I finally read The Entertainment Weekly with Riverdale on the cover & The TV Guide Comic Con issue with the Riverdale issue that came inside. I also read Jughead Volume #2 & Archie Day By Day & Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles - Volume #3

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on October 08, 2017, 05:58:52 AM

Quote from: SAGG on October 07, 2017, 03:43:49 PM
And on that note, I noticed that the newest World of Archie and Jughead with Archie double digests are already out at the grocery store ahead of the digital site.

You know, I can't remember when I've actually seen them anywhere for sale in a grocery store. Nowhere in recent memory, although I seem to have some distant recollection of seeing them there sometime when I was much younger. Or maybe I'm just not shopping at the right food chains.

I shopped at Harris Teeter....

B&V Friends #256 - Hardly any Halloween stories. Boooo.

I have start reading again. I'll read in a while.

WEEK OF 10-11-17 to 10-17-17
WALT DISNEY COMICS & STORIES #740
BEST OF ARCHIE COMICS DLX ED HC VOL 02
WORLD OF ARCHIE COMIC DOUBLE DIGEST #72
HARLEY & IVY MEET BETTY & VERONICA #1 (of 6)
YOUR PAL ARCHIE #3 (of 5)
ARCHIE HALLOWEEN SPECTACULAR #1
HCF 2017 ARCHIE'S MADHOUSE MINICOMIC
HCF 2017 DONALD DUCK'S HALLOWEEN SCREAM #2 MINICOMIC
HCF 2017 CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOST MINICOMIC
ATOMAHAWK #0
FIGHTING AMERICAN #1
THE TREMENDOUS TRUMP #1 (one-shot)
WONDER WOMAN #32
DETECTIVE COMICS #966
ACTION COMICS #989
RAGMAN #1 (of 6)
HCF 2017 DC SUPER HERO GIRLS SPEC ED
HCF 2017 JUNJI ITO SHIVER
HCF 2017 BATTLE ANGEL ALITA
ZOMBIES ASSEMBLE 2 #3 (of 4)
KINGSMAN RED DIAMOND #2 (of 6)
JIMMY'S BASTARDS #4
SPY SEAL #3 (of 4)
THE VISITOR: HOW AND WHY HE STAYED TP

Today (10-17):
Both of these digests have a cover price of $6.99 -- but the B&V Halloween Annual has 192 pages, and Archie & Me Digest #1 has only 128 pages.

BETTY & VERONICA HALLOWEEN ANNUAL #257 - Despite irishmoxie's complaint over the low incidence of true Halloween stories in the B&V Annual (which is a fair assessment), the overall quality of most of these story pages is pretty high, and I'd rate the contents as being between 70-80% "above average" stories. There's a fair amount of pages of Dan DeCarlo artwork, and a fair amount of pages of Dan Parent artwork, probably a higher percentageof those two artists than found in any other digest title (and seeing as how they are among my favorite of all the regular Archie artists, that is a very good thing). Of course there are also some Stan Goldberg and Jeff Shultz stories, as you would pretty much expect in any B&V digest. It has a good amount of variety too, with Sabrina, Josie, and Cheryl Blossom stories (by Holly G) in addition to the B&V stories, and Veronica and Betty solo stories. I don't have a clue why they moved the Josie and Cheryl stories from B&V Friends, where they formerly appeared regularly, to the regular B&V title, but it only makes this a better digest title. It's true that of the 192 pages in the digest, 14 of them are advertising pages, so that leaves 178 - and out of those, 2 of them are puzzle pages, which I just glance at briefly and skip over. There's also a 2-page Halloween Quiz (from one of the old B&V Spectacular magazine-style comics) -- but I actually enjoyed reading that -- and a 5-page feature on ideas for throwing a Halloween party, illustrated by Dan Parent (again, from one of those old B&V Spec's) that actually has some pretty good ideas, if you were thinking of throwing a Halloween Bash. Ironically, the few pages of Halloween-themed stories contained here are among the weakest stories in this issue. There were 2 or 3 of the older classic reprints that I'd rate as absolute gems, however. And best of all, no pages wasted on "Little" B&V stories by Dexter Taylor - those I always skip, so this digest contains virtually no wasted pages, apart from the obligatory ads and those 2 puzzle pages (that's actually a pretty low number of puzzle pages by Annual standards).

ARCHIE AND ME COMICS DIGEST #1 - Vegan Jughead was right about this one. It's among the worst digests Archie Comics has ever published. Oh, the new 5-pager written by Dan Parent and drawn by Jeff Shultz (nice to see new stories by him, BTW) is great. When Dan writes a classic Archie story, he's on-target 90% of the time or better, and all of the returning former classic Archie artists are turning in great work, in most cases some of the best art they've ever done. It's all downhill after those first 5 pages, though. This digest had, out of its 128 pages, 10 pages of ads, so that leaves 118 pages of stories. AND 23 of those pages were devoted to "Archie Babies" -- which I flipped through and didn't read. Hey, here's an idea... why not devote 15 to 24 pages in a digest title to stories about "Octogenarian Archie & Friends"?? Sound like something you'd want to read, eh? Well, frankly... even THAT would be more interesting to me than any of the reprints involving Baby, Little, or "The New Archies" versions of the characters. It's a complete waste of paper, as far as I'm concerned. That left me with 95 pages of story, and of those, most of them are pretty run-of-the-mill. I'd say LESS THAN HALF of those pages were above average stories, so considering the cover price here, and the lack of anything compelling me to buy this, I'd rate it as an absolute "NOT BUY". About the nicest thing I can say about the reprint pages is that at least they had the courtesy to skip the puzzle pages (but they could have put 23 of them in here instead of Archie Babies, and it wouldn't have made a difference to me). If I hadn't already pre-ordered issues #2 & #3, I'd probably skip them -- and if things follow the usual pattern, I'm pretty sure those issues will ALSO be filled with 23-page "Archie Babies" sections! Am I ever glad I didn't subscribe to this! UGH!

I was also disappointed in the Archie Halloween Spectacular. All recently reprinted Halloween stories I'd read before and only about 22 pages I believe. It should've been a freebie for FCBD.


Btw DeCarloRules, how did you get to read those FCBD books early?

Quote from: irishmoxie on October 19, 2017, 03:37:27 PM
I was also disappointed in the Archie Halloween Spectacular. All recently reprinted Halloween stories I'd read before and only about 22 pages I believe. It should've been a freebie for FCBD.

Btw DeCarloRules, how did you get to read those FCBD books early?

Retailers get those Halloween ComicFest books shipped to them a couple of weeks before the week of Halloween. I have an inside connection since my LCS owner is a personal friend whom I've known for 20+ years, and I help him out on a regular basis by managing his subscribers' list and pulling all the product for them, logging re-orders, and handling special requests (which amounts to less than a day's work, added up over the course of the week, with everything except the weekly folder-filling being done online from wherever I am) in exchange for getting all my comics at store cost -- which is pretty much the only reason I can afford to consume the dangerously high volume of comic-related product that I do.

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on October 20, 2017, 01:50:45 AM

Quote from: irishmoxie on October 19, 2017, 03:37:27 PM
I was also disappointed in the Archie Halloween Spectacular. All recently reprinted Halloween stories I'd read before and only about 22 pages I believe. It should've been a freebie for FCBD.

Btw DeCarloRules, how did you get to read those FCBD books early?

Retailers get those Halloween ComicFest books shipped to them a couple of weeks before the week of Halloween. I have an inside connection since my LCS owner is a personal friend whom I've known for 20+ years, and I help him out on a regular basis by managing his subscribers' list and pulling all the product for them, logging re-orders, and handling special requests (which amounts to less than a day's work, added up over the course of the week, with everything except the weekly folder-filling being done online from wherever I am) in exchange for getting all my comics at store cost -- which is pretty much the only reason I can afford to consume the dangerously high volume of comic-related product that I do.

Now we know. Sounds like a fun job.

My aide & I went to The Thift Store . And they had Archies #1- Joe Eisma's issue. It was still in the plastic. I bought it. I just read it.

WEEK OF 10-18-17 to 10-23-17:
JIMMY'S BASTARDS #4
THE KINGSMAN: THE RED DIAMOND # 2 (of 6)
SPY SEAL #3 (of 4)
THE VISITOR: HOW & WHY HE STAYED TP
FUTURE QUEST PRESENTS: SPACE GHOST #3
SCOOBY-DOO! WHERE ARE YOU? #86
UNDERDOG #2
SAVAGE DRAGON #227
ASTRO CITY #48
SHERLOCK FRANKENSTEIN & THE LEGION OF EVIL #1 (of 4)
HELLBOY & THE B.P.R.D. 1953 HCF 2017
GREEN HORNET '66 MEETS THE SPIRIT #4 (of 5)
THE GREATEST ADVENTURE #6 (of 8 )
SHEENA #2
KISS/VAMPIRELLA #5 (of 5)
THE CHARLTON ARROW #1
2000 AD FCBD 2017
THE SIMPSONS' TREEHOUSE OF HORROR #23
THE TICK FCBD 2017
THE TICK HCF 2017
GRIMM TALES OF TERROR HCF 2017
KONG: GODS OF SKULL ISLAND #1 (one-shot)
STAR TREK: NEW VISIONS #18: WHAT PAIN IT IS TO DROWN

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on October 17, 2017, 10:41:37 PM
Today (10-17):
Both of these digests have a cover price of $6.99 -- but the B&V Halloween Annual has 192 pages, and Archie & Me Digest #1 has only 128 pages.

BETTY & VERONICA HALLOWEEN ANNUAL #257 - Despite irishmoxie's complaint over the low incidence of true Halloween stories in the B&V Annual (which is a fair assessment), the overall quality of most of these story pages is pretty high, and I'd rate the contents as being between 70-80% "above average" stories. There's a fair amount of pages of Dan DeCarlo artwork, and a fair amount of pages of Dan Parent artwork, probably a higher percentageof those two artists than found in any other digest title (and seeing as how they are among my favorite of all the regular Archie artists, that is a very good thing). Of course there are also some Stan Goldberg and Jeff Shultz stories, as you would pretty much expect in any B&V digest. It has a good amount of variety too, with Sabrina, Josie, and Cheryl Blossom stories (by Holly G) in addition to the B&V stories, and Veronica and Betty solo stories. I don't have a clue why they moved the Josie and Cheryl stories from B&V Friends, where they formerly appeared regularly, to the regular B&V title, but it only makes this a better digest title. It's true that of the 192 pages in the digest, 14 of them are advertising pages, so that leaves 178 - and out of those, 2 of them are puzzle pages, which I just glance at briefly and skip over. There's also a 2-page Halloween Quiz (from one of the old B&V Spectacular magazine-style comics) -- but I actually enjoyed reading that -- and a 5-page feature on ideas for throwing a Halloween party, illustrated by Dan Parent (again, from one of those old B&V Spec's) that actually has some pretty good ideas, if you were thinking of throwing a Halloween Bash. Ironically, the few pages of Halloween-themed stories contained here are among the weakest stories in this issue. There were 2 or 3 of the older classic reprints that I'd rate as absolute gems, however. And best of all, no pages wasted on "Little" B&V stories by Dexter Taylor - those I always skip, so this digest contains virtually no wasted pages, apart from the obligatory ads and those 2 puzzle pages (that's actually a pretty low number of puzzle pages by Annual standards).

ARCHIE AND ME COMICS DIGEST #1 - Vegan Jughead was right about this one. It's among the worst digests Archie Comics has ever published. Oh, the new 5-pager written by Dan Parent and drawn by Jeff Shultz (nice to see new stories by him, BTW) is great. When Dan writes a classic Archie story, he's on-target 90% of the time or better, and all of the returning former classic Archie artists are turning in great work, in most cases some of the best art they've ever done. It's all downhill after those first 5 pages, though. This digest had, out of its 128 pages, 10 pages of ads, so that leaves 118 pages of stories. AND 23 of those pages were devoted to "Archie Babies" -- which I flipped through and didn't read. Hey, here's an idea... why not devote 15 to 24 pages in a digest title to stories about "Octogenarian Archie & Friends"?? Sound like something you'd want to read, eh? Well, frankly... even THAT would be more interesting to me than any of the reprints involving Baby, Little, or "The New Archies" versions of the characters. It's a complete waste of paper, as far as I'm concerned. That left me with 95 pages of story, and of those, most of them are pretty run-of-the-mill. I'd say LESS THAN HALF of those pages were above average stories, so considering the cover price here, and the lack of anything compelling me to buy this, I'd rate it as an absolute "NOT BUY". About the nicest thing I can say about the reprint pages is that at least they had the courtesy to skip the puzzle pages (but they could have put 23 of them in here instead of Archie Babies, and it wouldn't have made a difference to me). If I hadn't already pre-ordered issues #2 & #3, I'd probably skip them -- and if things follow the usual pattern, I'm pretty sure those issues will ALSO be filled with 23-page "Archie Babies" sections! Am I ever glad I didn't subscribe to this! UGH!

Yep. Baby Archie is a joke. I think those stories were added as filler....

I read
Lumberjanes #29, it's their comic con issue
Deadly Class #27
Invincible #137 & #138 & #139 & # 140 & # 141

I read
Riverdale #1 & #2 & #3 & #4 & #5

10-25-17 to 11-01-17:
ARCHIE FUNHOUSE COMICS DOUBLE DIGEST #28
ARCHIE HOLIDAY ANNUAL DIGEST #283 - (Includes a 6-page Doyle/DeCarlo WILBUR reprint, "Prank and File")
KILL OR BE KILLED #13
UNCLE SCROOGE #31
U.S. AVENGERS #11
SILVER SURFER #14 (final issue)
THANOS #12
PUNISHER: PLATOON #2 (of 6)
DETECTIVE COMICS #967
WONDER WOMAN #33
ACTION COMICS #990
KAMANDI CHALLENGE #10 (of 12)
SCOOBY DOO TEAM UP #31
MIGHTY MOUSE #5 (of 5)
JUSTICE, INC: FACES OF JUSTICE #3 (of 4)
GWAR: ORGASMAGEDDON #4 (of 4)
GALACTIKON #2
STAR TREK TNG: THE MIRROR BROKEN #4 (of 6)
CAPTAIN AMERICA #695
WORLD OF ARCHIE CHRISTMAS ANNUAL DIGEST #73 - (Notable contents include Jughead's Time Police, Pipsqueak, & Pat the Brat.)
DEADMAN #1 (of 6)
THE JETSONS #1 (of 6)