...Business/structure/planning-wise , I mean .
  Has it been about two years since I was here ? It's been , stretching , about two years that my health , at least in part , has kept be bouncing around along the coastal Pacific Northwest , Santa Cruz to Olympia , Bellingham , Seattle , Santa Cruz again and back to San Francisco .
  About two years back , IIRC , Archie had cut down on digests a bit , and was down to just one Archie 32-pager , the ARCHIE monthly .
  I had found out that they were still publishing modern-style humorous/cartoon Archie in the digests , while doing the " new approach " in the 32-pagers (Of which I have only seen the " ARCHIE " title - I have had #s 1 , 2 , and 7 , which last came off like the end of a story arc , but I see the first TPB in of #s1-6 - I suppose they had planned to do the standard length already ?) . It seemed a bit sad , but okay (That make any sense ?) .
  But now , is Archie-the-company apparently planning to move away from new stories from the digests ENTIRELY , and bet the farm ~ I suppose ~ 100% on the new approach , and I guess hope that the " RIVERDALE " TV series will be the cavalry ? (I tend maybe doubt that modern-day TV shows help the sales of the base comic all that much , it isn't the 60s or even the 80s anymore .)
  So Dan Parent ~ going through already-bought scripts ~ and semi-retired Bob Bolling are ALL the creators working on digest material now ?
  I bought the first couple Chilling Sabrinas , but the endless delays at least contributed to me falling off . I never got on board with Afterlife With . There's that lawsuit/sexual harassment thing between Archie-owner factions , too ~ I don't know whether I ever mentioned this here , but HARPER'S magazine put  a brief bit about it i their front-of-the-book kin d of " oddball bits " section a bit back , thy were , obviously , amused by the whole concept , as many " normals " would be .

Quote from: ASS-P on June 13, 2016, 06:55:04 PM
...Business/structure/planning-wise , I mean .
  But now , is Archie-the-company apparently planning to move away from new stories from the digests ENTIRELY , and bet the farm ~ I suppose ~ 100% on the new approach , and I guess hope that the " RIVERDALE " TV series will be the cavalry ? (I tend maybe doubt that modern-day TV shows help the sales of the base comic all that much , it isn't the 60s or even the 80s anymore .)

That's exactly the way it appears to ME, at least. There was the recent news that ACP has acquired an influx of cash via a financing partner, immediately followed by the announcement of a rebooted JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS title (although that would obviously have had to be in the works for months before the financing deal went through).

Quote from: ASS-P on June 13, 2016, 06:55:04 PMSo Dan Parent ~ going through already-bought scripts ~ and semi-retired Bob Bolling are ALL the creators working on digest material now ?

Just got the new BETTY AND VERONICA SUMMER ANNUAL DIGEST #244 in the mail today, and it's got a new (and great) 5-page story drawn AND written by Dan P., so apparently it's not ALL inventory stories. I expect he'll continue to write the stories in B&V Digest for as long as they continue publishing new ones. How long that situation will hold is anyone's guess. I suppose I should stress that I have no real inside information on this, so my prior comments regarding the possible end of new stories in the near future are just speculation on my part.


Regardless of what that ArchieComics.com article on Bolling claims, I still haven't seen any of Bolling's new stories in any recent digests (past 6 months or so), so I'm dubious about the veracity of that claim. Unless there are new Little Archie stories (someone else will have to field this one) in some of the digests (which I skip entirely as a matter of course) ... but I think not, since I'm fairly certain they'd make a point of playing that fact up in solicitation copy.


I still abide by my theory that they're in the process of trying to wean classic Archie fans off new stories in digests and onto the rebooted series. Advertising has been running about 3 or 4 full-page "New Riverdale" ads per digest issue in the past 6 months or so.

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on June 13, 2016, 08:11:06 PM

Regardless of what that ArchieComics.com article on Bolling claims, I still haven't seen any of Bolling's new stories in any recent digests (past 6 months or so), so I'm dubious about the veracity of that claim. Unless there are new Little Archie stories (someone else will have to field this one) in some of the digests (which I skip entirely as a matter of course) ... but I think not, since I'm fairly certain they'd make a point of playing that fact up in solicitation copy.

Six months or even a year isn't that long ago, recent enough that we could still expect to see a script from him as long as the digests feature new stories. He's mostly retired now, when he did his last one the publicity sounded like he didn't always feel like doing them.

Quote
I still abide by my theory that they're in the process of trying to wean classic Archie fans off new stories in digests and onto the rebooted series. Advertising has been running about 3 or 4 full-page "New Riverdale" ads per digest issue in the past 6 months or so.

"Trying" probably isn't the right word, they must know by this point it isn't going to work.

Quote from: daren on June 14, 2016, 02:56:34 AM
"Trying" probably isn't the right word, they must know by this point it isn't going to work.

Why waste the 3 or 4 pages on advertising New Riverdale titles, then? They could be advertising something else (maybe even a paid advertisment, although I'm sure there's a shortage of takers for those), or even just give us a 1-page gag strip or puzzle/activity page.

The influx of funds coming from an outside provider can only help ACP right? Well that may be true, but money can only go so far and it has to be used correctly toget things rolling in the right direction. I really think the announcement of the Josie reboot has stirred a lot of positive feedback for ACP so that sure is a plus in their direction. If this is the direction they are wanting to go with this rebooted stuff and the horror stuff than they need to use this money wisely and make it the best it can be. Now for all the fans who feel alienated by ACP by them abandoning the Classic Archie style, what do they do here? They need to still publish the digest of course and put new stories in each issue written by the likes of Dan Parent and other Classic Archie writers and artists who they have recently abandoned.