Wow, Archie has over 25000 stories!
This is impressive and probably a record in comics! 

I've read about 95% of them so far.

Archie has been around for 76 years now so if they have published 25,000 stories that is an average of almost 329 stories per year. And since there is only 365 days a year averaging almost 329 stories a year is pretty impressive for that long.

But let's not forget that they have repeated stories many times throughout the years. Some are completely the same, on some they changed a couple of details here and there but it is still the same thing. I wonder how many stories total there are without counting the repeated ones...But it doesn't matter, they have a huge catalog of great stories we all love.

Even the 32-page books generally had an average of 3-4 stories (5-6 or 11-12 pagers) per book and in it's hey day there could easily be an average of 10 issues a month — which could be about 500 stories a year over the 50 years when the was most active (say 1945-1995) that's 50×500=25000 stories right there ... factoring in the other 25 years and tons 1 page & ½ pages stories even removing reprinting and maybe non-Archie (superheroes, Li'l Jinx and Katy Keene, etc) that's probably still conservative ...

In terms of holding a record, I would imagine that the worldwide output of Walt Disney comics probably has Archie beat, as many countries have produced their own material as well as reprinting the US output.

Marvel and DC Comics must have easily exceeded that number since the late 1930s, when they both began publishing stories which would eventually become part of their respective universes. That's even discounting the many licensed titles they have published over the years featuring characters which they don't own (just as ACP's figure of 25000 doesn't include the Archie Adventure/Archie Action titles like TMNT and SONIC). That's because the number of new (discounting reprint) comic book story pages that those other comic companies publish in any given month in their history has always exceeded the number published by ACP by factors of 2 to 50 times as many, so it more than balances against the fact that the majority of comics published by those companies since the 1980s have featured only a single story, instead of the 3 or more you'd find in a typical Archie Comic.

That estimate of 25000 they're giving isn't just for stories featuring Archie, because the title of the book is "The Best of Archie Comics" not "The Best of Archie" (the character). If Marvel or DC Comics were to publish a similar book series featuring the best of the company-owned stories from their 75+ years' history, they'd both have a lot more stories to choose from.

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on April 10, 2016, 01:17:48 AM
Marvel and DC Comics must have easily exceeded that number since the late 1930s, when they both began publishing stories which would eventually become part of their respective universes. That's even discounting the many licensed titles they have published over the years featuring characters which they don't own (just as ACP's figure of 25000 doesn't include the Archie Adventure/Archie Action titles like TMNT and SONIC). That's because the number of titles those other comic companies publish at any given time has always exceeded the number of titles published by ACP by factors of 2 to 10 times as many, so it more than balances against the fact that the majority of comics published by those companies since the 1980s have featured only a single story, instead of the 3 or more you'd find in a typical Archie Comic.

That estimate of 25000 they're giving isn't just for stories featuring Archie, because the title of the book is "The Best of Archie Comics" not "The Best of Archie" (the character). If Marvel or DC Comics were to publish a similar book series featuring the best of the company-owned stories from their 75+ years' history, they'd both have a lot more stories to choose from.

It is over 25000 stories with Archie and his friends.
I do not think Superman has over 25000 stories or Donald Duck has over 25000 stories. 

Quote from: nuageo on April 10, 2016, 01:47:32 AM

It is over 25000 stories with Archie and his friends.
I do not think Superman has over 25000 stories or Donald Duck has over 25000 stories. 

Admittedly, it's easy to do, and the company actually is encouraging you to identify the company with the character (thus... the name - duh). But statistics can lead you astray. That's 25000 stories that the company owns, and thus are fair game from which to choose "The Best of Archie Comics" (and naturally, many of those stories 25000 stories that do NOT feature Archie & Friends are going to be automatically discounted as "not the best").

It's not 25000 stories featuring Archie and his friends. Perhaps the greater percentage of those stories do, but not all of them. And you'd be dead wrong about Superman (and Batman) "and friends" not having as many stories as Archie, if they were all tallied. Donald Duck, I'm not sure... are we counting those featuring Mickey, Goofy, Minnie, Daisy, Chip & Dale, Uncle Scrooge, Huey Dewey & Louie, Gyro Gearloose, etc.? Then I'd say yes, easily more than Archie & Friends.

Quote from: nuageo on April 10, 2016, 01:47:32 AM
It is over 25000 stories with Archie and his friends.
I do not think Superman has over 25000 stories or Donald Duck has over 25000 stories. 

For Superman — rough guess about 5000 stories specifically centred on him, maybe more, depending what & how you count ... but Batman would have a lot more (8000-10000 I'd guess and probably double for the extended "Bat-family") and that's not counting the Justice League & it's variants or Legion or Titsns ... and since the entire line is one Universe (like by Archie we count B&V and Jug, Reggie, Cheryl, etc.) that barely scratches the surface — and those would average 18+ pages ... Marvel is worse/more ...
Disney on the other hand is big business, but not in comics ... even with the international stories

Superman has super hero friends but it's not the same. 

Maybe over 20000 stories if we remove Li'l Jinx, Katy Keen, etc.

Quote from: nuageo on April 10, 2016, 02:17:44 AM
Superman has super hero friends but it's not the same. 

Maybe over 20000 stories if we remove Li'l Jinx, Katy Keen, etc.

I suspect even that number is inflated, because they can count a puzzle page or a 1/2 page gag as a "story".  If the estimate of who had the most stories had been made in the mid-1990s, I might be inclined to agree that Archie and friends was a serious contender as the record-holder, but in the past 20 years, the number of new Archie stories began to evaporate like a puddle after a spring rain. Meanwhile, the franchises like Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, X-Men, Avengers continue to proliferate like mold.

Oh, and don't forget that these counted as part of that "25000 stories to choose from". We can take that as fact, not mere speculation, because we KNOW that these were included among the reprints in The Best of Archie Comics.



Those 2 to 4 panel stories ran every single day from 1946 to 2011, for 65 years. Each one of those strips counts as +1 for Archie's total, the same way that a typical 22-page issue of Batman counts as +1 towards his total. I wouldn't doubt that they included ads in which Archie & friends appeared, as well (whether ads for Hostess Fruit Pies and Twinkies or Capri Sun Fruit Drinks, or just those in which a small head of Archie appeared, hawking back issues or subscriptions, with a dialogue balloon spouting something like "Hey pals 'n' gals! Fill out the coupon below and send me all your money! Don't forget, the more you spend, the more you save!").

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on April 10, 2016, 03:11:17 AM
Oh, and don't forget that these counted as part of that "25000 stories to choose from". We can take that as fact, not mere speculation, because we KNOW that these were included among the reprints in The Best of Archie Comics.



Those 2 to 4 panel stories ran every single day from 1946 to 2011, for 65 years. Each one of those strips counts as +1 for Archie's total, the same way that a typical 22-page issue of Batman counts as +1 towards his total. I wouldn't doubt that they included ads in which Archie & friends appeared, as well (whether ads for Hostess Fruit Pies and Twinkies or Capri Sun Fruit Drinks, or just those in which a small head of Archie appeared, hawking back issues or subscriptions, with a dialogue balloon spouting something like "Hey pals 'n' gals! Fill out the coupon below and send me all your money! Don't forget, the more you spend, the more you save!").

65 years X 365 days = 23725 panel stories 

Quote from: nuageo on April 10, 2016, 03:29:38 AM
65 years X 365 days = 23725 panel stories 

Well, technically it was really only 64.5 years, so... 23,542.