Been hearing about the end of Archie Comics for years now, and they're still here.  Even though RIVERDALE's ratings aren't good it's getting mostly positive reviews and that can't hurt. 


I think Archie will be here as long as they want to.  Maybe it won't be the Archie the old school fans prefer, but Archie Comics will most likely exist for the foreseeable future. 

Quote from: Vegan Jughead on February 12, 2017, 09:25:26 AM
I think Archie will be here as long as they want to.  Maybe it won't be the Archie the old school fans prefer, but Archie Comics will most likely exist for the foreseeable future.

So, following that logic, if they are publishing fewer new comics and selling less copies of them than they were say, 10 or 20 years ago, it's because they "want" to? As in, the people who buy (or probably more to the point, don't buy) Archie Comics have no bearing on whether or not Archie Comics is going to be around for the next 10 or 20 years? 75 years may be a great run in the comics biz, but nothing is forever. Dinosaurs and the Roman Empire both had a great run too, but they're no longer around. Neither is vaudeville, pulp fiction magazines, or Big Little Books. Yeah, they were all great in their time, but that time passed.

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on February 12, 2017, 11:19:22 AM

Quote from: Vegan Jughead on February 12, 2017, 09:25:26 AM
I think Archie will be here as long as they want to.  Maybe it won't be the Archie the old school fans prefer, but Archie Comics will most likely exist for the foreseeable future.

So, following that logic, if they are publishing fewer new comics and selling less copies of them than they were say, 10 or 20 years ago, it's because they "want" to? As in, the people who buy (or probably more to the point, don't buy) Archie Comics have no bearing on whether or not Archie Comics is going to be around for the next 10 or 20 years? 75 years may be a great run in the comics biz, but nothing is forever. Dinosaurs and the Roman Empire both had a great run too, but they're no longer around. Neither is vaudeville, pulp fiction magazines, or Big Little Books. Yeah, they were all great in their time, but that time passed.

totally agree; I didn't GUARANTEE they'll be around forever, but I think they're doing better right now than they were a couple of years ago.  I'd say they have the potential to survive and I happen to think they will.  And when you say they're publishing fewer comics etc, they're still publishing more right now than they were a couple of years ago, when it was down to Archie and a bi-monthly (if we were lucky) Betty and Veronica as their only 32 pagers (sporadic horror comics notwithstanding). 


Not saying they're killing it now but compared to then, they're doing great. 

Quote from: Vegan Jughead on February 12, 2017, 11:23:58 AM
Not saying they're killing it now but compared to then, they're doing great.

Is that why they keep cancelling all the products they solicit? The rate of cancelled solicitations is ghastly. About the only thing that they seem to be doing great on is recycling. Reprinting the same material over and over again in multiple formats. If all you're doing is saying "Oh look, they used to have only classic Archie and classic B&V floppy comics back in 2015, and now they have New Archie, New Jughead, New B&V, and New Josie. So they must be doing awesome now, right?" Well, maybe if you don't count the number of issues they actually come out with over the course of a year (I guess this would be a good time not to mention the Archie Horror titles). But of course you're only comparing to 2015, not slightly earlier when they still had Life With Archie, Kevin Keller, Archie & Friends, or going back a couple more years, classic Betty, Veronica, Jughead and Sabrina. Digest sales have slipped in the last few years too, and that's ACP's real bread-and-butter money. And we're still waiting for that third issue of Adam Hughes' B&V, which launched with great hoopla last summer. Yeah, doing just great.

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on February 12, 2017, 11:47:09 AM

Quote from: Vegan Jughead on February 12, 2017, 11:23:58 AM
Not saying they're killing it now but compared to then, they're doing great.

Is that why they keep cancelling all the products they solicit? The rate of cancelled solicitations is ghastly. About the only thing that they seem to be doing great on is recycling. Reprinting the same material over and over again in multiple formats. If all you're doing is saying "Oh look, they used to have only classic Archie and classic B&V floppy comics back in 2015, and now they have New Archie, New Jughead, New B&V, and New Josie. So they must be doing awesome now, right?" Well, maybe if you don't count the number of issues they actually come out with over the course of a year (I guess this would be a good time not to mention the Archie Horror titles). But of course you're only comparing to 2015, not slightly earlier when they still had Life With Archie, Kevin Keller, Archie & Friends, or going back a couple more years, classic Betty, Veronica, Jughead and Sabrina. Digest sales have slipped in the last few years too, and that's ACP's real bread-and-butter money. And we're still waiting for that third issue of Adam Hughes' B&V, which launched with great hoopla last summer. Yeah, doing just great.

All good points.  I didn't join the forum to slam Archie Comics.  Besides you're doing a great job of it already!  LOL

Quote from: Vegan Jughead on February 12, 2017, 11:53:35 AM

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on February 12, 2017, 11:47:09 AM

Quote from: Vegan Jughead on February 12, 2017, 11:23:58 AM
Not saying they're killing it now but compared to then, they're doing great.

Is that why they keep cancelling all the products they solicit? The rate of cancelled solicitations is ghastly. About the only thing that they seem to be doing great on is recycling. Reprinting the same material over and over again in multiple formats. If all you're doing is saying "Oh look, they used to have only classic Archie and classic B&V floppy comics back in 2015, and now they have New Archie, New Jughead, New B&V, and New Josie. So they must be doing awesome now, right?" Well, maybe if you don't count the number of issues they actually come out with over the course of a year (I guess this would be a good time not to mention the Archie Horror titles). But of course you're only comparing to 2015, not slightly earlier when they still had Life With Archie, Kevin Keller, Archie & Friends, or going back a couple more years, classic Betty, Veronica, Jughead and Sabrina. Digest sales have slipped in the last few years too, and that's ACP's real bread-and-butter money. And we're still waiting for that third issue of Adam Hughes' B&V, which launched with great hoopla last summer. Yeah, doing just great.

All good points.  I didn't join the forum to slam Archie Comics.  Besides you're doing a great job of it already!  LOL

Well, that is definitely the illusion that they are attempting to create for the company's image. "The NEW Archie Comics is on the move! There's no stopping us now!" Meanwhile, behind the scenes, they are definitely having problem delivering on their promises and getting new product into print. And there is the stink of desperation in the air, as if they're hanging on by their fingernails, pushing RIVERDALE as the salvation of the company. But if ACP are really The Comeback Kids they're trying to hype themselves as being, then shouldn't more and more new products be arriving in the marketplace every few months, as success builds on success? In reality, I think the sales of New Riverdale comics are not building as they'd hoped (after optimistically hoping that they'd create some synergy by adding more new titles) -- not even holding steady at a modest level, but eroding with every passing issue. They're far from being out of the danger zone of becoming extinct. REGGIE & ME was originally envisioned as a new ongoing series, then almost immediately cut back to a 5-issue miniseries. I wouldn't be surprised to find that both JUGHEAD and JOSIE will not be around by next year. The fact that the last couple of months' solicitations contained a lot of one-shots indicates to me they are already fishing for a replacement for one or both of those titles.

On a semi related note, where do I look up comic sales? I want to know if another comic that I like non Archie related is selling well or not.

Quote from: irishmoxie on February 12, 2017, 05:06:16 PM
On a semi related note, where do I look up comic sales? I want to know if another comic that I like non Archie related is selling well or not.

You can check www.comichron.com which has the monthly Diamond sales charts and historical data, too.

I would heart broken if Archie Comics didn't come out anymore. Since I joined in 2013. I feel like something was missing in my life. My mom got the red Marriage book for Christmas one year & I have been a huge fan ever since.

So I was in Walmart today.  All the Archie digests were gone from the digest racks at the checkouts.  Don't know if this is the case anywhere else, but I do recall them having Archie digests the last time I was in there.

They're popping up again in my grocery store, which is a plus.  I dont have a Walmart. How to get them into Walgreeens in the NA market is another question. Digests only, not the 32 pagers. Of course I'd be happy if the floppies showed up as well.

In the 30 months or so since I became interested in Archie Comics, I don't think I've seen any digests in any grocery story I've been in. I've seen them at Barnes & Noble, Walmart, and just recently, Target, but those are the only places. No local drugstore franchises or convenience stories.

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on February 14, 2017, 10:37:59 AM
In the 30 months or so since I became interested in Archie Comics, I don't think I've seen any digests in any grocery story I've been in. I've seen them at Barnes & Noble, Walmart, and just recently, Target, but those are the only places. No local drugstore franchises or convenience stories.

I saw them at Wegman's (western NY) when I crossed the border last week;  Up here in Canada Shopper's drug mart has them, as does a grocery store called Sobey's.   Sometimes 7-11 and Walmart always has them.  I think that there will always be a call for Archie comics as they are the only all ages, family friendly comic that people (parents) have come to trust.

Quote from: VintageJon on February 14, 2017, 12:26:24 PM

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on February 14, 2017, 10:37:59 AM
In the 30 months or so since I became interested in Archie Comics, I don't think I've seen any digests in any grocery story I've been in. I've seen them at Barnes & Noble, Walmart, and just recently, Target, but those are the only places. No local drugstore franchises or convenience stories.

I saw them at Wegman's (western NY) when I crossed the border last week;  Up here in Canada Shopper's drug mart has them, as does a grocery store called Sobey's.   Sometimes 7-11 and Walmart always has them.  I think that there will always be a call for Archie comics as they are the only all ages, family friendly comic that people (parents) have come to trust.

Funny you should mention that... Archie's formerly unassailable reputation as a purveyor of all-ages titles (eh... "Million Moms" aside)...  I wonder how things like the Archie Horror titles (which may well fly under most parents radar as imperceptible, with little chance most parents whose children are consumers of ACP's all-ages titles will ever become aware of them), and RIVERDALE might affect those parents' perception of ACP as a publisher.

The TV series is much more likely to impact public perception of ACP's comics, since television reaches a much wider audience than the direct-market floppy comics do, and if there isn't an immediate connection in parents minds between the name Riverdale and the names Archie, Jughead, Betty & Veronica, then plastering ads for the show all over the covers (and interiors) of the digests will certainly rectify that lack of recognition. Furthermore, placing those ads in the digests seems to imply that the TV show would be appropriate viewing for the same audiences reading those digests, so I wonder what some parents of say, an 8-12 year-old reader might think about that after viewing the show.

I saw a Jughead digest by the checkout at a Gerbes grocery store in Missouri back in June 2015 which sparked my interest. Mainly I was thinking, "They still make those???" And this caused me to dig out my old childhood Betty and Veronica digests from 1997. When I left Missouri in 2016, they had a lot of them in the magazine aisle but not near the checkout anymore. They would keep a decent amount of back stock going back a couple of months. In Nebraska, I see them at Barnes and Noble sometimes but mainly it's just the trade paperbacks. I remember buying the digests from grocery stores in the 90s. They were featured right near the checkout. And I would buy Cheryl Blossom and Sabrina floppies from Waldenbooks.