Can a story about zombies be wholesome? Can a story about animated corpses ripping bodies to shreds be innocent and sweet? It can if you have 70-plus years to build it on.

Archie Comics have been around for a long time. And they have remained relatively unchanged – at least in aesthetic and attitude – all that time. If you’d like to learn more about that you can listen to episode 60 of this very program. But suffice it to say Archie Comics’ general vibe is that of a theme park Americana. It’s an imagined folksiness of an America that never really existed, and yet still holds a certain charm and nostalgia. That’s the secret to its enduring popularity.

And while that OG Archie mission statement is still around it was decided that as society moved into the 21st century perhaps it was time to diversify, modernize the franchise, and see if something new and different could be done with the characters and concepts.

And it turns out the Archie aesthetic works really well in other genres. From Melrose Place-type teen melodramas to solving mysteries, to fighting aliens, to escaping a horde of zombies.

And in 2013 Afterlife with Archie and Archie horror in general was born. Written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and drawn by Francesco Francavilla, it takes Archie’s familiar characters and places them smack dab into a horror story. Oh, there had been spooky and supernatural stories in Archie before – especially with Sabrina the Teenage Witch – but this had always been kid-friendly and cartoonish.  Afterlife with Archie is decidedly not kid-friendly.

Now as a zombie story, there is nothing particularly groundbreaking here. A zombie outbreak occurs; it quickly spreads through the population, and a group of survivors gather together to survive while trying to overcome their personal differences and inner turmoil. Pretty standard stuff for this subgenre. The Walking Dead did the same thing for years.  The unique difference here is of course who the horror is happening to.

The 1950s-esque veneer of Archie Comics combined with its soap opera teen drama provides an extra punch to the horror. We are already familiar with these characters – either from the actual reading of the comics or through pop-culture osmosis – we know they are just wacky, fun-loving kids out for some harmless hijinks. The only things they really care about are getting a date for the prom and having a malted at the soda shop. So when violence is perpetrated against them it seems so much more horrific. And the silly relationship drama that has been so much a part of Archie since its inception – the will they won’t they, the who-likes-who stuff – becomes so much more amplified. It seems simultaneously petty and insignificant and the most important thing in the world. There might not be another time to get that first kiss. There may never be a happily ever after.

Aguirre-Sacasa and Francavilla play with that long history – our familiarity with the characters – to its fullest extent. They know exactly which heartstrings to pull, or rip out and eat as the case may be. They turn what in lesser hands could be a very formulaic story into something earnest and sincere, and – dare I say – wholesome.

This article originally appeared as the introduction to episode 113: Afterlife with Archie.

The Collected Edition is a comic book podcast where the hosts discuss the famous and infamous runs and story arcs throughout the history of comics. Please subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Sticher, IHeartRadio, and Spotify.