Archie Comics First Looks: JUGHEAD #199, PALS ‘N’ GALS DOUBLE DIGEST #138 and SONIC UNIVERSE #12









JUGHEAD #199
TRULA TWYST RETURNS WITH HER MOST CLEVER SCHEME EVER!
Jughead’s nemesis Trula Twyst sets out to prove her thesis that there’s only room for one Jughead in Riverdale – by becoming another Jughead!  Who will be the last Jug standing?  Trula’s unique fascination with and conflicted feelings toward Jughead come to the fore in this tale that threatens to spin the Jughead mythos on its crowned beanie!
SCRIPT: Craig Boldman
ART: Rex Lindsey
Shipping Date: January 13th, 2010
On Sale at Comic Shops: January 20th, 2010
Newsstands: February 2nd, 2010
32-page, full color comic
$2.50 US







PALS ‘N’ GALS DOUBLE DIGEST #138
DON’T MISS THE THRILLING CONCLUSION OF THE LATEST "NEW LOOK" SAGA THAT TRANSFORMS REGGIE FROM WISE GUY TO ROMEO!
"A Funny Kind of Love Part Four": Beautiful and bright Bernadette Brownlee has had a rocky romance with Riverdale’s resident wise guy, Reggie!  Bernadette has seen another side of Reggie – as a charismatic, convincing orator.  She would much prefer Reggie to pursue a spot on the debating team instead of fame, glory and laughs at the national stand-up comic search.  But Reggie is committed to comedy, and this leads to a highly volatile breakup between the two!  But Archie isn’t convinced that Bernadette and Reggie are really through with one another, and he’s determined to reach at least one of them.  Will Archie’s influence bring the pair back together, or will Reggie have the last laugh?  Is Reggie’s future with Bernadette truly open for debate?  There’s only one way to find out: reserve your copy of this thrilling conclusion to the most unexpected "New Look" yet!  Rendered in the "realistic" art style that made Betty and Veronica’s "Bad Boy Trouble" and "My Father’s Betrayal," Jughead’s "The Matchmakers," Moose and Midge’s "Breakup Blues," and Archie and his friends’ "Goodbye Forever" some of the most talked about Archie stories in recent years!
SCRIPT: Melanie J. Morgan
ART: Tod Smith and Al Milgrom
PLUS: Other new and classic tales!
SCRIPT AND ART: Various talents
BONUS: Puzzles, games and pin-ups!
Shipping Date: January 13th, 2010
On Sale at Comic Shops: January 20th, 2010
Newsstands: February 2nd, 2010
176-page, full color digest
$3.99 US







SONIC UNIVERSE #12
"Echoes of the Past Part Four of Four": This is it – the grand finale!  Angel Island is about to be conquered, and our heroes are powerless to stop it, having been captured and at the mercy of the Dark Egg Legion!  Will a last minute revelation save or doom our hapless heroes?  It all ends with the fight you’ve been waiting for: Knuckles vs. Dr. Finitevus in a knock-down, drag-out, no holds barred ruckus!  Don’t miss the explosive final chapter to Knuckles’ return to the spin-off scene!   
SCRIPT: Ian Flynn
ART: Tracy Yardley!
Let’s-get-ready-to-rumble cover by Tracy Yardley!

Shipping Date: January 13th, 2010
On Sale at Comic Shops: January 20th, 2010
Newsstands: February 2nd, 2010
32-page, full color comic
$2.50 US

Odd that they add in the cartoonier effects while aiming for a 'real' look.

I can...NOT stand that Trula Twyst skank!

It's like she lives to manipulate her way into Jughead's pants.

While poor Ethel chases him around town just to score a date.

Ethel is one extreme, Trula's the other.  If Jughead were to finally show interest in girls, he'd settle for one who is somewhere in the middle, like maybe Debbie, or Joani.

How many pages of the digests are new material in general?  I just started buying the comics over the past few months, but wondering if I should get the digests too.  I flipped through one at Walmart and found the paper seemed thinner than the comic book paper.

I picked up Betty & Veronica Digest #200 today, the Sabrina story in the middle took me by surprise as I wasn't familiar with the new style for Sabrina.

It still strikes me as a bit strange that, in a world (Riverdale) where so many of the female characters look -EXACTLY- the same, and don't really have too many differing qualities, that Jughead would upset them so with his individuality - though, I suppose that's likely the reason. He's got such a fleshed out character, while they're all pretty interchangeable. Still, it would be nice if Ethel was shown as being the girl who figured out how to get to Jughead and mess with his head rather than have a new character introduced just for the sake of being able to put him in his place.

Archie Comics First Looks: JUGHEAD #199, PALS ‘N’ GALS DOUBLE DIGEST #138 and SONIC UNIVERSE #12

Who is Jackie Frost? Please remind me again... She's not Joani Jumpp, right?

If Jughead were to finally show interest in girls, he'd settle for one who is somewhere in the middle

And he ends up with... Midge???

While Midge *may* be level-headed, I've got to wonder what caused the final break-up between her and Moose... and how she and Jughead eventually ended up together in a relationship serious enough for them to get married. Does she now own a few hundred fast food chains through some freak inheritance?