BETTY: THE FINAL GIRL

Archie Comics' Betty Cooper -- known for 80 years as the girl next door with a ready solution for every problem, might have finally found her match in Chilling Adventures Presents... Betty: The Final Girl, a one-shot anthology from the Archie Horror imprint, on sale on Feb. 15.

Here's how Archie describes the title:

"The slasher sub-genre's most widely loved trope, the 'final girl' is the clever survivor who carries a relentless plot across the finish line, taking it to the bad guy in the last scene. Writer Micol Ostow immediately turned to Betty when she thought of marrying the genre with Archie's core cast of characters."

"I'm a diehard horror fan, and I've been obsessed with how seamlessly Archie's been able to integrate different styles, levels, and aesthetics of spookiness into their Archie Horror library," Oslow said. "And while I don't have *one* favorite scary movie or book, I've always been a sucker for the ¡®final girl¡¯ trope. It hit me that Betty would make a fantastic final girl: blonde, kick-ass, capable!"

Oslow's framing story, "Rosemary's Babysitter," with art by Laura Braga, takes Betty and Veronica to a secluded mountaintop chalet for a weekend of skiing. When Betty is left alone, her mind begins to race and dangers appear around every darkened hallway and every creaky door. Each new fright introduces a new story starring a different girl from the Archie Comics roster: "Be Mine or Die" by Casey Gilley (Return of Chilling Adventures in Sorcery) and Natalie Nardozza (Gemini Crisis), and "Melody's Next" by Sam Maggs (Critical Role) and Carola Borelli (Deadliest Bouquet).

"When Micol Ostow first pitched the idea of doing a ¡®final girl¡¯-style story with Betty as the eponymous final girl, I was immediately interested; the idea of a ¡®final girl¡¯ is so synonymous with horror that it would be silly NOT to do it," said Archie Comics senior director of editorial Jamie L. Rotante. "Every good teen/college horror flick utilizes that idea, so fitting it into the Archie universe was a lay-up. In keeping with our practice of horror anthologies, we also wanted to have there be more than one ¡®final girl,' so, the final girls of Betty, Brigitte, and Melody all came into play!"

The comic features two open-to-order covers by Laura Braga and Megan Hutchison celebrating the heroic final girl archetype.

Archie Comics Art Director Vincent Lovallo said, "When considering the covers for Betty: The Final Girl, we kept in mind the survival themes of fear and dread. Laura hit the mark perfectly with the eerie atmosphere of the forest, the frightening figure in the distance, and a battle-bloodied Betty who's prepared to face the unknown. And from Betty's bewildered expression to the neon-like glow of the surrounding demons, Megan's variant creates an air of uncertainty; which horrors are real and which are fake?!"