The "Archie Means Business" panel at the New York Comic Con today was pretty well attended by both fans and people who were apparently comics bloggers, so I'm sure all the news that dropped will appear on the net and certainly on the Archie site, but until then here's what I can remember of it. (Next time I will bring a pen and paper.)
Alex Simmons MCed the event and did an excellent job at keeping things rolling.
Jon Goldwater was first to speak and made most of the announcements. An incomplete list of news:
- New magazine format title coming in 2011, "Betty or Veronica" written by Michael Uslan
- Kevin Keller getting his own miniseries
- New books starring Mega Man from Capcom
- New Li'l Jinx
- Bringing back Sam Hill "Private Eye"
- Return of the the Riverdale super heroes in their own title(s) (I think)
- New Cosmo the Merry Martian title
- He also talked about changes happening in Riverdale that will shake up the status quo, but I won't repeat them for being a little spoily.
Michael Uslan spoke about the dawning of the Archie multiverse and hinted we would see much more of it, exhorting the audience to keep an eye out for Dilton Doiley. He also gave the equivalent of a teaser trailer for the "Betty or Veronica" title, asking the audience to consider whether they and/or the women in their lives were a Betty or a Veronica.
Nancy Silberkleit talked about joining Archie Comics after her husband Michael's passing and how she is spearheading the effort to use Archie comics in schools to foster literacy and, through topics in the stories, to combat social ills like bullying.
Echoing those sentiments was David Rojas, a teacher associated with Silberkleit's Comic Book Fairs initiative who told a story of how his mother, on immigrating to the US, used Archie comics to learn English. He emphasized that comics don't just help teach kids how to read, they foster a love of learning.
Michael Murphy of iVerse talked about the great success they've had with Archie comics on their app and told a charming story of how his young daughter loved the first issue of the Twilite arc on the app so much that she insisted he take her to the comic shop so she could buy the next issue on paper, the first comic she bought herself.
Next up, Rob Valois from Penguin spoke about a line of novels for kids that will be coming out next year featuring the Riverdale gang, including at least one either centered on or featuring Kevin Keller (confusion mine, not Mr. Valois'.)
Mike Pellerito and Victor Gorelick were skipped over for time and instead Mark Freedman of Archie's apparently outsourced licensing company, Surge Licensing, said there are a lot of Archie products coming our way: clothes, stickers, and more, orderable from a web site. And maybe I dreamed this but I think he said that they've licensed Betty and Veronica for use in lotteries. Can that be right?
After all that they opened it up for questions. In short:
Pellerito assured one questioner that Cheryl Blossom would appear in Archie titles going forward and another that some sort of Sonic encyclopedia is done and ready to go but is sitting at Sega.
Simmons said, in response to a question about whether characters of different religions would arrive in Riverdale, that a presumably Muslim student was among the New Kids but that it would be handled subtly, as was done with Keller.
Murphy attempted to persuade a concerned teacher in the audience that the electronic format would increase book sales, not kill them off (this may be where his Twilite story came in)
Silberkleit seemed a little taken aback by a question about whether domestic violence would ever be tackled in a story. I didn't quite follow her answer, but it seemed like she was saying they had no plans currently, that they were touching on bullying because it was in the news.
Someone asked if Keller would be making any additional appearances even though Goldwater covered that in the first few minutes.
Uslan tap danced around a question as to what his plans were for Lodge and why he made him the central villain in Life with Archie. Short version: he can't say.
And in the middle of this Stan Goldberg, sitting in the audience, got up and temporarily derailed the celebration by starting to make a point but never quite getting to it due to several digressions, including a detailed play-by-play of the ten issue Jellybean Jones arc, from conception to naming. After a while, Simmons drew him politely to the point, which turned out to be this (in my interpretation): Stan G has seen this level of enthusiasm and heard this talk about changing Archie before but it has not lasted >koff< Jellybean Jones >koff<. Also, something about how writers have to bring it to make it work, or something along those lines.
Enthusiasm was definitely the theme of the panel. All who spoke seemed genuinely excited about what they see as Archie's resurgence and potential. It was nice to see. Here's hoping it lasts.
Afterwards, everyone associated with "Archie Marries..." went upstairs to autograph the hardbound collection of that arc. They were unfortunate in their table assignment, though, because one of the Romitas was sketching nearby. Poor line control by the event staff resulted in the queue for Romita blocking the Archie table; you had to know they were there and fight your way through the line to get to them. I bought the book and they all signed it, but I was too shy to say much.
My apologies if I misheard, misremembered, or misrepresented anyone in this summary.
February 06, 2007, 05:06:53 AM