The Archie comic books series might not be the first thing that comes to mind when considering vampires, but that could be changing with the introduction of Vampironica, the newly-announced series from Archie Comics that reimagines Veronica Lodge as a blood-thirsty creature of the night. The series joins Afterlife with Archie, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and Jughead: The Hunger in the comic publisher’s horror imprint, Archie Horror.
Helmed by Greg and Megan Smallwood, Vampironica will see Riverdale’s resident rich girl turned into a vampire by another blood sucker hundreds of years her senior. Forced to contend with this new, radical transformation, Veronica will have to deal with the prospect of feeding on her own small-town cohorts. Interestingly, the Smallwoods believe the change to undead could help humanize the bratty Veronica over time.
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“Fans can rest assured that we’ll be staying faithful to the core of these characters,” Greg said in press release provided exclusively to io9. “It was very important to Megan and I that Vampironica be the same Veronica that we all know and love, only now with fangs. Realistically, how would a narcissistic teenage shopaholic react to becoming a vampire? We found an equal amount of humor and horror in the answer to that question, but the story also takes us to some amazingly heartfelt places.”
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One cover for the first issue of Vampironica shows the teen effectively draining the blood from the entire school football team, but apparently she’ll be the same girl deep down. The experience will be humbling for Veronica, who is used to getting her way. It will be interesting to see how the character develops around the necessities and rules of being a supernatural creature of the night. It sounds like she’ll be coping in a very Veronica Lodge kind of way…
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“We let Veronica’s well-established personality lead the story at all times,” Megan said. “Vampironica is Dracula, your BFF and the most self-absorbed girl you know all rolled up into one. Veronica Lodge never lets anyone stand in her way and that definitely holds true for Vampironica. Veronica Lodge is not the kind of girl to join any ranks, let alone vampire ranks. True to form, Veronica instead relies on her own gut-instincts. They haven’t let her down in life and they won’t let her down as she navigates the surreal world of the undead.”
Written by Megan Smallwood, with art by Greg Smallwood and lettering by Jack Morelli, Vampironica will be available for purchase on March 14, 2018.