The AP reports this morning:

The vibrant, cheerful and safe town of Riverdale is getting a ghoulish makeover.

In “Afterlife With Archie,” a series debuting Wednesday, publisher Archie Comics is launching not just its first horror title, but also its first book carrying a rating for teens and older sold only in comic shops.

The series written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa sees Archie, Betty, Jughead, Veronica and others, including Sabrina the Teenage Witch, enveloped in a panoply of incantations, elder gods, zombies and the undead.

“It’s a hardcore horror book,” said Aguirre-Sacasa.

This disturbing turn of events really bothers me. One of my favorite childhood memories was riding my bike a few blocks to Fahey’s drug store, standing in front of the large comic book display and finding a new Archie comic book. Then I would proceed to read the whole thing as drug store commerce swirled around me.

The neighborhood drug store was a wonderful place where you could buy a chapel veil mandatory for church, suntan lotion on the way to the beach and even a live goldfish of all things. And everybody’s parents had a charge account so having cash or change wasn’t necessary. I loved adding my signature to the family account card before being handed a crisp white bag containing a bottle of pills or whatever else I was sent to pick up.

Nobody at Fahey’s seemed to mind that we read our fill of Archie and Jughead. Then we got back on our bikes and rode off. No zombies involved.