Quote from: irishmoxie on May 08, 2016, 01:00:44 AM

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on May 08, 2016, 12:29:06 AM

In general, there are three or four types of FCBD comics.

Thank you, Beard of Knowledge!

There are some cases where it's easy to be fooled even if you're savvy about these things. Darby Pop Productions released a FCBD comic this year titled BRUCE LEE: THE DRAGON RISES (Special Edition) #0. This had a different cover than the BRUCE LEE: THE DRAGON RISES #1 comic book (or its variant cover version) that was released the prior month, so you'd think... based on the numbering, this must be an original prequel story taking place before the events of BL:TDR#1, right?

Well, as I opened it up to read it, I realized immediately that it was a reprint of the BL:TDR#1 that I'd just read a week or two beforehand. Furthermore, pulling out that #1 issue and comparing both comics, the FCBD #0 issue is an edited reprint of #1, from which several pages of story deemed not crucial to the basic storyline had simply been neatly dropped out so that the story could be compacted into fewer pages. Pretty tricky, but I wonder what people who picked it up, read it, and liked it, and then went to buy a copy of issue #1 (assuming they didn't scan the interior story first, before paying for it) will think about it.

Now I'm not really griping about the #0 for myself, because I got it free, so no skin off my nose. If I'd opened it up prior to leaving the store to look at the interior story, I'd have realized it was a preview/postview/reprint of a comic I'd already purchased a couple of weeks earlier (and had decided not to continue getting) and left the FCBD #0 issue for someone else to pick up. The only reason I DID pickup the FCBD #0 issue after reading BL:TDR #1 and deciding not to follow that series is that I figured I'd give the people at Darby Pop Productions a second chance to change my mind about the comic with a prequel story, since it was free.

It occurs to me that if I HADN'T already bought the #1 and decided I didn't like it all that much, and had picked up the free FCBD #0 and liked it, and thought "I should buy this comic series when issue #1 comes out", and then found issue #1 when I went to the comic shop the following week, and purchased it (without flipping through it) only to get home and realize that I'd already read the same story for free (with the exception of the 6 or 8 pages that were dropped in editing #1 down into FCBD #0), so I just paid $4 for 6-8 pages of additional story, I wonder how I'd feel about buying issue #2. Maybe picking up a FREE FCBD comic, a reader might be just excited to discover that a Bruce Lee comic existed, and since the FCBD comic was free, they might tend to be a little less critical of the story and artwork, since they didn't pay for it. If you then DO decide to pay for issue #1, you might start looking at the story and art the second time around a little more critically, since you paid $4 for it.


Another FCBD comic giveaway this year that somewhat varies from the four types I described above is DC SUPER HERO GIRLS #1. While I'm hesitant to recommend any superhero comic to you, this one is so atypical of the mainstream superhero type of comic book that I think it would fit within the parameters of the type of comic you enjoy, because it's SUPER-girlie. It's certainly the girliest (I might have just coined a new adjective there) superhero comic I've ever seen. The reason this one doesn't quite fit the four types of FCBD comics I mentioned above is that it's in the format of a regular size and page-count floppy comic book, while the story pages that it previews are taken from (or at least I believe they are) an original paperback graphic novel (128 pages) that retails (on Amazon) for $5.59, DC SUPER HERO GIRLS: FINALS CRISIS. It's based on a line of superhero fashion dolls for girls designed and marketed by Mattel. The main characters are Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Batgirl, Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, and a plethora of other female DC characters, all re-imagined as teenagers attending Super Hero High, a school where they'll learn the skills needed to graduate into careers as young adult superheroes. (As for why super-villainesses like Catwoman and the others would be attending such a school, I can't tell you. I guess they're really still too young in this series to be deemed menaces to society as yet.) No more than a casual familiarity with any of those characters is really necessary for the reader, as the versions here don't necessarily adhere to specific details and backstories of the original comic book versions. The whole thing is aimed at young girls (who would be the target audience for Mattel's dolls) and drawn in the animated cartoon style (there's an accompanying YouTube channel with webisodes that act as an animated counterpart to the comic version as well, that will give you the exact flavor of the concept of the comic). You might consider ordering a copy of that FCBD comic if Midtown comics offers the FCBD issues as freebies with some minimal purchase from them, or at some nominal fee like a dollar or two.

There may be hardly a month that goes by that I don't give up on reading some title or titles, because I'm always adding new things to my list, so older comics series where my initial interest has faded after some time need to be 'pruned' from my reading list to make way for new ones.

Quote from: irishmoxie on May 07, 2016, 10:21:14 PM
Thanks for the offer. I don't necessarily need people to send me comics. I'm just wondering if they are worth picking up. I remember last October, someone on here told me the Archie from FCBD was a story that had already been printed. They don't make a list of what's in the comic easily available online that I can see. As Jon commented above, I didn't know a Betty story was in the CBLDF one. So now I'll probably look for that one as well.

I wouldn't worry too much about the Betty story in the CBLDF comic. It's only a single page. Last year's CBLDF comic had a brand-new 6-page Kevin Keller story not available anywhere else.

In general, there are three or four types of FCBD comics. Some of them, like ARCHIE #1, are near-exact reprints of comics that were already released commercially (and usually you can tell those because they have the same cover art used on the earlier consumer retail-priced comic). I don't know if the FCBD Archie #1 contains the classic reprint in the back that was in ARCHIE #1 from July 2015, but I suspect probably not. If you're familiar with the product put out by the company who produced the FCBD comic, you'll usually recognize this type as a reprint comic. A couple of years ago, ACP released a reprint of AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE #1 as a giveaway comic to be handed out at Halloween ComicFest (a smaller counterpart to FCBD that occurs in October), that didn't contain the reprinted material from the original #1 in the back.

The second type offers some type of (usually edited down) preview of a new comic book series coming soon, or may contain several pages of previews from more than one upcoming comic book. These would be similar to the digital previews of titles you see online, usually just enough pages to give you the flavor of the story, ending with something like "To Be Continued In ... Coming Soon!"

The third type is the most important type, composed of all original material created especially for that FCBD giveaway comic. Sometimes that might be something like a #0 issue, a prequel to an important (to the publisher) new upcoming series or storyline or comic book crossover 'event'. Or just an original material story promoting a new comic book coming from that publisher soon. Sometimes it will tip you off at the end of the story, directing you to look for a specific #1 (usually) issue of a new comic.

A fourth type might be an anthology of original shorter prequel stories that looks similar to the second type, but those stories are exclusive originals for FCBD, promoting upcoming comics. These can be the most difficult to distinguish from the second type until after the fact, when you can look at a FCBD comic and compare it to the later comics that came out from that publisher featuring those characters, and determine whether the stories were previews of upcoming comics, or original stories.

Quote from: BettyReggie on May 07, 2016, 06:48:20 PM
I love to preorder comics because it something to foward to. It's a joy to look forward to it. That's way I have the thread about What dates us Archie fans are looking forward to.

Oh, I know what you mean about looking forward to things. I just meant that preordering digital comics doesn't give you any special advantage over anyone else in getting the comic any sooner. You still have to wait as long as the people who didn't preorder for the day and hour it's officially released.

Quote from: irishmoxie on May 07, 2016, 06:19:12 PM
Did anybody get the Boom, Strawberry Shortcake, Grumpy Cat, Camp Midnight, or Hilda for FCBD? Are they worth getting from Midtown or ebay? I couldn't go because I have to pack up my stuff to move at the end of the month.

Also if you got some good hauls or if there were any good deals. Please share. I'll make it to FCBD one of these years...

Well, it seems a bit late to mention your wish list now, as most people have already been to FCBD if they were going to go, but maybe we should give some thought to that kind of thing ahead of time next year. I'm sure there are a number of people here who do go who might be willing to pick up (a reasonable number) of extra FCBD comics for those who were interested but couldn't make it, if the wish-lister was willing to pay for postage. Just an idea to mull over for next time.


I think if you'd mentioned that list yesterday I might have been able to pick most of those up.

Quote from: irishmoxie on May 07, 2016, 06:24:24 PM
I preorder stuff all the time. Don't judge.    It gives you something to look forward to. Plus you get to read it as soon as it's released at midnight, 2 am, etc. Why do people like to line up outside for Star Wars movies??? I also like to put a reminder on my calendar when certain comics are going to be released for the same reason. 


I don't use Comixology unless I have to (the comic is sometimes cheaper there or it's cheaper on Amazon or if it's only available on Comixology) because I don't like the app. Plus Comixology makes you wait til the business day to read the comic i.e. not at midnight. It's harder to swipe to turn the page on Comixology versus Kindle. Go figure.

I'm not judging anyone. I just am trying to wrap my brain around the logic behind the thinking.

I don't mean to give anyone the impression that I'm promoting ComiXology as superior to Google Play, Amazon Kindle, Archie Digital, or whatever other digital vendor/digital app the buyer has a preference for. I could see if BettyReggie was a consumer who wanted to get Archie #8 as soon as it was released, but maybe wasn't sure exactly when that might be, so she wouldn't necessarily know (or might forget) when to go to Google Play to make the purchase, but we know that's not the case here. I'm also pretty certain that BettyReggie isn't going to decide after she reads Archie #8 that she won't be purchasing the next issue, because she was kind of lukewarm on whether she felt committed to the story, which is the only reason I suggested the idea of a digital subscription. I only mention ComiXology because that's the one example I happen to know of that offers digital subscriptions. That may be unusual for a vendor of digital comics, I wouldn't really know.

Quote from: BettyReggie on May 03, 2016, 04:30:48 PM
I preordered Archie #8 from The Google Play Store.

Don't they just offer digital subscriptions, like ComiXology? The idea of PREordering a single issue of a digital comic just seems weird to me. I mean, if you go to your local comic book store and preorder a single issue of a print comic, it's because (a) you want to make sure the retailer is going to order that issue, and (b) you want to make sure YOUR personal copy is reserved for you in case it might be sold out by the time you could get to the store.

Since digital comics will never be "sold out" or "temporarily out of stock", and you undoubtedly are acutely aware of the exact date that Archie #8 will become available for purchase as a digital comic, there's nothing to worry about as far as not being able to get a copy whenever it becomes available. After it gets released, you simply go to Google Play and purchase it.

With a digital subscription, you'd just have a standing order to have your account charged every time a new issue was released, and it would be available to you whenever you decided to read it, eliminating the need for you to make a separate purchase transaction for each issue individually. ComiXology offers subscriptions to digital titles, but I don't know if Google Play does.

More of ARCHIE COMICS ANNUAL #268


Didn't have time to read that much today. Found a few more Archie Comics when I went to my LCS today, a BETTY AND VERONICA, a BETTY'S DIARY, and an issue of ARCHIE'S TV LAUGH-OUT. No SABRINAs or JOSIEs, though.

Quote from: BettyReggie on May 07, 2016, 01:07:31 PM
Midtowncomics is going have those comics for free on their website on the 9th. I definitely want the Archie #1 & Love & Rockets. I love Love & Rockets, I have one of the books.

The FCBD Love & Rockets comic opens with an introductory page warning that the comic actually contains no rockets whatsoever. 

Quote from: Original Sin on May 06, 2016, 10:33:18 PM

Quote from: 60sBettyandReggie on April 30, 2016, 05:44:10 PM
Ah, how about an age accurate Miss Grundy and have Archie not sleep with her.

This.

Not doable unless it's a cartoon. Don't you realize that would make it just like in the comic books? Ridiculous. Who would believe that?

Shaggy - Oh Carolina


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtLqmWt2h2g


Some Jamaican ska from 1993. If you can figure out the words you're better than me.

Quote from: invisifan on May 06, 2016, 04:46:23 PM

Quote from: Original Sin on May 06, 2016, 10:31:33 AM...

My big question is: where is it from??? 

JUGHEAD #192 (May 1971)  - Frank Doyle/Samm Schwartz.

Reprinted in The Best of Archie Comics (Book 1);  Archie Comics Super Special #2

Quote from: daren on May 06, 2016, 11:12:22 PM
I'm not going over all that again, it seems you didn't read my post. New points though:

You make it sound as if Harry Lucey maybe wrote this. He probably didn't, he's not credited as a writer in any of his stories I've seen. Or as if the violence in the story is only because of his art style. It's not.

What you're reading as "violence" IS Harry Lucey's art style (no, I don't think he wrote it, but he's responsible for the visual interpretation of the script, so he "writes" the pictures and controls how you see the end result of the writer's script descriptions). The only violence here is slapstick CARTOON violence of the pie-in-the-face kind. Only in this story, it's washcloth-in-the-face. It's not exaggerated by the yardstick of Harry Lucey slapstick (any more than is normal for him). It's totally consistent with the way he treats slapstick action in other stories. Comparing what happens in this story to a hypothetical situation where Moose Mason beats the crap out of Veronica for jostling Midge is such a bizarre distortion of the way "Archie reality" works that I can't even address it. (Yes, I did read what you wrote, but the distorted parallels you're making just don't make any sense. You can accept that Veronica can beat the crap out of Archie for comedic effect and the end result LOOKS exactly the same as if Moose beat him up. You can accept V. bouncing a piece of wood off Archie's noggin, but not the pie-in-the-face slapstick of Veronica getting a washcloth in the face (that hurts her no more than a pie, or a ball bounced off the back of her head) to remove her makeup. SOMEhow, in this one story, the cartoon shenanigans "get real" for you and I can't see it. I can't see it at all. I'm at a loss to explain it in any other way than that in your mind, Veronica cannot be on the end of slapstick as delivered by ARCHIE, because then it becomes "violence". If Betty or Jughead had done the same thing (although I can't think of a story setup to motivate that behavior on either of their parts) you'd be laughing along with everyone else, if the picture Harry Lucey drew was exactly the same except with the replacement of Archie by Betty or Jughead. But because it's Archie, he doesn't get the same pass. You mentioned Reggie before being in the same position, but I honestly don't think you'd have had the same reaction as you do here. I suspect you'd have found a way to laugh that off as just Reggie being himself. You might not like him for it, but then Reggie hardly ever has legitimate justification for how he behaves because of some previous mistreatment he received from someone else.

I don't hate Veronica. In a lot of stories she can be bratty but charming, and there are some where she hides a heart of gold beneath her snooty exterior. The characters always have to change a little to suit the demands of each different story, but there are just some stories where she behaves badly and doesn't do anything otherwise to redeem herself. This is one of those. You can't allow your prior knowledge of any of her redeeming qualities in those other stories to affect how you view her in this story, nor your prior knowledge of Archie's bad behavior in other stories to inform his character in this story. Only to the extent that Veronica's bad behavior in this story reiterates similar behavior in prior stories does it have a cumulative effect, the built-in assumption based on her behavior here being that this is no isolated incident of unusual behavior on her part, but rather part of her usual pattern of behavior. Conversely, the story makes it clear that Archie's behavior at the end of the story on the last page IS a departure from his usual behavior. None of that should be unclear to anyone reading the story. This, contrary to the usual scheme of things, is one of the very few stories of role reversal where Archie is winning, and he has justification for it, but you just can't seem to abide that concept because it's Veronica who's the goat, and Archie delivering the poetic justice. Maybe because of all the stories where he gets off scot free by mistreating Betty (but he's the villain there). That's a different kind of "winning" because it's Betty who's the injured party (hardly ever in any physical way), and it's clear that Archie is the fink. But there are plenty of stories where Veronica is the fink, and gets away with it too. What's forcing Archie to sit there and take Veronica's treatment of him? Why doesn't he just dump her and walk away? Well, in THIS story, it's because that's not a funny ending. In the larger sense, it's because it's in his contract. Archie is a virtual puppet of the writers in the employ of ACP and has to follow whatever script is written for him, and take whatever lumps he gets, get the doormat treatment from Ronnie, or be either the bad guy or the good guy in a Betty story. It's a condition of employment, so he has to do whatever makes for a funny story. Frequently that means he's taking his cartoon knocks, or groveling like a beaten dog. The thing that makes this story work is that it sets up a somewhat familiar situation of Archie being wrapped around Veronica's little finger, and then (twist) turns it into an opportunity for the wheel of karma to go round and Veronica to be on the receiving end. We (well, except you) applaud Archie for putting his foot down and not taking it from Ronnie any more, and turning the slapstick payoff karma back in her direction. It feels satisfying because she's given him the justification in this story. If you're looking at it as  -- would you or I do something like that? -- then you're misconstruing the action out of context, because you and I are not cartoon characters who live in a world where every incident has to have a funny (and usually slapstick, if drawn by Harry Lucey) payoff, and then the reset button is hit again before the next episode begins.

Why don't you simply tell me how the story should have ended? Write the last page the way you would have written it, and tell us what the drawings should be showing. You can make any modifications you want after Veronica has demanded that Archie take off the coat, either slight or totally different. Your only requirement is that the story has to be wrapped up in one page and have a funny ending.

Wow, OS, you must have a heck of a collection of scans. I do remember reading that one somewhere before, but I'm just noticing it may be the only time I've ever seen Archie and Jughead use actual names in the prehistoric (retroactively all "Archie 1", collectively) stories.

ARCHIE COMICS ANNUAL #268 came in the mail this morning, and I'm about halfway through it. I'd probably have finished it hours ago if I weren't typing a few huge replies over on another thread.


TWO Raj Patel stories in one month? Are Archie digests in India outselling the U.S. ones? I don't mean just 2 new digest stories where he shows up somewhere in the story, I mean 2 where he's one of the three main characters in the story. Maybe they're gearing up for a Raj Patel digital exclusive collection or something.