Afterlife with Archie will finally get additional issues after a decade off the stands. The Punisher symbol controversy has reignited thanks to FBI Director Kash Patel.
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Episode Transcript:
Afterlife with Archie to publish additional issues of the iconic comic.
FBI Director Kash Patel reignites Punisher controversy.
This is Comic Book Club News for October 6, 2025.
Afterlife With Archie Comic To Continue With Additional Issues:
Some big TV news: Riverdale creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa will be showrunning a live-action adaptation of Afterlife with Archie for Disney+. And that’s cool and all, but somewhat buried under that news is an additional item: after nearly 10 years, the comic book is continuing, as well.
First published in 2013, the book, written by Aguirre-Sacasa with art by Francesco Francavilla, details a sort of Walking Dead meets Archie Comics scenario, with all the gruesomeness that implies. It eventually spiraled off into eldritch horror, a theme Aguirre-Sacasa would pick up in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.
But despite being a hit, only 10 issues were published through 2016, though the plan had been for at least two additional issues beyond that. Well guess what? They’re finally coming.
In an Instagram post from Aguirre-Sacasa announcing the Disney+ series, he wrote, “The rumors are true. We are ALL over the (blood red) moon to be working on a television adaption of “Afterlife with Archie” for @disneyplus… But just as exciting (and in some ways, even MORE exciting), the incomparable @f_francavilla and I are resurrecting the OG comic book that truly started it all!!! Issues 11 and 12 have been written, I’m plotting 13 even as we speak, and Francesco’s already drawing!!! And every issue will be plus-sized and loaded with tons of bonus content! We’re beyond committed to making these next three issues worth the (extremely) long wait! Specific details (release date, etcetera) coming soon from Archie Comics!!”
There’s no timeline for the Disney+ series either, which has a script to series order but is still very much in development — but it’s fair to expect the two releases may coincide, possibly even some time late in 2026.
FBI Director Kash Patel Reignites Punisher Symbol Controversy:
Kash Patel, director of the FBI, is giving out “challenge coins” inspired by the Punisher symbol. That’s the short version.
The long version? Over the years, the symbol of Marvel’s Punisher — aka the skull on his chest — has been used at various times by both militias and the police, among others including QAnon recruitment flyers, to justify of imply extra-judicial actions. The frequency of seeing the symbol on those who were taking the law into their own hands, particularly those who are part of the law, became so great that not only did Punisher creator Gerry Conway speak out about it, suggesting that the symbol should be co-opted by Black Lives Matter supporters instead, but — though they haven’t confirmed this explicitly — Marvel retired the symbol, and then the character of Frank Castle.
Well, Frank Castle and the classic skull are back in comics thanks to last month’s Punisher: Red Band, and so is the controversy, as Patel has been giving out these challenge coins, aka little tokens for what he considers to be a job well done, that are an augmented version of the skull, with guns instead of teeth.
Naturally there’s been a large pushback against this online, though it’s likely nothing will change unless Marvel takes some sort of legal action — which, thus far, they have not taken with any instances of misuse of the Punisher symbol. We’ll have more on this as it develops.
For Comic Book Club News, I’m Alex Zalben. And a quick programming note: as you may have intuited with only two news items today, with New York Comic Con happening this week, and Baltimore Comic Con the week after, this podcast may hit a few release hiccups, so bear with us. Thanks for all your support!
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