Archie Comics Fan Forum

Everything Archie => All About Archie => Topic started by: botolo on November 29, 2021, 12:32:46 AM

Title: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: botolo on November 29, 2021, 12:32:46 AM
It makes me sad to see that this forum is almost dead. I still remember many users from the past and their messages about their love for Archie. Are you guys still buying Archie comics? I get a few digests from my local newsstand (or at Barnes & Noble in their magazine section).
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: Hanna Barbera Montana on November 29, 2021, 01:56:14 AM
I always wondered whether if every fourm member here still keeps up with new Archie content or have slowly lost interest in the company's recent output (Riverdale really turned off a lot of fans; their horror output really dried up, especially Afterlife with Archie, which is still M.I.A). But I assume many have moved to other platforms with bigger audiances. You would think that the 80th anniversary would bring everyone back, but not much.

The one thing I really miss on here was Fernando Ruiz's posts.
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: Tuxedo Mark on November 29, 2021, 09:06:53 AM
I keep up with the new classic-style comics by downloading the free samples of the digests on Amazon, because the new stories are always in front (unlike back in the 2000s, when there was a new one in the front and a new one in the back). I've bought some digital back issues from recent years - but only once the price drops. I rarely buy a new issue at full price. Jamie Rotante's B&V stories were an exception.

There's an archiecomics subreddit, but I'm not sure how many of the old posters from this forum are on there, and it doesn't seem particularly active - but definitely moreso than this forum.
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: botolo on November 29, 2021, 04:46:25 PM
I wonder if there is a way for the admin of this forum to send out an email to previous users. I have to say that for many months and maybe years the new forum did not work with Safari on Mac or iPhone. It was giving back an error message. This might have turned off many of the previous users.
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: DeCarlo Rules on December 13, 2021, 08:43:44 AM
Still buying B&V digests and stuff in the "Classic Archie" format, including the floppy comics Betty & Veronica Friends Forever and Archie & Friends, but nothing based on the 2015 reboot or Riverdale. The only real exception to that general rule for me is Sabrina, whose chilling adventures (and their spinoffs like Madam Satan) I'm still following. I also liked Cosmo and Super Duck, but it looks like fringe stuff like that is past the point of publishing now.

There is, frankly, not a lot to say about most of the new 5-page stories. Back when ACP was still doing stories that filled an entire issue or a story arc of several issues, there was a lot more comment-worthy stuff going on.
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: botolo on December 14, 2021, 08:42:43 PM
Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on December 13, 2021, 08:43:44 AMStill buying B&V digests and stuff in the "Classic Archie" format, including the floppy comics Betty & Veronica Friends Forever and Archie & Friends, but nothing based on the 2015 reboot or Riverdale. The only real exception to that general rule for me is Sabrina, whose chilling adventures (and their spinoffs like Madam Satan) I'm still following. I also liked Cosmo and Super Duck, but it looks like fringe stuff like that is past the point of publishing now.

There is, frankly, not a lot to say about most of the new 5-page stories. Back when ACP was still doing stories that filled an entire issue or a story arc of several issues, there was a lot more comment-worthy stuff going on.
I agree with you, the 5 page new stories are nothing exceptional. They are usually pretty boring and I am not a big fan of Dan Parent's art. Having said this, it's always fun to go to my local newsstand or supermarket and buy a new digest.
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: DeCarlo Rules on December 15, 2021, 10:16:54 AM
Quote from: botolo on December 14, 2021, 08:42:43 PM
Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on December 13, 2021, 08:43:44 AMStill buying B&V digests and stuff in the "Classic Archie" format, including the floppy comics Betty & Veronica Friends Forever and Archie & Friends, but nothing based on the 2015 reboot or Riverdale. The only real exception to that general rule for me is Sabrina, whose chilling adventures (and their spinoffs like Madam Satan) I'm still following. I also liked Cosmo and Super Duck, but it looks like fringe stuff like that is past the point of publishing now.

There is, frankly, not a lot to say about most of the new 5-page stories. Back when ACP was still doing stories that filled an entire issue or a story arc of several issues, there was a lot more comment-worthy stuff going on.
I agree with you, the 5 page new stories are nothing exceptional. They are usually pretty boring and I am not a big fan of Dan
Parent's art. Having said this, it's always fun to go to my local newsstand or supermarket and buy a new digest.

That's where we'll have to agree to disagree... when I wrote "stories that filled an entire issue or a story arc of several issues", I am really thinking mostly about the stories (and longer arcs) that Dan Parent wrote & drew... I'd say about 75% of the comment-worthy ones, the most enjoyable ones. The only other thing of note back then was the long-running LIFE WITH ARCHIE (a.k.a. The Married Life) by Paul Kupperberg. Before that we have to go back a ways, to things like Craig Boldman & Rex Lindsey's JUGHEAD, or Holly G's JOSIE (in Archie & Friends), SABRINA or CHERYL BLOSSOM. All of that stuff came out in the period between 1997 and 2014. Dan Parent has had a few full-length one-shots or miniseries since then... and again, those are the kind of things that are most comment-worthy, because the only other things of substantial length have been reboots, about which I have almost nothing to say (in most cases I didn't even read them, or only one sample issue). The 5-page Classic Archie story plots just don't get very involved for the most part, so there's not much to say about them, except some are better than others.
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: Oldiesmann on December 18, 2021, 01:15:54 AM
I still subscribe to one of the digests but that's about it. I don't buy much beyond that mainly because I don't have a lot of space to put them all at the moment (need to invest in some longboxes and get things more organized than large piles of comic books on my bookshelf and other areas).

I'm not sure where everyone disappeared to unfortunately. I know a lot of people are active in the Archie Comics group on Facebook, so it could be that.
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: DeCarlo Rules on December 18, 2021, 03:44:45 PM
Quote from: Oldiesmann on December 18, 2021, 01:15:54 AMI still subscribe to one of the digests but that's about it. I don't buy much beyond that mainly because I don't have a lot of space to put them all at the moment (need to invest in some longboxes and get things more organized than large piles of comic books on my bookshelf and other areas).

Where do you get boxes to fit digest-size comics? I need to get some of those, and some for tankobon-size manga paperbacks. Right now I'm just using regular old Diamond boxes (the kind the distributor packs comics in to ship to retailers). Those can fit two rows of digests across, and I cut off an end flap of another box to divide the two rows. I just stand the boxes on their sides until I fill two stacks of rows with two different digest titles. But with all the Archie digests being in the Jumbo Comics size, it only takes a year or so to fill one box.

Manga paperbacks I just pack in rows using the lids from regular-sized comic boxes. It's not great because the lids are too shallow to completely cover the sides of the paperback. I guess I could cut a regular comic box down to the right size but it seems like such waste when you're paying for all that cardboard. It'd be great to have boxes that fit exactly and have their own lids or closing flaps, though.

I've searched in vain at department stores for plastic storage boxes to fit digests or tankobon-pb's, but they're always slightly off in size or have these rounded corners... frustrating.
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: beatman10 on December 20, 2021, 10:55:45 PM
Quote from: Oldiesmann on December 18, 2021, 01:15:54 AMI still subscribe to one of the digests but that's about it. I don't buy much beyond that mainly because I don't have a lot of space to put them all at the moment (need to invest in some longboxes and get things more organized than large piles of comic books on my bookshelf and other areas).

I'm not sure where everyone disappeared to unfortunately. I know a lot of people are active in the Archie Comics group on Facebook, so it could be that.
I see a lot of Archie posts on Reddit as well as Facebook.
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: Fernando Ruiz on January 09, 2022, 09:20:12 PM
Quote from: Hanna Barbera Montana on November 29, 2021, 01:56:14 AMThe one thing I really miss on here was Fernando Ruiz's posts.
I thought the site died!
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: Asaki on February 23, 2022, 11:36:20 AM
Quote from: botolo on November 29, 2021, 12:32:46 AMIt makes me sad to see that this forum is almost dead. I still remember many users from the past and their messages about their love for Archie.
It's just the way of the Internet these days...people don't have time for forums anymore, they're too busy with social media on their phones. Computers in general are going the way of the dodo.

I actually thought this forum was 100% dead. When I registered, it took almost a month before I got verified. By that time, I had completely forgotten about it.
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: Tuxedo Mark on March 10, 2022, 02:50:04 PM
Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on December 15, 2021, 10:16:54 AMThe 5-page Classic Archie story plots just don't get very involved for the most part, so there's not much to say about them, except some are better than others.

Yeah, I've been noticing that. For the most part, these new classic-style stories are forgettable. Nothing really happens, not even character growth. For example, Sabrina was the featured character in yesterday's new story. She was babysitting a little girl and got the "witchups" (hiccups that make her magic go wonky, ripping off a plot from the Filmation series). The girl was zapped into the Alice in Wonderland book that Sabrina was reading to her. Sabrina then got herself zapped into the book. They met a bunch of characters from the book. Then Della showed up (having detected the "witchups") and got Sabrina and the girl out of the book. The end. Nothing happened. No adventure. Just "here are some characters that kids today may or may not recognize".

Apparently, next month, we get to look forward to a story in which the gang tries to find an alternate hiking trail and another one in which Veronica misplaces her purse, which has a million dollars in it, so Crickett is enlisted to sniff it out. Oh, those wacky teens these days, what with their carrying around all of that physical money. So relatable.
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: DeCarlo Rules on March 12, 2022, 03:09:09 PM
Quote from: Tuxedo Mark on March 10, 2022, 02:50:04 PM
Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on December 15, 2021, 10:16:54 AMThe 5-page Classic Archie story plots just don't get very involved for the most part, so there's not much to say about them, except some are better than others.

Yeah, I've been noticing that. For the most part, these new classic-style stories are forgettable. Nothing really happens, not even character growth. For example, Sabrina was the featured character in yesterday's new story. She was babysitting a little girl and got the "witchups" (hiccups that make her magic go wonky, ripping off a plot from the Filmation series). The girl was zapped into the Alice in Wonderland book that Sabrina was reading to her. Sabrina then got herself zapped into the book. They met a bunch of characters from the book. Then Della showed up (having detected the "witchups") and got Sabrina and the girl out of the book. The end. Nothing happened. No adventure. Just "here are some characters that kids today may or may not recognize".

Apparently, next month, we get to look forward to a story in which the gang tries to find an alternate hiking trail and another one in which Veronica misplaces her purse, which has a million dollars in it, so Crickett is enlisted to sniff it out. Oh, those wacky teens these days, what with their carrying around all of that physical money. So relatable.

The most amazing thing about that is that an entire story was devoted to classic Sabrina without having to work Archie or B&V into the story as an excuse to publish it. That usually only happens when the new story is an extra 'bonus' story in addition to the regular B&V or Archie lead story. Also if I'm not mistaken the Sabrina reprint section in that issue was twice as many pages as she is usually allotted, and was right up front of the digest after the new story. Yeah, there's not much to say about the new story, except for some reason they decided to spotlight Sabrina in this issue out of the blue ("Little Sabrina" was even featured in the back, where it would usually be Little Betty and/or Little Veronica). It was a surprise. In fact, I don't remember there ever being a new Jumbo B&V digest (either title) that didn't have a new B&V story in it.

Maybe they should do a whole ARCHIE SHOWCASE issue with just classic Sabrina stories.
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: DeCarlo Rules on March 12, 2022, 03:11:05 PM
PS -- If I recall correctly, this is only the first of several new stories coming up featuring Cricket.
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: DeCarlo Rules on March 15, 2022, 10:20:32 AM
And now we're apparently getting another wave of superhero guest-star stories with Steel Sterling.
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: Mr.Lodge on March 15, 2022, 01:50:00 PM
Yuck. There's enough superhero junk polluting the landscape as it is..... :buck2:
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: DeCarlo Rules on March 19, 2022, 04:38:58 PM
I could do without the Little Archie(/Veronica/Betty/Jughead/Sabrina) junk taking up pages in the digests every single month. Might as well just leave those pages blank AFAIC. I don't mind when they put it in its own comic where I can safely avoid buying it.
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: steveinthecity on March 20, 2022, 12:13:17 PM
I don't find much value in the digests currently, and mostly stick to back issues at this point.  The last new Archie I picked up was B&V Friends Forever Spring Break #1 virgin variant:

(https://i.imgur.com/T3UKSUVl.jpg?1)
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: Oldiesmann on April 06, 2022, 12:38:53 AM
I wonder what it would take to get the company to bring back the full-size comics with 3-4 new stories. Those were so much more fun than a digest full of reprints with one or two stories in there. As much as I like seeing the older stuff, it would be nice to have a book of all new material as well.
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: DeCarlo Rules on April 06, 2022, 08:12:05 AM
It would take a LOT. Everything is a one-shot now except the ongoing digests. I can only presume this is so because the only thing that comic shop consumers want to buy now (from Archie, anyway) is a #1. ACP does do all-new one-shots once in a while, just not in the classic style. It's been a few years now since ACP has had any ongoing floppy format comic series. I would be really surprised if the current situation changes in any sort of positive way.
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: Tuxedo Mark on April 06, 2022, 05:26:43 PM
I don't think the money's there, either from ACP to publish or from the consumers to buy. I just checked Comichron. In July 2020, Sabrina: Something Wicked #2 was in the mid-100s, and Archie #713 (the final issue) was just below the Top 200. And sales have only gone down since then. The long-delayed Chilling Adventures of Sabrina #9 went to #162, and there have been no new issues since. I haven't seen any charts from this year, but I can't imagine the numbers are good. And I see digests hit the shelves at stores long after I've already read the new stories for free on Amazon. And the new stories seem rushed and contain barely any plot. Maybe they oughta invest in creating a new OGN once per year, so they can add to their catalog of ready-packaged material.

Or do prose novellas. Mike Pellowski did the Riverdale High series back in 1991-1992, and there have been scattershot attempts at more prose stories since then.
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: Fernando Ruiz on April 06, 2022, 11:17:43 PM
Quote from: Oldiesmann on April 06, 2022, 12:38:53 AMI wonder what it would take to get the company to bring back the full-size comics with 3-4 new stories. 


The business of the thirty-two page monthly format, what we called "the Thirty-Two's" back in the day, is a tough one these days for any publisher let alone Archie Comics. 

When I first started at Archie in '94, the Thirty-Two's were already having a hard time but at least they were holding their own. At the time, I was told Betty & Veronica was the "big seller" and that Jughead always seemed to struggle as the lowest seller... despite everyone always claiming that Jughead was their favorite character. 

Some time later, the Thirty-Two's stopped making money, but Archie Comics continued publishing them even at a loss. The thinking was that the Thirty-Two's were a platform for new material that would eventually be funneled into the digests. The digests were still formidable sellers (even by Marvel and DC standards!) so the money would be made there. As long as the digests were sufficiently profitable, they were in a sense paying for a continuation of the Thirty-Two's. The company also firmly believed that Archie Comics should ALWAYS publish at least the Archie, Jughead and Betty & Veronica titles no matter what!

Eventually the company's philosophy became that EVERYTHING had to make money on its own. The Thirty-Two's would no longer be published at a loss regardless of what the digests were doing. Over the course of a couple of years, most of the Thirty-Two's were euthanized. The Betty solo book and Archie & Friends went out sadly as reprint books complete with re-colored reprint covers. I believe I may have provided the last original cover on the Betty series if I remember right. 

At the end, I was told that a Thirty-Two had to sell five thousand copies in order to be profitable. I have no idea if this threshold remains today or what the current publishing philosophy is. 




Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: DeCarlo Rules on April 07, 2022, 09:23:30 AM
And now that I think about it, I can't even understand how they can afford to do those occasional "new-style" Archie one-shots. If the floppies are at or below the break-even point, the new-style stories can't even be reused as digest reprints to justify the cost of doing them. If it's a miniseries, it could get a collected edition TP, but we haven't seen any of those lately either. Unlike the annual Archie Modern Classics collection, there is no similar type of reprint book for new-style Archie stories from whatever one-shots they might do in the previous year. They also double-dip on those modern classic stories by reprinting them in separate B&V and Archie & Friends collections.

They should be doing more new pages of stories in the digests, because future digests are always going to need reprint material... unless they have already projected the eventual demise of digests in the not-too-distant future.

For now, the compromise seems to be ONE new 'classic Archie' 5-page story in an otherwise reprint floppy one-shot, the same deal as with the ongoing digests... although once in a while they'll include a new bonus story in one of the digests.
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: Tuxedo Mark on April 07, 2022, 09:09:18 PM
Quote from: Fernando Ruiz on April 06, 2022, 11:17:43 PMAt the end, I was told that a Thirty-Two had to sell five thousand copies in order to be profitable. I have no idea if this threshold remains today or what the current publishing philosophy is.

I just checked Comichron for July and September of last year. In July, the all-reprint Archie & Friends Summer Vacation floppy sold an estimated 2,376 units. In September, the B&V Friends Forever Halloween Spooktacular floppy, which contained a new lead story, sold an estimated 6,871 copies. So it seems adding even just one new story boosts sales considerably. It's far above the higher-priced digests that also have a new lead story. The highest-charting digest that month, World of Betty & Veronica Jumbo Comics Digest #8, sold only 959 copies in the Direct Market. Not sure what they're selling at places like Walmart and Publix.
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: Mr.Lodge on April 09, 2022, 06:57:25 AM
The prices of the digests going up hasn't helped. The quality of the new stories is really down. I barely recognized some of the characters in the most recent ones. They looked liked rush jobs at best. Has the time for Archie comics finally come to pass?

Also, what is the fascination with Dan Parent? I've never been the least impressed with his pencil work. His characters took to generically drawn. As far as I'm concerned, Fernando Ruiz should have not been fired. His work is way better than Dan.

Sure the Parent defenders will be here to bash but I really don't care.
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: DeCarlo Rules on April 11, 2022, 10:18:27 AM
@Mr.Lodge

Seems like the only one doing any bashing here (of Dan Parent) is YOU. We understand that your difference of opinion with the larger group of Archie readers has made you resentful that he remains a popular Archie creator despite what you think of him. Just accept the fact that Dan Parent's stories, covers, one-shots, and miniseries SELL (at least on the scale of what is possible for Archie Comics to sell in the present marketplace). Ousting Dan Parent from the list of Archie creators is only going to result in lost sales, not gained sales. Sorry you don't like him, but every post of yours is just another excuse to grind the same old axe.
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: DeCarlo Rules on April 11, 2022, 10:37:52 AM
Quote from: Tuxedo Mark on April 07, 2022, 09:09:18 PMThe highest-charting digest that month, World of Betty & Veronica Jumbo Comics Digest #8, sold only 959 copies in the Direct Market. Not sure what they're selling at places like Walmart and Publix.

The nature of the average comic shop consumer is...

a) They have never really embraced Archie Comics in general, despite the good will of various retailers (and Steve Geppi of Diamond Comic Distributors).

b) They have definite resistance to any comic series not in the traditional floppy comic format. They will accept a better cover stock or paper stock gratefully, but that is where it ends. Magazine and digest-size comics are definitely not preferred because it messes up their bagging/boarding and comic-box filing system. Digests of all types have never done well in the comic shop system.

c) Fortunately Archie Comics continues to maintain a toehold in the wider world of magazine distribution (unlike other comics publishers), and that has probably been their sole salvation. In the wider world, the situation is reversed, and retailers much prefer the higher-profit digests (which also take up less display space) to the floppy comics.
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: Tuxedo Mark on April 11, 2022, 07:55:21 PM
I checked Amazon, and the only categories where Archie even cracks the Top 100 are some hyper-specific children's comics categories. All of those are the classic-style comics. No Riverdale. No New Riverdale. No Archie Horror. No idea what that translates to in terms of sales, though.

I was reading Brian Hibbs' annual column (https://www.comicsbeat.com/looking-at-npd-bookscan-2021-and-its-a-doozy/) where he discussed the previous year's Top 750 comics according to NPD BookScan, which claims to represent about 85% of physical book sales in North America outside the comic book Direct Market (comic shops). In other words, actual physical bookstores and online sellers. Physical books only, though; no digital copies. Not one title from Archie even made the list. I asked him about it in the comments, and he wrote:

QuoteThe best-selling comic from Archie, however, is "80 Years of Christmas" and it sells well under 3k copies.


So there you have it. The best-selling Archie book out in the real world beyond the comics shop sold far less than 3,000 copies last year.
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: DeCarlo Rules on April 12, 2022, 08:45:31 PM
Quote from: Tuxedo Mark on April 11, 2022, 07:55:21 PMI checked Amazon, and the only categories where Archie even cracks the Top 100 are some hyper-specific children's comics categories. All of those are the classic-style comics. No Riverdale. No New Riverdale. No Archie Horror. No idea what that translates to in terms of sales, though.

I was reading Brian Hibbs' annual column (https://www.comicsbeat.com/looking-at-npd-bookscan-2021-and-its-a-doozy/) where he discussed the previous year's Top 750 comics according to NPD BookScan, which claims to represent about 85% of physical book sales in North America outside the comic book Direct Market (comic shops). In other words, actual physical bookstores and online sellers. Physical books only, though; no digital copies. Not one title from Archie even made the list. I asked him about it in the comments, and he wrote:

QuoteThe best-selling comic from Archie, however, is "80 Years of Christmas" and it sells well under 3k copies.


So there you have it. The best-selling Archie book out in the real world beyond the comics shop sold far less than 3,000 copies last year.

Unless I mis-read the opening paragraphs of Hibbs' article, the NPD BookScan is tracking book sales in general... of which the Graphic Novel, Collected Edition, Trade Paperback, or whatever you want to call them is a subset. I point this out because it seems to me that the NPD BookScan is not tracking periodical sales at all. That means it tells us nothing about how Archie digests are selling in the bookstores. So all we're really getting out of this is that ACP's best-selling trade collection didn't do better that 3k in bookstores.

Come to think of it, I'm not really sure what the definition of "bookstores" is from NPD BookScan's POV. Are we talking just the physical brick & mortar stores, or are they including online booksellers? How about online sellers like Amazon where book sales only make up a small fraction of their total sales?

Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: Tuxedo Mark on April 12, 2022, 09:34:35 PM
Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on April 12, 2022, 08:45:31 PMUnless I mis-read the opening paragraphs of Hibbs' article, the NPD BookScan is tracking book sales in general... of which the Graphic Novel, Collected Edition, Trade Paperback, or whatever you want to call them is a subset. I point this out because it seems to me that the NPD BookScan is not tracking periodical sales at all. That means it tells us nothing about how Archie digests are selling in the bookstores. So all we're really getting out of this is that ACP's best-selling trade collection didn't do better that 3k in bookstores.

Hmm, yeah, that's probably right. Digests probably aren't represented. Then again, on my last trip to a Books-A-Million, I don't recall seeing any digests or standard floppy comics at all, just collected editions and manga. Honestly, even on Amazon, I don't see physical editions of new floppies or digests for sale - except maybe at a markup.

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on April 12, 2022, 08:45:31 PMCome to think of it, I'm not really sure what the definition of "bookstores" is from NPD BookScan's POV. Are we talking just the physical brick & mortar stores, or are they including online booksellers? How about online sellers like Amazon where book sales only make up a small fraction of their total sales?

Hibbs says "These reflect actual sales made through bookstores that report to NPD, which includes Amazon."
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: DeCarlo Rules on April 14, 2022, 02:13:47 PM
The Archie digests probably wouldn't even make a dent in NPD BookScan's listings if they were tracking periodicals, because then it would be in competition with mainstream magazines, not other comics.

Still, let's remember they have four ongoing digest titles plus a few other limited ones like Archie Showcase, Archie Milestones, Archie 80th Anniversary all going at the same time. And they're all low overhead because they only contain 5 or 10 pages of new material that they have to pay for, plus ACP has its own subscriptions and website direct sales in addition to the bookstores. Mike Pellerito claimed in one recent digest text page that people were subscribing to the digests in record numbers, whether that's true or just hype.
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: Tuxedo Mark on April 14, 2022, 10:03:28 PM
Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on April 14, 2022, 02:13:47 PMMike Pellerito claimed in one recent digest text page that people were subscribing to the digests in record numbers, whether that's true or just hype.

Don't they print the circulation figures in the digests once per year? That could be something to check.
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: DeCarlo Rules on April 15, 2022, 03:43:54 PM
Quote from: Tuxedo Mark on April 14, 2022, 10:03:28 PM
Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on April 14, 2022, 02:13:47 PMMike Pellerito claimed in one recent digest text page that people were subscribing to the digests in record numbers, whether that's true or just hype.

Don't they print the circulation figures in the digests once per year? That could be something to check.

Do they? News to me. I can't recall seeing such a page anywhere in any digests I've read. I mean, a LONG time ago, the USPS had postal regulations that required comics to annually print a "Statement of Ownership, Management and Circulation" in order to qualify for reduced mailing rates, but it's been decades since those postal regulations have been in effect.
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: Tuxedo Mark on April 15, 2022, 10:38:18 PM
Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on April 15, 2022, 03:43:54 PMDo they? News to me. I can't recall seeing such a page anywhere in any digests I've read. I mean, a LONG time ago, the USPS had postal regulations that required comics to annually print a "Statement of Ownership, Management and Circulation" in order to qualify for reduced mailing rates, but it's been decades since those postal regulations have been in effect.

I was pretty sure someone on this forum (before the reset) posted circulation figures, so I did a keyword search for "circulation" through my archive of the threads that I'd happened to save from the old forum.

The following post was made by user Forsythe:

QuoteOur Vanishing America Teen-ager
« on: March 29, 2009, 01:37:30 AM »
QUOTE
I've thought of putting a list like this together for years, the recent discussions of last years sales data inspired me. The only number that really matters is the Total Paid Circulation, average numbers of copies over the preceeding 12 months. Single issue nearest to filing date means only that.

This is for the title Archie!

This info is from the publishers statement found in the comics. This info can be found usually in the April issue, sometimes March, sometimes May or June.

The filing date until 1996 was always Oct 1st, then it started moving around a little. Starting in 1995 they began to mention which issues this info covered, it stayed very consistant Oct-Sept, so the 2008 numbers were for the Oct 2007 - Sept 2008 issues. The earliest statement that included the actual numbers is from the April 1961 issue . The total print run numbers didn't start until 1963, but here goes

Total Paid Circulation is the first number, the total print run is the second number

1960 - 500,200
1961 - 458,039
1962 - 457,689
1963 - 471,166 - 847,177
1964 - 484,704 - 852,794
1965 - 467,552 - 850,115
1966 - 491,691 - 857,136
1967 - 484,648 - 869,130
1968 - 566,587 - 910,507
1969 - 515,536 - 886,643
1970 - 482,945 - 853,590
1971 - 482,101 - 884,292
1972 - 390,408 - 810,400
1973 - 345,087 - 748,465
1974 - 272,272 - 528,601
1975 - 199,918 - 453,574
1976 - 181,827 - 423,959
1977 - 155,252 - 360,831
1978 - 137,620 - 346,308
1979 - 121,530 - 303,952
1980 -   89,409 - 266,468
1981 -   87,302 - 244,478
1982 -   67,693 - 212,613
1983 -   69,697 - 169,624
1984 -   64,781 - 158,298
1985 -   63,143 - 157,750
1986 -   67,059 - 178,673
1987 -   66,176 - 194,181
1988 -   74,223 - 200,363
1989 -   67,423 - 188,864
1990 -   56,855 - 179,586
1991 -   45,960 - 150,515
1992 -   47,530 - 167,245
1993 -   44,547 - 152,085
1994 -   46,033 - 153,534
1995 -   43,885 - 142,193
1996 -   43,298 - 129,795
1997 -   41,134 - 130,481
1998 -   35,801 - 112,065
1999 -   29,361 -   93,621
2000 -   27,551 -   83,356
2001 -   24,285 -   67,590
2002 -   21,456 -   63,302
2003 -   19,945 -   53,330
2004 -   18,137 -   49,451
2005 -   18,020 -   54,589
2006 -   18,765 -   52,492
2007 -   25,305 -   53,647
2008 -   13,259 -   36,774

pretty scary!

:o
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: Tuxedo Mark on April 15, 2022, 10:54:45 PM
Oh, and here's a post (https://comicsworthreading.com/2013/03/08/archie-sales-figures-for-2012/) regarding Archie Comics' sales figures for 2012 (the last year for which this site had made a post for that information, it seems).
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: Fernando Ruiz on April 18, 2022, 12:12:21 AM
Quote from: Tuxedo Mark on April 15, 2022, 10:54:45 PMOh, and here's a post (https://comicsworthreading.com/2013/03/08/archie-sales-figures-for-2012/) regarding Archie Comics' sales figures for 2012 (the last year for which this site had made a post for that information, it seems).

Johanna Draper Carlson!! I'd forgotten about her! They despised her up at the Office! Where has she been? Does she still report on Archie's sales?




Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: Tuxedo Mark on April 19, 2022, 12:26:43 PM
Quote from: Fernando Ruiz on April 18, 2022, 12:12:21 AMJohanna Draper Carlson!! I'd forgotten about her! They despised her up at the Office! Where has she been? Does she still report on Archie's sales?

She's still very active on that site. However, there doesn't seem to be much, if any, recent coverage of anything Archie.

Why was she despised at the office?
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: DeCarlo Rules on April 20, 2022, 08:12:53 AM
Quote from: Tuxedo Mark on April 15, 2022, 10:54:45 PMOh, and here's a post (https://comicsworthreading.com/2013/03/08/archie-sales-figures-for-2012/) regarding Archie Comics' sales figures for 2012 (the last year for which this site had made a post for that information, it seems).

Seriously. I haven't seen them in the digests since I began getting digests on a regular basis in 2014. And yeah, I would be both curious and concerned about the digest sales currently... but despite that I still haven't noticed any statements of ownership, circulation, and management. So maybe I should have said "a decade" and not "decades" -- those 2012 Archie Comics sales seem to be the last discussed on comicsworthreading.com, and I'm thinking it's not a coincidence.
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: Fernando Ruiz on April 23, 2022, 12:34:56 PM
Quote from: Tuxedo Mark on April 19, 2022, 12:26:43 PMWhy was she despised at the office?

Johanna Draper Carlson used to report regularly on Archie Comics' sales figures. I believe her posts appeared regularly on The Beat and I think Publisher's Weekly, but I'm not sure about that one. I'm pretty sure the source of her information were Archie's own Statement of Ownership pages. 

Along with the sales figures, which at this time, were in steady decline, Johanna offered commentary and even predictions which of course based on the bleak data were often not particularly optimistic. At Archie Comics, the most unpardonable sin was to speak about the company in negative light... even if what you are saying is true.

Johanna did make these posts fairly regularly. At the Office, she was often dismissed disdainfully as someone with an axe to grind against the company and her information deliberately incomplete and slanted to paint the company in the worst light possible. I never met her and had no idea if she did have any feelings towards the company one way or the other. I viewed her posts with mixed feelings because while I did believe her info was incomplete, I didn't think she was very far off from the truth either. I did admire her openness and what I regarded as her frank objectivity on the topic. To me, she was telling it as she saw it.







Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: DeCarlo Rules on April 25, 2022, 03:38:38 PM
If she were that concerned about the very real phenomenon of dwindling sales at ACP, it's probably because she loved the company, or at least the characters, not because she had an ax to grind against it.

We usually take things for granted until it becomes apparent that we're in danger of losing them. Nobody bothers trying to save the animal species that aren't on the endangered list. So it's important for people to know that they're endangered.

The Death of Archie was really a wounded man's cry for help.
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: Jabroniville on November 26, 2022, 01:32:24 AM
Just adding to this one... I apparently left in *2017*. Ouch. That's too bad. I always think it was less time than it actually was. In this case, I had tired of a lot of the content being produced, and they'd been producing very little new content. Fernando Ruiz had just been largely turfed (I understand he returned and got a bit more work, but not THAT much) and only the solo "Archie" book by Waid was coming out. So I kind of just moved on from here.

The REAL killer, I will say, was the initial death/erasure of the old forum. I'm not blaming anyone in particular, but having the ENTIRETY of our post-count being destroyed just killed it for a lot of people. We had had a ton of very fun topics on here by that point, with all the Digests still in production and talks of all kinds of obscure characters (Crickett! Trula! Della!)... and there was a wonderful "Random Pictures" archive as well. And when the forum died, it took all of that with it. While we could sort of begin again... it really hurt not being able to look up those old topics.

And so I, personally, started to drift away. A handful of unpleasantness on the forums didn't help- I recall some new poster was bullying another, much younger/less-stable poster, and we had a certain argumentative individual a lot of you probably remember XD. 

I do miss coming to ArchieFans- I used to make this a regular haunt EVERY DAY. But I got older, got more responsibilities and new hobbies, and eventually the forum I missed coming to was the OLD one. 

But I'm still glad this one is still here.
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: Tuxedo Mark on March 03, 2023, 09:31:01 AM
Anyone else concerned that digest prices increased to $8.99 at the beginning of 2022 and $9.99 at the beginning of this year? I find it hard to believe that these would be attractive as impulse buys for parents to keep their kids entertained, particularly since they could just download the free samples from Amazon and get all of the new stories at no cost.

Based on the sales figures released through 2012 and the pattern of percentage increases and decreases in sales, I calculated the following projections for 2022 monthly digest sales:

Archie: 15,838
Betty and Veronica: 16,839
World of Archie: 4,146
World of Betty and Veronica: 9,029
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: Hanna Barbera Montana on March 03, 2023, 12:24:17 PM
Some sellers on Amazon have them priced at $10. 99 and $11.99.
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: steveinthecity on March 17, 2023, 09:23:19 PM
Quote from: Tuxedo Mark on March 03, 2023, 09:31:01 AMAnyone else concerned that digest prices increased to $8.99 at the beginning of 2022 and $9.99 at the beginning of this year? I find it hard to believe that these would be attractive as impulse buys for parents to keep their kids entertained, particularly since they could just download the free samples from Amazon and get all of the new stories at no cost.

Based on the sales figures released through 2012 and the pattern of percentage increases and decreases in sales, I calculated the following projections for 2022 monthly digest sales:

Archie: 15,838
Betty and Veronica: 16,839
World of Archie: 4,146
World of Betty and Veronica: 9,029
I was thinking about this recently when placing pre-orders.  The $9.99 Digest will still cost me $6.99 after discount, and that just doesn't seem worth it.  I haven't done any real study or drilled down the price per unit vs. inflation, etc., but the price point is off-putting to where I'm not really interested.  I don't see how the Digests can be any sort of impulse buy with such a high retail tag.
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: Tuxedo Mark on March 19, 2023, 02:03:22 PM
Quote from: steveinthecity on March 17, 2023, 09:23:19 PMI was thinking about this recently when placing pre-orders.  The $9.99 Digest will still cost me $6.99 after discount, and that just doesn't seem worth it.  I haven't done any real study or drilled down the price per unit vs. inflation, etc., but the price point is off-putting to where I'm not really interested.  I don't see how the Digests can be any sort of impulse buy with such a high retail tag.

I recently flipped through some of the digests at my local Publix recently out of curiosity. They're no longer in the front checkout area; they're shoved back with the magazines in a certain aisle of the store.

Anyway, I decided to count the total number of story/puzzle/quiz/fashion pages to see what customers would actually be getting for their money. 177 pages was the total in each digest that I checked. That works out to $0.0564406779661017 per page at the full retail price of $9.99 (not including sales tax) and $0.0394915254237288 per page at the $6.99 price point that you mentioned.

I just decided to count the pages in World of Betty and Veronica Jumbo Comics Digest #1, which came out at the beginning of 2021. 177 pages. At $7.99, that works out to $0.0451412429378531 per page.

So Archie Comics has increased the price by $1 two years in a row but hasn't increased the content.

That's still better than the $0.1995 per page for a new $3.99 floppy or the $0.1495 per page for a $2.99 reprint floppy with one new 5-page story in it.
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: Tuxedo Mark on April 08, 2023, 11:44:54 PM
So Brian Hibbs' NPD Bookscan chart column covering 2022 recently came out. I spent a few hours reading it. Archie wasn't mentioned. I asked him a few questions in a comment, and he confirmed the chart doesn't cover periodicals (such as digests). As in 2021, the top-selling Archie title in the bookstore market in 2022 was "80 Years of Christmas", and it sold "just over" 1,500 copies (basically around a 50% decrease from 2021).
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: botolo on August 06, 2023, 09:15:32 PM
I wonder what happened after 1968 that brought sales of Archie comics down a spiral.
On one side, I think one of the main issues that the comic book market has right now is that it targets old readers and does not cultivate new readers. Even the idea that you have to go to a comic book store to find new periodicals and that most of the comic book stores are places for adults is not good for the market.
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: DeCarlo Rules on August 07, 2023, 06:43:28 AM
Same thing that happened to the sales of every other comic book publisher after 1968. Retailers didn't want to devote their precious display space to comics, because the profit margin was so low, and that display space could better be used for items that generated more profit for the space it took to display it. The profit margin on digest comics was higher, and they took up correspondingly less display space, so those were able to hang in there with retailers much longer.
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: steveinthecity on August 07, 2023, 04:26:43 PM
Quote from: botolo on August 06, 2023, 09:15:32 PMI wonder what happened after 1968 that brought sales of Archie comics down a spiral.
On one side, I think one of the main issues that the comic book market has right now is that it targets old readers and does not cultivate new readers. Even the idea that you have to go to a comic book store to find new periodicals and that most of the comic book stores are places for adults is not good for the market.
I would think retail price is additionally a problem when it comes to getting comics into younger reader's hands.
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: Tuxedo Mark on August 08, 2023, 12:06:20 AM
Quote from: steveinthecity on August 07, 2023, 04:26:43 PM
Quote from: botolo on August 06, 2023, 09:15:32 PMI wonder what happened after 1968 that brought sales of Archie comics down a spiral.
On one side, I think one of the main issues that the comic book market has right now is that it targets old readers and does not cultivate new readers. Even the idea that you have to go to a comic book store to find new periodicals and that most of the comic book stores are places for adults is not good for the market.
I would think retail price is additionally a problem when it comes to getting comics into younger reader's hands.
Absolutely. The Kindle editions are a bit cheaper, but I think most parents getting Archie material for their kids would just download a ton of free samples. I can't imagine a parent paying full price for a physical digest for their kid.
Title: Re: Nobody here anymore?
Post by: DeCarlo Rules on August 14, 2023, 02:54:41 PM
That's taking a pretty long view of the asked-about "after 1968"...

Inflation didn't happen overnight, but a retailer doesn't care about your desire for cheap entertainment, he cares about how much money he makes when he sells you an item. If he has to make less profit per unit, he better know for sure he can make more money by selling LOTS of units.