An Interview with Ben H. Winters
Ben H. Winters has built a career on the serious and the strange — novels like The Last Policeman, TV work on Legion and Tracker, and comics including Cruel Universe and his creator-owned Benjamin. Now he’s turning his idiosyncratic lens on one of America’s most enduring icons.
Winters drops Archie back into Riverdale by way of a film festival that upends the town, a long-arc mystery unspooling through a back-of-the-book feature called Jughead’s Journal, and the kind of puzzles, pin-ups, and set-up/punchline humor that made classic Archie comics such a joy.
Teaming with artist Fábio Moon, whose gentle surreality matches Winters’ own, he’s crafting a version of Archie tinged with the looming presence of adulthood — that big land of What Ifs that arrives after adolescence.
I caught up with Winters to talk about jumping into an 85-year-old world, why Jughead might just solve the mystery of man’s existence, and the one supporting player he’s most excited to write.
(Spoiler: it’s the dog.)
Ben H. Winters Teases Must-See Archie Moments
What was the moment you knew you wanted to write Archie, and what did that first conversation with Oni Press look like?
Ben H. Winters: I was actually cruising around New England with my own personal Archie-age son, looking at potential colleges, when I got this super fun call from Hunter Gorinson, the head honcho over at Oni Press. I’ve worked with Hunter and Oni on a few projects by now, including my creator-owned book Benjamin, and I love them, and obviously I know and love Archie. it was, as we say in the biz, an easy yes.
Archie has an 85-year history and dozens of interpretations. How did you decide which version of Riverdale and which version of Archie you wanted to write?
Ben H. Winters: Not really a decision, so much as jumping into this existing world, these existing characters, but bringing to it my own sensibility. Inevitably, without trying, my version of Archie will be different than anyone else’s – we writers are like snowflakes in that regard, no two are alike. Immediately I had the feeling I wanted my version to be tinged, ever so slightly, with the looming presence of adulthood. That big land of What Ifs that comes after adolescence.
You’ve compared Archie to Mickey Mouse and Bart Simpson as an American icon — what do you think has kept the character relevant for eight and a half decades?
Ben H. Winters: It’s the combination of the universal and the specific. We’re all teenagers at some point. We all go through this time of crushes, rivalries, test anxiety, friend anxiety, acne, and all the rest of it. So, Archie speaks to everyone, while at the same time having these marvellous little idiosyncrasies that are all its own: Jughead’s hat, Archie’s hair, Moose the dim bulb, Betty the blonde and Veronica the brunette, and on and on. We feel like we know them, both in their universal qualities and their specificities.
The solicitation mentions a film festival that “turns everything upside down” and a mystery only Jughead can solve — without spoiling it, how did that central puzzle come together?
Ben H. Winters: Well, the film festival was my fun way of landing us back into Riverdale, reintroducing a whole bunch of characters all at once—and also introducing the slightly satirical, slightly frantic tone that is probably part of my lens on this world. As for Jughead’s mystery, that’s referring to a back-of-the-book feature called Jughead’s Journal that’s gonna pop up throughout my run, slowly building a long-arc mystery that, indeed, only our man Jughead can solve.
Why frame the whole series through Archie’s point of view specifically, rather than an ensemble approach?
Ben H. Winters: I am not doing that. Archie is the big POV character in a lot of my tales, but I give the spotlight to Jughead, too, and (especially in #3, which might be my favourite so far) a whoooole lot of other people.
What’s your take on Jughead as a character, and what does he bring to unraveling this particular mystery?
Ben H. Winters: Jughead is a philosopher king. He is a street poet. He has a quirky, somewhat surreal point of view, and can be relied on to add a note of quiet contemplation to the chaos of adolescence. He’s the ancestor of Linus, and of Hobbes the tiger. If I were to say to you, Jughead will be solving the mystery of man’s existence, would you believe me?
The first issue promises puzzles, pin-ups, and bonus stories alongside the main narrative — how involved were you in shaping that format, and what should readers expect from it?
Ben H. Winters: I really wanted these comics to blend a contemporary sensibility with what we all love about classic Archie, which to me very much includes those kinds of bonus features, puzzles, pinups, and marginalia. I’ve been active in discussing with Oni how to do all that in an of-the-moment kinda way. We’ll see how it all turns out!
What’s it like writing for artist Fábio Moon, and how did his style influence the way you approached the scripts?
Ben H. Winters: Well, he’s brilliant, and his work has a gentle surreality I really respond to. What’s cool to me is that he wanted to do this at all—he’s not really known as someone writing for or about teens. But then, neither am I.
You’ve worked across prose, TV (Legion, Tracker), and now comics — how does writing Archie compare to those other mediums, in terms of pacing or voice?
Ben H. Winters: Most of my work is rather serious, or violent, or dramatic. But in reality I’m pretty goofy, and I love the set-up/punchline humour of classic comic strips. Or of MAD magazine, or what you would often see in older comic books like these. So it’s been super gratifying to get to flex those muscles a little bit, tell some Jughead-loves-hamburger kinda jokes, while also (hopefully) letting my more sophisticated curiosity about life inform the comics.
Speaking of Legion specifically, there are several defining moments in that series, without spoiling it for my readers – is there a defining moment or defining moments for any of the Riverdale characters that will completely subvert the reader’s expectations?
Ben H. Winters: Hmm. To be determined. Let’s see what happens with the aforementioned Jughead’s Journal thread.
After Cruel Universe and Benjamin, this is your third major comics project. What have you learned about the medium that surprised you?
Ben H. Winters: How nice everybody is. The nature of the medium and its position in the culture is such that for many of the people working in it — from retailers to illustrators to marketers to writers, everybody — it truly is a labour of love. I find that to be endlessly inspiring.
The release calls this book “your antidote for postmodern malaise” — what do you think Archie offers readers right now that feels distinct from other comics on shelves?
Ben H. Winters: I’d have to let readers answer that one. But clearly Archie scratches some particular itch in the comic buying public, or it wouldn’t have stuck around for so long. I just hope my version continues to scratch that itch.
How do you balance nostalgia for classic Archie with making the book feel genuinely new for 2026 readers?
Ben H. Winters: Again, I don’t think I can be too intentional about it. I’m bringing my own DNA, my own writerly sensibility, into every panel. In other words, it’s new by virtue of their being a new writer, with his own particular way of seeing the world.
Riverdale has so many characters — is there a supporting player you’re especially excited to spend time with in this run?
Ben H. Winters: The dog! The dog! Vegas the dog!
With Sabrina and Archie in Hell launching soon after, are there plans for these titles to intersect, or is each staying in its own lane?
Ben H. Winters: Let’s all find out together. But… yes.
You’ve got a creator-owned project with Oni coming in 2027 — has writing Archie changed how you’re approaching that original work at all?
Ben H. Winters: I do indeed, and it’s called The Ego Knife, and thank you for mentioning it. The truth is, it’s pretty much written already, and I only hope that folks who discover me through the pages of Archie will follow me there when it arrives. (Or go back and check out my previous creator-owned project, BENJAMIN)
