Archie Comics Fan Forum

Everything Archie => All About Archie => Topic started by: DeCarlo Rules on September 25, 2020, 01:07:18 PM

Title: WORLD OF ARCHIE Jumbo Comics Digest #101-103 are actually WORLD OF JUGHEAD!
Post by: DeCarlo Rules on September 25, 2020, 01:07:18 PM
Okay -- I hadn't been getting this digest for a couple of years now, but decided to make an exception for the 100th issue. Not bad for a special issue (more older stories), but that by itself doesn't convince me to start buying WoA on a regular basis again.

What IS special is that I just discovered that issues 101-103 all bear a cover image of Jughead's head in a circle with the words "Special Jughead Issue" circling around. The cover logo still says ARCHIE, but the stories inside are ALL Jughead stories.
(https://retailerservices.diamondcomics.com/Image/ItemMainImageLowRes/STL159221.jpg)(https://retailerservices.diamondcomics.com/Image/ItemMainImageLowRes/STL161823.jpg)(https://retailerservices.diamondcomics.com/Image/ItemMainImageLowRes/STL162853.jpg)
#101's actual cover uses the same design for the "Special Jughead Issue" as #102 & #103 as depicted, not that black crown-shaped blurb... that's an early cover mockup.

So what this seems to amount to is a digest comic miniseries-within-a-series... It occurs to me this must be some sort of trial run to determine (based on sales performance) whether or not to give Jughead his own ongoing digest series again... or maybe they're even considering changing "World of Archie" into "World of Jughead" Jumbo Comics Digest.

#104 and 105 have already been solicited and they look like the usual Christmas-season issues of WoA. But if they DO decide to publish a Jughead digest I'd buy it.

Just goes to show that you never really know (until you see solicitations) what's going on at ArchieCo HQ.
A few months back, this happened without any warning...
(https://retailerservices.diamondcomics.com/Image/ItemMainImageLowRes/STL153360.jpg)
#281 was the last actual issue to bear the traditional title logo. Cover previews of issues 282 and 283 show the same logo, but when those issues actually went on sale, they had THIS new logo:
(https://retailerservices.diamondcomics.com/Image/ItemMainImageLowRes/STL162877.jpg)
Which makes B & V FRIENDS (now "BEST FRIENDS", but at a much-reduced font size) nearly indistinguishable, without a close look, from the regular BETTY AND VERONICA Jumbo Comics Digest. No change at all in content (same special sections for Josie and L'il Jinx), but I figure there must be some reasoning behind it. The other B & V digest sells better for some reason, so maybe it's the logo?? That's all I can come up with.
 
Title: Re: WORLD OF ARCHIE Jumbo Comics Digest #101-103 are actually WORLD OF JUGHEAD!
Post by: DeCarlo Rules on September 30, 2020, 08:22:53 PM
First week in October is another JUGHEAD Digest! (Technically titled Archie Showcase Digest #2.)
Including World of Archie Jumbo Comics Digest #103's Special Jughead Issue from the last week in September, that makes TWO Jughead digests in 2 weeks! With luck, maybe there will be an ongoing Jughead digest title by this time next year!

(https://retailerservices.diamondcomics.com/Image/ItemMainImageLowRes/STL165496.jpg)
Title: Re: WORLD OF ARCHIE Jumbo Comics Digest #101-103 are actually WORLD OF JUGHEAD!
Post by: Hanna Barbera Montana on October 17, 2020, 05:21:53 PM
#102 was the last Special Jughead Issue. #103 goes back to normal. However, 103 has a reprint of two Tales Caulculated to Drive You Bats stories ("The Monster Crisis" and "Mad Lab").
Title: Re: WORLD OF ARCHIE Jumbo Comics Digest #101-103 are actually WORLD OF JUGHEAD!
Post by: DeCarlo Rules on November 24, 2020, 10:59:17 AM
I'm crazy about BATS!

Archie digests have been very annoying in 2020 with the content described in solicitations not being correct in the printed digests -- but then they had that problem sometimes even before the COVID situation.
Title: Re: WORLD OF ARCHIE Jumbo Comics Digest #101-103 are actually WORLD OF JUGHEAD!
Post by: Hanna Barbera Montana on March 20, 2022, 01:45:19 PM
https://archiecomics.com/june-2022-solicitations/

The special Juggie issues are coming back in June, except now it's only for the main Archie digest.
Title: Re: WORLD OF ARCHIE Jumbo Comics Digest #101-103 are actually WORLD OF JUGHEAD!
Post by: DeCarlo Rules on March 23, 2022, 04:24:20 PM
And it's a Craig Boldman JUGHEAD story, so yay!  :D

Good month for ACP... there are also new stories with Harper Lodge, Bingo Wilkin (two of 'em), Sabrina, and Mighty Crusader Fireball and the Superteens, too!
Title: Re: WORLD OF ARCHIE Jumbo Comics Digest #101-103 are actually WORLD OF JUGHEAD!
Post by: DeCarlo Rules on March 24, 2022, 12:23:28 PM
I must say I highly approve of the apparent recent (well, the last year or so) efforts at ACP to interject different characters who haven't been seen in some time into the stories (AND in new "bonus" stories!). I don't know if it's being done solely for the purposes of maintaining trademarks or copyrights, or if they're putting the less-often-seen characters in there hoping to spark some interest in media adaptations...

But for example... I would love to see Toni Topaz, who it seems to me appears in most stories as nothing more than a background player or just a bit of visual window-dressing, be seen in story where she actually gets a substantial speaking role and is important to the plot somehow, where she gets to be a major character just for one story or two. The same goes for Midge or Dilton, or Cousin Marcy. Whatever happened to "the New Kids"? We never see them any more. Let's have a new Jughead, Sabrina, or Josie (and friends) solo-story once in a while.

If they could only get 2 new 5-page stories in every digest, we could see a lot more variety of different characters.
Title: Re: WORLD OF ARCHIE Jumbo Comics Digest #101-103 are actually WORLD OF JUGHEAD!
Post by: PTF on March 27, 2022, 12:27:20 PM
Alright more Bingo.

And who knows maybe we'll get a good Jughead story with Trula in it someday. :)