NYCC: Archie announces Line Webtoon deal, South Side Serpents comic

Archie Comics announced several new comics projects today in conjunction with the virtual New York Comic Con, including a new partnership with the popular webcomics site Webtoon, a South Side Serpents one-shot and more details on the upcoming Riverdale: The Ties That Bind graphic novel.

The virtual version of the New York Comic Con, a.k.a. Metaverse, kicked off today, with virtual panels, exclusive merchandise and more. You can join in on the Metaverse website or on the New York Comic Con YouTube page, where all of today’s panels are available.

You can watch their panel in full below:

The panel included artist Dan Parent, Archie Comics Editor and Betty & Veronica: Bond of Friendship writer Jamie L. Rotante, Riverdale: The Ties That Bind writer Micol Ostow, Riverdale Diaries: Hello, Betty! writer Sarah Kuhn and Madam Satan writer Eliot Rahal.

Ostow said The Ties That Bind will feature four interconnected stories, each featuring the “core four” characters on Riverdale — Archie, Jughead, Veronica and Betty, with Cheryl Blossom appearing in the Veronica story. The stories all take place in the same night as the characters face “ghosts from the past” or other things that are happening in conjunction with the fourth season of the popular show on The CW. It’s drawn by Thomas Pitilli and is due out in February.

During the panel, they also announced South Side Serpents #1, a one-shot featuring Jughead and his biker gang from Riverdale. It’s by writer David Barnett with art by Richard Ortiz, Matt Herms and Jack Morelli.

“Focusing on the South Side Serpents gave me a chance to bring in the darkness and edginess of Riverdale but blend that with a little fun, as well,” Barnett said in a press release. “I hope fans of the show and fans of the comics will both be able to get a lot out of the story, which features some familiar faces including Jughead, FP Jones and Toni Topaz. . . . I got to throw all my Kerouackian road trip fantasies in with Hunter S. Thompson’s Hell’s Angels, and add a very healthy dollop of one of my favorite movies, The Warriors.”

During the panel, Rotante said the one-shot isn’t tied to a specific season of Riverdale, but it “almost serves as a prequel because it focuses on F.P. Jones passing the torch to Jughead to lead the serpents.” It comes out in January.

Finally, via a story on the website Polygon, Archie also announced plans to launch a new comic on Webtoon, the popular South Korean webcomics site that has since gone global. No word yet on what exactly Archie’s webcomic will be or who the creative team is.

“The WebToon platform and audience is perfectly suited for the Archie brand, and we’re excited to partner with them to create new stories that expand and build on the tales we’ve been sharing with fans for almost 80 years,” said Archie Comics Co-President Alex Segura in a statement to Polygon. “Archie’s goal is always to be accessible and everywhere, and this is another step in that direction. We’ll be sharing more details about the story and creative [team] soon, and we can’t wait to hear what fans think about this major digital partnership.”