Wednesday, August 24th, 2016 - BETTY AND VERONICA: GIRLS RULE! trade paperback is released to comic shops. Solicitation description follows...

QuoteAnything boys can do, girls can do better! The gals are taking center stage and showing the boys who's boss! Watch the girls as they challenge their male counterparts to a dance-off, show them what's what on the sports field and even fight crime! It's not just a battle of the sexes, but also a fun walk through history, highlighting important female figures throughout time standing up for what's right! This collection spotlights the girls of Riverdale, including Betty, Veronica, Nancy, Cheryl, Ethel, Ginger, Trula Twyst and Brigitte, featuring a special introduction by comics legend Gail Simone! In this collection, the girls really do rule!

$10.99/$11.99CAN
5 1/4 x 8"
224 pp, Full Color

I love B&V "theme" collection trade paperbacks. If they put out one every single month, I would buy it.

1) This is the first classic Archie trade paperback (which is in the ARCHIE & FRIENDS ALL-STARS format of 5.25" x 8") to be released by ACP in over a year. (I discount 1000 Page Comics Digests and Giant Comics Digests as true trade paperbacks, even though that's what ACP calls them. They are simply bargain-priced digest omnibuses, that reprint the same stories as appeared in the regular digests in the previous 2 or 3 months. They're a great money-saving value for those who don't follow the digest titles on a regular basis, but for regular digest consumers, they're redundant.)

2) The last previous thematic collection of classic Archie stories in trade paperback was ARCHIE CAMPFIRE STORIES, released in July 2015, so it's been a long drought for classic Archie TPBs since then. Several solicitations for classic Archie trade paperbacks have appeared since then, but none of them have actually made it to print.

3) The last previous BETTY & VERONICA trade paperback collection was SHOPPING SPREE, released in December 2014.

4) This particular B&V collection, GIRLS RULE, has an especially twisty history on its road to print publication. If you're a reader of digital, you may remember this Digital Exclusive collection which was first released way back in December 2012:

(original release cover, under the Archie Digital iVerse app.)

(re-release cover as PEP DIGITAL #29, under the Archie Digital Madefire app.)

It's interesting to compare the description of that DE release with the new trade paperback version:

QuotePEP Digital #29: B & V Friends Girls Rule!
111 pages!
Anything boys can do, girls can do better! The gals are taking center stage and showing the boys who's boss! Watch the girls as they challenge their male counterparts to a dance-off, show them what's what on the sports field and even fight crime! It's not just a battle of the sexes, but also a fun walk through history, highlighting important female figures throughout time, standing up for what's right! This 100+ page digital exclusive features the lovely ladies of Riverdale, including Betty, Veronica, Nancy, Cheryl, Ethel, Ginger, Trula Twyst and Brigitte! In this collection, the girls really do rule!

Hmm... very similar to the print release as solicited above, except for using B&V FRIENDS instead of BETTY & VERONICA in the title. However, it can't be exactly the same collection, because the digital exclusive release was only 111 pages, while the new TPB release is 224 pages, over twice the page count. What stories might be the same in both collections is anyone's guess.

This particular trade paperback collection has been solicited at least twice before, but it looks like it will finally arrive in stores on August 24th.

Yesterday (Wednesday 08/17):
DARK HORSE PRESENTS #25 - I'm only following the features "The Once and Future Tarzan", "Mister X", and "Mr. Monster"
INVADER ZIM #12
ISLAND 731 #1 - Didn't really care that much for it, so I won't continue.

SUPERGIRL REBIRTH #1 - Certainly one of the best-looking of these DC Rebirth comics, with artwork by Emanuela Lupacchino (and a nice iconic Supergirl image on the variant cover by Adam Hughes). Wish I could say the same about the story, but at least the artwork looked good. All of these "Rebirth" one-shot issues are just preludes to an ongoing series. Whether the same creative team will be on the ongoing series, I don't know. I might give it another chance if the ongoing series is drawn by Lupacchino, we'll see.

BLACK WIDOW #6 - This was actually the best single issue of the series for me so far, but I've lost a lost of my initial enthusiasm that I had in anticipation going into it. Kind of on the fence as to whether I'll keep reading or not, so the next issue might be the last for me. Or not, depending on whether it gets better.

SUPERF*CKERS FOREVER #1 - This is one hilarious comic book, but not for the easily offended. James Kolchaka puts a serious 'alternative comix' spin on the idea of superheroes in a way that's pretty indescribable.

THE LONE RANGER AND THE GREEN HORNET #2 (of 6) - The adventures of the Green Hornet take place in the 1930s/40s, while the adventures of the Lone Ranger take place (usually) in the 1870s/80s. That would place the Lone Ranger's birth around 1850 or so, so in this story taking place in the 1930s, he's in his eighties. How many of you knew that The Lone Ranger is the Green Hornet's great-uncle? This story is written by Michael Uslan of "Archie Marries" fame, by the way. Lots of good historical detail and touchstones in this one, from Nazi bunds and Elliot Ness to 1936 Olympic winner Jesse Owens.

SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN: FALL OF MAN #2 (of 5) - Steve Austin is on the run from OSI, having learned from secret documents that Oscar Goldman is apparently collaborating with the government to create an army of cyborg supersoldiers.

ROCHELLE #1 (of 3) - Teenager Rochelle Planeta's mother was artificially inseminated, part of the donor DNA coming from periplaneta americana (the American Cockroach), so now she "does whatever a cockroach can". Nothing particularly noteworthy in this story, apart from the artwork by Dell Barras, whose work I like.

BLACK HAMMER #1 & 2 - I went back and read the first issue again since the new one just came out. I'm quite taken by this, as an original spin on the superhero concept (something that genre needs far more of -- mainstream superheroes are getting pretty boring). It's an unusual art style for the superhero genre, and the approach is pretty unique. Having said that, there's no way I'd expect anyone unfamiliar with superhero comics to understand the tropes and character archetypes that the story is referencing; it can really only be fully appreciated by those that get the references.

HILLBILLY #1 & 2 - Again, went back to read the first again, since the new one just came out. This is an excellent spooky/supernatural/horror comic, in my estimation -- because there's nothing else I can really compare it to; it's totally original. Someone else's mileage may vary -- I guess with horror, it all comes down to what your own personal touchstones are for that genre, and I'm usually pretty picky. The title character is a backwoods mountain man or trapper who becomes a pawn in a vendetta between two witches (and these aren't your modern wiccan-style witches, they're the traditional folkloric evil hags who deal in black magic and put curses, hexes and spells on people). The story is taking place in some unspecified time and place, but I presume it to be sometime in the late 1800s or early 1900s, and there's a real flavor for mood and dialect here. As a result of his involvement in this quarrel between witches, the title character is cursed, and gains possession of "The Devil's Bonesaw", an outsized meat cleaver which can cut through pretty much anything and has supernatural properties, including being toxic to the touch of witches. In the second issue, the personification of Death, on his pale horse, follows the protagonist as he seeks a remedy for a witch's hex placed upon an innocent young girl -- the roots of an anthropomorphic tree, corrupted by evil by feeding on the blood of dozens of hanged murderers. Eric Powell has a real facility for both mood and pacing in this story, using supernatural elements deftly, and a real ear for dialogue. 10 out of 10.

DIE KITTY DIE (THE DELUXE EDITION) HC - Enjoyed it even more the second time around.

Read some of those Archie comics I picked up for $1 each at Boston Comic Con:
JUGHEAD #187, 188, 200
VERONICA #43, 71, 72, 74, 75, 134, 135

Quote from: irishmoxie on August 17, 2016, 08:15:17 PM

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on August 16, 2016, 07:26:39 PM

Quote from: irishmoxie on August 16, 2016, 06:46:34 PM
I haven't gotten the rewards package yet just the DKD hardback. I ordered a second copy (outside of the Kickstarter) and haven't gotten that either yet. I'll keep waiting.

I might still be waiting on mine, if I hadn't contacted Dan and made arrangements to pick it up in person at Boston Comic Con. Funny thing, I bumped into a guy I know at Dan's table (whom I had no idea had pledged the DKD Kickstarter) on Friday and he mentioned he hadn't got his rewards package yet. On Sunday, I was at Dan's table again, and the same guy came back and told Dan that his DKD rewards package had arrived at his house on Friday while he was at the con. I think the original plan was to have all these packages out much earlier, but the printer took longer on the hardcovers than they expected, and now both of them are knee-deep in convention season. To be honest, I haven't even had time to go back to check the list of the rewards I was supposed to get, so if there's anything missing (were there pins or buttons?) from mine besides Fernando's sketchbook then I'm not even aware of it. Besides the hardcover book and some original artwork, I got a DKD lanyard, 2 stickers, 12 trading cards, and Dan's sketchbook (and the Love-O-Rama 2000 TPB was an add-on).

Also, the original commission I got (and am now using as my avatar) from Dan isn't the original drawing that he first handed to me. I had requested Betty as Superteen, and Dan somehow had drawn an original of Betty as SuperGIRL... as he was about to hand it to me, he was saying "... and I've got your drawing of Betty as Supergirl right here (looking in portfolio) ..." and I said "You mean Betty as SuperTEEN..." and there was some momentary embarrassment as he realized he'd made a mistake. He showed it to me, but then put it aside and said "It's no problem, I can do it for you and have it later today".  Then we started chatting for a while, and at some point, I decided I'd like a 2-figure drawing of both Betty as Superteen and Veronica as Powerteen (because they'd never actually been in a story together), so I agreed to pay him extra for another figure. Then I wanted him to base the pose on a particular image (that I hadn't thought to bring with me beforehand) so I told him that when I went home that night I'd find the image I was thinking of, and email it to him. Oddly enough, I couldn't find that exact image that I had in mind, and wound up changing my mind, so I had him base the pose on the "Wonder Twin powers, ACTIVATE!" image (which basically got repeated in every Super Friends cartoon they were in). Dan does a lot of superhero commissions, or Archie/superhero mash-up commissions, which you'll see when you check out his sketchbook (and he'll obviously have no problem selling that drawing of Betty as Supergirl).

Hey, this is my 1000^th post (since the meltdown and reboot) -- which would have made it my 5000^th post if the meltdown had never happened.

What's in those sketchbooks? DKD art? Now I'm curious.

Dan's sketchbook is mostly stuff like preliminary cover layouts (some you'll recognize, some not... because they were never used), and commissioned artwork. One of the things I noticed in looking through it again yesterday were three different cover layouts for ARCHIE'S GIRLS: THE PIN-UPS book. I remember that had been announced at one time as a follow-up to the hardcover art books THE ART OF BETTY & VERONICA, and its sequel THE ART OF ARCHIE: THE COVERS, but it never happened. 

Dan's sketchbook (which is the same dimensions as those small Archie TPBs in the ARCHIE & FRIENDS ALL-STARS series) "Volume 1" was printed back in 2014, so you won't find anything really recent in it. I told him it was time to do a Volume 2, and he agreed, but as to when that might happen... who knows. I haven't seen Fernando's sketchbook since (as I think I mentioned somewhere before) according to Dan it was still at the printers. Presumably that means it contains some of Fernando's really recent stuff, maybe Kitty, but I can't be sure.

In case you missed it, Dan & Fernando sent out another DKD update last night:

QuoteWe're halfway through August and we're more than halfway through shipping books!  So, if you haven't received yours yet, please be patient, it's on the way!!  We're hoping to have everything shipped by the end of August, except for those picking up your packages at Toronto Fan Expo.

Thanks for the great responses!  We're so happy with the quality of the books and the extras!

And soon we'll have more exciting news about Kitty's next adventure....

Quote from: BettyReggie on August 17, 2016, 08:34:18 PM
No new solicitations listed yet 😣😳😖😥

I told you. It's not the 3rd Wednesday. It's the week before the last Wednesday, which is August 31st, so look for them on or about the 24th.

Dynomutt!

Or maybe Batman and Robin, Josie and the Pussycats, or the Addams Family (all of whom teamed up with Scooby and the gang in The New Scooby-Doo Movies)... or any of the characters that co-star in SCOOBY-DOO TEAM-UP (one of the few DC Comics I still like). I'm still hoping there will be an issue where Scooby meets his counterpart from Bizarro World, Scooby-Don't. If none of those count, then I'd have to go with Shaggy.

Did you know Archie is launching a NEW Josie and the Pussycats comic in September?

The cover price is $3.99 in the U.S. and Canada. So, if you bought each issue individually, 12 issues would cost you $47.88.

First 100 Subscribers Only!
Because you are a loyal Archie fan, you get this exclusive offer of 12 issues for as little as $19.99!!

https://checkout.subscriptiongenius.com/ArchieComics.com/?promoCode=JOSIE&utm_source=Core&utm_campaign=22fbcb94c0-ArchieComics_Josie_PreOrder&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1a7a9ca649-22fbcb94c0-89916017&ct=t(ArchieComics_Josie_PreOrder)

Regards,
Archie Subscription Team

(Just passing this email along for those who might be interested in this.)

Quote from: The Downloader on August 16, 2016, 06:37:43 PM

Quote from: BettyReggie on August 16, 2016, 05:59:51 PM
Solicitations usually come the 3rd Wednesday  of the month.

Recently though, they've been coming out on Tuesday.  Oh well, still have another 9 hours to go.

Nope, it's not the 3rd Wednesday (or Tuesday either) of the month. It's the week before the last Wednesday of the month, and August has FIVE Wednesdays. It's timed because the last Wednesday (or Tuesday) of the month is when Diamond Comics delivers the printed PREVIEWS catalog to comic shops. ALL solicitations for ALL products distributed by Diamond Comics will appear at the same time the information is released to comics news sites at www.previewsworld.com/catalog. (And if you only wanted JUST the Archie Comic Publications solicitations, and no other publishers in the PREVIEWS catalog, then it would be http://www.previewsworld.com/Catalog?pub=ARCHIE%20COMIC%20PUBLICATIONS.) You might want to bookmark that page if you're chomping at the bit for comics solicitations.

How come you never list classic Archie stuff like the digests and trade paperbacks? Those are the days I look forward to as an Archie fan.

Quote from: irishmoxie on August 16, 2016, 06:46:34 PM
I haven't gotten the rewards package yet just the DKD hardback. I ordered a second copy (outside of the Kickstarter) and haven't gotten that either yet. I'll keep waiting.

I might still be waiting on mine, if I hadn't contacted Dan and made arrangements to pick it up in person at Boston Comic Con. Funny thing, I bumped into a guy I know at Dan's table (whom I had no idea had pledged the DKD Kickstarter) on Friday and he mentioned he hadn't got his rewards package yet. On Sunday, I was at Dan's table again, and the same guy came back and told Dan that his DKD rewards package had arrived at his house on Friday while he was at the con. I think the original plan was to have all these packages out much earlier, but the printer took longer on the hardcovers than they expected, and now both of them are knee-deep in convention season. To be honest, I haven't even had time to go back to check the list of the rewards I was supposed to get, so if there's anything missing (were there pins or buttons?) from mine besides Fernando's sketchbook then I'm not even aware of it. Besides the hardcover book and some original artwork, I got a DKD lanyard, 2 stickers, 12 trading cards, and Dan's sketchbook (and the Love-O-Rama 2000 TPB was an add-on).

Also, the original commission I got (and am now using as my avatar) from Dan isn't the original drawing that he first handed to me. I had requested Betty as Superteen, and Dan somehow had drawn an original of Betty as SuperGIRL... as he was about to hand it to me, he was saying "... and I've got your drawing of Betty as Supergirl right here (looking in portfolio) ..." and I said "You mean Betty as SuperTEEN..." and there was some momentary embarrassment as he realized he'd made a mistake. He showed it to me, but then put it aside and said "It's no problem, I can do it for you and have it later today".  Then we started chatting for a while, and at some point, I decided I'd like a 2-figure drawing of both Betty as Superteen and Veronica as Powerteen (because they'd never actually been in a story together), so I agreed to pay him extra for another figure. Then I wanted him to base the pose on a particular image (that I hadn't thought to bring with me beforehand) so I told him that when I went home that night I'd find the image I was thinking of, and email it to him. Oddly enough, I couldn't find that exact image that I had in mind, and wound up changing my mind, so I had him base the pose on the "Wonder Twin powers, ACTIVATE!" image (which basically got repeated in every Super Friends cartoon they were in). Dan does a lot of superhero commissions, or Archie/superhero mash-up commissions, which you'll see when you check out his sketchbook (and he'll obviously have no problem selling that drawing of Betty as Supergirl).

Hey, this is my 1000^th post (since the meltdown and reboot) -- which would have made it my 5000^th post if the meltdown had never happened.

SNOTGIRL #1 - I liked the artwork. Couldn't relate to the story at all. It's pretty much all social media and 20something angst -- subtract those from it and there's really nothing left, so thumbs down for me.

Quote from: irishmoxie on August 16, 2016, 02:58:42 PM
I was supposed to get this from Kickstarter but Dan never sent it.

If you email him, I'm sure he'll send it, assuming you already got the rest of your Kickstarter reward package. Dan and Fernando are still in the process of mailing all these out to the pledges, one at a time, and they split up the mailing labels between them, but not necessarily by what supporter was getting original art by which creator, so there's a little confusion between the two of them. One of the things missing from my package was Fernando's sketchbook, which Dan tells me is still at the printers, so packages that got mailed out already will be missing those. This is their first Kickstarter, so maybe they're not as well-organized as some others who've done it before, and there were a lot of bonuses and add-ons to the packages, so there's a list of different stuff that has to go in depending on your pledge level. If you didn't get your rewards package yet, be patient, either Dan or Fernando could have your mailing label.

Then too, these guys are both still doing the convention circuit at the same time. Dan was at SDCC last month, then in Boston last weekend (Aug. 12-14), and will be at TerrifiCon in Connecticut next weekend (Aug. 19-21), then he's off to Hyderabad, India for a big con (Sept. 24-25), and then New York Comic Con (Oct. 8-9), plus who knows all what else -- while continuing to turn in 5 page stories and covers for the digests.

The best thing to do is contact them through the Kickstarter page and let them know, if you got the rewards package already and it was missing that TPB.

Yesterday I read LOVE-O-RAMA 2000, which is a B&W, 96-page TPB collection of Dan Parent-written stories (except for 2 of them, I think) sub-titled "Romance Stories That Will Touch You In A Special Place!". Most of the stories are drawn by Dan as well, but except for a couple, you probably wouldn't recognize them as his art, because it's not really done in "the Archie style". Three-quarters of those are inked by Kim De Mulder, and I'm not sure exactly how much of the difference in Dan P's usual style is due to his original pencils for the stories, and how much is due to Kim De Mulder's inking. These stories had previously appeared in some obscure comics: Secret Fantasies #1 (1998) and #2 (1999), and Dumbass Express #1 (and only). I guess you could probably say most of these stories were R-rated (definitely not for kids), and for the most part, I found them pretty funny, and found them to reflect Dan's peculiar sense of humor (which I love), just a little more unrestrained and uncensored. Maybe "adult situations" is the best label here, because there's no actual "graphic depictions" or any "adult language" or anything like that, but remember that's just using ACP standards as a yardstick.

The story that interested me the most personally was one called "My Love Is Alien", which was about 2 female friends, a plain but brainy & nerdy sci-fi fangirl and her pretty but shallow roommate who has absolutely no interest in SF, but who had promised her friend she'd go the the science fiction con with her. So the nerdy girl shames her friend into going anyway, after she tried to wheedle her way out of her promise. Marina reluctantly gives in and goes to the SF convention, where she all of a sudden gets interested, when she meets a hunky-looking guy wearing what she thinks is an alien costume at the con. So she finds every excuse to give in to him and spend time with him (and of course, she doesn't realize that he's an actual alien). As I'm reading the first few pages of the story, I'm looking at the girls and what they are saying to each others, and I'm thinking "Wait a minute... Isn't this really just a Veronica story guest-starring her sci-fi loving cousin, Marcy McDermott?", because in this story Marina is pretty but kind of a snob. However, in trying to place the story among the chronology of Veronica stories, this story would seem to precede cousin Marcy's first appearance in the early 2000s (which - I think - was in VERONICA #137, May 2003). As far as the personality and behavior of the girls at the beginning of the story, they interact almost just like Marcy and Veronica, even though the story later goes off in a different direction with Marina (the pretty one) having a one-night stand with this alien guy she's smitten with, and then having his baby while he disappears (it turns out later that he was drafted to fight in some kind of space war). I should mention that as far as how they're drawn in the story, the characters don't actually resemble Marcy and Veronica, it's just that one is a nerdy girl into sci-fi and the other is pretty, but totally disinterested in that kind of stuff, and is snobbish and puts it down. Still, there's this germ of an idea there in this independently-produced work of Dan's, that it seems like he later reworked into his stories in VERONICA, which I found interesting. In this story however, instead of mentioning "Space Trek" or some kind of obvious euphemism, the actual names of science fiction TV shows and movies are used (and the context in which they are referenced helps to make the story funny).

Despite the adult situations, there's still a distinct Archie-like feel to most of these stories, just the fact that they're short, sitcom stories with romantic elements, and Dan Parent's signature sense of humor (which in these stories, he's allowed to get pretty wacky with). There are lots of stories with takeoffs on things like the Patrick Swayze movie Ghost, daytime talk shows like The Jerry Springer Show, the self-explanatory "Vampire Girls Need Love Too", "Drastic Plastic" about plastic surgery, and other weirdness, including one set in the 1970s that crams every TV show and pop culture reference from that time into a short farce. The nature of Dan's humor spares no one's sensibilities in the arena of political correctness, so if you're easily offended by a gay superhero like "Interior Decorator Man", this probably isn't for you. The back page has an utterly hilarious text piece called "A Little About Dan Parent" that totally cracked me up.

BETTY AND VERONICA DOUBLE DIGEST #246 came in the mail yesterday, and I'm about halfway through reading that. Spent most of the day catching up on sleep I missed over the weekend while I was either at the Boston Comic Con or working.

Quote from: BettyReggie on August 15, 2016, 03:53:59 AM
Sounds like you had fun. If someone I know goes to big event or crowded place. I always ask them if they saw a person in wheelchair. I always wonder can they handle the all the people there. Before getting Hereditary Spastic Paraesis. I used to go concerts all over NYC. I wasn't in a wheelchair I could walk. Even when I just used a cane I could handle going to concert . But in 2013 I broke my left foot I couldn't use a cane. I walk with a walker or I'm in wheelchair. But now that I'm in wheelchair I don't bother with places where there would be lots of people.

It's nice to be able to meet the creators face to face, and ask them about stuff or get something from them personalized, but conventions can be expensive and exhausting, sometimes a little overwhelming because there's potentially so much to do and see, plus its a lot of walking around, so it's hard on people with limitations on their mobility. To be honest, with social media and the internet, you can communicate and get most everything you need shipped to your home, so you don't need to go to places where there are big crowds of people. Still, I'd say it's the unexpected things that might happen or people you might meet who weren't part of your "game plan" going in, that make the experience interesting.

Quote from: BettyReggie on August 14, 2016, 10:18:56 PM
Tell us about Boston Comic Con. Was it crowded? Did Dan Parent have a lot of people in line to get a commission? Did you see any people in wheelchairs , I ask because I use a wheelchair & going to a convention is too much for me to handle. I ask Artists to mail me the commission & they are nice & send it to me. Will you go again next year?

It was crowded on Sunday, but not as much as last year when I went on Saturday. This year I went on both Friday (not too bad crowd-wise) and Sunday (skipped Saturday because I was working). The main thing was that it was hot, really hot on Friday. It seemed hot on the convention floor with all the people (ditto on Sunday, even more so), but on Friday when you went to go outside it was like walking into a blast furnace -- it hit you just as soon as you walked out of the entrance to the convention center, and made you feel like just doing a 180 degree turn back into the building, so it helped you appreciate that even though it seemed kind of hot inside with all those people, it was much, MUCH worse outdoors.

Still, I got to talk to a bunch of artists, which was great, found some bargain deals (recent Archie comics for $1 each, non-Archie trade paperbacks for $5 [$16-$20 cover price], and those 1970s SABRINAs and JOSIEs for $5-10 each (pretty good condition on most of those, too). Picked up that BEST OF SAMM SCHWARTZ hardcover for $5 [$40 cover price], and just for the heck of it, a copy of Tania del Rio's BETTY: DIARY OF A GIRL NEXT DOOR hardcover novel (wasn't going to buy it at cover price, but it was only $3 at the show, so I figured eh, why not).

I spent a long, long time talking to Dan Parent. Probably about 3-4 hours or so between multiple visits to his table on both days. I tried to catch him early on both days after he'd just arrived at his table (in fact on Friday he was still setting up, so I helped him get his tablecloth, which had a big banner for DIE KITTY DIE on it, adjusted so it hung just about 1/4" above the carpet line and was nice and even). Dan always has a bunch of his original art on his table for display and for sale (I didn't buy any pages, because I got 2 original Archie Comics pages, plus an original Die Kitty Die page as part of my Kickstarter reward package, which I picked up from him at the show). I didn't get to pick the pages, but they're all nice pages. Then I had him do that commission of B&V for me (which is based on a pose of the Wonder Twins, from SUPER FRIENDS, where they say "Wonder Twin powers -- ACTIVATE!"). Also in that rewards package was an add-on, a copy of Dan's LOVE-O-RAMA 2000 trade paperback, which collects various stories he wrote and/or drew for different self-published comics. One of those had the big-assed dog, "Assie", which he put into Die Kitty Die in a cameo appearance. Dan owns The Carneys too, and he's thinking of putting them in the next Die Kitty Die miniseries (which will launch a Kickstarter in October, same month as the print comic of the first DKD miniseries appears from Chapterhouse Comics). He's not sure if he might work one or more of the characters (I suggested Linda-Louise, the double-headed sisters) into some small appearance in the main story, or make it a short backup story or maybe even have The Carneys drawn by a guest artist as a bonus incentive for the next Kickstarter (which is titled DIE KITTY DIE: "HOLLYWOOD OR BUST"... there's a pun in there somewhere, I bet...). He also said Chapterhouse is open to him and Fernando doing some other titles, so THE CARNEYS was one possibility there as well. He's also working on a project for ACP that he can't talk about yet, because certain details haven't been finalized or contracts signed, so he can't officially announce it yet (he told me, but swore me to secrecy, so... sorry). He had the blank sketch cover variant and Convention Exclusive cover variants of DKD #1 at his table, too, along with many new 11x17" prints ($20 each/3 for $50, autographed).

Last year at Boston Comic Con, Jeff Shultz and Andrew Pepoy had the two tables on either side of Dan's, but neither of them came this year. Erica Henderson had a table (I didn't talk to her, but she seemed like she always had someone there). Mark Waid had a table too, and I did talk to him for a couple of minutes (there was always someone at his table, too). Mark, Erica and Dan were all on a panel titled "Hey Archie" on Friday, and that was the only panel I actually went to. I can't remember too much about what they talked about, except I asked Waid a question about his early Archie stories after he mentioned how much he enjoyed going through picking the reprints and writing the introductions for them (his favorite artists are Harry Lucey and Samm Schwartz). I raised my hand and said "A lot of people reading the new ARCHIE probably aren't aware that this isn't the first time you've written stories for Archie..."  He said he'd only written six short stories for Archie 30 years ago, so I asked him "Well, why don't you reprint those in the back of ARCHIE then, and comment on them?" He seemed quite taken with that idea, and smiled and said "You know, I like the way you think. I'll have to see what I can do about making that happen." We talked a little about that memorable old short of his, called simply "MOOSE!" where Big Moose is on a rampage, and in the story he's portrayed sort of like the Incredible Hulk, or like Godzilla attacking downtown Tokyo, with everyone running around in panic and local real estate being destroyed. I think I asked another question later about how the fantasy elements in Chip Zdarsky's JUGHEAD related to ARCHIE, and how some people are convinced all of that stuff with January McAndrews etc. is just a dream, but Mark Waid said those things (he specifically mentioned Pureheart the Powerful and Archie 1) should always be on the table and a part of Archie, and he's absolutely open to them. I really couldn't think of what to say to Erica... I don't really 'get' her style of artwork to be honest, but she seems like a really nice woman, that's all I can say.

I don't recall seeing someone in a wheelchair but then I wasn't really looking for anyone. At a con this large, I'd be surprised if there weren't at least a few people in wheelchairs there. Most conventions I've been at, there always seems to be someone. Sorry, I just wasn't being particularly aware of this aspect, as it's sort of a given as far as I'm concerned. It does make things difficult if the convention is overly crowded, but most people are very accommodating about stepping aside for those people with mobility problems. I've never seen anyone treated rudely. Fans are a generally congenial bunch.

I kinda liked Black Hammer #1. It established a little mystery as to why these former superheroes had to flee from the world/dimension/earth on which they originated, and there's someone from back in their home world setting out to find them and prove that they're still alive. It was a little slow-moving, but enough of a hook to intrigue me for a few more issues at least (not sure if it's a miniseries or an ongoing).

I passed on Snotgirl #1 originally simply because the title of the book itself was off-putting to me, but now I'll pick it up and give it a look-see, at least, to see what I think.

I've already read a few of those Bronze Age ACP comics I picked up at the con, and I'm going to try to review most (if not all) of them one or two at a time. The thing that immediately hits me about those early-70s "Archie Giant Series" format issues of Archie's T.V. Laugh-Out and Sabrina the Teenage Witch (besides the mere fact of them having more pages and more stories) is that in those early Giants, there always seems to be a story or two where Archie or some of the gang interacts with Sabrina, and you simply don't see much of that in the stories in those titles after they were reduced to the standard price and page count, so that makes the Giants extra-special to have.

Another thing notable about those early Sabrina issues is that the main source of conflict in many, if not most, of the stories revolves around the fact that Sabrina (although a witch) is just a sweet, nice, normal teenage girl who wants to get along with people, be "one of the gang", have fun and date boys like Harvey, and help out those in trouble, but her Aunt Hilda (and even more so, Head Witch Della) is trying to influence her or mentor her to be a "good witch", which is to say, a bad person. A good witch does bad and makes mischief for people with her magic powers, so when Sabrina does good things with her magic to help people, that makes her a very bad witch, and many of the stories involve penalties threatened against her by Head Witch Della, the most dire of which is the removal of her magic powers. Sabrina doesn't want to be bad, because it runs counter to her sunny disposition, but she still feels a sense of responsibility towards her aunts who are raising her, to fulfill that obligation to them by being a good witch and making them proud of her. Cousin Ambrose frequently takes on the role of her protector, trying to balance these opposing directions and secretly help her. That struck me immediately in reading a bunch of these stories together, as something that's been largely lost in the later Sabrina stories, and something I'd greatly like to see restored.

Together again for the first time! Superteen & Powerteen
(Mucho thanks to the great Dan Parent for his superhuman patience in putting up with me.)