What would you do if you were the boss of Archie Comic Publications?
I would do a new comics series like that:
Archie Classic #1 (All New! Every month!) :D
by Fernando Ruiz and Dan Parent.
Replace a better artist for Jughead reboot.
A Archie Comics App for PC, Mac, and Linux.
Do you have other ideas?
Re-Start Classic Archie, Classic Betty and Veronica, and Classic Jughead series with artists like Dan Parent, Fernando Ruiz, Gisele Legace, The Kennedy's, etc.
I would panic! And when I settled down I'd look into a partnership with another established publisher. Boom, IDW, Papercutz, would all be on my list. I'd try to get someone to shoulder some of the cost of talent and printing and try to retain my rights to the intellectual properties at the same time.
I've spent a lot of time thinking about this.
The first thing is stabilize the schedule — bring things out on a regular basis, and try to make that monthly for the flagship books; and that probably means getting new artists for some books — there are a lot of talented people who can do good art quickly enough and with enough versatility ... And tell Roberto that he can't work on projects in other media each month until he's turned in his Afterlife script (and gotten editorial approval!)
Get rid of Erica Henderson and sentence her to a life time of reading only her crap. :uglystupid2:
Probably go into partnership with IDW as far as editorial and distribution. Floppy comics are probably non-workable as far as comics shops go, so I'd try to concentrate on new formats and penetrating new markets. Maybe original graphic novels (100 pages +/-) are the way to go as far as new Archie Classic stories are concerned, and more pages (10-15) of new stories in the regular digest titles. I'd try to concentrate on always having some continued stories going that could be recycled as later collections, too. More crazy crossovers with other companies' characters, too (that's the only thing that might work in floppy format). They could do a lot more with their classic library material too -- I'd try to work with Craig Yoe on developing books of cherry-picked stories and archival/chronological reprintings of some classic past titles, beginning with the Silver Age material.
Another idea... ACP should partner up with Scholastic Books, the world's largest publisher and distributor of children's books for grades pre-K through grade 12. Scholastic Books also holds the exclusive publishing rights to the Harry Potter and Hunger Games series, as well as owning other companies and publications like Reader's Digest, Grolier, and Klutz. They also promote Reading Clubs and Book Fairs in schools. This would allow ACP to distribute its trade collections through school systems. That would be an absolutely major inroad for ACP as far as distribution is concerned. With IDW covering the comic shop and bookstore markets, and Scholastic covering distribution through school systems, that would be a quantum leap as far as ACP getting their product in front of the audience.
Expand their Dark Circle superhero line with creator-owned titles.
Quote from: stangoldberg4ever on April 10, 2016, 08:04:38 PM
Expand their Dark Circle superhero line with creator-owned titles.
As far as ACP is concerned, I'm pretty sure "The company is the creator of record" is Rule #1 under the articles of incorporation. If companies like Fantagraphics, Image and Dark Horse represent the most creator-friendly end of the comic book publishing industry spectrum, then Archie Comics occupies the far opposite side beyond even the corporate giants like DC and Marvel (even they have small creator-owned imprints, or had at one time). Archie Comics is probably one of THE least creator-friendly comics publishing companies ever.
But even if they were going to do creator-owned titles, superheroes as a genre should probably be the last thing they'd be thinking about. That option pretty much stopped being a viable one for success in the mid-1990s. Why, something like that would have about as much chance of succeeding as...
Stan Lee's Mighty 7...
Add all Archie Comics issues on the official Archie Comics App.
This way, we can read all the stories. :D
If there were a way to do it without getting caught, I think I'd go with arson. Screw the insurance companies!
Put a stop to the Riverdale series
Put a stop to the reboot
Bring back Classic Archie
Make Gabbie Gross the artist for the Reggie comic.
There are 1 or 2 old classic stories in each Archie reboot, Jughead reboot and Betty and Veronica reboot (probably)...
- Replace these 1 or 2 old classic stories by a new classic story of 6-7 pages.(art and story by Fernando Ruiz) 8)
So, a new reboot story of 21 pages and a new classic story of 6-7 pages in the same issue. :D
And almost everyone will be happy now...
Quote from: nuageo on May 11, 2016, 05:22:42 PM
There are 1 or 2 old classic stories in each Archie reboot, Jughead reboot and Betty and Veronica reboot (probably)...
- Replace these 1 or 2 old classic stories by a new classic story of 6-7 pages.(art and story by Fernando Ruiz) 8)
So, a new reboot story of 21 pages and a new classic story of 6-7 pages in the same issue. :D
And almost everyone will be happy now...
I'd be happy with 21 pages of classic story and 6-7 of reboot story...
I get all the digests, but 20 pages of new classic stories a month just isn't enough to cover all the characters I'd like to be seeing. An additional 6-7 pages of classic story every month just isn't enough to make me want to buy 21 pages of New Riverdale story, and I suspect there's a fair number of fans of classic Archie that would feel the same way.
Sell the company to Disney.
Quote from: Barbaric William Dreadbeard on May 12, 2016, 04:51:27 AM
Sell the company to Disney.
They already own Marvel ... would not be good for Archie — better off with IDW ...
Quote from: invisifan on May 12, 2016, 06:49:19 AM
Quote from: Barbaric William Dreadbeard on May 12, 2016, 04:51:27 AM
Sell the company to Disney.
They already own Marvel ... would not be good for Archie — better off with IDW ...
I'll agree as far as better off with IDW ... but at this point Disney couldn't do any worse.
Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on May 12, 2016, 02:30:50 PM
Quote from: invisifan on May 12, 2016, 06:49:19 AM
Quote from: Barbaric William Dreadbeard on May 12, 2016, 04:51:27 AM
Sell the company to Disney.
They already own Marvel ... would not be good for Archie — better off with IDW ...
I'll agree as far as better off with IDW ... but at this point Disney couldn't do any worse.
Why is Disney doing bad?
Quote from: irishmoxie on May 12, 2016, 05:09:50 PM
Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on May 12, 2016, 02:30:50 PM
Quote from: invisifan on May 12, 2016, 06:49:19 AM
Quote from: Barbaric William Dreadbeard on May 12, 2016, 04:51:27 AM
Sell the company to Disney.
They already own Marvel ... would not be good for Archie — better off with IDW ...
I'll agree as far as better off with IDW ... but at this point Disney couldn't do any worse.
Why is Disney doing bad?
Disney couldn't do any worse at running Archie Comics than Archie Comics is doing running itself right now.
Which would actually mean
Marvel, since what do the people at Disney know about running a comic book company? That's why they farm the license for classic Disney comics (Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Uncle Scrooge) out to other companies -- and the fact that Disney farms its classic characters out to IDW and Fantagraphics in the U.S. tells you that the people at Marvel don't understand those kind of comics and have no experience publishing them (although other contemporary Disney licenses -- like Haunted Mansion -- DO get published by Marvel).
All of that said, Disney/Marvel could do no worse at publishing Archie Comics than Archie's doing. In many ways, New Riverdale, Archie Horror, and Dark Circle all seem like something that Marvel would publish if they owned the characters (although Marvel would publish everything on time, and probably pay creators more, so they could afford to hire whomever they wanted). Disney would take advantage of Marvel's expertise and clout in marketing, promotion and advertising, and have the deep pockets needed to underwrite any sort of projects involving the Archie characters that they had a notion to.
IDW has proven with their various reprint projects that they respect the characters and understand what their traditional appeal is, but that's the classic characters. ACP seems to have mostly given up on the idea of new classic Archie material, apart from just keeping the digests running for however long they're able to maintain them. They seem to have accepted the idea that the sun is setting on those too, so there's no real need to maintain a flow of new stories to feed future digests. They're only generating 20 new pages of classic Archie stories a month, and the digests are consuming something like 500 story pages a month, so the digests reprints will just continue to get more and more dated. They must see the end as not too far off, say 5 years or so.
First thing on my agenda would be to rehire the likes of Fernando Ruiz, Gisele, The Kennedy's, and any other Classic Artists they got rid of. Then I would get them all together with Dan Parent and say OK who wants to do the New Classic Archie series, who wants to do the New Classic Betty and Veronica series, who wants to do the New Classic Jughead series, who wants to do the New Classic Josie series, and who wants to do the new Sabrina series. Get those launched and end the rebooted stuff. I'd also put an end to the Riverdale Series on the CW. After all the Classic series are launched and successful then I would consider a new Cartoon Archie series for T.V.
I'd hire better writers. Even some of the most talked about issues of recent times did not have strong stories.
Quote from: Original Sin on June 24, 2016, 06:08:13 PM
I'd hire better writers. Even some of the most talked about issues of recent times did not have strong stories.
Such as? Mark Waid? Chip Zdarsky?
Quote from: irishmoxie on June 24, 2016, 07:05:14 PM
Quote from: Original Sin on June 24, 2016, 06:08:13 PM
I'd hire better writers. Even some of the most talked about issues of recent times did not have strong stories.
Such as? Mark Waid? Chip Zdarsky?
I think a lot of these new writers are overrated. They in my opinion can't compare to the old Classic Writers of Archie Comics who brought the quick gags and laughter with every story. It's just not the same anymore.
Quote from: irishmoxie on June 24, 2016, 07:05:14 PM
Quote from: Original Sin on June 24, 2016, 06:08:13 PM
I'd hire better writers. Even some of the most talked about issues of recent times did not have strong stories.
Such as? Mark Waid? Chip Zdarsky?
I don't really know much about who the good writers in today's comic book world are. But I would like someone who can create good slapstick comedy, and teen romance.
Quote from: Midge Klump on June 24, 2016, 07:11:54 PM
Quote from: irishmoxie on June 24, 2016, 07:05:14 PM
Quote from: Original Sin on June 24, 2016, 06:08:13 PM
I'd hire better writers. Even some of the most talked about issues of recent times did not have strong stories.
Such as? Mark Waid? Chip Zdarsky?
I think a lot of these new writers are overrated. They in my opinion can't compare to the old Classic Writers of Archie Comics who brought the quick gags and laughter with every story. It's just not the same anymore.
I completely agree M.K! I wish we had another B.B instead of M.W or C.Z. Don't get me wrong, I respect both M.W and C.Z, but I miss the classics!
Quote from: The Downloader on June 24, 2016, 07:36:11 PM
Quote from: Midge Klump on June 24, 2016, 07:11:54 PM
Quote from: irishmoxie on June 24, 2016, 07:05:14 PM
Quote from: Original Sin on June 24, 2016, 06:08:13 PM
I'd hire better writers. Even some of the most talked about issues of recent times did not have strong stories.
Such as? Mark Waid? Chip Zdarsky?
I think a lot of these new writers are overrated. They in my opinion can't compare to the old Classic Writers of Archie Comics who brought the quick gags and laughter with every story. It's just not the same anymore.
I completely agree M.K! I wish we had another B.B instead of M.W or C.Z. Don't get me wrong, I respect both M.W and C.Z, but I miss the classics!
Writers like Bob Bolling and Frank Doyle are amazing and are impossible to replace or improve on. Even more current Artist/Writers like Dan Parent and Fernando Ruiz are extremely hard to impossible to replace.
Quote from: Original Sin on June 24, 2016, 07:22:07 PM
Quote from: irishmoxie on June 24, 2016, 07:05:14 PM
Quote from: Original Sin on June 24, 2016, 06:08:13 PM
I'd hire better writers. Even some of the most talked about issues of recent times did not have strong stories.
Such as? Mark Waid? Chip Zdarsky?
I don't really know much about who the good writers in today's comic book world are. But I would like someone who can create good slapstick comedy, and teen romance.
problem is slapstick comedy isn't that popular in the modern age and teen romance has become worn out from all the teen drama's that were on television
it's hard to get most comic readers to care about a horny redhead boy's mission to try and have two girlfriends
Quote from: Midge Klump on June 24, 2016, 04:19:20 PM
First thing on my agenda would be to rehire the likes of Fernando Ruiz, Gisele, The Kennedy's, and any other Classic Artists they got rid of. Then I would get them all together with Dan Parent and say OK who wants to do the New Classic Archie series, who wants to do the New Classic Betty and Veronica series, who wants to do the New Classic Jughead series, who wants to do the New Classic Josie series, and who wants to do the new Sabrina series. Get those launched and end the rebooted stuff. I'd also put an end to the Riverdale Series on the CW. After all the Classic series are launched and successful then I would consider a new Cartoon Archie series for T.V.
Wow, I like the way this girl thinks. Too bad she left. :(
Quote from: Musical_Necromancer on June 29, 2016, 03:25:47 AM
it's hard to get most comic readers to care about a horny redhead boy's mission to try and have two girlfriends
Point taken. I was always more interested in Betty & Veronica's antics without Archie always hanging around. But if anything, I care about him less NOW as New Archie than I did when he was Old Archie. At least Old Archie was funny sometimes.
i wouldn't put an end to the CW Series as Archie Comics needs whatever publicity it can get....they aren't marvel they don't have mega movie projects and they aren't DC with their Loads Of TV Based Projects
You Ask the average person about the riverdale gang and they won't know what your talking about
their brand of humor and way of storytelling had become far too outdated to keep up with the mainstream heavy hitters