Today I read a couple of digests and some old Archie comics I found at my local comic shop the other day.

JUGHEAD & FRIENDS DIGEST #10 - A new lead story by Fernando Ruiz (love his Jughead stories) has Mr. Jones reading to Jughead from a book about their family history. Jughead is pretty dubious about the truth of what he tells him about those ancestors, though. One of his ancestors is Sir Jugalot (from JUGHEAD'S FANTASY #1) which was a neat touch, I thought. Fernando always seems to work those little bits of business into a story as sort of a little nugget for sharp-eyed readers in the know. The end of the story had Mrs. Jones cracking a joke which seems to confirm Jughead's suspicions about the veracity of Jonesy's claims about their ancestry.

Next I'm going to read #15, which has the new lead story "Souphead Du Jour" (another Fernando story). I love how he always works the old characters (like Souphead or Uncle Herman) into a story. Every issue of JUGHEAD & FRIENDS has a reprint section of THAT WILKIN BOY stories, which is always something I look forward to. Most of them have Rex Lindsey Jughead stories in them, as well, but #10 and #15 didn't. There's always a bunch of Samm Schwartz Jughead stories too (because there are so many to pick from) but the selection of those is usually pretty good. Occasionally, I'll even spot a Dan DeCarlo Jughead story in one of these digests. The Bingo Wilkin reprints and the new Fernando Ruiz Jughead stories are the main attractions here for me, and what motivated me to try to collect this entire series of 38 issues, but having a bunch of choice Rex Lindsey reprints sure doesn't hurt either.

BETTY AND VERONICA DOUBLE DIGEST #243 - This came in the mail today, and as soon as I got back from the mailbox, I sat down to read it. The first thing I noticed is that (like the last World of Archie digest I got) they seem to have done away with the title pages for the special character sections. This issue didn't have a title page for the Sabrina or Little Archie sections, and the last WOA digest didn't have a title page for the Life With Archie and Archie 1 sections. I sort of got used to having those, because they made those sections that much easier to find, but whatever, I guess. (I didn't count the pages, so I don't know if the loss of those title pages results in an extra story page being included instead, or if they were replaced by ads.)

One good thing is that the Sabrina section continues to reprint the excellent series of stories by Bill Golliher and Holly G. This issue reprints "Charm School" which introduces Lilith, a mean teenage witch (and also the daughter of Head Witch Enchantra) who's a rival for Sabrina as she begins attending Charm School. Sabrina's also reunited with her old friend Llandra (from South America; she's the daughter of a shaman) whom she first met when they were children attending 'Camp Nether-Nether Land'. Aunt Zelda (who's quite the cutie in this series of stories) is continuing her quest to find a suitable husband before the deadline of a year passes when she'll lose her powers, and in this story she gets cozy with Headmaster Headstone, who administers the Charm School. I sure wish this series of stories by Golliher and Holly G could have gone on for another 40 issues, instead of being replaced by the manga Sabrina (*sigh*). Zelda and Hilda next have a dating dilemma where they need to be in two places to double date - at the Charm School Reunion dance, and at a Greendale High Faculty Award Night, so they zap Sabrina and Salem into dopplegangers of themselves and send them to Greendale to double-date Sabrina's teacher Mr. Hastings and his twin brother Max (AWKWARD...!!) so that they can both go to the Charm School Reunion.

Oops, I need to backtrack and talk about the new lead story in this issue (SPOILERS -- DO NOT READ ON IF YOU DON'T WANT THE STORY RUINED), "Hooray For Bollywood!" - the latest (and what looks to be the final, for now anyway) chapter of "The Many Loves of Archie Andrews" featuring ARCHIE & AMISHA & RAJ (okay, it doesn't say "Raj", but guess who winds up stealing Archie's thunder in this story?). Archie is more gluttonous when it comes to girls than Jughead is when it comes to food. It's not enough that he's got BOTH Betty AND Veronica wrapped around his little finger, but he's got to supplement that with dating Valerie Smith, Sabrina Spellman, Amisha Mehta, Ginger Lopez, and every other hot girl who's ever appeared in a story more than twice?!? Geez, buddy, leave a few for the other guys!! Sheesh! (All right, what did I expect from a series titled "The Many Loves of Archie Andrews"... but I'd still rather see a series called "The Many Loves of Betty and Veronica"...) But Archie loses Amisha to Raj in this story... so YAY!! It might have helped Raj's image a little if he hadn't been portrayed in this story as so utterly clueless, but at least there was a happy ending. (Any story where Archie loses has a happy ending). Dan Parent does it again!! Okay, a bit spoilerish in a "Darth Vader is Luke's father??" sorta way, but you'll still have to read the story to see what actually happens. (I hope I didn't just ruin The Empire Strikes Back for someone there... but if you haven't seen it by now, it's your own fault.)

If you like Jeff Shultz's art on B&V stories (and who doesn't?), then you'll LOVE this digest. There are EIGHT of them in this issue, plus a few single-page gag strips by him. Plus of course a couple of Dan DeCarlo stories (and a classic Betty pin-up page), a couple of Dan Jr. and Jim DeCarlo stories, a few Dan Parent stories, and a few Stan Goldberg stories. (Plus a couple of Bob Bolling "Little Veronica" and "Little Betty" stories, if you're into that kinda thing.)

**********************************************************************
Now I'm too written-out to comment on the old Archie comics I read, so I'll just list them.

ARCHIE'S T.V. LAUGH-OUT #61 (Sept. 1978)

LAUGH #21 (June 1990)

SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH #28 (Oct. 1975)

SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH #57 (Dec. 1979)

BETTY AND VERONICA #66 (Aug. 1993)

LIFE WITH ARCHIE #195 (July 1978)

JUGHEAD #281 (Oct. 1978)

Quote from: daren on May 03, 2016, 04:02:12 AM
I have a complex about reading superhero stuff in public that I don't have about Archie, maybe Im just paranoid about looking like a loser fanboy and people associsate superhero comics with that instead of Archie stuff. And everyone knows superhero comics suck up all your time and money because of all the continuities so in additioin to looking like a loser you look like a loser in hock to Marvel and Image...I know it's stupid, everyone should just read what they want. 

And yet hundreds of thousands of people spend millions of dollars seeing Batman and Avengers movies. And let's not forget Star Wars. But if you READ it instead of see it on a theater screen (or stream it on your computer) then you're a LOSER. Oh yeah, clearly the moviegoer is the owner of superior genomes.

Here's a cartoon I found by accident on www.GoComics.com (Great for the discovery of new comic strips -- if you were stuck in the hospital for a month, you might have time to familiarize yourself with all of them.)


This one's from a strip called SCENES FROM A MULTIVERSE.



Here's another that's more typically my sense of humor from OFF THE MARK.



Here's another goodie... SAVAGE CHICKENS.

Quote from: Archiecomicxfan215 on May 05, 2016, 10:48:34 AM
Same strip . Apparently thats how Luann was drawn as a preteen/teenager in middle school/ early high school years

Currently Luann is a college student

It's not just that she's gotten older and so the story material has changed according to her interests as a college student. The entire style and type of humor seems different (but the old strip seems pretty dated compared to newer newspaper comic strips). I was interested to see that the same cartoonist, Greg Evans, is drawing it now (and owns it, according to his copyright notice - I see he incorporated himself) as when it first started, so he obviously make the decision himself to give his creation a complete makeover. Does it still appear in any newspapers, or is that a thing of the past now?

Quote from: irishmoxie on May 05, 2016, 11:17:36 AM
Another thing I remembered I'm interested in is unsolved mysteries and ghost stories. I was obsessed with the TV show of the same name along with the show Are You Afraid of the Dark? and the Goosebumps books. I remember Tales From the Crypt being too scary for me as a kid. But watching it now the acting is a bit lame. Funny how I didn't know or had more tolerance for that aspect as a kid. I was reading a cracked.com article today about unsolved cases.

Unsolved mysteries can be fun... but ultimately there are no resolutions, and every theory is purely speculative (once a case goes cold, there's hardly ever a chance for a more conclusive investigation). There have been a number of them examined in excruciating detail to the point where it can consume many years of a single person's life (and usually result in one if not several whole books on the topic). We all know the more famous ones - Jack the Ripper, the Marie Celeste, etc. I can't think of any examples of famous unsolved mysteries that later got solved by the discovery of new evidence or connections previously unsuspected.


I never really got too into ghost stories, but the paranormal in general (and psychic phenomena, cryptozoology and ufology in particular) have always interested me. UFO lore especially - there are some key links to people in the science fiction field that fascinate me.

Quote from: Archiecomicxfan215 on May 05, 2016, 07:31:42 AM

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on May 05, 2016, 03:36:48 AM

Quote from: Archiecomicxfan215 on May 04, 2016, 12:19:35 AM
I love Peanuts, Garfield, Pearls Before Swine, Cathy, and Luann

Luann

This is an example of where if you're coming into the strip with no prior knowledge of it, you're missing what's actually going on with the interaction of the three characters in this situation. If you don't know the existing relationships between Tiff and Quill, Tiff and Luann, and Quill and Luann going into it, you just have to scratch you head and ask what exactly just happened there? At a guess I'd say Tiff and Luann are rivals, but whether Quill is more than just friends with either of them I can't tell.

Yes, Tiff and Luann don't like each other, they tried being friends once but it didnt work out. Quill ended up liking Luann a lot

I seem to recall (vaguely) an earlier version of LUANN from years ago that looked quite different. Maybe it got a reboot somewhere along the way?


EDIT:
Ah, here it is. Not my imagination after all...




Doesn't even really seem like the same strip. The new version seems like an improvement though. Then I found this:

Not sure if that's the actual strip where it transitioned to the "New Look" (to borrow a phrase), or a flashback.

Then I found THESE strips. If he's throwing cosplaying into the mix, it makes me wonder if this didn't go from being a newspaper strip to a webcomic at some point?

Quote from: irishmoxie on May 05, 2016, 07:53:03 AM
I'm adding these to comics.org as I go but so far I've read She's Josie issues #1, 2, 3, and 5 and they skip around like 1, 2, 5, 7, 3 or something like that in the early WOA digests. And they reprint pretty much the whole issue except some 1 pagers like Lil Jinx so you're not missing much. They even reprinted some of the fashion pages.

Those early issues of She's Josie (at least the first 10, but maybe some beyond that) are unusual for Archie Comics (except the "Archie Adventure" line) of the early 1960s, in that they're issue-length stories, broken down into four chapters. In some of them, each chapter focuses on a different incident that happens on a given day, but it's clear that they're connected and should be read in order, unlike the typical Archie Comics of the time, which were merely anthologies of unrelated short stories. Other issues of JOSIE (like the World's Fair story in #9) are more like a cohesive epic, but even in that one, most of the actual action at the World's Fair happens in the middle 2 chapters, while chapters 1 and 4 are like short stories within a longer story; chapter 1 focuses entirely on the gang trying to collect cereal box tops to win a prize.


Occasionally, in a title like LIFE WITH ARCHIE, you might have a 13-page story broken down into two parts (or rarely, as many as four, filling the entire issue), but that may have been the only exception for titles featuring Archie (not LITTLE ARCHIE, where the extended story seemed to be the preferred format as well). But it's clear to me from reading JOSIE that the title was aimed at a slightly older audience than the average Archie comic book. That sort of thing went away -- I'm not clear on exactly when it disappeared, but by the time the Pussycats were introduced in #45, it was a thing of the past, and the individual stories within a JOSIE comic were unrelated to each other, like other Archie comic books.

Quote from: irishmoxie on April 25, 2016, 09:46:25 PM
female driven comics
manga
90s pop culture
90s pop music
dogs especially Australian Shepherds
reading celebrity biographies
fandom and collector culture
Cantonese food
sushi
watching YouTubers

There have been a few books focusing on this topic (that tend to concentrate on the history, rather than the sociology), most of them written from the traditionally male perspective. One of the very earliest books to focus on fan activity was The World of Fanzines: A Special Form of Communication by Dr. Fredric Wertham (yes -- the same one who wrote Seduction of the Innocent).

A free copy of ARCHIE #1 doesn't interest me any more than it did last year at $3.99. Nor do any of the prior SONIC FCBD giveways (unless they are flipbooks with MEGA MAN on the opposite side).

However, now FCBD (and Jonathan's review on last Saturday's Riverdale Podcast) is making me think of ordering some of those older classic Archie FCBD giveaways that I missed (and the smaller, Halloween ComicFest ones, too).

Here's a list of those Archie FCBD comics (I haven't included any of the SONIC giveaways). There was no classic Archie giveaway for FCBD 2012 or 2015.

FCBD 2003    ARCHIE #1    "The Kid Who Wrecked Riverdale!"
FCBD 2004    ARCHIE #2    "I Was a Teenage Comic Book Character!"
FCBD 2005    BETTY & VERONICA #1    "Model Citizen" (guest-starring Katy Keene)
FCBD 2006    ARCHIE's 65th Anniversary Bash! #1   
FCBD 2007    Little ARCHIE #1    "Legend of the Lost Lagoon"
FCBD 2008    JUGHEAD #1    "Night at the Entertainment Museum"
FCBD 2009    ARCHIE presents The Mighty Archie Art Players #1   
FCBD 2010    ARCHIE'S Summer Splash! #1   
FCBD 2011    PEP COMICS #0 - featuring Betty & Veronica    "You've Been Clubbed!"
FCBD 2012    MEGA MAN: Origin of a Hero   
FCBD 2013    World of ARCHIE Digest #1   
FCBD 2014    ARCHIE Digest #1   
FCBD 2015    DARK CIRCLE COMICS #1

Quote from: irishmoxie on May 05, 2016, 12:19:02 AM
Space Battle Lunchtime #1 - very cute adventure story. Reminds me a bit of Adventure Time and Monsters Inc. More of a taste than a complete story. Hopefully issue #2 is longer.

I will check that one out next week.

Quote from: irishmoxie on May 04, 2016, 11:18:42 PM
reading some She's Josie stories from the early issues of the World of Archie digests. I didn't realize they reprinted almost complete issues of She's Josie in each digest sort of in order. They could easily put out an anthology of these, even digitally.

I remember when we had the thread on DE collections I listed the contents of the SHE'S JOSIE digital exclusive collection. That reprints all the Josie stories (because the early ones were issue-long stories) from She's Josie # 1, 8, 9, 10, and 13. Wouldn't surprise me too much to find out they'd all been reprinted earlier in issues of WOADD. Do you find any stories from issues #2-7, 11 or 12 in those early World of Archie digests?

Here's that listing again -

She's JOSIE: Before the Pussycats    124 pages        Dec. 2013

1-I    "A Gym Dandy"    8    JOSIE #1    Feb. 1963    Josie and Pepper try to get Alex to exercise.
1-II    "Neat Workers"    6    JOSIE #1    Feb. 1963    Josie's dad tells her to clean out the garage.
1-III    "Muscle Hustle"    5    JOSIE #1    Feb. 1963    Josie and Pepper are still trying to get the boys to exercise.
1-IV    "Track Down"    6    JOSIE #1    Feb. 1963    Melody succeeds where Josie failed.
                   
2-I    "The Unhappy Hero"    8    JOSIE #8    Sept. 1964    Alexander inadvertently saves Albert's life.
2-II    "Saved By The Belle"    6    JOSIE #8    Sept. 1964    Alex tries to escape from Albert with Josie.
2-III    "And Away We Go"    5    JOSIE #8    Sept. 1964    At the beach, Albert follows Alex everywhere.
2-IV    "Happy Ending"    5    JOSIE #8    Sept. 1964    Alex just can't help being a hero.
                   
3-I    "You're The Tops"    8    JOSIE #9    Oct. 1964    The gang collect box tops to win a prize.
3-II    "A Run For Your Money"    6    JOSIE #9    Oct. 1964    At the World's Fair, Alex drops his wallet and tries to get it back.
3-III    "Fair Play"    5    JOSIE #9    Oct. 1964    The gang wastes the day trying to help Alex recover his wallet.
3-IV    "Cereal Story"    5    JOSIE #9    Oct. 1964    Filling a swimming pool with Crispy Crunchies pays off for the gang.
                   
4-I    "Team Spirit"    8    JOSIE #10    Dec. 1964    The girls want to help the school football team.
4-II    "No Help Wanted"    6    JOSIE #10    Dec. 1964    Melody recruits a new player - Jinx Malloy.
4-III    "Sideline Stars"    5    JOSIE #10    Dec. 1964    Melody becomes a cheerleader - for the opposing team.
4-IV    "The Last Man"    5    JOSIE #10    Dec. 1964    Coach is so desperate, he takes Albert off the bench.
                   
5-I    "The Schemers"    8    JOSIE #13    Jun. 1965    Albert and Alexandra conspire to break up Josie's date with Alex.
5-II    "The Dreamers"    6    JOSIE #13    Jun. 1965    Alexandra dons a rocket pack!
5-III    "Now You See It"    5    JOSIE #13    Jun. 1965    Melody has her eye on a new boy who needs glasses.
5-IV    "Now You Don't"    5    JOSIE #13    Jun. 1965    Melody enjoys being fought over.

Quote from: kassandralove on May 05, 2016, 01:04:25 AM

Quote from: 60sBettyandReggie on May 04, 2016, 12:55:44 PM
  She was so crazy back then 

I want more crazy Betty in new comics haha!

Another Bob Montana gag from the daily newspaper strip (often used as "Archie's Gag Bag" 1/2-page filler strips in the comic books). As I recall she tells him that she's having trouble pushing the two halves of the table together and there's something catching underneath making it stick. A lot of those crazier chase-and-capture antics of Betty's later got transferred to Big Ethel's character.

Quote from: daren on May 05, 2016, 02:27:13 AM




I found another good story with these two but I'm having trouble finding what I did with the rest of it. 

Is that the one where Jughead becomes a hand model? Come to think of it, there may be more than one of those stories.

Quote from: daren on May 05, 2016, 02:12:37 AM

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on April 12, 2016, 02:57:46 PM
Personally I don't care what they do to the characters in the show at this point. I've read enough regarding their intentions that I have zero interest in watching it.

The only possibility that is potentially upsetting to me is that if the show (somehow, although the odds seem pretty well stacked against this) were to become a real hit. Why? Because if it does, it is virtually guaranteed to affect the comics published by ACP. They are sure to see that TV success as an indication that people want to read about characters who are similar to the TV show in the comic books. The last thing I want to see is Aguirre-Sacasa's version of Archie and the gang as comic book characters (AWA is quite enough of that), because you can pretty much bet that it would then become the main version of Archie. I'm not losing TOO much sleep over that possibility right now, since as I mentioned, the odds of the TV show becoming a real hit seem pretty slim.

How do you think it could become the main comic book version? A new series drawn in the reboot style or drawn in the classic Archie style?

Why would they draw it in the classic Archie style? That seems to be their #1 mandate, to stay as far away from that style as possible.  My guess is that they'd just begin altering the characters in the existing Archie series by changing them to reflect the TV series, but if that just wouldn't work because it's too unsubtle, then possibly another reboot (although they might retain whatever creative team was on the title before the change). This would only be if the TV show was doing well in the ratings and seemed destined to go on for a while. If they weren't sure, they'd probably tweak all the characters in the direction of the show as much as possible without directly contradicting whatever the comic had already established by that point.

Quote from: Archiecomicxfan215 on May 04, 2016, 12:19:35 AM
I love Peanuts, Garfield, Pearls Before Swine, Cathy, and Luann

Luann

This is an example of where if you're coming into the strip with no prior knowledge of it, you're missing what's actually going on with the interaction of the three characters in this situation. If you don't know the existing relationships between Tiff and Quill, Tiff and Luann, and Quill and Luann going into it, you just have to scratch you head and ask what exactly just happened there? At a guess I'd say Tiff and Luann are rivals, but whether Quill is more than just friends with either of them I can't tell.