator Yuji Naka's contribution to their 10th anniversary milestone issue.

After years of crafting stories around SEGA/editorial mandates, head writer Karl Bollers entered 2004 with a spring in his step and a bold new vision for Knothole's finest. Having nailed the details with editor Justin Gabrie over the weekend, he dropped by the KP WWWBoard on the afternoon of 4th January to wish readers a happy new year and discuss canonicity of the impending 'Mobius: 25 Years Later'. This message was well-received by fans. Or at least the select few who saw, for it was deleted within the hour. Bollers tried again shortly thereafter, only for the webmaster to yet again hit delete. His days answering questions and chatting with fans on that site were over.

Thanks to prior (or more fittingly "Pryor") experience writing Marvel's favourite mutants, long-running fansite ComiX-Fan invited Bollers to host a section of their message board in August 2003. Initially limited to X-Men discussions, the floodgates opened 5 days later for Sonic fans. No longer would they have to rely on contact through other boards or ICQ chats, though he still occasionally visited Sonic HQ's Knothole Village to put Dan Drazen in his place. Excellent resource as it was, sadly would not survive to see year's end.

Among the numerous stories discussed was issue 134's 'Say You Will', the culmination of his 'Home' saga. To say its 19 pages raffled the fandom's jaffas is an understatement.

But as is the way with many works, general consensus changes over time. Contemporary sources like the Archie Sonic Wiki will boast the "massive outrage" it brought, and how Sally's reputation "went downhill with fans". Such hyperbolic inaccuracies are par the course unfortunately. From the perspective of someone who lived this issue and its fandom the first time around, the truth is far more nuanced.

Sally Acorn had been a popular target long before 'Say You Will' hit shelves. From video game purists demanding no "canon foreigners" in their favourite media, to shippers with the pointless yet staggering "Sally Vs. Amy" debate which gained traction among online fans since the release of Sonic Adventure. Sites who already looked down upon Archie's efforts including Sonic Anime, The GHZ and Sonic CulT were given more ammunition to push their views, declaring anyone who liked this supposed "Psycho Sally" not a true fan.

If outrage existed, one wouldn't have found it on pro-Archie sites like Sonic HQ. Once a major watering hole, readers heaped praise on the story. "This argument had to come eventually" they said, or how "Superman and Lois split up not long before they got married, so all is not lost". Newcomer artist and then-forum moderator Jon Gray also received his fair share of love, having "brought a life to the comic I haven't seen in ages", and "everything about it is vibrant and lively, the characters seem to burst off the page, they're that expressive". Residents of the Knothole Village Message Board overall viewed it "a treat for me and a delight to read", going so far to vote 'Say You Will' the best story of 2004.

Other websites proved indifferent, split or worse. The Sonic Foundation and TeamArtail, the latter of which hosted plenty of Archie Sonic fans, remained civil. DeviantArt not so much. And despite longtime fan Ian Potto summarising the story in his review as "brilliant", the KP WWWBoard spent weeks at each other's throats. Bollers was heavily targeted for Sonic and Sally's fight, Bunnie's newfound firearm appreciation and more. Yet none moreso than webmaster BobR who went straight for the jugular after this issue's release, launching a scathing verbal strike and ousting the identities of writers Benny Lee and Romy Chacon.

Was 'Say You Will' the unspeakable abomination touted by fans today? Hardly. It's true plenty of vocal detractors hated the new direction, but others equally sang high praise. Which is far more than can be said for the likes of 'Return to Angel Island', 'Sonic's Angels' and 'Line of Succession', all of which were even worse recieved by fans at the time. Many diehards chose to wait it out and see where the story went before casting final judgement, but they would never get the chance. By the time of release, Justin Gabrie was gone and Mike Pellerito stepped in to weave his editorial red pen, swiftly cancelling any and all prospects of 'One Year Later' seeing fruition.

Sadly this will be the last retrospective to feature Karl Bollers, on what was fittingly enough his final 'full' story. There are a plethora of excellent comics under his belt worth discussing, and wouldn't mind tackling them another day. In the meantime, it's cathartic knowing he's continuing to make an impact on the industry. Having joined Oni Press last year, I have no doubt that if asked, he'd be perfect for their recently announced 'Biker Mice from Mars' miniseries. Goes without saying he's had plenty of experience writing a turbo-revving freedom fighting anthropomorphic rodent's gang who protect the environment from a portly intergalactic warlord.

To conclude this excessively long-winded post, I'm reminded of a coincidentally fitting event; throughout May 2004, the Australian music chart was a constant battleground between two performers, each rising and falling from top spot. D12's 'My Band' took a swing at the superego, chronicling singer Eminem's public perception as the band's star attraction. The hero. The main man. The one who gets the job done overshadowing everyone else. Anastasia meanwhile told a gripping, emotion-charged ballad 'Left Outside Alone', reciting her feelings of anguish towards a failed relationship. How she wasted years imagining a fairytale ending only to face for the harsh realisation it would never happen, slowly gather her voice, and defiantly speak out against her fears.

Two entirely different musical genres and themes. Yet they both perfectly encapsulate Sonic and Sally's respective feelings by issue's end. Each wanted the same thing but refused to meet in the middle, irreparably hurting one-another in the process.

And if us humans aren't willing to meet in the middle to work through our differences, what hope did a pair of comic book characters have?

Next Time: The phrase "Go Big or Go Home" is rarely thrown around anymore. But for a time, Archie Sonic was willing to indulge both. One of their "big"gest outputs will be going under the knife, shamelessly boasting a special surprise or two along the way.

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[thankskenpenders]

Help me out here: Why is there so much Ian Flynn hate going around lately? I thought everyone loved that he was contributing to the games. Now suddenly they aren't. I guess that's par for the course for this series but I don't get it. He isn't perfect but I like what he's done. Am I a weirdo?

Ian Flynn has always had a lot of fans, but any creator putting their work out there is going to have detractors as well. That's just the nature of being an artist. To some extent, it's no big deal. He's not a perfect writer. Nobody is! I consider myself a fan of his work, but I've criticized plenty of individual writing decisions from him on here.

But Ian doesn't just have critics. He has his own obsessive hatedom. And the specific nature of Ian's hatedom is... interesting.

A decade ago, Ian was only the guy writing for Archie Sonic, meaning any debates over his work were quarantined within that tiny niche of the larger Sonic fandom. Only people who kept up with the comics month to month had any real reason to have an opinion on the guy, which means we're talking about merely thousands of fans as opposed to millions.

Within that group, he had some haters. You had the people who were mad about story changes made during his run, particularly things like ancillary characters getting killed off (although over the years we've learned that most of those were editorial mandates from Mike Pellerito). You had the people mad that Ian didn't push their favorite ship, with feuding SonAmy and Sonally fans claiming that he was CLEARLY biased towards one or the other. You had the people who just really, really liked one of the previous writers way more - usually Penders, as hard as that may be to believe today. That sort of thing. Pretty normal comic fandom type stuff. Again, it comes with the territory.

Unfortunately, many of those haters only got worse over time, morphing into reactionaries who constantly try to incite Comicsgate type culture war bullshit.

There are people still mad at Ian for making Sally bi and pairing her with Nicole instead of Sonic in the later Archie comics. There have been elaborate MS Paint red string conspiracy boards explaining how people like Ian and Jon Gray have apparently been destroying the franchise from the inside for years by Making Sonic Woke. (Jon gets dragged into this because people are still mad about him drawing The Slap 20 years later. Yes, really!!) There was an unhinged change.org petition trying to get Ian fired, specifically from people who were mad that the Freedom Fighters aren't in the IDW comics. There was even a very sad little fan campaign from these people trying to get Sega to move the Sonic comic license away from IDW and over to Udon, because they thought Udon would bring Sally and Bunnie back and also make them sexy again. There's a lot of this.

(Unfortunately, Penders has also exacerbated this by gossiping about Ian on Twitter and giving these fans ammo, but that's a whole 'nother discussion.)

The thing is, for years, people who only played the games or watched the cartoons had no reason to pay attention to any of this. Now, though, Ian isn't just writing for some weird spinoff comics that only the super nerds read. Now he's writing comics that are canon to the games, and ALSO some of the games themselves, and ALSO consulting on other tie-in media like Sonic Prime, and ALSO writing the official Sonic encyclopedia, and ALSO serving as part of the new Sonic Lore Team at Sega. And on top of all this, he's got an increasingly popular podcast where he fields questions about his work on all of these things, which serves as one of the fandom's main windows into creative decisions being made behind the scenes.

As a fan of Ian's work, it's been really cool to see him rise in prominence. But the dark side of this is that his obsessive haters from the Archie days now have WAY more of a potential audience of their own. Now, every Sonic fan has to have an opinion on Ian. What this frequently means is that you'll have the Comicsgate types taking things Ian writes or says out of context, attempting to get more of the general fandom to yell at the guy.

Unfortunately, there are a wide variety of Sonic fans who take the bait:

You've got hardcore fans who disliked basically any recent piece of Sonic media and are looking for someone to blame.

You've got the people who are concerned about the sanctity of Sonic's canon, who shoot the messenger any time Ian mentions a new retcon from Sonic Team on the podcast - or any time he even mentions the THOUGHT of changing anything about the canon, as we saw recently with the Sol Dimension nonsense.

You've got people who romanticize some sort of mythical artistic vision that Sega of Japan supposedly has (or had) for the franchise. To many of these fans, American contributors like Ian just don't "get" the heart of the series and are trying to turn Sonic into something different. (This "heart of the series" tends to be some mix of Japanese instruction manual lore, the cinematics from Sonic CD, the OVA, and/or the games written by Shiro Maekawa, depending on what Sonic media the fan in question grew up with.)

You've got fans of specific characters or ships who pin the blame for how their faves are depicted entirely on Ian - most vocally fans of Shadow, even though the root problem is that Sonic Team hasn't known what to do with Shadow since 2006. At best this stops at regular old criticism, but at its worst this devolves into claims that Ian has an agenda against certain characters.

You've got fans annoyed by a perceived over-emphasis on comic-original characters in the IDW comics, ignoring the obvious facts that these characters exist because the game cast is so tightly controlled by Sega, and also, you know, that people just like the IDW characters and want more stories about them.

You've got a LOT of discourse over IDW's Sonic being a hero who tries to give his enemies second chances, as if half of Sonic's closest friends aren't already former villains and rivals. Honestly this is very transparently just reheated Steven Universe discourse lmao

You'll also see people who just think they could do Ian's job better. They can't believe that THIS GUY is the American fan working on all these Sonic projects, when clearly THEY understand the characters and lore and themes SO much better than this charlatan.

All it takes is for someone in one of these categories to be unhappy about some recent piece of Sonic media, and for them to come across an out of context quote or comic panel that rubs them the wrong way, and suddenly the leftist Zoomer Sonic fans will join the latest dogpile on Ian alongside the reactionary Comicsgate types who are mad at him for Making Sonic Woke.

In general, when fandoms get upset, they tend to want a scapegoat. A person or two to point a finger at and go "THAT's who ruined the thing I love!" This tends to be based less on reality and more on which contributors are the most visible online. You'll sometimes see teenage and adult fans of children's cartoons single out a storyboarder who's particularly vocal on Twitter, blame them for every story decision they don't like, and harass them off the platform out of a sense of retribution for their favorite ship or whatever. Failing that, fans might choose to blame every nitpick, down to individual lines of dialogue and frames of animation, on a showrunner, just because that's the name they associate with the show. And unfortunately, when it comes to Sonic, Ian is now arguably the most prolific and outspoken contributor on the English speaking internet, and therefore a common scapegoat.

Some of the things I've seen Ian blamed for are truly wild. A lot of people have claimed for YEARS that he's just lying about the existence of creative guidelines and restrictions from Sega - or, as fans call them, The Mandates - even though they're just an inherent aspect of working on a licensed property. Others claim that The Mandates are real, but somehow Ian's fault. A vocal minority of fans have convinced themselves that Ian is the sole reason the Freedom Fighters don't exist in the IDW comics, even though Ian says he's been pushing to bring them back since day one.

Sometimes you'll see people say he ruined shit he didn't even work on. A few weeks ago on Twitter I saw someone claim that Ian had written a rejected script for Sonic Forces in which Tails died. I could not find a source for this for the life of me. As far as I can tell, the rumor seems to have been born from an alleged leaked script for Forces with margin notes from Aaron Webber that criticized the way Tails was written, and also an old tweet where Aaron joked that Tails would die in an upcoming episode of Sonic Mania Adventures. These merged into "Aaron Webber criticized a draft of the Forces script in which Tails died." How'd Ian get dragged into this? Who fucking knows!

It's all just a big game of telephone. All it takes is some asshole to make something up about Ian on Twitter or YouTube or a DeviantArt journal or some forum, and at least a couple people will believe it, and then it gets repeated as fact. Again, this used to be contained by the niche nature of the Archie Sonic fandom, but now there are WAY more people who are receptive to this shit.

It's just sad to me that Ian tries to be so open and honest about his work, to try to explain the rationale for certain things, to keep fans looped in on the direction the franchise is headed, and this just gives the Flynnspiracy types more quotes to take out of context and try to paint him as the devil. If it sounds like I'm being overly defensive and dismissing his critics, man... some of the things I've seen people say directly to him are just unbelievable. People will send paragraphs-long angry screeds in to his podcast that completely tear him apart, and he has to sit there and be like "Well, that's your opinion, and you're entitled to it." People literally pay for special guest interview episodes where they just rapid fire complaints about his writing at him directly to his face. I don't know how he does it. I would snap.

All of this over Sonic the fucking Hedgehog of all things.

I don't know how to wrap this up. Engaging with fandoms online is very tiring, which is why I tend not to do it. Things like this are too common. I guess, just... remember that making art collaboratively is a complicated thing. The people involved are generally trying their best given the circumstances, but they're only human. They make mistakes. But please treat them like humans. Criticism and dogpiling are not the same thing.

[robotnik-mun]

I don't know if you're aware of this, but Dawn Best shared a really weird story on her tumblr: For the story about Catweazle pooping on Vector’s head, she offered to draw a following panel of Catweazle holding a melting ice cream cone as a gag, which Ken wouldn't budge on, leaving her on the receiving end for drawing that. And I'm like, "why was he so intent on that"? or "why would people think this was her idea"? This fandom is really odd, sometimes.

Oh, I'm aware, and to answer your questions- firstly, from what I've seen? Penders doesn't care much for outside input when it comes to his stories, like, at all. He actually got pissy at Mike Pellerito over this sort of thing, claiming that he was 'injecting himself' into the story or some crap like that. So it's not so much the gag, but the fact that it was HIS gag, and any suggestion that said gag could be improved on/was inappropriate is the sort of thing he takes personally. He does not like his 'vision' being challenged, no matter how minor or juvenile a part of it.

As for the second part- people have this weird inability to understand that artists follow a script written by the writer. Think of the sheer amount of grief Jon Grey got over 'The Slap'. He did not write the scene, but since it was his art that depicted it, he got treated as if he was solely responsible for it and the mess that followed. Why that is, I can't say- at best I can guess that its because art registers more immediately than writing that for some people its enough to forget that its not a one-man show, and so, Best got grief over something that was Penders' call.

[shadowwingtronix]

"Yesterday's" Comic> Sonic X #27

BW's "Yesterday's" Comic> Sonic X #27

Are we talking IDW or NBC? Sonic X #27 Archie Comics (February, 2008) “Conquest Is Like A Box Of Chocolates” WRITER: Ian Flynn PENCILER: Steven Butler INKER: Terry Austin COLORIST: Josh Ray COVER ART: Pat “Spaz” Spaziante LETTERER: John Workman EDITOR: Mike Pellerito (more…)

[graphicpolicy]

Archie Comics names Mike Pellerito as new Editor-in-Chief

Archie Comics names Mike Pellerito as new Editor-in-Chief #Comics #ComicBooks

Veteran editor Mike Pellerito has been named Editor-in-Chief of Archie Comics, an important role held by only a few people in the company’s 80-year history. Pellerito will oversee the editorial team’s work on new short stories for Archie’s world-famous ‘Jumbo Digest’ line of comics, ensure the back catalog is digitized and scanned via partnerships with private collectors and archivists, consult…

[title01]

Advice on the comic process of the Archie reboot. Also, my bullet notes on Mark Waid’s advice

[kingddduke]

Sonic Super Digest #12

Sonic Comic Origins: The Traitor

Date Published June 10, 2015

Publishing Company Archie Comics

Production Staff Writer Ian Flynn Pencils Adam Bryce Thomas Inks Rick Bryant Letters Jack Morelli Colors Matt Herms Assistant Editor Jonathan H. Gray Editor Vincent Lovallo Editor in Chief Victor Gorelick President Mike Pellerito Publisher Jon Goldwater Special Thanks to Eddie Mizuno and Stacy Arnold-Strider at SEGA Licensing

[sonicpanels]

Sonic X #37: "Switcheroo!"

Writer: Ian Flynn Pencils: James Fry Inks: Terry Austin Colors: Jason Jensen

Letters: Phil Felix Editor/Managing Editor: Mike Pellerito

[onedegreeofsoniccomics]

New Crusaders: Rise of the Heroes #1: Ashes to Ashes (Part 1): Reunions

Cover Credits

Regular Cover Art: Ben Bates

Variant Cover Pencils/Inks: Ryan Jampole

Variant Cover Colors: Matt Herms

Blue Ribbon Comics Hero Variant Cover Art: Ben Bates

Story Credits

Writer: Ian Flynn

Pencils: Ben Bates

Inks: Gary Martin

Colors: Matt Herms

Letters: John Workman

Editorial Team

Editor/Line Editor: Paul Kaminski

Assistant Editor: Vincent Lovallo

RED CIRCLE Braintrust: Ian Flynn, Paul Kaminski, Alex Segura, & Mike Pellerito

[thecomicon]

NYCC 2019: Smooth Transitions Abound In The Archie Forever Panel

NYCC 2019: Smooth Transitions Abound In The Archie Forever Panel

After some technical difficulties, Ron Cacace kicked things off with a trailer for the new season of Riverdale, beginning on October 9th on The CW. Jon Goldwatersaid that the premiere honors Luke Perry, describing it as “the best episode of television you’ll see this year.” Cacace backed him up, saying he cried five times while watching this episode. Goldwater continued to tease the upcoming…

[thankskenpenders]

Okay in response to the MANY, many posts I've seen recently attributing Scourge's design directly to Ian Flynn, here's my futile attempt to correct this:

As explained in the bonus features of Archie Sonic #161, the idea to redesign Ken's Anti-/Evil-Sonic to make him cooler came from then-editor Mike Pellerito, who was taking a very hands-on approach to course correcting the comics. (For another example, the Darkest Storm story arc that tied up as many loose plot threads as possible near the start of Ian's run was also his idea.) He then had a chat with Patrick Spaziante, who came up with the new design. In that conversation, the name Scourge was also conceived. It was THEN that they got in touch with Ian and Tracy Yardley, who were assigned to write and draw the story in which the new Scourge persona debuted

So no, Ian did not create Scourge, nor did he design him. (He's not even an artist, y'all. Come on.) He deserves the credit for writing the many Scourge stories that made fans fall in love with the character, but the initial idea was a collaborative process. Please stop sending Penders smug Twitter replies saying Ian designed Scourge

[nuttyrabbit]

Throwing out the people on top is just going to be replaced by the people below them and those people are the exact same as the ones on top

You know what, you’re probably right.  I feel like the best solution to this would be to put someone at the top who’s a  very no-nonsense “do your fucking jobs and stop pissing off the fans” type. Someone like what Jim Shooter was or what Mike Pellerito was when he was the editor. Someone who knows what needs to be done and just does it without worrying about kissing asses. Sadly I don’t think there’s many types like that around anymore

[shadowwingtronix]

"Yesterday's" Comic> Sonic X #24

BW's "Yesterday's" Comic> Sonic X #24

Leave it to Eggman to find a convoluted way to pirate TV shows. Sonic X #24 Archie Comics (November, 2007) “Camera Hog” WRITER/PENCILER: Tracy Yardley INKER: Terry Austin COLORIST: Josh Ray LETTERER: John Workman EDITOR: Mike Pellerito (more…)

[aion-rsa]

Archie Comics Introduces STEM to Readers via a New Character

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Stacy Banks is coming to Riverdale, bringing her STEM knowledge with her.

Over its eight decades, Archie Comics has brought a variety of new characters to Riverdale with varying results. Some, such as the friendly extraterrestrial Adam the Alien, were flashes in the proverbial pan, while other arrivals like the instantly iconic Cheryl Blossom became mainstays. Earlier this week, the company introduced Grace Alondra, their first hearing-impaired character. On the heels of that announcement comes word of the arrival of Stacy Banks, the latest transplant to “the town with Pep” who also seems determined to make her impact.

Described as “an African-American tech/coding genius,” Stacy makes her debut in the Betty & Veronica: Friends Forever: Summer Surf Party one-shot on sale July 13. Written by Archie veteran Jamie Lee Rotante, it remains to be seen how she will interact with Archie and the gang but her story sounds full of possibilities.

“STEM has become such an important field in today’s world–but it also can be incredibly fun,” explains Rotante. “The possibilities of what you can do with it are nearly endless, and the doors it can open for students are invaluable,” she states. There were thematic elements of STEM in Rotante’s Betty & Veronica: The Bond of Friendship graphic novel last year, “but the chance to bring a STEM-focused student into the spotlight in the modern classic-style books is especially exciting.”

Here’s what we know about Stacy so far. She will play a Dilton Doiley-esque role in the comics as far as being another budding genius in Riverdale, however one who lives in the shadow of her successful, tech firm-owning parents for whom she interns. “Stacy wants to be recognized for her own talents, so as much as she adores them, she also wants to live a life separate from them,” Rotante tells us, hinting at some of the potential plotlines for the Banks family.

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But as a young black woman, Stacy also will face realistic challenges. “Riverdale is a very lighthearted place but it’s still a reflection of the world we live in,” says Rotante, “and we like to make sure these types of serious and, unfortunately all too common, issues are addressed in ways kids can understand.” So while Stacy will encounter adversity, it will be handled with the grace and humor that has become Archie’s trademark.

And make no mistake, Stacy Banks is here to stay.

“Editor-in-Chief Mike Pellerito has a very clear vision with these titles, and all new characters are meant to be integrated into the regular cast,” Rotante says. “Riverdale is forever expanding, but we want to make extra sure that none of these new kids get lost in the mix!”

Here is an exclusive look at the cover of Betty and Veronica: Friends Forever: Surf Party, in which Stacy will make her debut. Art by Jeff Shultz with colors by Rosario “Tito” Peña.

Rotante told us that while Stacy will be quick friends with the core characters, she also will serve a larger role. “Stacy’s resources and skill set will also allow her many ​opportunities to act not only as a friend, but as a mentor to those around her,” she says.

By inspiring her fellow Riverdale residents to pursue careers in STEM, she will do so for impressionable young readers as well. And that kind of inspiration is just as important as friendship.

Betty and Veronica: Friends Forever: Surf Party is out on July 13.

The post Archie Comics Introduces STEM to Readers via a New Character appeared first on Den of Geek.

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