I was never a fan of Betty and Veronica as biker chicks to begin with. I always thought of these ladies as too classy for that trash, so I'm not terribly disappointed that this title didn't work out.


https://www.cbr.com/betty-veronica-vixens-to-end-in-september-with-issue-10/

Can't say I'm too upset about this.  Could have been a really fun, stylish book, but the art was sooooooooo lousy, it was dead on arrival.  Surprised it even got that second arc.

At least a few nice covers came out of it?  If only the rest of the book looked as good as some of them.

Quote from: Vegan Jughead on June 15, 2018, 08:48:54 PM
I was never a fan of Betty and Veronica as biker chicks to begin with. I always thought of these ladies as too classy for that trash, so I'm not terribly disappointed that this title didn't work out.


https://www.cbr.com/betty-veronica-vixens-to-end-in-september-with-issue-10/

I think I predicted it wouldn't run more than 10 issues. Just enough to compile into 2 trade paperbacks.

The problem isn't so much the concept as the execution. It doesn't feel well thought-out, and the characters don't seem to behave in ways that are true to their characters as established in the classic Archie comics. Betty in particular seems to have some serious issues, and resorts to violence at the drop of a hat. There doesn't seem to be any room for lighthearted humor in this comic as it exists.

If you tossed the idea of "B&V as biker chicks" at Dan Parent, I have every confidence that he'd find lots of ways to have fun with that, while still keeping them recognizable in characterization to the B&V we're all familiar with.

And you know what my reaction is ,I think this could be a problem, It seems that Archie comics latest series are  mostly short lived or remain on hiatus even the Archie horror lineup like Afterlife with Archie and Chilling adventures of Sabrina remain on hiatus that Afterlife's possible upcoming (and likely final) storyarc Archie is Legends is not published yet. Especially that the main series Archie is currently on hiatusAnd the company keeps changing the publishing lineup  while sales are likely on decline even though their hit series with CW Riverdale is a hit. And they are likely going to make more new series and miniseries which they call 'experimentation' to have Archie comic characters set in different settings, I mean I am okay with it but their series continue to be either on hiatus, short-lived series ,or be a miniseries.

I mean if they keep this up, Archie comics will likely go towards bankruptcy or  end up being sold to either DC, Marvel or IDW.

Quote from: terrence12 on June 16, 2018, 07:24:23 AM
And you know what my reaction is ,I think this could be a problem, It seems that Archie comics latest series are[/font]  mostly short lived or remain on hiatus even the Archie horror lineup like Afterlife with Archie and Chilling adventures of Sabrina remain on hiatus that Afterlife's possible upcoming (and likely final) storyarc Archie is Legends is not published yet. Especially that the main series Archie is currently on hiatus. And the company keeps changing the publishing lineup  while sales are likely on decline even though their hit series with CW Riverdale is a hit. And they are likely going to make more new series and miniseries which they call 'experimentation' to have Archie comic characters set in different settings, I mean I am okay with it but their series continue to be either on hiatus, short-lived series ,or be a miniseries.

I mean if they keep this up, Archie comics will likely go towards bankruptcy or  end up being sold to either DC, Marvel or IDW.

They don't need to go bankrupt or be sold (and I hardly think DC or Marvel would even be interested). They could simply stop publishing comics. It's not exactly the same thing. They can simply remain as owners of the intellectual property rights to a group of characters, licensing those characters to whomever is interested in using them... whether that be another comic book company (like IDW) that wants to publish reprints or new stories using those characters, or a television network (like CW) that wants to make a TV series like RIVERDALE, or any other company (like Rachel Antonoff or Funko) that wants to produce any kind of merchandise based on their characters.

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on June 16, 2018, 08:54:55 AM
They don't need to go bankrupt or be sold (and I hardly think DC or Marvel would even be interested). They could simply stop publishing comics. It's not exactly the same thing. They can simply remain as owners of the intellectual property rights to a group of characters, licensing those characters to whomever is interested in using them... whether that be another comic book company (like IDW) that wants to publish reprints or new stories using those characters, or a television network (like CW) that wants to make a TV series like RIVERDALE, or any other company (like Rachel Antonoff or Funko) that wants to produce any kind of merchandise based on their characters.

You might have a good point there

Quote from: terrence12 on June 16, 2018, 11:16:54 AM

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on June 16, 2018, 08:54:55 AM
They don't need to go bankrupt or be sold (and I hardly think DC or Marvel would even be interested). They could simply stop publishing comics. It's not exactly the same thing. They can simply remain as owners of the intellectual property rights to a group of characters, licensing those characters to whomever is interested in using them... whether that be another comic book company (like IDW) that wants to publish reprints or new stories using those characters, or a television network (like CW) that wants to make a TV series like RIVERDALE, or any other company (like Rachel Antonoff or Funko) that wants to produce any kind of merchandise based on their characters.

You might have a good point there

To clarify further, bankruptcy would only be the result of having a company so deeply in debt that they were unable to pay their creditors. In such cases, it's necessary to liquidate the company's assets in order to satisfy at least a portion of that debt, and that can sometimes be done by selling the company (provided that they can find a willing buyer). No one here knows that ACP is in debt for a fact, only that their publishing efforts are not generating lots of money (as evidenced by the short-term nature of their attempts to start new ongoing series). If they're not making a decent profit in the publishing business, cutting their overhead costs (the money they have to pay to printers and distributors) would be logical, and they could do that by suspending publishing operations, while still maintaining the aspect of intellectual property ownership that's practically PURE profit -- licensing. ACP assumes no risk when another company licenses their characters -- the worst that can happen is that they won't MAKE a lot of money from the arrangement, but they can't LOSE any money, because the licensee assumes ALL the risk of financial investment in whatever product they're going to produce using the licensor's characters.

Ironically, the series finally gets some good interior artwork (by Sanya Anwar) in its final three issues, beginning with #8 in July. That's some kind of cockeyed thinking they've got at ACP. Usually, you want to lead off with the best artist you can (barely) afford to hire, and hopefully, once you've hooked a group of readers, then you can follow up with your lesser-talented artists (and pay them less). VIXENS saves the best interior artist it's had for the final three issues (which isn't even a complete story arc in itself), parts 3 through 5 of "The Hunted".

Of course, no amount of artistic talent is going to improve the writing. Come to think of it, that's just about the case of what happened with IDW's Jem and the Holograms. The final three issues (with artwork by Gisele) were the best-looking of the bunch, but too little too late.

I just checked Amazon. Most of the back issues have dropped to $0.99. Issues #6 and even the recently-released #7 have dropped to $1.99.

I find it ironic that VIXENS finally gets some decent interior artwork (by Sanya Anwar) with issue #8:
http://www.comicosity.com/first-look-betty-veronica-vixens-8/

Usually the industry thinking would be that you want to lead off in the first issue with the best artist you can (barely) afford to hire, in order to try to hook the maximum audience who are curious enough to give the new title a try to see if they like it. Only later, if sales drop off, might you resort to hiring a less-expensive (and less talented) artist, as a cost-saving measure to keep it going a little longer for a diminished audience.

I guess there's also the opposite approach, which is to try to inject some new interest into a title whose sales are floundering by introducing a new artist, in the hope that new readers will be willing to give it another try if they didn't like it before... but when you do something like that, you need to launch a new story direction (or at least begin a new arc) AND you need to hype the hell out of the new artists' taking over the art chores on the title. Since there's been no ballyhoo over the change in artists, and it's not even the launch of a new arc (issue #8 is Part 3 of "The Hunted", the arc which began with issue #6), there's obviously no point in changing artists now, because the fact that the title is ending with issue #10 has already been confirmed.

While the artwork in the issues published so far hasn't been up to professional standards in my opinion, a far more serious problem with VIXENS is the writing. Jamie Rotante's characterization and plotting are both VERY weak in this series, and I don't find myself sympathizing and wanting to root for the team when the girls are as prone to solving all their problems with violence as much as the antagonists.

The writing is awful. They're so angry, hateful and violent over the dumbest things. And the abuse the male characters take (and how they're written to be 95% scumbags or dumb) is really offensive. Most of the new Archie Comics have been pretty bad in the writing department and the art department. (Although I would say the 'Archie' comic is an exception, but they're putting that on """hiatus""" too - which means we'll never see it again.) Obviously, Archie Comics doesn't have the money (or the drive to make money with their comics) to hire top talent, but they're sticking to the writers who have been criticized for their inferior past works or people with no experience writing comics.

I was 100% ready for biker gang Riverdale girls but it was just more wasted potential. At this point, I think they're just making comics to maintain their IPs and they are depending on their WB tv series partnership as the future for Archie "Comics."

Also according to Comichron they are selling (or distributing) between 1,000 - 1,500 issues a month...that's pretty bad. That's way less than what the 'Josie' comics sold and that reboot was cancelled so fast they changed the artist in the middle of the second-to-last-issue to bring her on the 'Archie' comic. So no surprises this is ending.