Life with Archie #36
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeLife with Archie #36 (cover-dated July 2014, on sale July 16) is the issue in which Archie Andrews — a character whose cheerful invulnerability had been axiomatic for over seven decades — dies, making it one of the most structurally audacious send-offs in mainstream comics history. Unlike the revolving-door deaths that had dulled the impact of similar stunts at Marvel and DC, this death was written as permanent within its timeline and framed as a genuine character statement: Archie sacrifices himself to shield his friend, openly gay Senator Kevin Keller, from an assassin's bullet, turning the eternal 'nice guy' quality that defined him comedically into a literal act of selfless heroism. The issue's narrative engineering is equally noteworthy — writer Paul Kupperberg deliberately structured the story so that Archie's wife is never identified by name or clearly shown, allowing the death scene to function as the closing punctuation for both the 'Archie Marries Betty' and 'Archie Marries Veronica' parallel timelines simultaneously. The story drew mainstream media coverage from CNN, the New York Daily News, and ABC News, signaling how completely Archie Comics had transformed its public identity since CEO Jon Goldwater's editorial reinvention began in the late 2000s.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
The 2010 revival of Life with Archie — which provided the foundation for issue #36 — was launched as a magazine-format series built around the 'Archie Marries Veronica/Archie Marries Betty' alternate-futures premise that had run in the core Archie title starting with issue #600. Paul Kupperberg, a veteran of over a thousand comic stories including a twenty-year editorial run at DC Comics, was tapped to write the entire 37-issue run of the revival; the series earned Eisner, Harvey, and GLAAD Media Award nominations under his tenure. Archie Comics publicly announced Archie's death months in advance — on April 9, 2014 — and released the issue in multiple formats including an extra-large magazine edition, standard comic-sized issues, and a trade paperback collecting issues #36 and #37 titled The Death of Archie: A Life Celebrated (August 19, 2014). The sheer roster of cover artists commissioned for the issue — Francesco Francavilla, Fiona Staples, Ramón Pérez, Walt Simonson, Jill Thompson, Mike Allred, Cliff Chiang, Adam Hughes, Tommy Lee Edwards, and Alex Ross — reflected both the cultural weight the publisher placed on the event and the degree to which Archie Comics had become a destination for prestige artistic talent.
Trivia · 7 facts
- Written by Paul Kupperberg; pencils by Pat and Tim Kennedy (twin brothers and longtime Archie series regulars); inks by Jim Amash; colors by Glenn Whitmore; letters by Jack Morelli; editor-in-chief Victor Gorelick.
- Archie Andrews dies taking a bullet meant for Senator Kevin Keller — Archie Comics' first openly gay character — at a fundraiser held at the Chocklit Shoppe; the shooter is revealed to be a busboy who had evaded Kevin's FBI security detail.
- The issue's story is structured to serve as the simultaneous finale for both the 'Archie Marries Betty' (AMB) and 'Archie Marries Veronica' (AMV) parallel timelines by purposefully never identifying Archie's wife — panels showing her include both Betty and Veronica.
- The issue shipped with at least ten variant covers by high-profile artists: Francesco Francavilla, Fiona Staples, Ramón Pérez, Walt Simonson, Jill Thompson, Mike Allred (with colors by Laura Allred), Cliff Chiang, Adam Hughes, Tommy Lee Edwards, and Alex Ross.
- Archie Comics announced the death publicly on April 9, 2014, months ahead of publication — CEO Jon Goldwater confirmed it was not a retcon-ready stunt and that the character would remain dead within the Life with Archie continuity.
- The death does not affect the main Archie continuity; the teenage Archie of the core comics line continued uninterrupted in separate titles, including Afterlife with Archie.
- A trade paperback collection, The Death of Archie: A Life Celebrated (Archie Comics, August 19, 2014), reprinted both issues #36 and #37 along with supplementary material; the story also received a digital release on platforms including Kindle.
Key issues in Life with Archie
Other variants of Life with Archie #36 (3)
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