Did y’all know Archie Comics has a horror line? The company has been steadily delivering on their love of horror with titles like the zombie-filled Afterlife with Archie, the vampire slayer driven Vampironica, and the gory werewolf tale Jughead: The Hunger.
Archie Horror manages to bring back the feeling of classic comics like Tales from the Crypt and Vault of Horror, and the line is back with a brand new throwback tale.
The company’s latest one-shot, Camp Pickens, takes place at the titular summer camp. Camp Pickens sees the beloved Archie characters spend the summer as counselors encountering the horrors that plague the cursed site. It’s an interesting premise/hook that immediately calls back to films such as Sleepaway Camp and Friday the 13th. The strong premise makes you wonder why Archie and co. have never been camp counselors in a horror story before.
Camp Pickens uses the character of Jughead for its framing narrative. “Bug Hunt,” written by Jordan Morris, sees the lovable goof in charge of protecting a group of young campers as they search for bug juice, a concoction that supposedly protects anyone from Camp Pickens’ death curse. The only problem is that the juice comes from giant mutated bugs that are around the campground. While on his journey he comes across thoughts and situations that call back to other stories about his fellow counselors and the horrors they experience, allowing the narrative to break away to tell those tales. “Bug Hunt” is a very fun monster story in its own right, one that’s very humorous and in tone with the Jughead character. Diana Camero’s art is cartoonish and lighthearted in nature, bringing a humorous vibe to the story as a whole.
“The Curse of Camp Pickens,” written by Blake Howard, is a traditional ghost story that follows over-careful camp counselor Betty Cooper. Hesitant about the curse, she takes extra precaution to make sure she’s safe this summer. All of that changes though when Reggie tells a story of the camp lake’s sinister nature. It’s admittedly the weakest story in the collection since we don’t get to know much of Betty besides her overprotective nature. But Carola Borelli’s art is a standout as it provides some of the most haunting panels in the entire book.
The final story, “Down and Out and Death Cursed,” is the real star of the show. Written by Tim Seeley (writer of the excellent horror series Hack/Slash) with art by Mike Norton, the story explains the origin of Camp Pickens’ death curse and is a fun send-up of the slasher genre. The story follows rich girl Veronica Lodge arriving at the camp to prepare to be a counselor, but in true fashion she finds the accommodations aren’t to her liking. Eventually she learns of a slasher named the Pickens Puncturer and all hell breaks loose when he starts killing people at the camp. “Down and Out and Death Cursed” benefits from having the best written character in the form of Veronica and the humor around her works quite well. There’s also some clever and funny references to slasher films that fans will be quick to notice. And the ending is the best of the bunch.
Overall, Archie Horror: Camp Pickens is well worth reading. If witches and ghouls aren’t your thing, there are plenty of bugs, masked maniacs, and ghosts here to satisfy your needs.
Camp Pickens is available June 21 wherever comic books are sold.
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