In Aliens: Dead Orbit, the cartoonist uses his talent to shape a cosmic graveyard of space junk, dwarfing in scope and mind-numbingly vast. As seen in Orc Stain and his Godzilla runs, a microscope is required to appreciate Stokoe’s images in their hyper-articulate, chiseled depth. Like fellow precision artists Geof Darrow and the late, great Bernie Wrightson, James Stokoe doesn’t stop drawing until nearly every millimeter of canvas is shaded, hatched and stylized. Watching lovable goofball Jughead transform from a burger-devouring lunkhead to a people-devouring lunkhead may be hard to stomach for longtime readers, but it does make for a delicious horror comic.
Each panel could be its own Giallo film poster from the ‘70s, the mood coloring echoing director Dario Argento’s hyper-stylized gel lighting. But this churning requiem for youth wouldn’t read so beautifully if not for artist Francesco Francavilla, channeling the dark side of Riverdale in reams of inky shadow. Though releases are few and far between, Afterlife hits a note of drama-heavy dread that’s not afraid to veer and twist among an electric ensemble, each character hiding a cemetery of skeletons in their closet. Archie Chief Creative Director and current Riverdale showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa matured Archie, Veronica, Jughead, Betty and the other varsity-jacket icons with a teen rating and a buffet of human organs in this excellent series. In 2013, the Archie editorial crew took the definition of on-brand and fed it to a ravenous horde of flesh-eating shamblers.
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