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Mar 10 2024 11:04pm
Tuxedo Mark: My review of "Catnapped!" from Betty and Veronica: Friends Forever: Sleepover: https://riverdalereviewed.wordpress.com/2024/03/10/comics-catnapped/

Mar 03 2024 2:17pm
Tuxedo Mark: My review of "Winners and Losers" from Betty and Veronica #103: https://riverdalereviewed.wordpress.com/2024/03/03/comics-winners-losers/

Mar 03 2024 2:17pm
Tuxedo Mark: My review of "Winners

Feb 25 2024 6:02pm
Tuxedo Mark: My review of "Girl of His Dreams" from Betty and Veronica #101: https://riverdalereviewed.wordpress.com/2024/02/25/comics-girl-of-his-dreams/

Feb 22 2024 5:46pm
Tuxedo Mark: Huh, and apparently World of Betty and Veronica Digest isn't canceled; it just went on a long hiatus: https://archiecomics.com/new-archie-comics-coming-in-may-2024/

Feb 22 2024 5:35pm
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Feb 17 2024 3:19pm
Tuxedo Mark: My review of "The Big Victory" from Betty and Veronica #99: https://riverdalereviewed.wordpress.com/2024/02/17/comics-the-big-victory/

Feb 04 2024 4:25pm
Tuxedo Mark: My review of "Makeover for a Moose" from Betty and Veronica Jumbo Comics Digest #321: https://riverdalereviewed.wordpress.com/2024/02/04/comics-makeover-for-a-moose/

Jan 27 2024 5:44pm
Tuxedo Mark: My review of "Love is a Football Field!" from Archie Jumbo Comics Digest #347: https://riverdalereviewed.wordpress.com/2024/01/27/comics-love-is-a-football-field/

Jan 25 2024 4:30pm
Tuxedo Mark: My review of "One Shot Worth a Million" from World of Archie Jumbo Comics Digest #136: https://riverdalereviewed.wordpress.com/2024/01/25/comics-one-shot-worth-a-million/

What comics have you been reading?

Started by irishmoxie, March 30, 2016, 10:49:35 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

BettyReggie

I read
Snot Girl #2 & #4 & #8
Jim Henson's Labyrinth Coronation #4- Staples Cover

DeCarlo Rules

BACK ISSUE #107 - Archie Comics in the Bronze Age!
SCOOBY-DOO! TEAM-UP #41 (with Penelope Pitstop)
THE TERRIFICS #7
BLACK HAMMER: AGE OF DOOM #4
THE SENTRY #3
PUNISHER (2018) #1
RED SONJA/TARZAN #4
HIT-GIRL #7
MANGA:
  TOKYO TARAREBA GIRLS VOL 02
  DEVILMAN VS HADES VOL 02
  PLATINUM END VOLS 2-6

Vegan Jughead

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on August 23, 2018, 12:40:40 AM
BACK ISSUE #107 - Archie Comics in the Bronze Age!



I got this one too. Just starting on it.  Cool stuff!

DeCarlo Rules

#1473
Quote from: Vegan Jughead on August 23, 2018, 07:59:40 AM
Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on August 23, 2018, 12:40:40 AM
BACK ISSUE #107 - Archie Comics in the Bronze Age!

3

I got this one too. Just starting on it.  Cool stuff!

It is indeed an awesome magazine! TBH, I was expecting that maybe about 1/3 to 1/2 of the issue would focus on Archie-related articles, and the rest on the usual hodgepodge of different features. Was I pleasantly surprised to discover that the entire 75-page magazine was devoted to Archie Comics, and nothing else! My mind was boggled JUST by the amount of surprising (and unknown to me) information in the very first article. Things I didn't know, and in some cases, hadn't even thought to wonder about -- truly a treasure-trove of ACP data. I hope everyone here will buy the magazine -- they will NOT be disappointed -- because I can envision the possibility that if that issue were to sell particularly well, TwoMorrows might decide to use it as the basis for an expanded trade paperback (they usually run somewhere in the neighborhood of 250-300 pages) with even more critical information, articles, and data. For example, they could have listed all the album tracks from The Archies' albums, and all the NEW episodes in each of the various Filmation animated incarnations of Archie and Sabrina. They definitely could have included an article on Josie and the Pussycats, perhaps even one about the Madhouse Glads, and maybe they could have even dug up an older interview with Dan DeCarlo that had been published years ago in some more obscure, little-seen fanzine. They should definitely include a more detailed article focusing on the publishing history of the Archie digests, as well as one on Archie collectibles. It would not be the first time TwoMorrows has expanded on a single-issue magazine focus on one particular publisher, in a later-published, greatly expanded trade paperback collection.

DeCarlo Rules

#1474
One other thing I noticed was that ACP had two full-page ads in that issue, but I guess they just love to flush an opportunity to make some money right down the drain. What are the ads for? The New Riverdale trades and the Riverdale TV series. Uh... yeah, thanks for bringing those to our attention, we somehow just spaced out and plain didn't realize they existed.

Apparently they don't bother targeting the ads to the consumer base of the magazine they're advertising in. It's for fans of BRONZE AGE comics, you dummies!!! Instead of trying to target the ads to spotlight the creme-de-la-creme of their existing trade collections of classic Archie material (and oh, as long as they're at it... how about selling some of those Red/Dark Circle trades in a magazine whose usual readership is superhero fans?). What about selling some digest subscriptions and 1000-Page Comics bricks? No, they waste the ad space on something pretty much everyone already knows about. If they care about such things (in itself doubtful), BACK ISSUE's readers have already bought the comics or trades, and watched the show, but what they might NOT be aware of is the digests are still being published (because you don't really SEE them much in comic book stores), and that ACP has an extensive line of material targeted towards readers who already LOVE the old classic stories from the 1970s and 1980s. The Best of Archie Comics Deluxe HCs? "Archie Comics Presents..."? Archie Americana? They could easily have squeezed the covers of 25 different TP collections onto a single magazine-sized ad page. Nah, just toss 'em the same old ads we run in the digests and regular floppy comics we publish. It's not the same audience, you idiots!!

DeCarlo Rules

#1475
Jiro Kuwata's WORLD OF MEMORIES: Boys' Manga Theater 1957-1963 [deluxe softcover collection, Kodansha 2009/import (Japanese text only)]

  An interesting retrospective of some of "Mr. Bat-manga" Kuwata-san's earliest and most significant works in the superhero manga genre, all of which were adapted to (or from) tokusatsu hero or anime TV series. Included are the earliest appearances of the characters Phantom Detective (1957), Moonlight Mask (a.k.a. Gekko Kamen, 1958, adapted from a live-action TV superhero) and, most importantly to me, 8 Man (1963, and known to U.S. audiences as Tobor the 8th MAN). The last of these accounts for approximately 1/2 the comic pages in the book. 8 Man, created by Kuwata in collaboration with established SF prose author Kazumasa Hirai, was the first Japanese cyborg superhero, narrowly beating out Shotaro Ishinomori's CYBORG 009 (1964, and bearing remarkable similarities with Marvel's X-MEN which debuted that same year) for the honor of that distinction, and being adapted into an anime series as well in 1963. In this book we can see a rapid compression of the evolution of Kuwata's art style over a short period of 5 years. The earliest Phantom Detective story here from 1957 is drawn firmly in the popularly established style pioneered by manga no kamisama ("God of Manga") Osamu Tezuka, a style carried on by two of Tezuka's former assistants, the aforementioned Mr. Ishinomori, and Mitsuteru Yokoyama (creator of Tetsujin 28 -- a.k.a. Gigantor -- and Giant Robo, among many others). By the 1963 debut of 8 Man, Kuwata's style appeared less rounded and cartoony, and (though still simplified) very dynamic and fashion-forward in its design aesthetics. It seems impossible to conclude anything else but that Kuwata-san was studying the artwork of his American contemporaries, particular Jack Kirby, and adapting a sort of fusion of the sensibilities of both Western and Eastern superheroes. There is a notable influence of Kirby's signature foreshortening of anatomical perspective on display here, lending power and grace, as well as a boldness to the figure drawing. Kuwata's style would go on to become a major influence on the anime studio Tatsunoko Productions, which later produced the very popular series MACH GO-GO-GO (known internationally as Speed Racer) and GATCHAMAN (adapted for Western audiences as Battle of the Planets). Also included are many color pages displaying artwork (mostly covers) from a dozen or so more series from Mr. Kuwata's oevre of the 1960s-1970s -- a profusion of very interesting-looking and diverse home-grown superheroes little seen outside Japan.

PHANTOM DETECTIVE - Boy heroes (as opposed to sidekicks) have always been popular protagonists in the shonen manga magazines. Phantom Detective is one such boy, a gifted amateur sleuth who dresses entirely in black (save for a red cap and yellow scarf), rides a motorcycle, knows karate, and not only carries a gun, but TWO of them! All in good fun, and PD never actually kills, but is one of those expert marksmen who can shoot a pistol out of a gangster's hand without blinking an eye. Japanese boys were indeed made of stern stuff in those days (or would love to imagine themselves as so).

MOONLIGHT MASK - Based on a previously-created (or not, it isn't quite clear whether Kuwata-san had any hand in the show's conception or character design) TV series, the inspiration for Gekko Kamen seems to have come from airings in Japan of old 1940s movie serials, and a successful run on Japan TV of the Clayton Moore Lone Ranger series. Japan's homegrown masked man swaps the horse for a motorcycle, but carries guns in the best tradition of both western lone gunfighter heroes and Republic serial heroes. He dresses all in white, with a long gold scarf (as consistent a design aesthetic for superheroes in Japan as capes are for U.S. superheroes), gold boots and gloves, dark goggles and white turban (!) with a gold crescent moon symbol, making him look a bit like an urban desert bandit. Once again, the motorcycle seems inspired by the old motorcycle chases seen in occidental Saturday matinee serials. Moonlight Mask, being the first of the "tokusatu" genre of TV superheroes, left an enormous impression. Only Golden Bat (the equivalent of a Japanese 'mystery man' pulp hero from the 1930s) was older and more influential in that respect.

8 MAN - A detective is murdered by criminals, only to have his dying body recovered and hauled to the secret home laboratory of a well-meaning 'good' mad scientist, who after seven attempts at imprinting an android body with the recorded thoughts and memories of a human brain, finally succeeds on his 8th attempt, and so 8 Man is born. The wonderfully bold use of black-and-white for a design aesthetic is again observed by Mr. Kuwata, resulting in a strikingly modern-looking hero by the standards of 1963 Japan. As with Tezuka's AstroBoy, resurrected detective-turned-superhero 8 Man spends the majority of his time fighting against rogue robots and cyborg criminals (as well as the occasional monster or alien) -- an interesting-looking gallery of arch-villains in cross-section. An ingenious innovation is the way that 8 Man is able to change his outward appearance from normal human to superhero, with a vertical line passing across his body in a 'wipe-effect' to complete the transition. When his android body runs low on energy, our hero is able to recharge by seemingly nonchalantly smoking a cigarette -- in reality a cleverly-disguised battery-booster! This makes Jiro Kuwata the co-creator of the idea of the electric cigarette! It's also worth noting that long before GHOST IN THE SHELL, Kuwata portrayed brainwaves-converted-to-digital data and housed in an entirely prosthetic cybernetic body.

In looking at Mr. Kuwata's simple but very appealing cartooning style, it's easy to 'read' these comics (in the visual sense). I'm struck by the similar quality inherent in the character designs of the great American cartoonist, Alex Toth, in designing so many heroes, villains, and incidental characters and props for Hanna-Barbara's adventure cartoons of the late 1960s, or Bruce Timm's DC animated cartoons of the 1990s-early 2000s. It is my fervent wish that in the wake of DC Comics' successful translations of Jiro Kuwata's Batman manga, that some enterprising U.S. publisher (Dark Horse, Kodansha, Seven Seas, or Viz would be the likeliest prospects) would take a chance and translate more of Kuwata-san's work into English for U.S. readers. Especially to be hoped for are the groundbreaking characters of 8 Man and Moonlight Mask.

DeCarlo Rules

GIGANTOR Vol. 1 (of 1) by Ben Dunn, Ted Nomura, & David Hutchinson [Sentai Studios, 2006] - Reprints issues 1-12 of the Ameri-manga adapted from the US-translated (by Fred Ladd) anime published by Antarctic Press. Antarctic had issued the same collection earlier in a slightly smaller-sized "Pocket Manga" collection (same size as Japanese tankobon paperback). It adapts a few episodes of the TV series, but is mainly interesting for giving the first American version of Gigantor's origin story. Tetsujin 28 (or Ironman No. 28) in the Japanese version was the 28th iteration of a robot secret weapon project begun by the Japanese army prior to the end of WWII. The original robot was never activated, as the laboratory was bombed by American B-29s before the robot could be completed. However, the creator continued to work on the project himself after the war ended, with the idea of dedicating the new weapon to be used not for war, but to uphold justice and secure world peace. Ben Dunn's version incorporates that basic storyline, but is a little vague on why "Dr. Sparks" (the Americanized translated name of a character who was originally a Japanese scientist) would have been working for Japan during WWII. At any rate, Dunn adds a lot of interesting new characters, like Lord Jim and Emma East (obviously an homage to John Steed and Emma Peel, England's The Avengers). In his version, Lord Jim wears a bowler derby like John Steed, but also a mask. Emma East is a female spy who looks and dresses a lot like Jackie Kennedy in the early 1960s. Also seen were avatars for Marvel's Fantastic Four, and a certain General Reese (who looks exactly like THE HULK's General "Thunderbolt" Ross), and treats scientist Bob Brilliant with the same disdain and disrespect that Ross treated Bruce Banner. One panel even featured a cameo from a certain "Captain Franco" who looks exactly like Space Pirate Captain Phantom F. Harlock. He had real fun with the three-part origin story, but the later issues which are straight episode adaptations lose a lot of their liveliness. Still, all in all, one of the better series adapted by American creators from a Japanese animated show. Dunn had previously worked on the first 11 issues of Eternity Comics' CAPTAIN HARLOCK (also very good work), and a two-issue crossover of his own creator-owned NINJA HIGH SCHOOL with Now Comics' SPEED RACER. Later he'd work with Marvel Comics to try to establish the MARVEL MANGAVERSE in a couple of one-shots and a 6-issue miniseries.

THE OFFICIAL GIGANTOR EPISODE GUIDE AND COMPENDIUM by Fred Ladd [Antarctic Press, 2000]

TETSUJIN 28 DE LUXE by Mitsuteru Yokoyama (appears to be Volume 1 of the series, though un-numbered), published by Kobunsha in -- I think -- 1996. Import title, Japanese text. This was a  "best of" collection of Ironman No. 28 at full manga magazine size, sort of a facsimile edition that reprinted some of the earliest highlights of the giant robot's manga career, although as originally seen here in the very first story, it begins without any origin as such, and Tetsujin is merely a threatening giant robot being controlled by a criminal gang. It's nice to view it (though on better paper) in full size as printed the same way it appeared in manga magazines in the 1950s, with some pages in different colored inks, some with tones, some two-color or even full-color, along with the original chapter 'splash' or 'title' page (many of these were photo covers, as well). It's surprising how many of those early chapters don't even feature the giant robot on the title page, as I guess Yokoyama-san must have thought it was going to be either a one-time deal for that first story, or a minor backup plot device that he could pull out from time to time as sort of a "Hail Mary play" to save the day. From the later stories, it's clearer that readers were giving feedback and warming to the fact that the giant robot Tetsujin was the main draw to the ongoing feature.

DeCarlo Rules

UNCLE SCROOGE #443
CYBORG 009
HC OGN [Archaia, 2013] by F.J. DeSanto & Marcus To
ULTRA KAIJU HUMANIZATION PROJECT VOL 01 tankobon
SAINT SEIYA: SAINTIA SHO VOL 03
tankobon
CAPTAIN HARLOCK Space Pirate: DIMENSIONAL VOYAGE VOL 05
tankobon
GANTZ OMNIBUS TP VOL 01
(= Vols. 1-3 tankobon)
HILLBILLY: RED EYED WITCHERY FROM BEYOND #1 (of 4)
HACK/SLASH RESURRECTION #8 & 1O
RICK & MORTY #41
RICK & MORTY VS DUNGEONS & DRAGONS #1
(of 4)
X-MEN: GRAND DESIGN: SECOND GENESIS #2 (of 2)
JUDGE DREDD: UNDER SIEGE #4 (of 4)

DeCarlo Rules

#1478
MARVEL MANGAVERSE: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION TP by Ben Dunn, Udon, C.B. Cebulski & Tommy Ohtsuka & various
MARVEL NEW MANGAVERSE: THE RINGS OF FATE (2006 digest/tankobon) by C.B. Cebulski & Tommy Ohtsuka

ASTRA: LOST IN SPACE VOL 04 tankobon - This is an amazing series. I originally picked it up knowing next to nothing about it, just taking a chance. It's been great so far, a nice balance of drama/sci-fi with more personality interaction and humor. At first it seems to set up huge mysteries based on seemingly improbable coincidences, but in this volume most of the mysteries are explained and all the pieces fall together in a neat way that I didn't exactly predict, and the answers are shocking, but just when you (and the protagonists) are getting used to this major revelation, a new HUGE plot twist is added as a cliffhanger ending to this volume (although in fairness, it's something that had some foreshadowing in previous volumes). It's a neat surprise to see how imaginative this series turned out to be.

VALIANT HIGH TP - I'm not a fan of Valiant Comics. Never really cared for that universe of characters. I followed the first version of the company, back in the 1990s, when they licensed the old Gold Key Comics characters Solar, Magnus, and Turok... but only for the first couple of years, until they fired Jim Shooter, who had been responsible for starting the whole thing (and writing the key titles SOLAR and MAGNUS) in the first place. After that (with the exception of Tim Truman's later work on the TUROK Dinosaur Hunter title) I pretty much lost all interest in Valiant. The first incarnation of the company folded up sometime in the late 1990s. When Valiant resurrected itself in the 2000s, it was run by completely different people, and they didn't license the old GK characters any more. I'd never been interested much in the newer characters created in the 1990s, which are all the IPs that the new version of the company retained. I'm vaguely familar with the ones who headlined their own titles back in the 1990s, but that's all. It's hard to tell whether "Valiant High" is just them having some fun with the characters, or if this is really supposed to be in-continuity as far as their mainline universe is concerned. It didn't matter to me, as the main characters in this four-issue miniseries were all ones I wasn't familiar with anyway. But it works, largely on the charm (you should excuse the pun) of Derek Charm's artwork, which is the thing that attracted me to read this in the first place. I kind of liked it, but am a little disappointed that that's all there is to is, just the four issues. Hopefully if it sold well enough it could become an ongoing title, or at least a once-every-so-often series of miniseries. It was fun, and not afraid to be humorous.

VAMPIRONICA #3 - Greg Smallwood's artwork on this title is pretty amazing. I'm not sure what medium he's using, but all the lines look really textured, like some kind of charcoal pencil shading, or maybe a grease pencil -- or maybe it's even a Photoshop effect created after scanning in the original raw pencils. I'd be curious to know how he does it. Anyway, it's a unique effect I can't really recall ever seeing in another comic artist's work. The story is pretty decent, too... I'm kind of mind-boggled by this short text piece in the "Riverdale Gazette" in this issue that gives a very concise (2/3rds of a page) textual summary of the of the very real historical personage Prince Vlad Tepes III, a.k.a. "Vlad the Impaler", otherwise known as Dracula (and it explains where that name came from). He may not have been an actual vampire in real life, but he was just as scary, if not more so, for all of that. Definitely the best of Archie's Horror titles so far.

PROJECT SUPERPOWERS #2
ANT-MAN AND THE WASP #5 (of 5)
ASGARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #1
SILVER SURFER ANNUAL #1


GIANT ROBOT WARRIOR MAINTENANCE CREW TP - Collecting a short (3-issue) miniseries from 2014 about the trials and tribulations of maintaining the operating capabilities of a giant robot mecha. Funny.

NEW LIEUTENANTS OF METAL #3 (of 4)
UNNATURAL #3 (of 12)
BY NIGHT #2 & 3
UNITED STATES VS MURDER INC #1 (of 6)

MANGAMAN OGN TP (2011 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) by Barry Lyga & Colleen Doran - An interesting concept, where a manga character is sucked through a dimensional portal to become a character in a western-style comic book, and dealing with all the cultural differences between Japanese and western-style comics, to comedic effect. Colleen Doran has always been a talented artist, and it's too bad you don't see her drawing more mainstream projects for the bigger publishers.

Vegan Jughead

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on September 07, 2018, 06:01:31 AM
MARVEL MANGAVERSE: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION TP by Ben Dunn, Udon, C.B. Cebulski & Tommy Ohtsuka & various
MARVEL NEW MANGAVERSE: THE RINGS OF FATE (2006 digest/tankobon) by C.B. Cebulski & Tommy Ohtsuka

ASTRA: LOST IN SPACE VOL 04 tankobon - This is an amazing series. I originally picked it up knowing next to nothing about it, just taking a chance. It's been great so far, a nice balance of drama/sci-fi with more personality interaction and humor. At first it seems to set up huge mysteries based on seemingly improbable coincidences, but in this volume most of the mysteries are explained and all the pieces fall together in a neat way that I didn't exactly predict, and the answers are shocking, but just when you (and the protagonists) are getting used to this major revelation, a new HUGE plot twist is added as a cliffhanger ending to this volume (although in fairness, it's something that had some foreshadowing in previous volumes). It's a neat surprise to see how imaginative this series turned out to be.

VALIANT HIGH TP - I'm not a fan of Valiant Comics. Never really cared for that universe of characters. I followed the first version of the company, back in the 1990s, when they licensed the old Gold Key Comics characters Solar, Magnus, and Turok... but only for the first couple of years, until they fired Jim Shooter, who had been responsible for starting the whole thing (and writing the key titles SOLAR and MAGNUS) in the first place. After that (with the exception of Tim Truman's later work on the TUROK Dinosaur Hunter title) I pretty much lost all interest in Valiant. The first incarnation of the company folded up sometime in the late 1990s. When Valiant resurrected itself in the 2000s, it was run by completely different people, and they didn't license the old GK characters any more. I'd never been interested much in the newer characters created in the 1990s, which are all the IPs that the new version of the company retained. I'm vaguely familar with the ones who headlined their own titles back in the 1990s, but that's all. It's hard to tell whether "Valiant High" is just them having some fun with the characters, or if this is really supposed to be in-continuity as far as their mainline universe is concerned. It didn't matter to me, as the main characters in this four-issue miniseries were all ones I wasn't familiar with anyway. But it works, largely on the charm (you should excuse the pun) of Derek Charm's artwork, which is the thing that attracted me to read this in the first place. I kind of liked it, but am a little disappointed that that's all there is to is, just the four issues. Hopefully if it sold well enough it could become an ongoing title, or at least a once-every-so-often series of miniseries. It was fun, and not afraid to be humorous.

VAMPIRONICA #3 - Greg Smallwood's artwork on this title is pretty amazing. I'm not sure what medium he's using, but all the lines look really textured, like some kind of charcoal pencil shading, or maybe a grease pencil -- or maybe it's even a Photoshop effect created after scanning in the original raw pencils. I'd be curious to know how he does it. Anyway, it's a unique effect I can't really recall ever seeing in another comic artist's work. The story is pretty decent, too... I'm kind of mind-boggled by this short text piece in the "Riverdale Gazette" in this issue that gives a very concise (2/3rds of a page) textual summary of the of the very real historical personage Prince Vlad Tepes III, a.k.a. "Vlad the Impaler", otherwise known as Dracula (and it explains where that name came from). He may not have been an actual vampire in real life, but he was just as scary, if not more so, for all of that. Definitely the best of Archie's Horror titles so far.

PROJECT SUPERPOWERS #2
ANT-MAN AND THE WASP #5 (of 5)
ASGARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #1
SILVER SURFER ANNUAL #1


GIANT ROBOT WARRIOR MAINTENANCE CREW TP - Collecting a short (3-issue) miniseries from 2014 about the trials and tribulations of maintaining the operating capabilities of a giant robot mecha. Funny.

NEW LIEUTENANTS OF METAL #3 (of 4)
UNNATURAL #3 (of 12)
BY NIGHT #2 & 3
UNITED STATES VS MURDER INC #1 (of 6)

MANGAMAN OGN TP (2011 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) by Barry Lyga & Colleen Doran - An interesting concept, where a manga character is sucked through a dimensional portal to become a character in a western-style comic book, and dealing with all the cultural differences between Japanese and western-style comics, to comedic effect. Colleen Doran has always been a talented artist, and it's too bad you don't see her drawing more mainstream projects for the bigger publishers.


I'm waiting for the graphic novel of "Vampironica" but I'm glad to see you like the art. I thought Afterlife With Archie was an absolute masterpiece and I say this as someone who is not a horror fan at all. Issue 10 about the origin of Josie and the Pussycats is one of my favorite issues of any comic EVER.


The fact that Archie Comics dropped the ball on Afterlife and CHAOS when they were their best selling titles is ridiculous. I can't imagine any other comic company being so horribly managed.  I admit I know next to nothing about other comic companies, but to not milk your best properties is just mind boggling.   

DeCarlo Rules

Quote from: Vegan Jughead on September 07, 2018, 09:20:38 AM
I'm waiting for the graphic novel of "Vampironica" but I'm glad to see you like the art. I thought Afterlife With Archie was an absolute masterpiece and I say this as someone who is not a horror fan at all. Issue 10 about the origin of Josie and the Pussycats is one of my favorite issues of any comic EVER.


The fact that Archie Comics dropped the ball on Afterlife and CHAOS when they were their best selling titles is ridiculous. I can't imagine any other comic company being so horribly managed.  I admit I know next to nothing about other comic companies, but to not milk your best properties is just mind boggling.

Well, what can they do? Those titles aren't going to sell worth a hill of beans if all of a sudden someone else takes over Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's storylines and starts taking them in their own direction. Unfortunately or not, their sales are pretty much dependent on the fact that he's been the writer. Those are HIS stories, not someone else's.

And where are RAS's talents arguably being put to use that's of the most value to ACP?  Um, RIVERDALE, you think maybe?

That said, it's apparent that Greg Smallwood (who both draws and co-writes VAMPIRONICA) is putting a great deal of care into the title from both ends of the process. He's researched his subject matter, and lets us know it with those short "Riverdale Gazette" text pieces, which show he's not just knocking these issues out, like "What's to know about vampires? Anyone can write a vampire story" --- which may be true enough, but not everyone can write a GOOD one. Another thing I like here is his making some unusual choices, like when push comes to shove, who stands up to become the first of Riverdale's "fearless vampire hunters"? The easy choice would have been Betty Cooper, or (boring old) Archie Andrews... yawn. Nope, the one who "hero's up" first is Dilton Doiley! Good show, Mr. Smallwood! That said, this title seems to come out once every three months (still a lot better than AwA or ChAoS), so you may be waiting a while still until they get 4 or 5 issues out that it takes to make up a TPB.

DeCarlo Rules

manga:
UROTSUKIDOJI: LEGEND OF THE OVERFIEND TP VOL 1 (of 4)
BATMAN: THE JIRO KUWATA BATMANGA VOL 1-3 (of 3) DC 2014
SPIDER-MAN J VOL 1: JAPANESE KNIGHT (2008 digest/tankobon) by Akira Yamanaka
SPIDER-MAN J VOL 2: JAPANESE DAZE (2009 digest/tankobon) by Akira Yamanaka

DeCarlo Rules

#1482
BETTY AND VERONICA JUMBO COMICS DIGEST #266 - BOO!!!  Although otherwise another good issue, I have to blow a big raspberry at ACP for their editorial alteration of the reprint of the story "Art Gal Awry!" (original dialogue by Rod Ollerenshaw, art by Dan DeCarlo). It's only a 3-pager. Normally, the editorial alterations don't bug me that much, but in this case, the motive behind it was venal and self-serving for ACP. This is the story where Veronica drags Betty along to a fine arts gallery show, then rambles on about her knowledge of fine art. Betty has no appreciation of the world of fine art (which after all, amounts to some collective judgment by supposed experts). In the original story, this is all leading up to a punch line where one of Veronica's friends asks Betty who her favorite artist is. Her answer is "My favorite artist is Dan DeCarlo! After all, where would this story be without him?" Here, the dialogue has been altered to the friend asking Betty "Who are your favorite artistS?" and Betty's reply is "My favorite artists are the Archie Comics staff!" Shame on ACP for being so low and self-serving as to alter the original story. Yes, the point is not that there was any outstanding artist. According to ACP philosophy, the names and individual talents of the artists are unimportant -- the only thing important is that they were deemed worthy of employment by ACP. Apart from that, they are each and every one of them equally talented, with none standing out. The point here is that Dan DeCarlo and Thomas Pitilli are the same and equal, because Archie deemed both worthy of employment at one time. Pay no attention to those credits, because the important thing is that they all drew stories featuring characters that the company owns. That is LOW and rotten.

BETTY AND ME #101 (Apr-79)

ARCHIE'S PALS 'n' GALS #136 (Oct-79) - Although this is from the pre-credits era, all stories here appear to be by Bob Bolling (although writing credits are harder to guess). There's one story in here "Games People Play", which is labeled as a Big Moose story, but really seems to be as much about Midge. The unlikely premise here is that while at the beach, Midge is engaged in a game of chess with Archie, which frustrates Moose because he doesn't understand the game, and there's nobody he can punch out to satisfy his frustration. So here's Midge lying on a blanket wearing a black bikini playing chess at the beach (seems pretty unlikely). Now the most interesting thing is that in the next panel, Dilton says he'll play the winner of this game, so if Midge wins, she has another game coming up. Moose wanders off, forlornly. When he comes back, Midge is playing another game, this time a word game where the players all yell out letters (I wasn't familiar with the game, and they don't go into further detail, other than it's just another frustration for Moose). He's informed by Archie that they finished playing chess, and that "Midge is the champ". Now, Dilton doesn't appear in the next few panels here or have any comment on what Archie just said, but the implication here is that Midge beat Archie (not too difficult to believe), and then played Dilton and beat him at chess also. Of course this is the Bolling-Archiverse, where oddball things happen which never seem to happen in the 'regular' Archiverse, but the ramifications of the revelation of Midge Klump being smart enough to beat Dilton Doiley at chess are mind-boggling, and call into question what exactly is Midge's deal, and why does she date Moose? I guess maybe you could infer something like trying to concentrate on playing chess while staring at Midge sitting so close wearing that black bikini was beyond even Dilton's ability to stay focused, but it seems more reasonable to suppose that the likelier implication is Midge really does have an unexpectedly keen intelligence. Something to think about.

PEP #348 (Apr-79)

ARCHIE 1941 #1 (of 5) - I read it to satisfy my curiosity. Can't say it motivated me to read issue #2.

ROCKY & BULLWINKLE SHOW #3
MOON MAID #1
(Fear on Four Worlds, Part II)
ELVIRA: MISTRESS OF THE DARK #2
KAIJUMAX SEASON 4 #2 (of 6)
TITANS #25
HAWKMAN #4
PLASTIC MAN #4
(of 6)
WRONG EARTH #1
MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 #1

manga:
  CUTIE HONEY CLASSIC COLLECTION HC
  DEMENTIA 21 GN
  PRISON SCHOOL GN VOL 1 & 2
(of 10)

BettyReggie

Last night I read Betty & Veronica Spectular Book that just came out. I also read Deadly Class Deluxe Edition & Last Look.

DeCarlo Rules

THE COMPLETE ALICE IN WONDERLAND HC (Dynamite)
B & V FRIENDS JUMBO COMICS DIGEST #264
DICK TRACY: DEAD OR ALIVE #1
(of 4)
THE LONG CON #1
BLACK HAMMER: AGE OF DOOM #5
INFINITY 8 VOL 2 #3
(of 3)
CAPTAIN AMERICA ANNUAL 2018
UNCLE SCROOGE #444
STELLAR #4
HIT-GIRL #8
KICK-ASS #7
ICE CREAM MAN #7
HACK/SLASH RESURRECTION #11
BURNOUTS #1
BY NIGHT #4
RICK & MORTY PRESENT SLEEPY GARY #1
DEVILMAN GRIMOIRE VOL 04

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