Wow, somehow it doesn't totally shock me that Reggie has a police record. But Betty? I always knew that Reggie was trouble, but now due to his bad influence Betty has an arrest record (even if they did let them off on probation).

Only filling in on JUGHEAD for 2 issues, or is he the new regular artist on the book?
Either way, it's a step in the right direction which makes me ask why they didn't just hire him in the first place.

Quote from: daren on May 02, 2016, 02:38:39 AM
It doesn't really bother me, he more than makes up for it in other ways.

It's a slight annoyance; an artistic quirk. There is NO WAY that that even begins to negate all the good work he's done for Archie Comics. If it were not for Dan Parent, I honestly do not believe that Archie Comics would have survived the last 5 years, maybe the last 10 years. They might still have gone on cranking out all-reprint digests, but that's about all. You can dislike his style all you want, but he's been more important to the company in the 21st century than anyone, and kept the company from eroding faster than it would have without him. I don't say that as a slight to any of the other artists that worked for ACP until now, it's just a fact. He's not just an artist who draws the scripts handed to him. He's a character creator, an ace graphic designer, and one of the best writers the company has had in the last 25 years. That's the reason (again, no slight intended to the others) that he's the sole surviving classic Archie creator.

Quote from: Mr.Lodge on May 02, 2016, 01:29:02 AM
Anything not related to MARVEL or DC. Too much Superhero trash out there. 

Get a life guys. Being outside when the sun shines is nice. Ever hear of a 'girl' or a 'date'? 

Just one question. Why is it that you find it necessary to make yourself feel better by hating on other people for what they like?
Hate a publishing company if you must for what they publish, or a genre of fiction. If you don't like it, that's your choice. You should have stopped after your first 2 sentences, which is your legitimate opinion.
Hating on people whose entertainment choices you disagree with? NOT COOL.
My advice? Get outside with the sun shining in a very public place and read your Archie comic books there. Then see how many people you impress with how much cooler you are than readers of other types of comic books.

That was just an AWESOME report, Jabroniville! Very enlightening. I'm kind of shocked to find that Jughead is Dan's favorite character. I mean, no, it would be easy to guess that Jughead was his favorite MALE character, but I would have sworn he'd have picked either Veronica, Cheryl, or Sabrina as his favorite, as those are the characters that he's done the most work on and is probably more closely associated with (along with Betty, when B&V appear in their own stories together). But you're right about Kevin giving Jughead the box of "ruined" (by putting fruit in them) chocolates. Yeah, I can see how that's something that Veronica would like, and think Kevin would like too. But the way the visual gag plays out when Kevin rejects the chocolates and thinks "I'll give them to Jughead - he'll eat anything!" is just too hilarious for words. I keep saying it, and I'll KEEP saying it -- Dan Parent is the funniest writer that ACP has, and still one of the funniest it's ever had.


And in CALGARY, when there's an Archie Comics panel, the room is jam-PACKED! (Not so much, at U.S. conventions, I'm thinking.) I'd bet it's no coincidence that Canadians like Fiona and Chip were chosen to work on the New Riverdale comics, because it's obviously going to be the crucial audience for ACP to win over. That's a lot easier when there's a local hero to cheer on... (Fiona may be a Naughty Girl, but there's "The Naughty Clause", you know.)


To all the Toni Topaz hecklers, I can only say go back and read her original debut story written by Tom DeFalco. That character had TONS of potential, and the fact that all ACP managed to take away from that is "She's very eye-catching when we include her on covers, so let's do that a LOT", is shame on them, not on the character. She had as much potential as Wendy Weatherbee (another great character -- and shame shame on ACP for not putting her in more stories, back in the days when there were still more pages for her to be in). For a while there, there was a boom in new character creation, with a virtual floodgate opening when the New Kids hit the school. Those characters (all of the new characters) were helping, bringing new blood into the Archie universe and making it more interesting. But you can't just pack more and more characters into fewer and fewer new pages of comics, as titles continued to be cancelled over the last decade, so in a sense, the majority of those newbies arrived just in time to watch the sun setting on classic Archie. All that potential gone to waste.


I TOTALLY agree with what you say about inkers. I think Rich Koslowski is the greatest inker Archie Comics has had since Henry Scarpelli died. Scarpelli always made the pencillers he inked look good, too. And Koslowski does it all, over just about everybody's pencil art (let's not forget Jeff Shultz, whom you neglected to mention) except the Kennedy brothers (and I don't know who does what or how their process works between them, but I'm dying to know).


I would have killed to see that crossover with STAR TREK. I'm a huge Trek fan, and I'm already loving the Trek comics IDW has been putting out. Anyone catch Dan Parent's Star Trek cover for IDW's "Archie month" variants? (If you saw his variant cover for KEVIN KELLER's issue guest-starring George Takei, you'd have some idea.)


I kind of let my reading of PixieTrix webcomics slide a bit after they finished up the most recent volumes of Eerie Cuties and Magick Chicks, which for a while I was reading kind of intensely trying to catch up. As it happens, I managed to catch up right before they took a little break to do a new Kickstarter for the print versions, and I kind of drifted off a bit, distracted by other reading. I never really did get much into reading MA3, because the single-strip format (as opposed to the manga page format, like in EC, MC and Dangerously Chloe) kind of put me off it a little. It's not as convenient for me to read that way as webcomics (or save to read later), since I don't remember to check up on the site regularly, and there was already a huge backlog of older MA3 strips to catch up on. One of these days I'll give it another go, as I didn't get all that far the first time.

Quote from: Jabroniville on May 02, 2016, 06:00:28 AM

Quote from: daren on May 02, 2016, 02:35:19 AM

Quote from: Jabroniville on May 02, 2016, 01:26:43 AM

Bob Crane also did a very good "disheveled Jughead".

Bob Crane?

Sorry- meant Doug Crane.

For a while there (late 1980s/early 1990s), it seemed like Doug Crane drew almost as many Betty stories as Rex Lindsey later drew Jughead stories. The trouble was there was a big variation in what the final artwork looked like, depending on what inker was assigned to finish the work over his pencils. Sometimes, when someone like Henry Scarpelli inked him, the results looked quite good. Other times, when someone like Ken Selig inked him, not so good. If he'd been assigned consistently good inkers, I'm convinced that Doug Crane's work would have been ranked higher by Archie fans in general.

Well, you'll always have the Archie Comics that you have, and you can reread them over. The 1000 Page digests are pretty much the same as pulling out all your digests from 3-4 months ago and rereading them. It's like they just glued them all together and cut out the ads and non-Archie stories (like Sabrina and Josie).

I guess at this time it looks like the 1000 Page digests and Giant Comics digests are the only classic Archie trade paperbacks that are selling, so those are the only ones they'll continue to put out.

Quote from: Oldiesmann on May 01, 2016, 06:40:52 PM
Check out this blog post (and the ones following it). This should pretty much answer most of your questions about Pureheart and related characters

http://www.dialbforblog.com/archives/226/

I have great respect for "Robby Reed" over at Dial B For Blog. In this one instance though, he missed the first appearance of the Captain Hero story "Hero To Go!!!" in JUGHEAD #126, of which the version in ARCHIE GIANT SERIES #142 appears to be a slightly altered reprint (he also failed to mention the earlier prototype Superdroop from "Strangest Adventure" in ARCHIE GIANT SERIES #19 that preceded Captain Hero, but as that super incarnation of Jughead wasn't actually named Captain Hero, maybe it's not that relevant). I originally missed it too, but somehow vaguely recollected reading the version of that story where he wore a slightly different costume, and it being credited as having been reprinted from a comic earlier than ARCHIE GIANT #142. At first I didn't even realize that they were the same story.

"Hero to Go!!!" (the original version from JUGHEAD #126) is reprinted in THE BEST OF ARCHIE COMICS: 75 YEARS 75 STORIES.

Quote from: PTF on May 01, 2016, 08:20:14 PM
Well, this fight makes more sense than Batman vs. Superman.

It all started when Bruce Wayne sold Superman's underwear on ebay.

Quote from: invisifan on May 01, 2016, 04:26:06 PM

Quote from: irishmoxie on May 01, 2016, 03:03:35 PM

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on May 01, 2016, 02:07:38 PM
I reread Archie vs Predator to see whether I'd like it any better the second time, reading the whole thing together. I didn't.

Mr. Lodge has a bunker beneath the mansion that he built "after that Russian arms deal went sour"? (Because, c'mon... we all know that's how he got so rich, by selling weapons to the Russians, right?) With some kind of sci-fi machine that turns an almost-dead Archie into Arnold Shwarzenegger on crack? And it can also turn the Predator into Archie? Because even though he spent the entire story picking them off one by one, he's repented his evil ways at the end and is a good guy now? WTF? That's the kind of writing that turns the phrase "comic book writing" into a venomous slur to sling at any hack writer. Utter tripe.

I've tried reading this several times and can never get past the first issue. The writing is just bad.

Like it or hate it, it's one for the "Crazy Betty" thread in the end ...

I'm not even sure I'm clear on what Alex DeCampi was trying to imply with that ending -- that somehow the Predator killed everyone else because he's smitten with Betty and just wants to get her away from everyone else, or protect her from those he sees as a threat to her... Cheryl and Jason, Veronica, Archie? Because she's so pretty and nice, and even an extraterrestrial hunter could see that? NOTHING about the story makes the least bit of sense, and then DeCampi is just casually tossing stuff in there like implying that you don't get to be a teenage witch without making a few sacrifices -- of the human type (enough to fill a mass grave, which just disappears along with her house into the netherworld, after she's killed) -- at least, as best as I can make things out there.

Quote from: BettyReggie on May 01, 2016, 03:03:26 PM
Is the DeDe Diaz the girl who worked at the comic book store? She had a crush on Jughead. But Archie really liked her of course. The 3 of them went to the movies. I think that's her only story.

I think DeDe Diaz was in two stories. The one you mentioned was the first one that introduced her as a character, and then there was one more, I think.

I mean, it's kind of hard to believe that Harper was only in a few stories. Only two where she had a major part, and then maybe another three where she had a small part in some scene. A lot of the characters on my top ten list didn't appear in that many stories (Toni Topaz, Wendy Weatherbee, Shrill, January McAndrews), but I like them because they were memorable characters and they're ones I look forward to seeing in any story, especially if they have a major part in it. I probably could have added another 5 if I thought about it a little, because they all sort of fall into that "only seen on a few occasions where they're not just in the background as part of the crowd" sort of category. Cricket O'Dell, Jackie Frost, Kumi Tanura, Noelle Claus. Even characters that are relatively well-known who made regular appearances "every so often" but usually aren't around, like Leroy Lodge or Souphead Jones. I read a story the other day where Jughead just casually mentions in passing that he talked to his cousin Knobhead  -- (), who probably never even appeared in an actual story.

Quote from: JonInIowaCity on May 01, 2016, 01:58:44 PM
Here are some of my other favorites. I'm surprised that I didn't think of them before:

Sabrina the Teenage Witch
Amisha (I loved the idea of an Archie/Amisha/Valerie love triangle!)
Young Doctor Masters (one of those old characters who hooked me at the right moment)
Catfish Joe (same thing)

Were you the one who had Dotty & Ditto on your list? Man, you like the strange ones! Maybe I should have picked five Archie superheroes just to throw everyone for a loop.

Let's see...
MLJ/Mighty/Red (not Dark) Circle top five:

1. The Shield
2. The Web
3. The Black Hood
4. Fly Girl
5. POW-Girl
6. (honorable mention) Cat Girl

Archie/Amisha/Valerie triangle?  I thought it was the Archie/Amisha/Raj triangle? Maybe we'll find out in that Amisha story in the next (which was really supposed to be in the last, but they swapped it with Ginger's) episode of The Many Loves of Archie Andrews.

Pretty sure this is the drawing that clinched that nomination to the Inkpot Awards for Rich Kozlowski. 

I reread Archie vs Predator to see whether I'd like it any better the second time, reading the whole thing together. I didn't.

Mr. Lodge has a bunker beneath the mansion that he built "after that Russian arms deal went sour"? (Because, c'mon... we all know that's how he got so rich, by selling weapons to the Russians, right?) With some kind of sci-fi machine that turns an almost-dead Archie into Arnold Shwarzenegger on crack? And it can also turn the Predator into Archie? Because even though he spent the entire story picking them off one by one, he's repented his evil ways at the end and is a good guy now? WTF? That's the kind of writing that turns the phrase "comic book writing" into a venomous slur to sling at any hack writer. Utter tripe.

Quote from: BettyReggie on May 01, 2016, 10:07:10 AM
Here's another list of mine
1-🍁-Harper Lodge
2-🐚 Bernadette who dated Reggie in the New Look series
3-🌟-Brandy who was friends with Betty. She had multiply colored hair. She was only in a few stories.
4-⚡-Billy who was Betty when she was changed into a guy
5-💕-Bingo Wilkin

Harper! Wow, I can't believe I didn't think of Harper. I think I'd have to get her on my top ten list, so I'd replace... mmm... I guess maybe DeDe Diaz (because she's kind of similar to Wendy Weatherbee) with Harper instead.

I don't think I ever read that New Look story with Reggie (because it was never reprinted in a trade paperback like the New Look stories that came before it, and neither was the one with Betty playing baseball). I never even heard of Brandy (I guess somewhere I must have read about Bernadette being in that story with Reggie, but I don't know anything about her, just her name). I wasn't that crazy about most of the New Look stories anyway. Probably the best one I read was "Bad Boy Trouble", and "Breakup Blues" with Midge and Moose wasn't too bad either, I guess. I'm glad they didn't make a lot of those, though. Bingo Wilkin's great, and so is Samantha Smythe. So is Fran the Fan from the Madhouse Glads (she's the best character in it). I wish they'd reprint more of those stories in the digests, and some Katy Keene stories from the 1980s, too.

I'm going to have to order a copy of that FCBD 2005 Betty and Veronica comic book that Jonathan reviewed that had the story with Katy Keene and Ginger and Cheryl and Marcy in it. Sounded like a great story.