The $350,000 campaign to fund three new support series to follow the relanch of Archie (see “Archie Adds Three Titles to 'Riverdale Reboot'”) had been met with industry criticism, and funding support had been less than expected.  Kickstarter tracking site kicktraq’s current predictions had the project trending toward attaining only 61% of its funding goal. The projected $213,776 would still have made it the second most successful comic Kickstarter project on record, but nowhere near its $350,000 funding goal.

Archie Comics elaborated on the cancelation in a Kickstarter update. “Though we saw this as an innovative, progressive and ‘outside-the-box’ way to fund the accelerated schedule we wanted to produce these books, it became another conversation, leading us further away from the purpose of this whole campaign: to get these amazing books in the hands of fans faster than we could on our own. While we fully expected our goal to be funded, it was no longer about the books and how amazing they will be. We don’t want that. This is why we’re shutting this Kickstarter down today.”

The three comic series are not canceled, merely delayed. “The wonderful New Riverdale titles we wanted to launch will still come out—albeit not as quickly as we would have hoped had we attained the funding via Kickstarter,” the statement read. “We believe in these books and know they’ll find an audience in comic shops, fueled by great stories and amazing creators.”