Fanholes Side Story 17: Riverdale Rock City

In the tradition of Archie meets the Punisher and The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles meet Archie. This story ran from Archie #627 through Archie #630. When Veronica and Reggie interrupt a spell being performed by Sabrina crazy hijinks ensue and four terrible monsters are summoned to Riverdale. The monsters themselves are parodies of several famous monsters. You have a teenage wolfman, a sparkly Twilight-esq vampire, dorky Frankenstein’s monster and a ditzy mummy. Quickly following the monsters is Kiss. Kiss arrives to prevent the monsters from sucking all the fun out of Riverdale. Things get even more bizarre when Archie and Sabrina run into Josie (from Josie and the Pussycats) walking in a dazed state. Later, Archie learns that the residents of Riverdale are slowly turning into...

The monsters imprison Sabrina while Archie and the gang try to figure out what to do. They take Kiss to school with them and battle the monsters while Salem, Sabrina’s cat, manages to rescue her. Issue two ends on a great cliffhanger with…

Issue three opens with zombie Archie threatening Sabrina, Jughead and the gang. However, Kiss manages to blast him with music, returning him to normal. Kiss shows the gang what will happen when the monsters drain Riverdale of fun. Eventually Kiss holds a concert to battle the monsters with their music, but are defeated and imprisoned. Archie and the gang hold their own concert with their band, the Archies, and rescue Kiss. The combined might of Kiss and The Archies is enough to defeat the monsters and restore the citizens of Riverdale to normal.

There are all sorts of references for Kiss fans. At one point Kiss goes to Riverdale High in regular clothing, which is a reference to the Dressed to Kill album cover. Several songs are mentioned such as Black Diamond, Shout it out loud, Detroit Rock City and the Dynasty album is referenced a few times. Now, I know this may seem like yet another bizarre Archie crossover…but not only does it work, it’s a lot of fun. As both an Archie and a Kiss fan I loved these four issues. If you were ever remotely interested in Archie or Kiss then I recommend this team up.