Archer & Armstrong

Archer & Armstrong
Archer & Armstrong Cover to issue #1, art by Mico Suayan
Publication information
Publisher	Valiant Comics
First appearance	Archer & Armstrong #0 (July 1992)
Created by	Jim Shooter, Bob Layton and Barry Windsor-Smith
In-story information
Alter ego	Archer & Armstrong
Abilities	Archer: Martial arts Armstrong: Immortality

Archer & Armstrong are the title characters of the comic book series published by Valiant Comics.

Archer & Armstrong featured writing and art by comics creator Barry Windsor-Smith. After video game publisher Acclaim Entertainment purchased the rights to the Valiant Character Catalog for $65 million in 1994, the characters continued to appear in many Valiant titles, most prominently in the Eternal Warriors series. Acclaim then rebooted the Archer & Armstrong characters to make them more easily adaptable to video games. Valiant Entertainment is the current owner of the Valiant catalog including Archer & Armstrong.

Archer & Armstrong has been called "The best buddy team book of all time." by Ain't It Cool News, and "Superhero buddy book of the decade" by Wizard Magazine. Ain't It Cool News also said that "Not since Batman & Robin has a more important duo hit the comic world."

In 2008, Valiant released a deluxe hardcover of the Archer & Armstrong origin story, entitled Archer & Armstrong: First Impressions. The hardcover was later named one of the top ten graphic novels of 2008 by Diamond Comic Distributors and one of the best of 2008 by Ain't It Cool News.

Valiant Entertainment began publishing a new ongoing Archer & Armstrong comic series in August 2012, written by Fred Van Lente and illustrated by Clayton Henry.

The first Archer & Armstrong series premiered in 1992. Published by Valiant Comics, the first issue was #0, a regular stand-alone issue that told the origin of the team-up. Issues # 1 and #2, a part of the crossover storyline "Unity", were written by Jim Shooter, Barry Windsor-Smith and Bob Layton, and drawn by Windsor-Smith. From there, issues 3 to 12 formed the series' initial storyline, which was written by Windsor-Smith, who also drew all of the issues except for 7 and 9. The storyline established the recurring enemy of the Sect, an international secret society that had infiltrated most of the world's significant governments and religious organizations. The storyline also established the importance of the magical satchel that Armstrong carries around him at all times, which was the storyline's MacGuffin. The series ran until 1994, its final issue being #26.