Gillian Swearingen is a college student at the Columbus College of Art and Design, creator of Archie Art April (an Archie themed fanart challenge) and regular contributor to Archie Comics. She graciously took the time to talk about her life-long love for Archie, researching the depth of Archie history and her possible future in the industry.
1. What did you first begin getting into Archie Comics?
I think I was in fourth grade. I always liked comics in general like the ones my Mimi’s (Grandmother) had in her house or ones I read from the library. I guess because of that someone put an Archie comics in my stocking and instantly I was like “I love it!”
I read it at the dinner table and I kept going throughout the day. It was the only one I had for a while and I’d reread it a lot. Then my Mimi spotted it and she’d show me that right next to all the Harvey comics she had, she had stacks of Archie comics. From then on she’d take me to all the places where we could find digests and started my collection.
2. How did you start Archie Art April?
So Archie Art April came about because I had been doing Inktober and Huevmber for a couple of years. The year before I started Archie Art April, I had done Inktober 2020. I did all the prompts from the list and I tried to draw them all with Archie. Then I did Huevember the next month which was easier since I matched colors to the characters. And because I had done these art challenges with Archie, I was trying to find another one to do.
So it was 2021 when I started and it was the fun of creating a new challenge with the characters I loved. Now they’re not my favorite illustrations I have done since I was working two jobs, but I was getting to draw and it was fun.
3. How did you feel when it began to blow up?
I had made the prompt list from Sketchbook (a digital software), and since I had very minimal skill in digital work, it was a challenge for me.
At the beginning it was stressful because I didn’t think people were going to do it so I was the only one who had to keep it going. My day was working in art school, working at the front desk working and plotting art in my head. Then people started gravitating toward it, and it was so rewarding. I was also just shocked that people started getting into this. It was so cool!
The big moment was when Archie Comics put it in their email about “Look at this cool art challenge on instagram!” and I was just like, “That’s me!” and they were all retweeting it and reposting it.
I think it was Ron who did that so thanks Ron!
4. When did you first start contributing to Archie Comics?
It was actually before I started Archie Art April in 2021.
I got to tour the Archie building the previous summer (2018), with Dan Parent, who I had met that same year at a comic convention in Dallas. I practically studied the Archie staff growing up, so it was an unbelievable experience going up to the office and meeting all the people behind my favorite comics. I even got to meet Victor Gorelick before he passed away, and he was so sweet. I’ve read all The Editors Notebooks in my old Archie Comics, and so it was amazing meeting him.
I cried when I met him, and when I met Mike Pellerito, who gave and has continued to give me great career and life advice.
It was after that tour that the office manager mentioned the possibility of me coming back the next summer to intern. I was just like “YES! Oh my god, that’s my dream!” and cried.
I cried a lot on that initial tour. It was a really emotional experience for me as a teen to get to be there, meeting everyone and getting the behind the scenes look.
They don’t usually give tours, so it was truly an amazing experience. It was really overwhelming emotionally. I cried a lot that first week of my internship too.
I remember Carlos Antunes joking with me and saying something along the lines of “What are you going to do when you work here? You can’t cry everyday,” and then THAT made me cry even more, because the idea of someone at Archie even just mentioning the idea of me working there in the future was so unbelievable.
Carlos was so great to work with by the way! I was in a cubical across from him, Tito Pena, who taught me how to color comics for the double digests, and Stephan Oswald. They would quiz me all about Archie, and I would come up with questions to quiz Carlos. They eventually switched to asking me pop culture questions, and were surprised how many references I knew since I was only 18 at the time. Most of those references I actually knew from the older Archie Comics I read.
I was so anxious and shy that entire internship, and they really helped me feel more comfortable. Everyone at Archie made me feel comfortable, Jamie Lee Rotante, Vin Lovallo, Ron Cacace, David Feliciano, DJ Monserrate of course, and even the security guy Jesse! I made them all thank you cards and drew them afterwards.
I remember on the last day I finally composed myself enough to go talk to Victor and ask him for advice about the comics industry. He then took the time to print me out Archie style guides, scripts, and other references for me. He even had Vin see what he could find!
They sent me home with so many resources that I then put into a binder and still use for my comic book art.
He invited me to come back, but then covid hit and I haven’t been up there in person since. I’m so glad I have that experience to remember him by.
I left my Archie funko pop in the cubicle with hopes of coming back, but I know they’ve switched to a smaller office since then, so I wonder who ended up with him!
With the pandemic no one could return so I tried to do a lot of Archie-inspired stuff in the meantime like Archie sidewalk drawings as I babysat, making Archie pumpkins, Christmas cookies with Archie and Easter eggs with Archie. So I did that for a while as something fun to do and combined it with Archie.
The next big thing I got to contribute was The Archie Encyclopedia during my gap year. Mike Perallito emailed me to join the project last spring and asked if I would like to contribute to it. I said, “Yes, absolutely, I’d love to do that.”
5. Please describe your experience in working on the The Archie Encyclopedia?
It was wonderful. Researching for that was so much fun, I got to rewatch a good chunk of Riverdale and the Josie and the Pussycat cartoon. The movie was not in the book but I did incorporate music from the movie like when I wrote down hit songs of the band. I reread the entire Sabrina Manga series, which I didn’t really have to because I only wrote the bios for 2 of the characters, but I wanted the information fresh in my brain so I didn’t leave out anything important. I also got to look over my comics collections with my mom over Facetime or text me photos of certain things I didn’t have access to.
As I worked, Archie Comics was really focused on giving characters that were one note more background and characterization. For example, Valerie’s little brother Trev is more of a love interest so I added notes and came up with him really liking storytelling through music and enjoying horror movies because of the instrumentals.
Since I worked on the last third of the book around p. 200, I dealt with a lot of the other MLJ characters. That was a bit hard as Archie can be very hard to get into in a way like Marvel and DC since they’re notoriously hard to get into comics-wise.
Plus there’s a lot of inconsistancies in comics so I had to pick and choose which is standard for the characters for the comics like names that had changed like in Katy Keene’s sister which was Melissa and Mackenzie so I chose the one I grew up with. I just had to pick something I have to commit to it.
Another one that pops up in my head would be like eye color which Josie sometimes had green eyes, sometimes blue so in the book it’s blue/green.
I think the Encyclopedia does a great job in making canon and standardized that way though I’m still hoping for a hardcover delux edition someday. I feel like it deserves it.
6. Any favorite parts?
It was during my work with the Encyclopedia that Jamie reached out to several people if anyone would like to pick some Sabrina comics for their 60 Magical Stories. I said I would since I love Sabrina. I tried to pick underrated ones that people might not pick, but one I did regret was “Strange Love” where Sabrina is trying to make Harvey jealous with Archie and has some of the best art. I had thought someone would pick it up but nope.
Another favorite part was when I had been researching the Mad House Glads which had been really hard since they changed appearances and personalities depending on the year and the comic. I wrote that Clyde from She’s Josie was the same one in the Madhouse Gla-ads. Since it was one of the few released on social media before released, I could see someone commented “I KNEW IT!” ansd I felt very good about that one.
7. What’s coming next for you with college and work?
WIth Archie, I’m doing social media like tiktok and hopefully I can work with a new project with them soon.
Currently, it is a lot of me working with my major which is Comics and Narrative Practice and it’s been fufilling since they really know what the’re talking about. I had been researching comics for years on my own, and my classes always have something new that I didn’t know. I love the lessons on comic history and working on my own comics. I’m focusing on graduating and maintaining my relationship with Archie though since I do hope to work for them someday. Archie is always my focus.
You can connect with Gillian on social media:
Instagram: @gillianclaireart https://www.instagram.com/gillianclaireart/
Twitter: @gillibean001 https://twitter.com/gillibean001
TikTok: @gillibean01 https://www.tiktok.com/@gillibean01
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjwhnoq3cTQYOfFNPvq0xHQ
You can support Gillian by using her link to shop the Archie website or through her Kofi.
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