Quote from: archiecomicscollector on January 31, 2019, 01:21:24 PM
I bought The U.S. of Archie by Peter Pan Records, c. 1975 from my local antique mall.

I always wondered what the guys at Filmation were thinking with that one. I mean sure, for about a year and half the whole country was going crazy with "bicentennial fever" or whatever you want to call it, and the U.S. government was marketing the flag-waving patriotic celebration concept like nobpdy's business.

Still, you had to figure the hard-headed business guys in TV production knew how these things work, and that those animated shows were only profitable to the extent that you could get the maximum amount of mileage out of them as reruns. Naturally after the bicentennial was over anything tied in with it was going to seem stale and dated, so... what were they thinking? Kids were only going to put up with an "educational" Archie show about U.S. history as long as the bicentennial fever raged on. And indeed, the U.S. of Archie had nothing like the shelf-life of the Filmation Archie cartoons that had come before it (except for maybe TV Funnies, another odd mismatch of two disparate ideas, which also didn't play well in reruns).

That makes merchandise items specifically spawned by The U.S. of Archie incarnation exceptionally rare. Got (or know of) any items specifically merchandised from Archie's T.V. Funnies?

ADDENDUM:  I was just scrounging around the net, looking for more info on this MONICA TEEN thing, and came across these images. Not to be outdone by Archie teaming up with KISS or BATMAN '66, Monica and her friends had crossovers with Astro Boy (and other Osamu Tezuka characters) and more recently, the Justice League. Seems doubtful that we'll ever get to see those reprinted in Papercutz' CHARMZ series, though.



Also: "Summer Fun" issues are never a bad thing...

MONICA ADVENTURES VOL. 1 & 2 (PapercutZ/CharmZ) - It's hard to describe exactly what this is, but I'll give it a shot. First of all, to call it by its correct (Brazilian) title, it's really MONICA TEEN; what that means is it's a 2008 spinoff of the long-running (since 1963) Brazilian (kid gang) comic MONICA. So, it's like if LITTLE ARCHIE had been the original, and they only thought up "Teen Archie" in 2008. The original MONICA strip is in the tradition of kid comics like L.A. or Peanuts or Dennis the Menace -- but extremely simply drawn. Monica Teen ages the characters into their (early, it looks like) teens, and completely changes the art style to something vaguely manga-esque (certain aspects of the style here actually remind me of Gisele's art -- not completely a manga style, but incorporating a lot of manga elements to it). The covers attracted me here, and while I don't think the interior artwork looks quite as good as the covers, it's still an attractive style. It's hard to say who the main artist(s) are here, because credits given on the books are... unusual, by American standards. At any rate, what we have here is a young teenage rom-com, with occasional callbacks to the original (kid version) strip, MONICA. These are a little over 100 pages for $8.99, BUT they're in black-and-white. Personally I'd rather have paid a couple bucks more retail cover price for color, but maybe the original had no color for them to pass along pre-made separations, so it would have made the books cost more like $12.99 to hire an American colorist to do that. For some odd reason, Papercutz opted to translate Monica Teen Volumes 3 and 7 from 2012 (and renumber them 1 and 2 in the MONICA ADVENTURES series). These are still basically comedic stories, despite the rom-com angle. There's an element of 'will they or won't they?' with a text afterword in the second volume in which the creator of Monica speculates about how romantic commitment seems to affect various famous comic strip couples. MONICA is credited as being one of the most successful and long-running comics in Brazil, and has been exported to other countries. I wonder if I don't get a slight impression that (like Archie) fading popularity of the original led to the creation of Monica Teen (in a completely different, more contemporary, style of cartooning) in 2008 (the original version still continues though). At any rate, it's this spinoff that interests me because of its similarities to Archie, not the original Monica strip. I would buy further volumes of this, if there are any, from Papercutz.





REGGIE AND ME VOL. 1 TP - Or should I say, "Reggie and Me Classic", not to be confused with that piece of [censored] ACP published as a miniseries a couple of years back now. Of the 36 Reggie stories in this collection, 13 were drawn by Al Hartley; 8 were drawn by Bob Bolling; 8 were drawn by Bill Vigoda; 3 were drawn by Bob White; and one each was drawn by Harry Lucey, Samm Schwartz, Stan Goldberg, and Dick Malmgren. The usual mix of writers include Frank Doyle, Al Hartley, Bob Bolling, and George Gladir. Stories cover a span of over 50 issues, from #20 (Oct. 1966) to #73 (Sep. 1974). This is a good point to mention an awareness on my part that these stories are being specially selected (or de-selected) by the editor. That would be either Jaime Lee Rotante (credited as "Editor") or Carlos Antunes (credited as "Associate Editor"). One of THOSE people specifically chose to DIS-include the "Reggie as Evilheart" stories that lead off REGGIE AND ME issues 19 through 23, which kind of burns my butt. And I guess I could complain retroactively that the Superteen stories were left out of the BETTY & ME collection as well, and the Pureheart stories left out of the LIFE WITH ARCHIE volume. The latter two don't bother me as much, as those stories have been reprinted elsewhere... but the Evilheart stories are rarely ever reprinted. And I could say that the overall high quality of the stories in the BETTY AND ME volume made the lack of Superteen stories included less noticable. BUT I was really looking forward to seeing those Evilheart stories. There better be a couple of Archie superhero trade collections down the road somewhere. An "Archie 1" collection would be nice, too, seeing as how they left those stories out of the EVERYTHING'S ARCHIE volume altogether. You can bet dollars to donuts you won't be seeing a collection of "The Best of CHUCK CLAYTON" stories that they specifically sorted out of the ARCHIE AT RIVERDALE HIGH collection. That was pretty much the only opportunity C.C. would have had for a 'classic collection', but they decided to give him the bum's rush.




BETTY & VERONICA JUMBO COMICS DIGEST #270 - This is the "Valentine's Day" issue, such as it is (only one story, alas). The BETTY & ME section is back, and I marvel and the number of Dan DeCarlo stories that they've been able to dredge up from that title (many of which are still fresh to me). My impression was that DDC didn't do all that many B&M stories after the earliest issues, as he quickly got busy as both the line-wide cover artist for ACP, double-duty on the B&V spinoff issues of Archie Giant Series, and (by the mid-1970s) taking over pencilling on the Archie newspaper strip. Cheryl Blossom's stories continue as reprints, in a chronological progression, towards the back of the issue, which is another feature I always look forward to.

Quote from: rusty on January 26, 2019, 11:31:50 PM
Future Quest Presents 1-12 - These stories were a lot of fun.  I wouldn't mind seeing an ongoing series with some of these characters or another anthology series.  The Jeff Parker written stories were probably my favorites here.  The Space Ghost three parter was nice in both art and story.

Totally agree. I didn't particularly care for Parker's version of an update on Mightor, but aside from that, good work all around.

Quote from: rusty on January 26, 2019, 11:31:50 PM
Looney Tunes 238-246 - This series is still fun, even if some of the stories are reprints.  They are from so long ago that they seem new.  I did see one funny accident, though, where they included the indicia from the issue that was being reprinted as part of the story page.  This series is now tied in terms of # of issues with the original Dell title.  That tie will be broken soon.

I believe that makes Looney Tunes currently DC's longest-running contiguously-numbered title (since April 1994). By that I mean a title which you can actually find each of the 247 (as of this week) issues, numbered as such. As opposed to those titles that later revert to their original legacy numbering after having been re-numbered as #1 at some point. Of course DC has had many titles which numbered higher than 247 in its history prior to 2011, but Looney Tunes and Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? were the only titles to survive the New 52 reboot/renumber and are still continuing with their original numbering.

Quote from: rusty on January 26, 2019, 11:31:50 PM
Scooby-Doo Team Up 20-45 - This series is a lot of fun with the Scooby Gang meeting a different DC or Hanna-Barbera character or group in each issue.  Sholly Fisch does a nice job writing this and even maintains some continuity.  The art is pretty good, too.

Boy, do I EVER agree! Scooby-Doo Team-Up has been my favorite DC title for the last few years. What is more amazing than that is the fact that prior to this series, I was NOT that huge a fan of Scooby-Doo. If not for Sholly Fisch, this could have been a fairly ordinary kids title. And it hasn't gotten stale, either, not even after all this time.

Quote from: rusty on January 26, 2019, 11:31:50 PM
Of course, there are those boxes of graphic novels and collections that have accumulated plus 6000+ back issues yet to be read...

Same here. I don't know of an actual count on the back issues for me, but the boxes of graphic novels and collections are pretty staggering.

The relevant question would be, what did Sears or K-Mart have that was better (either in terms of quality or selection) or cheaper than what you could get at Walmart, Best Buy, or any of those other places? In its heyday (which were the catalog years), Sears had Craftsman tools and its home furnishing department, along with one of the biggest selections of appliances. Somehow that changed over the last 25 years in terms of how competitive they were on quality or price, I guess. Maybe a lot of that stuff got undercut by Home Depot and stores like it on the rise.

BETTY & VERONICA JUMBO COMICS DIGEST #269 - In the Sabrina section, there are two different stories featuring Head Witch Della, in which she's drawn very differently. In one (by Bob Bolling), Della looks almost like Marvel's Scarlet Witch (from The Avengers). In the following story, (drawn by Dan DeCarlo) while her costume looks about the same as always, her hairstyle (short) and facial features (especially the detailed way her eyes are drawn) make her look completely different than usual.

B & V FRIENDS JUMBO COMICS DIGEST #267 - In addition to the usual Josie section, replacing the recently-seen Betty & Me section in this issue is "The Girl From R.I.V.E.R.D.A.L.E." - a pleasant surprise to me.

BETTY & VERONICA FRIENDS FOREVER - GO TO WORK #1 (the indicia admits it's actually B&VFF#4, though)

ARCHIE MODERN CLASSICS VOLUME ONE - What exactly is in this, you might wonder? All of the new 5-page lead stories published in all of the ongoing Archie digest titles in 2018. For $10. The stories are so recent that it contains not only all four of the same stories reprinted from the B&V digests that were in BETTY & VERONICA FRIENDS FOREVER - GO TO WORK #1 (which is also out this week), but even the new lead story from BETTY & VERONICA JUMBO COMICS DIGEST #269 (which came out only two weeks ago!).

Previously (in 2016, 2017, and 2018 respectively) ACP had made available the digital-only collections ARCHIE: THE BEST OF 2015/2016/2017 DIGEST ANNUAL, which were pretty much the same thing (as far as I can tell -- I don't actually have them, because I own ALL the print digests that ACP published in those years). So in this volume you get ten 5-page lead stories from ARCHIE JUMBO COMICS DIGEST, ten 5-page lead stories from BETTY & VERONICA JUMBO COMICS DIGEST, ten 5-page lead stories from ARCHIE AND ME COMICS DIGEST, nine 5-page lead stories from B & V FRIENDS JUMBO COMICS DIGEST (because that's all they published in 2018), and ten 5-page lead stories from WORLD OF ARCHIE JUMBO COMICS DIGEST. Now, this worked out fortuitously for me, due to my earlier decision at the beginning of 2018 to stop getting the ARCHIE, ARCHIE AND ME, and WORLD OF ARCHIE digest titles. I had grown bored with the reprints in those titles, as there was nothing particularly noteworthy or interesting about them -- for the last half of 2017, I'd only been getting them for those new 5-page lead stories, but now that not all the stories were being drawn by Dan Parent, I decided to stop getting those titles. I figured I'd probably just have to break down and BUY a digital collection of ARCHIE: THE BEST OF 2018 DIGEST ANNUAL at some point later, but here ACP went and made things easy for me to get all those new Archie 5-page lead stories that I missed from the three Archie digests in 2018. So... Yay!! And remember, if you were thinking of buying BETTY & VERONICA FRIENDS FOREVER - GO TO WORK #1 for $2.99, all of those stories are in this collection as well as all of the stories from the previous three issues of BETTY & VERONICA FRIENDS FOREVER (for $9.99). I'm still going to keep on getting all the classic B&V titles that ACP publishes, because I like the reprints, as well as the new stories. But now I get to catch up on all those new 5-page lead Archie stories that I missed last year. On a side note, the book is physically larger than the normal digest page size (about the same width as those "Archie Comics Presents..." trade paperbacks, but for some reason, about half an inch shorter). I believe the last time they used this size paperback was back when they published ARCHIE'S EVEN FUNNIER KIDS' JOKE BOOK.

Hey, remember a couple of years back when they did THIS 12-issue limited Jumbo Comics digest series?



And does anybody also remember that the "anniversary celebration" turned out to be nothing but a reprinting of all the stories from the Best of Archie Comics trade paperbacks (4 volumes at the time, plus one starring B&V), spread out and mixed up over the course of twelve 192-page digest issues? Yup, that's exactly what it was, nothing more, nothing less. Dum-dum that I was then, I trusted ACP and pre-subscribed to the digest series, only to discover it would contain NO reprints I hadn't already read before in the Best of Archie Comics series.

And NOW they've got a NEW 12-issue limited digest series.


Archie Milestones Jumbo Comics Digest. It's 192 pages for $6.99, and is described by ACP as "Archie Comics has been around for over 75 years, and we've had our finger on the pulse of pop culture the entire time! This new digest series' first issue will highlight some of the biggest trends in each decade of Archie—including fun parodies, classic stories and even some cute 'n' cuddly pals!"  Call me suspicious, but the phrases "pop culture", "biggest trends in each decade" and "fun parodies" seem to evoke memories of the stories collected in the ARCHIE AMERICANA series of trade paperbacks -- already presented before in THREE different formats: the original standard-sized TPs, of which there were two volumes each from the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s; a later hardcover reprinting from IDW that collected the individual volumes from the 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s into four hardcover collections, and yet another TP series (this time in the same size trade trim as The Best of Archie Comics) which collected both the 40s & 50s into a single Golden Age volume, both the 60s & 70s into a single Silver Age volume, and both the 80s & 90s into a single Bronze Age volume. I'll bet dollars to donuts that's exactly what this new series of digests is -- yet another recycling of those stories again (probably mixed up so that you don't get all the stories from the same decades in the same issues).

Let the buyer beware!

Quote from: rusty on January 17, 2019, 08:04:11 PM

United States of Murder Inc. 1-4 - This is another holdover from Icon and is about the first female assassin in a particular mob family.  I like the book more than Scarlet, though not as much as the other two series.  It has potential.


The move to DC seems to have done good things for Bendis and deadlines on his indie books so far.

I liked the first US of Murder Inc series, way back when, but missed the new one when it came out (probably will get the trade collection at some point, though). But where is POWERS? That's the only one I really wanted to see. Or is it over for good, after a few different hiatuses and publishers?

Quote from: Wrial Huden on January 16, 2019, 06:10:21 PM
I posted about this story I'm looking for a few years ago with no luck.


It was probably published around '79 or '80.


The setup: Archie and Reggie spend the night at one of their homes (I don't remember which) with the intention of heading out early in the morning to go fishing/camping.  Both sleep in the same bed, but there's little in the way of sleep as a series of mishaps occur thanks to Archie.  The story ends with Archie bound and gagged lying flat in the bed while Reggie faces the other way to go to sleep.

I found what I believe is a panel from the story.  If it looks familiar, any help locating the issue # would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks!

It was already pretty kinky before you went and mentioned that there was bondage involved too. 

Why don't you just ask Ted Parsnips where he got that image from? Oh wait, he posted that back when "The Death of Archie" was first media-blitzed (http://www.tedparsnips.com/archie-archie-andrews-where-are-you-the-morgue/ )  -- so, 2014 -- and hasn't posted anything else on his blog since March of 2017. So... nevermind, then.

From the thin-ness of the plot, it sounds like either a one-page or two-page gag, so my money would be on an issue of REGGIE'S WISE GUY JOKES. #48 through 55 were the last issues, published in 1979 and 1980. Maybe that narrows it down a little. Since it does sound vaguely familiar, I may have actually read this (because that's how I read those Joke Books, barely paying attention or batting an eye).

Quote from: Captain Jetpack on January 14, 2019, 06:56:34 AM
No reply from Mr Parent.


Any leads elsewhere?

Give it time. He's got a pretty heavy schedule, between his comic work, conventions, and commissions. I believe he and Fernando are still working on getting Kickstarter rewards packages out to supporters of the last DKD series. As I mentioned, AFAIK Dan's the only one who is (or was) selling those prints. At one time or another I might have seen one or two of those as T-shirt designs, but I couldn't tell you where.

That is a lot of typing. "And a time to every purpose under heaven."

I guess it must help to be a big fan of sliding timelines. Unless any of those things were actually referenced in a story somewhere, it's all just contextual window-dressing to me. In fact, I think a list of the actual contemporaneous cultural references made in Archie stories would seem a lot more interesting, but that's just me.

In contrast, I was just reflecting on Marvel's characters Captain America (and Bucky), Human Torch (the original android one), and Sub-Mariner. Those are some of my favorite characters at Marvel, in large part because their histories from the 1940s haven't changed (continuity implants/untold tales aside) in the 80 years of Marvel's publishing history. They're still referencing things that happened to them during WWII. I guess when they revived those characters in the 1960s they could have just said they were 20 or 25 years older than all the newer superheroes, and kept that gap sliding forward, but I doubt if I'd have liked those characters as much if they had. INVADERS #1 (2019) came out this week (written by Chip "Jughead" Zdarsky, coincidentally) -- the first salvo in Marvel's 80th Anniversary celebration. It made me go back and read some of the old Golden Age issues of Marvel Mystery Comics. Well, the Marvel Masterworks reprint collections, anyway. I wish DC would bring back the Justice Society.

Quote from: ASS-P on January 12, 2019, 04:12:49 PM
...Stan worked with Dan DeCarlo lots, of course - and probably much more with Stan Goldberg !!!!!!!!!!! - on Archiesque material!   I think this includes a short-lived Marvel title from the turn of the 70s titled EVERYTHING HAPPENS TO HARVEY!!!!!!!!!

That could have been an alternate POV title for Sabrina the Teenage Witch. 

Quote from: rusty on January 17, 2019, 12:11:20 AM
I'm caught up on the mainstream DCs now, except for a few that arrived in my latest shipment.

Heroes in Crisis 1-4 - I'm a bit conflicted on this series.  It hasn't been bad, but I don't really like some of the characterizations.  The deaths also seem kind of pointless.  We'll see where it goes and what the underlying secrets are behind the deaths.  It reminds me a bit of Sue Dibny's death way back when.

DC's been going off the rails for a while now with their pointless, brutal deaths... seemingly just to prove they can. Y'know, all so they can erase that "squeaky clean heroes" DC image that they used to have, and be taken seriously as a purveyor of grim & gritty fiction as-you-like-it. Ya know, just because something worked a few times (The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, Hellblazer) doesn't mean you should keep trying to recapture that mood ad infinitum.

Quote from: rusty on January 17, 2019, 12:11:20 AM
Mystik U 1-3 - A younger Zatanna goes to magic school and meets John Constantine, Sargon and others.  I liked this miniseries quite a bit.

I didn't know what to make of it. Wait, Constantine was in this?? Are you sure? That wouldn't make much sense, even as a continuity implant or a parallel earth. I'm going to say it must have been some alternate, parallel DC earth; that's the only thing that makes any real sense. I really wanted to like it, but couldn't.

Quote from: rusty on January 17, 2019, 12:11:20 AM
Wonder Woman 25-61, Annual 2 - This series has been pretty solid.  I think the Robinson run was my favorite, but the others are good, too.  I think we'll see Diana's brother return at some point.  There is still a lot that can be explored there.

I wish. But I doubt it. I don't know if Robinson somehow burned bridges with the WW editor or if he was just the victim of a general line-wide reshuffling, but it seemed like the book took a pretty immediate change in direction following his departure. Too bad. Greg Rucka's New 52 WW had some interesting stuff, but was way too hard to follow (and it didn't help that it was essentially two different alternating storylines for its first year). Robinson's run was the first to make me feel like the character was back on track, and it was nice to see a follow-up to the whole Darkseid reborn thing in Justice League. Too bad he couldn't have stayed on WW for a few years.

Quote from: rusty on January 17, 2019, 12:11:20 AM
Jinxworld, Vertigo, the kids titles and other DC imprints are next.

Vertigo is like a whole 'nother imprint since the New 52 thing (and nowhere near as good). And now DC has a new one, Wonder Comics. Not sure what the aim is there, but it's another Bendis-spearheaded initiative that appears to be going for a slightly younger demographic (only *slightly*, mind you). Still haven't figured out if the new Young Justice is part of the regular DCU or some parallel earth.

Quote from: archiecomicscollector on January 12, 2019, 07:00:14 PM
Very true! I love the hunt, but its becoming harder and harder to find items for my collection in antique stores. I do however seem to come across A LOT of Archie-themed Welch's jelly glasses and McDonald's Happy Meal toys.

Those Welch's glasses are fairly common. It seems like they made several series of those over a few years, during the height of the Filmation cartoons' popularity. They were fairly durable, and people did actually tend to save them and keep them in decent condition.

I was not aware of any Archie McDonald's Happy Meal toys, however. As far I know, the McD Happy Meal toys didn't really become a going 'thing' until the early-to-mid '80s, which would have been beyond the peak awareness period (late 60s to late 70s) for the Archie characters. You may or may not know anything about this, but as far as I can tell there's never been any sort of guide book for Archie collectibles. If you have any photos of those Happy Meal toys, I'd love to see them.

Quote from: rusty on January 06, 2019, 10:31:50 PMDC Beach Blanket Bad Guys Summer Special 1, Holiday Special 2017 1, House of Horror 1, Nuclear Winter Special 1 - These 80 page giants are a lot more expensive than the ones from the 1960s.  Overall, pretty decent collections of short stories.

These things always strike me as the 'Chinese food' of comic books. As in, when next Wednesday rolls around, you won't remember a thing you read in them. I liked the Swamp Thing Winter Special, though. There was also a Walmart exclusive one-shot Swamp Thing Special, which was a good mix of classic reprints with a couple of new stories for (IIRC) $6.

Quote from: rusty on January 06, 2019, 10:31:50 PMDeadman 1-6 - I enjoyed this series, but I think Neal Adams is better as an artist than as a writer.

But it could still be argued that THIS series was better-written than the original Deadman series. At least it attempts to bring some logic and some background to a lot of the unanswered questions (or poorly-thought-out explanations) of the original series. Actually, I was surprised because I didn't know WHAT to make of Adams' BATMAN: ODYSSEY series. That was like some completely different Batman that I'd never read before. On the other hand, Neal Adams DID take over the writing of the original Deadman series from its 8th issue after Arnold Drake and Jack Miller, and wrote the last 5 issues, so my POV would be that he knows the character better than anyone at DC ever did. None of the post-Adams Deadman storylines ever amounted to anything. I thought Adams set up a very interesting premise in the miniseries, but was disappointed that the last issue ended with the storyline unresolved.

Quote from: rusty on January 06, 2019, 10:31:50 PMDoomsday Clock 1-7 - This has been a pretty good sequel of sorts to Watchmen.  I've enjoyed the interaction between the DC Universe and the Watchmen Universe.

If it were true to the original premise of Watchmen, the DC universe would end up irrevocably altered by the events of this story. But I think we all know that ISN'T going to happen, which makes me wonder if there's really any point. I'm enjoying the ride so far, but can there really ever be any sort of satisfying climax and resolution? It seems pretty doubtful.