What drew you to Archie? Were you a fan before writing this new series?

BHW: The thing about Archie is that Archie is part the culture, something you don’t stumble upon or get turned on to, it’s simply there—Betty and Veronica, Jughead and his love for hamburgers, loveable, kindhearted, effortlessly heroic Archie... these characters and this world are part of our collective cultural inheritance, as much as Mickey Mouse or Coca-Cola or the Beatles. So . . . yeah. Always a fan.

It’s hard to think of a comic character who has a longer, richer history than Archie Andrews. What’s it like stepping into that world, and how are you making it your own?

BHW: For one thing, it’s a huge honor and, in a sense, a huge responsibility. Everybody knows Archie, everybody loves Archie, so you come into it with a sense of, don’t eff this up, dude. But then once you get the gig, once you’re sitting down to write these stories, you really can’t go into it with too much reverence, because that’s a recipe for boring stories, or stories we’ve seen before. The job is to have fun, the job is to make it new, and you gotta run with that. Over a long career in a lot of different mediums, I’ve always tried to figure out what is the story beneath the story. What’s the grander question being asked, what’s this detective looking for beyond the solution to the mystery at hand. So don’t be surprised, even as Archie and his pals have their high school/Riverdale adventures, if they—and we—find some larger quests for meaning rippling beneath the surface. 

Archie’s 85-year history really showcases how adaptable the character’s appeal is. What do you think it is about Archie that has kept readers interested year after year, decade after decade?

BHW: Archie himself is like Tom Sawyer or Mickey Mouse or Bugs Bunny: enterprising, good-natured, loyal, funny, and kind. In any generation, in any moment in history, he’s the sort of guy people want to spend time with. 

What sort of stories can we expect in these first few issues? Will you be drawing entirely on the past or adding to bits to the Archie tapestry?

BHW: A little bit of both, of course. Archie will be late for school, he’ll be torn between Betty and Veronica, he’ll hang out with the gang at the Chock’lit Shoppe. But he’ll also be recognizably a contemporary kid in a contemporary world, with some contemporary challenges. I think that kids today are a bit less insulated from the pressures and realities of adult life, and you can expect some of that pressure and some of those realities will crop up in these stories. I’m also having a lot of fun expanding the world of Riverdale, finding new corners of town and new characters for Archie—and us—to meet.

How has collaborating with Fábio Moon been? He’s an unreal talent!

BHW: Couldn’t agree more. There is a charming element of the surreal in his work that I absolutely love, and that makes me want to think of stories to push the limits of what we expect from Archie in terms of groundedness and realism. Kudos to Oni Press, by the way, for recognizing that a legacy property like Archie can only be improved by putting in the hands of a truly visionary artist. 

Do you have a favorite member of Archie’s extended cast?

BHW: I’m a huge Jughead fan. We Jugheadheads know that the boy with the palookaville hat is Riverdale’s magical fool, the untutored philosopher, floating above the mundane problems of the world dropping pearls of offhand wisdom. He’s Linus; he’s Yorrick; he’s Walt Whitman, lounging and loafing against a tree, chewing a blade of grass, understanding everything and offering comfort if we are wise enough to listen.

Also, dude loves hamburgers.

You’ve had massive success in the television industry, you’re a prolific writer of prose, and only recently have you stepped into the world of comics. Has that been a big adjustment for you?

BHW: (Well, I don’t know about massive, but I appreciate the sentiment.) Obviously every art form has its own particular challenges, and it did take me a beat to figure out what a comic book script even looks like, and how best to communicate my vision with the artists. Also, comic book people are so nice and generous and easy to talk to, it took me a while to stop being suspicious about it. At heart, every kind of writing shares certain tenets, which have crossed over from my novels to the TV writing to comics: Who’s the central character of this story? What’s the conflict? In what way, large or small, does this character change over the course of the story? It’s the same in a 45-minute TV episode as in a 400-page novel as in an 8-page comic feature. That’s the spine. That’s the point of it. Everything else is flesh on those bones.

Most important question: Betty or Veronica?

BHW: I feel like as the new writer of Archie I should be an impartial arbiter. Having said that... Betty.