Archie Comics Fan Forum

Everything Archie => All About Archie => Topic started by: ASS-P on July 12, 2019, 07:19:19 PM

Title: Are the new Classic Archie comic books continuing?
Post by: ASS-P on July 12, 2019, 07:19:19 PM
Are the standard comic-book format comic books of Betty & Veronica (which comic-book print new stories by Parent that also appear ~ seperately?? ~ in the digests) still coming out?
  When I moved recently, I asked my new LCS to make that franchise something in my box ~ by I have seen none since then, and I thought that...
Title: Re: Are the new Classic Archie comic books continuing?
Post by: DeCarlo Rules on July 13, 2019, 12:08:18 AM
Quote from: ASS-P on July 12, 2019, 07:19:19 PMAre the standard comic-book format comic books of Betty & Veronica (which comic-book print new stories by Parent that also appear ~ seperately?? ~ in the digests) still coming out?

Yes. The most recent one-shot #1 (which actually says #6 in the indicia) was "Return to Storybook Land", which came out (in comic shops) on July 1st. I'm pretty sure there's also been a new solictation for the next upcoming B&V one-shot.
Title: Re: Are the new Classic Archie comic books continuing?
Post by: SAGG on July 18, 2019, 11:35:06 PM
I wish they'd get off the storybook stories. 🙄 Once in awhile, sure, but more contemporary stories are what I'd prefer. Yeah, we get them in the digests, and I'm not complaining, but I'd want to see the one shots in contemporary style... 😏
Title: Re: Are the new Classic Archie comic books continuing?
Post by: DeCarlo Rules on July 19, 2019, 03:44:08 AM
Quote from: SAGG on July 18, 2019, 11:35:06 PMI wish they'd get off the storybook stories. 🙄 Once in awhile, sure, but more contemporary stories are what I'd prefer. Yeah, we get them in the digests, and I'm not complaining, but I'd want to see the one shots in contemporary style... 😏

The storybook tales don't appear THAT often. The B&V floppy comic one-shots are just following the new digest shorts in sequential order of their appearance, so that most recent #1, "Return to Storybook Land" will be the last you get of those type of stories for a while; meanwhile the ongoing new digest 5-pagers are continuing to be created with a theme in mind to fill each floppy one-shot, so they'll be moving on to different themes. Since the floppies are all one-shots anyway, you can miss it if they're that disagreeable to you, and still not have a hole in the run -- since they're all "issue #1".

The storybook tales actually seem to be quite popular with readers, and they're probably easy to write because it's fun to tweak the old fairy tales (which are familiar to most readers) with new variations highlighting the girls' personalities. Then again, everything at ACP is planned with an eye towards future reprint possibilities in mind, and those B&V storybook trade collections probably sold well -- so they're eventually trying to accumulate enough pages for another trade collection.

One oddity that doesn't fit any theme appears in the latest B & V FRIENDS JUMBO DIGEST #272 -- an it's an extra new 5-page story in addition to the regular 5-page lead story that fits the current theme. The story features the team of BLACKJACK & POWERTEEN, in which the old MLJ superhero, together with Veronica's superheroic alter ego, investigate the mystery of Mr. Lodge's safe being pilfered. (I won't spoil it by giving away further details of the plot.) Strangely enough, this is the first appearance of PowerTeen in a story in which Dan Parent had no involvement -- the story's written by Ian Flynn (who has previously written Crusaders stories for ACP), and drawn by Jeff Shultz. Presumably the editor liked the script, but because the story doesn't include either Betty or Archie, it wasn't really suitable for the lead story in either the B&V digests, or any of the ARCHIE digests. And since it doesn't fit with the current B&V theme, it's doubtful that it will be included in a future floppy B&V one-shot.