[Editor's Note: Welcome to Archie's House of Horror! We're thrilled and chilled to team up with Archie Comics for this recurring column written by Jamie L. Rotante, writer and Senior Director of Editorial at Archie Comics. Each column takes a closer look at the terrifying themes and eerie inspirations found within the pages of the ever-expanding world of Archie Horror, with this month's column focusing on the summer camp horrors of Camp Pickens, now available from Archie Comics!]
I’ve never been to camp.
I think that’s what makes the concept of summer camp so utterly fascinating to me; all I know of it are the tropes and exaggerations I’ve seen in the media. It became not unlike a mythological place—one where I could make lifelong friendships over a busy summer, a place to swim and run wild and be free, a place where I could encounter my long-lost twin sister which would kick off the journey of a lifetime, as I live the next few months of my life pretending to be her, in the hopes of getting our parents back together.
That was what camp was to me.
Most folks I know who went to camp have mostly average stories of mosquito bites and sunburns. Many became camp counselors, which was just a job for the summer. I’ve always been woefully underwhelmed by the lack of camp tales in both quality and quantity. Where were these kids saluting their shorts? Where was anyone’s Wet Hot American Summer?
That’s what makes camp-based horror so especially frightfully fun.
When the reality of camp just being gym class for a month to keep kids out of their parents’ hair sets in, the magic of it dims. And once that spark begins to dull, something new needs to re-ignite the mythos of summer camp. And that’s where horror steps in. After all, there are few things more terrifying than being alone in the woods with nothing more than some horny teenagers to save you. This alone lends itself so beautifully to so many horror tropes, as misguided and more often, distracted, teens are often doomed to fail.
Stories set at summer camp are an iconic part of Archie’s history. Of course, Riverdale would have its very own camp to house its kids that are hardly ever apart. But we’ve never fully designated a specific name and lore to Riverdale’s very own woodland experience for kids, instead oscillating between a variety of names over the years.
Creating the official summer camp in Riverdale was no small task. It had to accommodate everything fun associated with this seasonal rite of passage, as well as echo many of the sentiments so often found in summer-themed horror. We settled on the name “Pickens” after General Pickens, the man who founded Riverdale and whom many parks and monuments in the fictitious town are named after. And from there the next part came easy: like many Riverdale establishments, nefarious or not, it’s been attended for years and years by residents, their parents, and their parents before them—no matter how many haunted legends and missing kids have been reported from the campsite.
This notion is another very popular one in horror media—the idea of staying where bad things happen. Take a look at Camp Crystal Lake, for example. The Friday the 13th franchise has set the standard of summer camp horror and still, arguably, does it the best. But none of us would know or care about who Jason Voorhees is if it weren’t for parents still sending their kids to that violent death trap of a camp summer after summer.
Ok, so we had a name and a vision of what Camp Pickens should feature and look like: a swimming hole, a large lake separate from the swimming hole, ample space for teens to roam in the dead of night far from the safety of a firepit and other people, some rope for swinging across said swimming hole and nothing unsavory whatsoever, a broken down kitchen to shovel out high-fructose corn syrup and mystery meat sandwiches, cramped quarters with no air conditioning, definitely no hot tubs (wait, what?), and some underground caves (ok you’ll just have to grab a copy of the comic to understand those last two a bit better).
Now it was time for the horror.
With so many creepy camp tales having laid the groundwork before us, what should we focus on? Well, that’s the true beauty of the anthology format; it means we never have to choose just one. Of course, we’d have our poor teens picked off in gruesome ways, disappearing and leaving nothing behind but corpses a la Twisted Nightmare; we’d also naturally need to play with ancient folklore and campfire stories like in Madman. There’d undoubtedly be some kind of slasher with a mission, whether real or corporeal, like American Horror Story: 1984, the video game The Quarry, and the aforementioned Friday the 13th. But let’s not forget about another popular camp trope: body horror. What would camp be without bug bites, especially if they mutate and grossly change and disfigure human bodies, not unlike the viral outbreak seen in Summer Camp, or the flesh-eating virus that ravages the teens in Cabin Fever?
Camp Pickens really has it all.
We’d also be remiss not to acknowledge the many uses of the term camp; in this sense of course it’s a location and an act. But “camp” is also a genre in and of itself. Campy horror films are absurd, stylized, and equal parts funny and scary; the most prominent camp horror film being The Evil Dead, as well as its follow-up films. In CAMP PICKENS, sprinkled in amidst the murders (thanks to the wonderful team of Revival’s Tim Seeley and Mike Norton, masters of the horror game) and lore (a wonderfully spooky camp tale from writer Blake Howard and artist Carola Borelli) is a healthy dose of camp, especially in Jughead’s interactions with the youngsters whom he is tasked with watching. Writer Jordan Morris’s decision to pay homage to another over sensationalized camp media of my youth, Bug Juice, as the title of his story, and to add a little razzle-dazzle of musical theater (hello, Stage Fright), brought just the right amount of levity to an otherwise dark book. Artist Diana Camero’s delightful designs amp those aspects up further. It’s camp camp horror, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
So today, on this first day of summer here in North America, we implore you to pack away your things and get away from it all… if you can, at beautiful Camp Pickens. What a view!
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To learn more about Camp Pickens and to order a copy of the new one-shot, visit:
CHILLING ADVENTURES PRESENTS... CAMP PICKENS (ONE-SHOT)
Camp Pickens has always been the go-to summer destination for the younger residents of Riverdale. It’s a rite of passage for the teen residents to hold the coveted camp counselor positions. However, Camp Pickens’ mysterious past shrouds a deep, dark secret: it’s cursed, and this summer all of its campers are going to find out the hard way in this one-shot anthology that’s equal parts Sleepaway Camp and American Horror Story: 1984, reuniting the team behind the mega-hit comic series Revival.
Script: Tim Seeley, Jordan Morris, Blake Howard
Art: Mike Norton, Diana Camero, Carola Borelli
Colors: Matt Herms
Letters: Jack Morelli
Cover: Matt Talbot
Variant Cover: Francesco Francavilla
On Sale Date: 6/2132-page, full color comic
$3.99 U.S.
Cover by Matt Talbot:
Variant Cover by Francesco Francavilla:
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