Archie is getting a new look for his 75th birthday: The flagship Archie comic will be reset with a new Number 1 issue and a new creative team of Mark Waid and Fiona Staples. “I found Archie to be dusty, irrelevant and watered-down,” said CEO Jon Goldwater, while Waid remarked, “Over the years, some of the sharp edges have been sanded off. They are kids, and they should act as kids.” Goldwater provides more details in an interview with Comic Book Resources, where he reveals that all the single-issue Archie comics will reflect the new look and feel, while the digests will continue the traditional Archie look with a mix of old and new stories.

At Robot 6, I had a fascinating conversation with Eric Orchard about his experiences with mental illness, both as the child of a schizophrenic mother and as someone who suffers from depression and anxiety himself, and how that figures into his graphic novel Maddy Kettle: The Adventure of the Thimblewitch.

Cece Bell talks about her graphic memoir El Deafo in an NPR interview.

Peter Bagge, Dean Haspiel, and editor Denton Tipton discuss ttheir first issue of IDW’s Garbage Pail Kids comics.

Jake Myler talks about his latest book, Orphan Blade, which was written by the late Nick Almand and published by Oni Press:

Both my writer Nick and I agreed that if you’re a kid growing up who is gay-or a minority or female or someone who has a disability – you mostly only get to see and read stories about straight white boys being the heroes. On some level you internalize those stories and feel a little like being a straight white boy is the only normal way to be and that perhaps, by not being that, you’re not normal. That you’re not welcome to be the star in a heroic story… But I think there’s a lot of room for a story where a character just happens to be gay, but like his or her hetero counterparts, things perhaps never go beyond a second glance or a blush, or holding hands. It doesn’t need to be a big deal that the character is gay, but it can be part of that character’s makeup just the same. Things like that can help kids out there feel normal, feel human, and most importantly, envision themselves as the hero.

Archie’s not the only one: Three years into its run, the Adventure Time comic is getting a new creative team.

Tony Yao reflects on American Born Chinese.

Previews

Adventure Time: Banana Guard Academy #6 (Comicosity)
Fraggle Rock: Journey to the Everspring #3 (ToughPigs)
Lumberjanes #9 (Comicosity)
Mega Man #44 (Comic Book Resources)
Rocket Salvage #1 (Comicosity)
Steven Universe #5 (Comicosity)
Terrible Lizard #2 (Comicosity)

Reviews

Johanna Draper Carlson on Cleopatra In Space: Target Practice (Comics Worth Reading)
Jamie on Monster on the Hill (The Roarbots)
Melissa Fox on In Real Life and I Remember Beirut (Book Nut)
Helen on The Shadow Hero (Narrative Investigations)