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Bill Galvan has been a comic book fan since he was 7 years old, and has been drawing comics ever since. As a junior in high school he was awarded a summer scholarship to the Academy of Art in San Francisco. After graduation, he went to Southern Utah University, working as an editorial cartoonist and layout designer for the school newspaper, the Thunderbird. He also wrote and drew a weekly comic strip called Thunderbird, featuring a winged superhero of the same name. After graduating with a Bachelors degree in Art/illustration, Bill worked on his own comic book series Thunderbird, a black and white bimonthly comic. In 2003, Bill co-created The Scrapyard Detectives, a full color comicbook series for The Diversity Foundation. In 2004, Galvan created Thunderbird a full color series, which lasted for 2 issues. Bill currently draws for Archie Comics as a freelance penciler, and has also pencilled and colored the third issue of the Scrapyard Detectives.

CBO: What is Freshman Year about?

Bill Galvan [BG]: Archie: Freshman Year is about Archie and the gang’s first year in high school, how he meets some of his teachers and friends for the first time and adjusts to high school life.

CBO: How did you and Batton Lash get involved with Freshman Year?

BG: I wanted to draw a story about Archie’s first year in high school, and I pitched it to Batton, who is really good at being able to blend humor and drama into a script. He also understands the characters really well, and had written one of my favorite books, “Archie meets the Punisher” back in the ‘90s. We then took our idea and pitched it to Archie Comics last year at the San Diego Comic Con, and they really liked the idea. I did some sketches of the characters with a “freshman year” look, and we were on our way. Batton Lash -how cool a name is that!

CBO: How much of Freshman Year was your idea and how much was editorial?

BG: I came up with the concept of chronicling their first year of high school, and Batton came up with the 5 issue outline and scripts for the story. The editors at Archie were really enthusiastic about our ideas, and conferred with Batton and I about the story format and the look and feel.

CBO: “Pureheart” and “The Man from R.I.V.E.R.D.A.L.E. “ appear in the first issue, what other surprises do you have for the fans?

BG: We’ve got some new characters coming in, that fans are really going to like. We’ve also got some more special cameos by other characters and old favorites as well.

CBO: In real life aren’t the girls taller then the boys in the freshman year of High School?

BG: Sometimes- certainly in Big Ethel’s case!

CBO: What was the reason for replacing Jughead with Pencilneck G?

BG: Pencilneck G is one of the new characters that Batton has created but certainly is not meant as a replacement for Jug (as if anyone could replace him!). Jughead’s presence is very important to the “Archie-verse” and Pencilneck G is a great way of pointing that out, as readers will see!

CBO: There is a bully at Riverdale High, Jared McGerk, how does that play into the story?

BG: Archie runs afoul of Jared McGerk on his first day of school, among other mishaps of the day. The first day of high school for Archie is definitely full of surprises for poor ol’ carrot-top!

CBO: What supporting characters will we be seeing in Freshman Year?

BG: We’ll see the usual gang, Betty, Jughead, Veronica and Reggie will all be looking ahead to starting the new school year. It’s a big step for them, they’ll be in high school forever! We’ll also be introducing the usual cast, but showing how they met and came to be Archie’s friend.

CBO: Will the Freshman Year story impact the continuity of the ongoing series set in the Junior Year?

BG: The Freshman Year stories complement the ongoing series of Archie books. All the stories fans love are still happening, we’re really just chronicling their first year in high school. Batton did a great job of keeping the characters true to their original incarnations. The biggest difference is that the storylines feature more drama mixed with the comedy, but the characters are still drawn in the same traditional style.

CBO: What’s next after Freshman Year?

BG: Hopefully something just as fun! Freshman Year has been a blast!

A BIG “thank you” to Rik Offenberger and, naturally, to Bill for giving CBO yet another exclusive creator interview! Terry