Posted in: Archie, Comics, Oni Press | Tagged: archie, comicspro, ice cream man, W. Maxwell Prince

What Direction Does The Sun Set In Archie Comics Come September 2026?

What Direction Does The Sun Set In Archie Comics? Oni Press' ComicsPRO presentation reveals Stuart Immonen's Archie #1 cover

Published Tue, 24 Feb 2026 11:58:08 -0600

by Rich Johnston

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Article Summary

Oni Press reveals a new Archie Comics line launching in September 2026 with Archie, Sabrina, and Archie In Hell.
W Maxwell Prince and Fabio Moon headline Archie #1, with covers by acclaimed artist Stuart Immonen.
The new series explores a strange Riverdale where the sun rises in the west, sparking mysteries for Archie.
Each issue features different artistic teams and arcs, blending Archie tradition with modern, existential themes.

Archie Comics may not have been presenting at ComicsPRO but Oni Press was, talking about the new Archie line from September, inclufding their backlist publishing line, and Compact Editions, with Hunter Gorinson stating "When we were here last year announcing a similar initiative for Adventure Time and Rick and Morty, I pointed out that, through no intention of anybody and we can't recommend it 'cause it's awful, but if you werre so inclined, these would fit in your DC Compact Comics display. So I can't recommend that you put Mark Waid's Archie next to Mark Waid's Kingdom Come… but it's theoretically possible." You can also catch up with more of our ComicsPRO coverage right here.

It is. But the focus was on the new Archie line, with Archie, Sabrina and Archie In Hell. And Hunter Gorinson answering what you can expect from the new Archie #1 by W Maxwell Prince and Fabio Moon, out in September 2026. As well as who is drawing the cover.

What Direction Does The Sun Set In Archie Comics In September 2026? — Oni Press ComicsPRO 2026 presentation

"We brought a surprise to show you, which is the cover to Archie number one. We probably won't be releasing this publicly for at least a few more weeks. We were talking about what W Maxwell Prince's very ambitious plans for the Archie series are and how great it was to have Fabio Moon on board doing the first few issues, and we said: "Who could possibly do covers for this book?" We said to ourselves: "How about the greatest living artist, Mr Stuart Immonen?"

Hunter Gorinson also wanted to talk about what was behind the new Archie series… "I was gonna say that the sun rises… yes, here's what I'll say. Which is for anyone who has asked me over the course of the past two or three years, "Hey Hunter, what's your favourite series?" They always expect me to say an Oni book, but it's actually an Image comic. It's W Maxwell Prince and Martín Morazzo's Ice Cream Man, which I do think is like a work of genius. So when we were thinking about how we could take an icon like Archie and do something true to the history of an 85-year-old character while also bringing him into the modern day, we started talking about a very short list of names. Will was at the top of it, and what he came back with was something really, really inspiring. The same way the conversation we had went, with Ice Cream Man talking about existential dread and the terror of being alive, if you can do that, can you also do the joy of being alive and the joy of being young, but also the pain of growing old? He was like: "That is a fascinating approach to this. I have an idea."

"And what I'll leave you with, is the first five pages of Archie #1 are essentially Archie walks down Main Street, and he walks past Pop's and he says hello to Betty and he says hello to Veronica and he says hello to Kevin Keller and he gets to the end of the street and he looks up in the sky and he sees that the sun is rising in the west instead of the east. Something is fundamentally wrong in Riverdale, and he needs to figure out what it is."

"And in each issue going forward, there'll be a different extrapolation of that problem that he needs to solve. We're gonna be doing a series of very small arcs on these books. It's kind of a tribute to the way that Archie's best stories are like eight pages long. So these are gonna be two-arc, three-issue arcs. We're gonna have a different cast of artists work with Will to interpret all of these different challenges that Archie and the gang face. Fabio is gonna be doing the first three issues—which is incredibly exciting. Nick Canetti, who just did a book called Spirit of the Shadows for us, is gonna be doing the next couple. And then we're gonna be reeling in a really exciting cast of artists who're gonna be on this book over the course of the first 12 issues."