At the start of this week, Archie Comics shared with CBR readers an exclusive first chapter of the classic Archie storyline, "Freshman Year," and now, at the end of the week, Archie is sharing with CBR readers an exclusive first look at the upcoming horror one-shot, Fear the Funhouse Presents...Toybox of Terror.
Fear the Funhouse Presents...Toybox of Terror is a horror anthology we three stories intertwined together. The framing sequence, by Timmy Heague and Ryan Caskey (who also drew the main cover for the issue), spotlights Evelyn Evernever and her beloved doll, Minerva. This leads into a story by Danielle Paige and Tango and then a story by Michael Northrop and Ryan Jampole. Ellie Wright colored the whole comic, Jack Morelli lettered it and Sweeney Boo did the variant cover for the issue.
The following first look is at the unlettered, uncolored pages from the issue, two pages from each story. The black and white make them look even creepier than normal!
FEAR THE FUNHOUSE PRESENTS… TOYBOX OF TERROR (ONE-SHOT)
In Riverdale, even the toys are terrifying in this anthology one-shot set in the universe of last year’s Fear the Funhouse comic. Three tales of dolls, robots, and puppets gone awry all thanks to the work of a shadowy toymaker and a young girl intent on revenge, in the vein of the widely successful M3GAN movie and Child’s Play franchise.
Script: Timmy Heague, Danielle Paige, Michael Northrop
Art: Ryan Caskey, Tango, Ryan Jampole
Colors: Matt Herms
Letters: Jack Morelli
Cover: Ryan Caskey
Variant Cover: Sweeney Boo
On Sale Date: 10/18
32-page, full color comic
$3.99 U.S
The over-arching theme of this one-shot is not just the obvious one of killer dolls, doing a riff on the hit film, M3GAN, and Chucky from Child's Play, but specifically the idea of killer dolls taking advantage of people needing friends. That's why Evelyn Evernever is such a clever framing sequence for the issue, as she is historically a shy character whose only friend is her doll, Minerva. That only takes the slightest of nudges to turn a character like that into a spooky character (Riverdale, for instance, did a spooky version of Evelyn Evernever), and that is the perfect lead-in to first a M3GAN take-off with Midge getting an artifical best friend and then Chester Plunkett getting an Archie doll like Chucky.
Here, Danielle Paige and Michael Northrop also cleverly mine the history of Archie Comics. First Paige with the insightful point that, of all the Archie characters, Midge is one of the few who doesn't really have a natural "best friend," even while her boyfriend, Moose, DOES have a best friend in Dilton Doiley. Thus, Midge is perfectly primed for an artificial best friend to take over her life. Next, Northrup examines the rather depressing existence of Chester Plunkett, the sidekick of Mad Doctor Doom, Bob Bolling's classic Little Archie super villain. If anyone should be resentful of his lot in life, it is Chester, and Northrup play on that resentment well.
As you can see from the above preview art, Ryan Caskey, Tango and Ryan Jampole all turn those ideas into some cleverly twisted pieces of art.
Fear the Funhouse Presents...Toybox of Terror #1 is on sale on October 18th.
Source: Archie Comics