COMIC BOOKS: Camp Pickens

Published 10:00 am Saturday, April 1, 2023

Summer camp can be scary.

Archie Comics plans to ensure it’s even scarier this summer.

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As part of the Archie Comics horror line, “Chilling Adventures Presents …,” Archie Comics is scheduled to publish “Camp Pickens” in June.

It will be a one-shot anthology issue featuring three horror stories, according to a statement from Archie Comics.

“Stories set at summer camp are synonymous with Archie,” Jamie L. Rotante, Archie Comics senior director of editorial, said in a statement. “Many fans will agree that some of their fondest memories were reading Archie digests while at camp. So, naturally, we had to do a camp-based horror one-shot.”

And the book will feature some of the Riverdale gang.

The stories include “Bug Juice,” a story by writer Jordan Morris and artist Diana Camero, in which “Jughead Jones leads a group of campers on a quest to find a mysterious drink that counselors think will ward off evil and misfortune … which Camp Pickens requires because it is ridiculously haunted,” with a “monstrous past.”

“The Curse of Camp Pickens” reveals its history in “a tale of ghostly menace through the ages” by writer Blake Howard and artist Carola Borelli.

And there is “Down and Out and Death Cursed, a “slasher send-up” by writer Tim Seeley and artist Mike Norton.

Morris said in the statement, “I’m a huge fan of Blake’s and Tim’s writing, so being able to work on an issue with them was a total thrill. The vibe was very collaborative.

They (along with the great Archie editors) gave me awesome pitches that ended up in my script. I think readers will have a blast going back into the issue and finding the easter eggs that tie all the stories together.”