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Underground > Comic Books >

Archie Meets The Punisher

15:21 / 26.09.03

Does anyone have this? Did anyone ever read this? I am truly sorry I didn't buy this when it came out on the shelves lo, those many years ago...even if it sucked, I think it would just be amazing thing to own. The most bizarre crossover ever conceived. Please give me any info. about the content of this wacko comic.

[although a recent essay I saw on www.newsarama.com about a Superman/Archie crossover where Archie and Jimmy Olsen switch universes and each is mistaken for the other was a pretty funny idea...]

03:08 / 27.09.03

I always wondered what was in that one... I flipped through it last month after moriarty bought it at the comic convention. Very odd it seemed... ask moriarty!

04:08 / 27.09.03

Ask me indeed, my friend. I've been running a weekly Archie review on my blog for the past few weeks, and I'm hoping to have the special edition multiple-reviewer edition for Archie meets the Punisher out sometime in the future.

I owned a copy from when it first came out, but Archie meets the Punisher was one of my most loaned comics, and it soon fell to the fate of all such issues and was lost to a friend who never returned it. I bought the copy I currently own at the Toronto Comic Con, where I asked retailer after retailer for it, much to their confusion. It was the only time I forked over more than three bucks for a comic in the last five years. One of my co-workers is borrowing it now. He was a big Punisher fan, and his girlfriend was into Archie, so it was a treat for the both of them. I hope I get is back.

The comic itself isn't really that great, though it's better then I remembered it. I think I can appreciate it more now that I know more about the gang from Riverdale. Two artists work on it, making the differences between the grity Marvel universe and Riverdale even more pronounced. And it actually has some tender Frank Castle moments. It's chockful of weird crossover material, like Sabrina name-dropping Doc Strange, and Millie the Model and Katy Keene trading fashion tips. One of the Howling Commandos even makes an appearance.

That Supes/Archie crossover would be rad.

06:07 / 28.09.03

one of the strangest comics i've ever read in my life. i wonder what the hell the folks that made this were thinking? or what they were on?

08:59 / 28.09.03

Wow. I thought this was some kind of joke. I wish I had read this.

Does the Punisher push those high school kids around n stuff? It would be great if he took out Reggie.

19:10 / 28.09.03

One of the worst comic crossovers ever, yes even Spawn/Batman is superior.

Do not waste your time trying to find it.

19:25 / 28.09.03

I thought this was a two way even with a punisher versus archie title done by marvel in addition to archie versus punisher... but not having paid close attention i could be wrong...

19:38 / 28.09.03

Don't listen to Zarathustra. Go ahead, waste your time. It's not that bad, and the search for it is half the fun.

There were two versions. Different covers, but identical interiors.

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

02:47 / 29.09.03

I agree...don't let the nay sayers kep you from reading this...very strange comic. It was written by Batton Lash, who writes Wolff and Byrd, a series about paranormal lawyers.

It's a fun little trifle that makes fun of intercompany crossovers while telling a story that works BECAUSE it is so jarring.

Besides, you can get it for cover price or less when you find it.

19:44 / 30.09.03

Oh I am quite sure it is trash. But it is likely fun trash. Like that 1602 thing.

Yeah, I like the hunting down part the best. Often more satisfying than the comic bought. Digging through bins and boxes in musty used book stores and stuff. It can be days, weeks, months, or years of the search and makes me feel a little sometimes like Indiana Jones.

Sort of.

But sexier.

20:00 / 30.09.03

Somehow I bet this is better than 1602 in its weirdness and wackiness. Just look over at the 1602 thread to see how lame it's become. And I paid money for the first 2 issues and have come to regret it... (snif)

21:48 / 30.09.03

Oh yes, but that thread looks so involved and long and I don't care.

I bought the first. It was well...

But I'll wait to get the rest of the series when they are giving away the tens of thousands of extra copies that are now accumulating in several warehouses around the world!

01:09 / 19.06.04

Major bumpiness for this thread.

Found in it an obscure book store on a spinner rack for fifty cents. Didn't get around to reading it yet, but it looks quite fun. Love the creative team. Batton Lash? John Buscema? Stan Goldberg? A dream.

Oddball, surely. And joycore.

16:03 / 19.06.04

The only thing I remember from reading a friend's copy about seven/eight years ago is the PunishArchie logo...bottom half Punisher, upper half Archie. Sticks in your mind for some reason.

Dan Fish - @Fish1k

16:06 / 19.06.04

Speaking of strange crossovers, did anyone here ever read the Superman comic where they travelled back in time to Asterix's village? Superman vs Obelix was pretty fun. All the names were changed though, so it is an unofficial crossover.

01:51 / 20.06.04

No, best unauthorised crossover was Phillip José Farmer's "A Feast Unknown". Tarzan V.S. Doc Savage! Wrestling on a narrow, Mortal Kombat-like natural bridge on top of a mountain range, naked, with stiffies! "Crossed swords", as one character put it.

16:04 / 21.06.04

I gotta get this someday and read it!

16:00 / 22.06.04

I bought two copies of this when it came out and mailed one to Stephin Merritt. It was my first ever fan letter to a musician, and I'd just heard he was starting a band called the Gothic Archies, and the logo combining Punisher's skull with Archie's freckles and eyes was just too great to pass up.

What's interesting about the story (I haven't read it in a while) is that it remains so internally consistent to both worlds. The Riverdale gang act just like you'd expect them to, and the only difference between this and some other Archie story is that the strange, suspicious figure from out of town doesn't have a round nose and one of those goony caps that the goons & thugs wear in, like, old Disney cartoons.
And the Punisher is constantly being challenged by the goodness and wholesomeness around him, while fighting against the dire, evil, violent forces of corruption and self-interest.

12:31 / 11.09.04

I found a copy in a box of comics I am giving away.

If you want it, PM me.

18:09 / 11.09.04

I just PMed you for it. Would love to see this.

02:02 / 12.09.04

Bang.

It's yours.

14:26 / 12.09.04

I cannot believe that the Superman/Asterix and Doc Savage/Tarzan crossovers are real. I demand proof!

Dan Fish - @Fish1k

21:18 / 12.09.04

The cover to Superman/World-of-Asterix:

21:49 / 13.09.04

Wow! Yikes!

18:38 / 27.09.04

Iconoplast was kind enough to give this to me, and I have to say, it's pretty damn funny -- and astonishingly quality and joycore given that it's Archie meets The Punisher! I don't know how they managed to actually do a good, fun comic that's clever & funny in a good way with these two characters, but they did. Batton Lash's script is good stuff...Betty and Veronica swoon over the manly handsome Frank Castle (Betty gushes "He told me to call him Frank!!" in her diary). Batton Lash has Archie trying to be brooding and intense in an "Archie War Journal." Frank Castle pretends to be the new gym teacher of Riverdale High to stalk his prey. Micro (who was dealt with so beautifully in Garth Ennis' recent Punisher MAX issues) is there to help out Frank. Frank wistfully looks at the kindler, gentler, simpler, cleaner, happier Riverdale and thinks of his wife & kids and the quiet, happy mundane life he could have had. John Buscema does the Punisher-related art and Archie vet Stan Goldberg does the Archie stuff.

The final page hints at what turned into the Batman/Punisher crossover drawn by John Romita Jr., and hints at a never-came-to-be, must-have-been-a-joke Wolverine/Archie crossver (Wolvie has to hunt down Jughead, much like in Archie vs. Punisher, Frank Castle has to hunt down an Archie look-alike criminal).