I voted That Wilkin Boy.  Between himself, Sam, the quarreling between the Dads, and Teddy I'd think that provides a good core group to build a sitcom around.  Maybe Rebel could provide unspoken commentary the way that dog in Married With Children did.

Or maybe Rebel could just narrate the goings on through his perspective.  Just a thought.   

Quote from: 60sBettyandReggie on April 08, 2016, 08:58:16 PM
I've only read Ginger stories, so I'll go with Ginger.

When you have the opportunity, there's dozens of public domain Suzie comics on the DCM website.

Regarding Reggie's 80-page Giant Comic #1, I didn't quite catch on from the original link JoninIowaCity posted, but the Reggie comic is reprint material(not sure about the cover).

I asked in the shoutbox what prompted a return to the "classic" art, and while not exactly a return as it's reprint material, ACP apparently thinks there's still a market for this beyond the digest format.  If successful maybe they'd consider doing other "Giant" editions on even a quarterly basis featuring other characters.  It'll be interesting to watch the sales of this issue.

I've never seen that strip.  Nice to see the reference.

I read the comments section and apparently the Bride's boyfriend(groom) has red hair and freckles and she calls him "Archie" as a nickname.  I may have to check this strip out in order to look for other references.

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on September 20, 2016, 03:19:38 PM
That's an interesting POV, one which took me by surprise. In what way (or what story situations) do you perceive Betty or Midge as being a jerk?

I'm not speaking for Bluto, but I think Midge can be a jerk by the way she manipulates Reggie despite knowing Moose will knock him into left field. Yeah, at times she's just standing there, entertaining Reggie's come ons, but in others she's certainly not a passive participant when Moose catches them and she never shows remorse or comes to Reggie's aid. 

I don't dislike Midge, just addressing what I consider a pretty big failing in her behavior.

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on September 19, 2016, 11:23:06 AM

Quote from: steveinthecity on September 18, 2016, 04:37:41 PM
The kindler, gentler ACP pushed so many established characters towards homogenization since the 90's while at the same time introducing dozens of new supporting cast members who were never really developed but only given one or two token reasons to make them interesting.  Kevin is probably the best developed of any new character since Cheryl, and he still has a ways to go imo.

I think if you take the trouble to do a page-and-panel count, the reasons become self-explanatory. You more or less hint at them by juxtaposing the examples of Cheryl and Kevin. The perception of relative character development is a result of dividing the number of appearances (and panels in which the character appears, along with instances of significant dialogue exchanges) of Kevin into the same for Cheryl. To put it simply, more panels and dialogue were devoted to Cheryl than Kevin. But then, it shouldn't be surprising, because by the time Kevin made his debut, there were relatively fewer potential story panels in total  for Kevin to appear in being published by ACP. Therefore, when you cram a dozen or more new characters into a 4-part story like "New Kids Off the Wall" (a.k.a. Clash of the New Kids), and follow up that introduction of a bevy of new characters by cancelling titles left and right, there's no way to possibly develop them properly. Simple division should prove mathematically that more characters divided into fewer panels equals diminished character development.

Sure, I get the "math" involved.  I just think it was a poor decision on the part of ACP to create so many new characters when there were not enough titles/stories to use them with any regularity.  Seems like they were developed mostly for publicity, to show inclusiveness, or a combination of the two.  Doesn't really benefit me as a reader to have all these extra characters around that add little to the stories to my thinking. 

Edit:  Just wanted to add - I don't have a list of all Kevin's appearances, but I checked the Cheryl list and she appeared in 32 stories in 33 months(Oct '82- Jun '85) before she disappeared into the ether.  She was a central part of all those stories, and I'm guessing that's probably double what Kevin had between Veronica and his solo title.  I'm in agreement with your post.

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on April 30, 2016, 07:15:03 AM

Quote from: kassandralove on April 30, 2016, 04:44:06 AM

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on April 30, 2016, 02:14:24 AM

Some great issues from the 1970s there! I see an issue of DC's GHOSTS in that basket, but what's the other DC comic in back next to it? Can't quite make it out.

Other comic was Batman!!

Cool! That was really a fun DC comic back in the day. Maybe I just get too jaded from reading so many comics, but it doesn't seem like there are as many fun comics published today as there used to be overall, despite the huge number of titles out there. You can still find some ones you missed out on in the back issue bins, I guess!

Eeep!  The Archie's are certainly nice, but the Ghosts and Batman are the Treasury Editions from '74 and '75 respectively. What an awesome gift basket!

As we know Archie Comics has had a long run and is now into it's eighth decade.  Which decades are your favorites?

It'd be interesting to know what you think are the high or low points of any particular decade and why you voted for some over others.

For me, the acme came with the 60's.  ACP entered the decade with a tremendous stable of creators, some of the best covers(particularly Pep, B&V, and Jughead), Bob Bolling still going strong on Little Archie, and Frank Doyle and George Gladir both writing towards arguably their peak within just a few years.  We saw the launch of Josie(one of the two or three best series of the 60's imo), followed by Sabrina and stories featuring the gang with super powers as well as Man From R.I.V.E.R.D.A.L.E.. By mid-decade the writers were adding more story elements beyond dating and school hijinks and incorporating real world social issues and current trends as never before.  To that end, DeCarlo was always keen on the fashion element with the teen girls, but now we had artist's Lucey and Hartley(in particular) showing the characters dressed in contemporary youth clothing and hairstyles, with the boys included as well.

Lest I forget, Bingo (Sam and crew) and Valerie also came along before that decades end.

Quote from: Jabroniville on June 26, 2016, 03:49:30 AM
Ooh, thought of another one:

Big Ethel- Part 1: A) The psychotic, obsessive, "Lena Hyena"-esque stalker out to tackle Jughead and force kisses upon him, or B) Modern-day "sadly mooning over the boy who doesn't like her" Ethel.

Big Ethel- Part 2: A) Old-school, hideous Ethel, or B) Modern-Day, Pretty Ethel.

I'd go with "A" in both instances.  Ethel (followed closely by Moose) is a character who bears virtually no resemblance to who she was in appearance and behavior during her first several decades of existence. Cheryl and Reggie have similarly had their character traits watered down over the past twenty years or so, but not to the extreme of Ethel.

The kindler, gentler ACP pushed so many established characters towards homogenization since the 90's while at the same time introducing dozens of new supporting cast members who were never really developed but only given one or two token reasons to make them interesting.  Kevin is probably the best developed of any new character since Cheryl, and he still has a ways to go imo.

I'm thinking only of the classic Archie universe and not the reboot or LWA.

My ranking has changed slightly from the thread in 2012.

1. Jughead
2. Betty
3. Veronica
4. Archie
5. Reggie

Over the past few years I'm finding I enjoy the Veronica character more and more and she's moved past Archie at this point.  As I've read more and more of Dan Parent's take on the character I've begun to view her differently.  She's still spoiled and self-indulgent, but Dan's given her a softer and more sensitive side and I find her more relatable.  I also find the Veronica of the last decade or so to be funnier .  I recently re-read two stories where she tries to start a new fashion fad, one where she's wearing cardboard boxes as a skirt or head covering, and the other where she's wearing a giant cowbell and the other Riverdale girls follow her lead.  I guess I appreciate Dan's sense of humor.

Jughead is still far and away my favorite, and Reggie never seems to have much to say or do when he does appear, so I don't see those two moving up or down on my list anytime soon.

As for the reboot Archie, I'm still trying to accept the new changes we've been presented with.  I don't find any of the five particulary compelling at this point.  Possibly after a few story arcs should the titles stick around for awhile.

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on September 15, 2016, 06:28:45 AM
No "all of the above"? I have read and collected all of those genres (and others).

And what about manga, or are you specifically dis-including foreign comics genres? Some might might roughly be categorized in one of the traditional American comics genres, but many would not fit (for example, Lone Wolf & Cub), so maybe a catch-all genre for manga?

I added Manga to the poll.  I didn't want to split genres up too much, as there can be quite a bit of overlap as you well know.  "Humor" as an example could include Archie, Hot Stuff, Mad, and the Inferior 5. All quite different comics, but I'd think they all fit comfortably in the humor category.

What genres of comic books do you most prefer to read or collect?  Archie would of course fall under the "Humor" category. 

I miss the old "Complain about work" thread which was a pretty cool journal of Tuxedo Mark's day to day and weekly experiences as a retail sales associate.

And Cosmo, I remember Murphy's Mart.  It was an anchor along with Sears at my local mall.  I remember getting t-shirts printed there and they had a big selection of pop culture posters we'd always check out.  They had a lunch counter as well as the typical "five & dime" stuff ala K-Mart.

Achenar!  Set up a poll so we can see a ranking.  Allow voters to pick two(or three) from the list.  The cream will rise to the top.

Quote from: irishmoxie on September 11, 2016, 11:53:27 AM
I wonder if whoever puts these collections together gets points for using stories that have already been used recently.

I think it was Suzanna R. who used to post here that mentioned the only policy for Digest story selections be that every story was at least five years old.  I think in prior years the bulk of their readership was regular readers buying the 32-pagers and maybe the digests were for the casual fan and that person wasn't buying multiple digests each month. Obviously there's now more reprints than new material so it's frustrating for those of us who buy the larger books.