Cheryl Blossom Blazes into Riverdale in Archie #14

by Andrea Purcell

Once, Veronica Lodge was the Princess of Riverdale, flowers strewn at her feet everywhere she walked. Now she's a just regular student at a private school full of Mean Girls who've made her their Betty, led by their Queen Bee, the alluring and diabolical Cheryl Blossom. We caught up with artist Joe Eisma at New York Comic Con to tell us more about his work on the new Archie storyarc.

Archie #14 (SEP161292) is available in stores November 16th!

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PREVIEWSworld: Joe, tell us a little about what you’re doing right now?

Joe Eisma: I’m here at New York Comic Con, just doing sketches, signing copies of Morning Glories, my series from Image Comics, and hanging out with the Archie Comics crew because I’m taking over art duties on Archie with issue number 13.

PREVIEWSworld: So how did that come about, working on Archie?

Joe Eisma: I have been in contact with their editorial for some years, and I’ve done some covers with them for a while. They had me do a cover for Jughead, which led to a cover for Archie, which kind of just segued into “Do you want to draw the book?” It was really kind of informal, and I sort of fell into it really.

PREVIEWSworld: The arc that you’re going to be starting with introduces the nemesis, Cheryl Blossom. How is writing Cheryl Blossom similar to your work on the Image series Morning Glories?

Joe Eisma: The kids in Morning Glories are totally evil to each other. I think with Cheryl Blossom, it’s very much like the Mean Girls thing, you can draw that comparison. But it’s not quite as mean-spirited as some of the interactions in Morning Glories. It’s really just a lot of fun, the stuff she and Veronica, the kind of competition they get into.

PREVIEWSworld: To close, what is your favorite part about working for Archie, and what are you looking most forward to drawing?

Joe Eisma: My favorite part is working with Mark Waid, he’s one of my all-time favorite writers, so the fact I got to draw his scripts just totally made me fanboy out. I got to meet him in Boston at Boston Comic Con, and he was super nice. He loved seeing the pages I’d worked on. As for what I’m looking forward to, I really just love drawing all the characters. I haven’t drawn everyone from the cast yet. I haven’t drawn Reggie. I really look forward to kind of exploring the rest of the cast.