Quote from: invisifan on May 23, 2016, 10:05:33 AM

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on May 23, 2016, 05:58:56 AM

Quote from: daren on May 23, 2016, 03:57:06 AM
It's true. I wish we could have both but classic somewhat discontinuous Archie is way more important.

I forgot to add that after the 1987 volume 2 'soft reboot' (so soft it went undetected by most readers apart from the numbering), continuity was not only allowed but seemingly encouraged. Yet even so, ACP didn't totally abandon the earlier flexibility of cartoon reality, so in a way, you got the benefits of both, by not applying the idea of 'continuity' TOO strictly -- but this period is where you first began to see footnotes acknowledging the events of previous stories.

Note, for example, that this is the period where stories too at-variance with 'standard Archie' became specifically delineated as "fictional" -- a play put on by The Mighty Archie Art Players, where previously, the exact same type of story (taking place in another time period, or parodying a movie or book) would have just appeared with no attempt to justify their anomalous nature.

The whole cartoon reality thing (as you define it — I'd really look for a different term though, that one's taken) applied to comics in general until the Silver Age when Marvel especially, and DC more hesitantly, began to do footnotes & backrefs to establish continuity ... Archie was just a little late to the game ... and DC frequently branded soon of their better stories which would have substantially changed the status quo as "imaginary" (where later they'd get an "Elseworlds" brand) ...

No. Archie's "reality" was always more loosely defined than DC's (and pre-Marvel Timely/Atlas). Not so much because of continuity, but because Archie was always more of a cartoon character, as opposed to DC and Marvel's adventure characters. Would Batman and Robin, for example, in 1958 appear in a story where (for no reason ever even attempted to explain) they are suddenly dressing and acting like beatniks? No, that gets accepted by readers of Archie comics at that time, because it's a cartoon. There's no need to explain why. Just like for no reason the Archie gang could appear in a story where (again, no attempt at ANY explanation) they are living in ancient Roman times. THAT is cartoon reality. Y'know, like Bugs Bunny.

Quote from: Captain Jetpack on May 23, 2016, 07:24:36 AM
Not if it was the Disney Octopus.
Nor Marvel.

Same octopus, different tentacle. 

Quote from: daren on May 23, 2016, 03:57:06 AM
It's true. I wish we could have both but classic somewhat discontinuous Archie is way more important.

I forgot to add that after the 1987 volume 2 'soft reboot' (so soft it went undetected by most readers apart from the numbering), continuity was not only allowed but seemingly encouraged. Yet even so, ACP didn't totally abandon the earlier flexibility of cartoon reality, so in a way, you got the benefits of both, by not applying the idea of 'continuity' TOO strictly -- but this period is where you first began to see footnotes acknowledging the events of previous stories.

Note, for example, that this is the period where stories too at-variance with 'standard Archie' became specifically delineated as "fictional" -- a play put on by The Mighty Archie Art Players, where previously, the exact same type of story (taking place in another time period, or parodying a movie or book) would have just appeared with no attempt to justify their anomalous nature.

Quote from: Chic Cooper on May 22, 2016, 04:38:17 PM

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on May 20, 2016, 05:17:06 PMMark Waid pushed for a Batman '66/Archie team-up, but it's hard for me to imagine how that would work. I'm not feeling the vibe between those two.

He might have been thinking a Batman '66/Pureheart-Super Teen-Captain Hero plot, which would work just fine.

I'd buy that!

Quote from: daren on May 23, 2016, 04:21:53 AM
Thanks De! The second one sucks, didn't it happen on the old board too though?

Nope. Back on the older iteration of SMF, you could navigate backward and forward between HTML pages using the arrow buttons, and your uncommitted/unposted text would still be there when you returned in the opposite direction, as long as you were careful not to click on another link in-between.

Quote from: SAGG on May 23, 2016, 03:21:46 AM
It's possible Space Ghost has a keen scientific mind that's helping him improve his technology. I seem to recall one of the original episodes saying an old friend of his, a scientist, was kidnapped, and he went to rescue him. I'll have to check on that....

Don't bother. Upon further reflection, the confusion stems from the fact that this is a story dealing with the "Hanna-Barbera Multiverse", so (apart from the scenes taking place on Jonny Quest's Earth) you don't get any contextual reference for where and when the scenes with the Space Force are taking place.

In thinking about it, another wrinkle I failed to consider (in light your 'Space Ghost origin' theory) is the possibility that Space Ghost is the last survivor of not only the Space Force, but of his entire universe -- he's a "ghost" from a destroyed universe that no longer exists. That would mean that the technology he brings with him from that alternate universe makes it both far advanced and totally unique in the universe he now finds himself in (Jonny Quest's universe). The resemblance of Jan and Jace's uniforms to those of the now-deceased Space Force would then become an homage by Space Ghost to his former band of brothers, making J&J the first new recruits by Space Ghost in a long-range plan to recreate the Space Force in the new universe he now finds himself in.

I'll have to go back and re-read it again with that theory in mind and see if it seems to fit.

Nope. It's SUPER-annoying, too. But you CAN fix it afterwards by modifying the post, highlighting the affected text, and re-sizing the font size to 10pt, and then removing the 'size' HTML code in brackets.

I've got an even worse one now. Twice now I've started typing some substantially-long posts, and an errant keystroke somewhere caused me to leave the page with the "post reply" message box and back up a page. When I hit the forward button to return to the page I was on with the Post Reply message box, the entire text that I'd typed earlier was just GONE.

Quote from: Thrillho on May 22, 2016, 02:23:20 PM
My ambivalence comes from the fact that it has been explicitly stated in the new Jughead that he is asexual, and that has less to do with me being against aromantic Jughead and more about me being a bit protective of classic Archie. I am 100% supportive of the reboots but one of things I loved about classic Archie was that you could find stories that fit in with stuff you liked, for example stories that supported the idea of Betty/Reggie or Jughead/Veronica (the most popular pairings here), or you could find stories that supported the opposite, if that was your thing.

You need to put the bulk of classic Archie stories into historical perspective to understand the lack of continuity. Prior to the early 1970s, when ARCHIE ANNUAL became ARCHIE COMICS DIGEST, only a tiny fraction of ACP's annual output of stories contained any reprints. In that time period, the audience was assumed to be kids, and was assumed to completely turn over every five years or so. Writers then were approaching every single story as a complete stand-alone episode, with no connection to any other story. Only the most basic knowledge of information about the characters was assumed on the part of the reader.

Thus, you got stories like the one where Archie and Jughead are looking, acting, and talking like beatniks, for no reason ever explained in the story. In the next story, they're not beatniks, they're acting like their normal selves, but three years later you get a story where Betty is acting like a beatnik (again, no explanation offered) and Archie and Jughead are their normal selves (with no reference to the earlier story about them ever having been beatniks themselves). There was an assumed cartoon reality there where almost anything could happen in a single story and remain contained to that story with no ramifications extending to the stories which followed. This logic continued to apply even when there was an entire series of stories (like the ones where Archie and Jughead become superheroes Pureheart the Powerful and Captain Hero, or were secret agents for P.O.P.), yet outside of their own titles, no reader was expected to wonder why Archie didn't deal with a situation in some other story by simply turning into Pureheart and solving his problem.

Now we have an older audience of readers that wants and expects continuity from issue to issue, and between different titles that feature the same characters as well. Not only are the reboots accounting for that expectation on the part of the reader, they're also taking into account that those same readers expect a greater level of realism in handling the characters -- less "cartoon reality". All of this is largely accepted by today's comic readers as a great improvement over the "elastic"/changeable quality of the characters in earlier stories, but I'm convinced that removing that freedom from the writers also impoverishes the spectrum of the type of stories that can be told using the same basic characters. It's one of the essential built-in charms of those earlier classic Archie stories.

Quote from: Puaiohi on May 22, 2016, 10:27:50 PM
Anyone know how I can contact someone who has drawn official Archie art that would accept a commission? 


I really need a character in the archie style! <3

You can post a message for Dan Parent over on his website, giving him a general idea of what you have in mind (head shot, full length figure, multiple figures, background, etc.) and ask him what he'd charge for it.

http://danparent.com/?page_id=13

...or just contact him directly, that might be faster.
http://danparent.com/?page_id=72

Quote from: Chic Cooper on May 23, 2016, 01:05:28 AM
Thanks DeCarlo Rules (he does) for the tips. On with the show.

Crazy Betty/Villainous Veronica, I love you so.
"If I wasn't so infatuated with him, I'd KILL HIM!" To which I reply: what's taking you so long?







Not on your mink lined bath tub? Who says this? Besides our Betty, that is.

I think you missed Page 5 in there somewhere? Before Betty spazzes out on Ronnie at the beginning of the last page, isn't there a page where she asks (or strongly implies) that she'd like Betty to do something for her?

Quote from: SAGG on May 22, 2016, 11:20:51 PM

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on May 22, 2016, 05:37:19 AM

Quote from: SAGG on May 22, 2016, 05:22:44 AM

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on May 22, 2016, 03:55:31 AM

Quote from: SAGG on May 20, 2016, 11:20:06 PM
Without giving too much of a spoiler, there's an origin of one of the heroes.

So how do you interpret the scene where there's kind of a "Green Lantern Corps" wearing uniforms similar to Jan and Jace, and having some modified version of Space Ghost's power bands?

I have no earthly idea, DR.    I just see how the dude came about. Feel free to do your own interpretation...

No idea, really. Just that it left me with more of a general impression of "after Space Ghost" than "before Space Ghost". Like this group (the "Space Force" or whatever) seemed more "inspired by" than the other way around. Hope the Galaxy Trio (which always seemed to me to be a pretty straight 50/50 hybrid of the Fantastic Four and the Legion of Super-Heroes) is in the next issue.

Interesting point, though I rather thought it was straightforward. Space Ghost was a byproduct of fighting evil in honor of his departed colleagues and friends....

Well, the thing that doesn't make sense about that is that for Space Ghost to be a tech-powered superhero his technology has to be far advanced over the normal level of tech generally available, and unique. His power bands and inviso-belt can't be based on previously existing known technology that was available to groups like the Space Force, or he doesn't have enough of a technological edge over anyone else to be "super".

It's the 'trickle-down technology' concept. A parallel would be Tony Stark sharing his tech with allies who have a similar mission, like S.H.I.E.L.D. -- the Iron Man armor is bleeding-edge tech (which is what gives him an advantage and makes him a superhero), but Stark shares a more basic version of his tech with S.H.I.E.L.D. in the form of the Guardsman armor, which is a simplified, earlier-generation version of some of his older Iron Man armors designed to be manufactured in quantity and within S.H.I.E.L.D.'s armory budget.

It can be assumed that Space Ghost is training Jan and Jace as apprentice heroes to carry on his mission, and the fact that the Space Force has a similar uniform design to Jan & Jace's costumes seems to indicate the idea of a larger group carrying on those same mission goals -- like Space Ghost somehow created or inspired that group to carry on or expand on his mission of protecting the universe, and shared his technology with them or passed it down to them somehow.

Quote from: Chic Cooper on May 22, 2016, 10:17:59 PM
I'd like to contribute but I can't seem to work out how to post pictures, and I'm not a newbie or anything. When I try to upload pictures the board says they're too large & then I resize them & they're still too large? I also can't copy/paste from Photobucket or anywhere else. So...

You can absolutely share an image in your post by clicking on the "insert image" icon (bottom row, far left) and pasting in the URL for the image location. The only option for your media albums is to upload the images from your own computer (or mobile device), so you'd have to download whatever you need to upload to your media album first. It's too bad it doesn't allow you to grab an image from another site by pasting in the URL, but that's just the way it works.

Size limit for pictures in your media albums 1000x1000 pixels, so check the size of your images and reduce them to that limit or below before trying to upload.

STAR TREK: STARFLEET ACADEMY #1-5 - This is co-written by Mike Johnson, the regular writer on IDW's ongoing STAR TREK comic book series. I'm not really sure what I was expecting, probably that I'd like it, but I don't really think I expected to like it as much as I did. The story is kind of a spinoff concept for ST, and self-contained so that a reader new to the Trek universe doesn't need much background info or previous familiarity with Star Trek going into it (which is good). It's also more of an all-ages comic. Or perhaps I should say it almost seems like this could have been an animated series on Cartoon Network (it's not, but maybe it should be). If it were a novel, then it would be a Young Adult ST novel. In a way it almost feels like a modernized take on such old sci-fi television staples from the 1950s like Space Patrol or Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, although this never really occurred to me until I'd finished reading it.

The story starts with a mystery uncovered three years ago (2258) by Cadet Nyoka Uhura while she was still attending Starfleet Academy along with James Kirk, Leonard McCoy, and Spock (who is an Academy grad student-teacher at the time), as seen briefly in the early part of J.J. Abrams STAR TREK reboot film, and then flashes forward to a new group of Academy students in 2261. Most of the story focuses on them as a group representing Starfleet in a competition among students from different academies from different planets that is being held in honor of Starfleet Academy's Centennial Celebration. The mystery that Uhura discovered 3 years earlier will eventually involve the 5 students representing Starfleet Academy in a big way. The flashbacks to 2258 with Uhura and her contemporaries come up in every issue, so there are two parallel stories running, but you have to wait until the final issue to see how the whole thing connects (in retrospect the connection seems a little obvious, although I never really saw where it was going while I was reading it).

Derek Charm does a great job of drawing attractive people (and aliens), and he doesn't overwork the figures and faces with excessive lines and detail. The whole effect is pretty clean and streamlined; I have to admire an artist who has a philosophy of economy of line, but has put a lot of thought into the work to make sure every line is important and conveys all the information needed while looking good at the same time. Derek has a real facility for tweaking nuanced expression out of his characters' faces with a minimal number of lines, too. Seeing how his art works gives me a good feeling as far as him taking over JUGHEAD. The only thing I can't tell from his work here (because there are no real opportunities in this script to showcase any comedy scenes) is whether he'll be able to exaggerate his characters' facial expressions and body language enough to get the most out of the funny parts of JUGHEAD.

Quote from: SAGG on May 22, 2016, 05:22:44 AM

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on May 22, 2016, 03:55:31 AM

Quote from: SAGG on May 20, 2016, 11:20:06 PM
Without giving too much of a spoiler, there's an origin of one of the heroes.

So how do you interpret the scene where there's kind of a "Green Lantern Corps" wearing uniforms similar to Jan and Jace, and having some modified version of Space Ghost's power bands?

I have no earthly idea, DR.    I just see how the dude came about. Feel free to do your own interpretation...

No idea, really. Just that it left me with more of a general impression of "after Space Ghost" than "before Space Ghost". Like this group (the "Space Force" or whatever) seemed more "inspired by" than the other way around. Hope the Galaxy Trio (which always seemed to me to be a pretty straight 50/50 hybrid of the Fantastic Four and the Legion of Super-Heroes) is in the next issue.

Quote from: SAGG on May 20, 2016, 11:20:06 PM
Without giving too much of a spoiler, there's an origin of one of the heroes.

So how do you interpret the scene where there's kind of a "Green Lantern Corps" wearing uniforms similar to Jan and Jace, and having some modified version of Space Ghost's power bands?