Surprising news-Archie Comics now has money thanks to some help from a specialty finance firm:


http://www.newsarama.com/29559-archie-comics-takes-outside-financing-for-working-capital-and-growth.html


Now, the company has money to branch out into other things like licensing and so forth.  Will it work?

Quote from: BlueBomber2015 on June 02, 2016, 11:20:32 PM
Surprising news-Archie Comics now has money thanks to some help from a specialty finance firm:

http://www.newsarama.com/29559-archie-comics-takes-outside-financing-for-working-capital-and-growth.html

Now, the company has money to branch out into other things like licensing and so forth.  Will it work?

That IS the question.

It smells of desperation... and now they're beholden to Veritas. If they can't manage to turn Veritas' cash infusion into profits that will both keep ACP in the black and pay off for the investor, it opens the way for ACP to be acquired by, and then sold off by, Veritas.

I'll be interested in seeing what kind of publications Archie Comic Publications solicits in the latter half of 2016, to see whether they're really going to use this money wisely.

We're gonna have to wait and see how they will pull it through.  Remember, ACP is not owned by a major corporation, in fact, it is the oldest Indie company.  They're Indie before it was cool.

If they now have money maybe they can make a Reggie comic. That would be my dream.

Quote from: BlueBomber2015 on June 03, 2016, 05:28:42 AM
We're gonna have to wait and see how they will pull it through.  Remember, ACP is not owned by a major corporation, in fact, it is the oldest Indie company.  They're Indie before it was cool.

It's not the oldest indie company -- because when they first started out (before ACP), DC and Marvel were "indie" (i.e. privately-owned) too. If ACP is still "indie" after all these years, it's simply because no corporation has made an attractive offer. (If that had happened in the last few years, they'd probably have jumped at the chance.) There was a brief period, beginning in 1969, when Archie sold stock and was a publicly-traded company, though, which kind of ruins their 75 year streak of private ownership. That's only a year or two after DC and Marvel were sold to big corporations.

I wish someone would buy ACP. New owners who would bring back Classic Archie.

Quote from: 60sBettyandReggie on June 03, 2016, 02:20:11 PM
I wish someone would buy ACP. New owners who would bring back Classic Archie.

I'd like another comic book publisher (not Marvel or DC) to buy them, but not some corporation, because chances are nobody at a big corporation is going to care about the characters one way or another, just about whether they can make some money off the purchase or not.

wish we could get a new digest series/line

On this week's Riverdale Podcast, Jonathan had a number of interesting speculations about what the financing of ACP could possibly mean in practical terms:

   
• More diversification of titles? (horror, superhero, licensed, etc.)
• More New Riverdale titles?
• More new stories in the digests?

It will be interesting to see whether any of these things actually materialize. We can only hope, I guess.

A consistent (and monthly) schedule would help... Particularly for titles people actually like.

Quote from: invisifan on June 04, 2016, 08:20:39 AM
A consistent (and monthly) schedule would help... Particularly for titles people actually like.

Unless the problem is that ACP doesn't have the money to pay the creators (or the printers) on time if they turn in their work on a monthly basis, having more money on hand isn't going to fix that particular problem. It can't make creators who are slow turn in scripts or finished artwork work any faster, especially if they have other commitments keeping them busy outside of their work for ACP. At best it might help them work out a regular schedule, if not monthly, for a particular title, based on the speed the writers and artists can work at. Unless they're going to start having fill-in artists and writers, a concept that doesn't sit very well with me, and I suspect, a lot of others as well.

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on June 04, 2016, 09:25:39 AM

Quote from: invisifan on June 04, 2016, 08:20:39 AM
A consistent (and monthly) schedule would help... Particularly for titles people actually like.

Unless the problem is that ACP doesn't have the money to pay the creators (or the printers) on time if they turn in their work on a monthly basis, having more money on hand isn't going to fix that particular problem. It can't make creators who are slow turn in scripts or finished artwork work any faster, especially if they have other commitments keeping them busy outside of their work for ACP. At best it might help them work out a regular schedule, if not monthly, for a particular title, based on the speed the writers and artists can work at. Unless they're going to start having fill-in artists and writers, a concept that doesn't sit very well with me, and I suspect, a lot of others as well.

I'm fine with fill in artists and writers if the quality of the books are good.  That's all that matters to me.  But I'm sure it would be harder to keep a consistent tone if they're going to keep using stories with continuity. 

Quote from: spazaru on June 04, 2016, 11:06:55 AM

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on June 04, 2016, 09:25:39 AM

Quote from: invisifan on June 04, 2016, 08:20:39 AM
A consistent (and monthly) schedule would help... Particularly for titles people actually like.

Unless the problem is that ACP doesn't have the money to pay the creators (or the printers) on time if they turn in their work on a monthly basis, having more money on hand isn't going to fix that particular problem. It can't make creators who are slow turn in scripts or finished artwork work any faster, especially if they have other commitments keeping them busy outside of their work for ACP. At best it might help them work out a regular schedule, if not monthly, for a particular title, based on the speed the writers and artists can work at. Unless they're going to start having fill-in artists and writers, a concept that doesn't sit very well with me, and I suspect, a lot of others as well.

I'm fine with fill in artists and writers if the quality of the books are good.  That's all that matters to me.  But I'm sure it would be harder to keep a consistent tone if they're going to keep using stories with continuity.

There's the issue of trade paperback collections to consider as well. If you have more than one writer and artist working on a comic book series within a story arc that will later be collected into a TPB, it becomes a lot less attractive to many people. It's a lot less noticeable as a single stand-alone issue, when read that way, but TPB sales also account for a significant chunk of revenue that goes towards making a comic profitable or not.

It's very, very telling that news of these investors breaks so quickly after the news that the Riverdale pilot has been picked up by the CW. Undoubtedly, the investors' commitments hinged on whether or not this happened.


I've seen enough Shark Tank that I'm not naive enough to believe these investors suddenly want to get into the comic book business. I doubt very much they are interested in Classic Archie or anything much other than a speedy return on their investment.


My guess is Archie is going to use this influx of cash to launch a few more high profile projects with more "big name" creators. That coupled with a newly launched series will give Archie Comics the illusion of relevance and potential success and make the whole place easier to be sold.


It's like flipping houses. Buy a dump. Pump enough money into it to patch up a few holes and throw some paint on the walls. Then sell the whole place and get your money out of it.

Quote from: 60sBettyandReggie on June 03, 2016, 02:20:11 PM
I wish someone would buy ACP. New owners who would bring back Classic Archie.

So true, the direction this group that is leading ACP seems to be fixed on quick solutions that may last a few years at most and then it is back to the drawing board. Well heads of ACP you have backing now go back to what brought you and your die hard fans longevity for 7 plus decades. THE CLASSIC ARCHIES!!!!!!!