10 Crazy Comic Books Way Better Than They Had Any Right To Be

A zombie horror comic starring Archie and the Riverdale gang complete with gore and rampant death is not an idea that could have been sold a generation ago.

This series is so bizarre that it could only exist in a world that was primed for a more gritty take on Archie. While The Punisher Meets Archie brought a dark character to the lighter world of Riverdale, Afterlife With Archie turns the idyllic town into the kind of waking nightmare which fans of the classic series might have been forgiven for rejecting.

Life With Archie helped set the stage for the later series as it introduced the audience to more mature storytelling, and ultimately shocked them with the violent death of the titular character.

With the readers reeling from Archie's sudden demise, it was the perfect time to try something totally off the wall. Afterlife With Archie premiered to an audience who thought they'd seen the worst that Riverdale could throw at them and proved them delightfully wrong.

The series inspired by a variant cover and published on an infrequent schedule like an old fashioned indie book, became an instant success. Each issue is a suspenseful masterpiece filled with stunning visuals in a signature art style and an atmospheric horror plot.

The series sometimes takes years between updates and between writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's work on TV and the artists frequent commitments to other titles it's hard to tell when or even if the series will continue, but it's worth the wait.