Quote from: invisifan on April 13, 2016, 07:06:08 PM

QuoteWow, I read a few pages into SPIDEY #4 and then just gave up. What a difference the art of Nick Bradshaw made on the first 3 issues of that book (which are slated to be reprinted in a one-shot deluxe Marvel Treasury Edition). Unless Bradshaw's just skipping an issue or two before coming back, I guess I'm done with it.

I wouldn't say the art made a real difference to me, but I don't blame you for giving up — I thought the first issue showed a lot of potential, but with #2 it just seemed ...  aimless?  pointless?  I'll probably keep watching where it goes a while longer, but ... 

I took 'the point' such as it is, to be approximately the same as that of Ultimate Spider-Man when that title started out, i.e. "What If Peter Parker, the Amazing Spider-Man were just beginning his career today?" Come to think of it, that's pretty much what Kurt Busiek & Pat Oliffe's Untold Tales of Spider-Man was as well, except that they weren't concentrating so much on making a point of modernizing things, just telling modern-style stories "interstitially" dispersed between those classic adventures. SPIDEY wasn't doing a straight retelling of the original Lee/Ditko stories so much as a reinterpretation of Peter's first encounters with various foes in a modern context, which I think is perfectly valid. If you're going to sweat how it fits into "Spider-Man continuity", it's probably just going to be a burr in your saddle.

Is there a place in modern comics for a stripped-down, back-to-basics Spider-Man? I think there is; but then again, the execution is everything (Bradshaw's art made those stories dynamic and fun, whereas the art in #4 made it all look rather dull and pedestrian). I pretty much have zero interest in the continuity-heavy, complexly-interwoven adventures of the current Spider-Man. Marvel Universe Spider-Man fans obviously disagree vehemently with my opinion.

Quote from: invisifan on April 13, 2016, 07:49:28 PM

Quote from: irishmoxie on April 13, 2016, 07:23:11 PM

Quote from: invisifan on April 13, 2016, 06:54:05 PM

Quote from: irishmoxie on April 13, 2016, 02:37:24 PM
How's gwenpool?

that's a hard question — it's definitely a strange book, self-referential mocking of the superhero genre; and that was the stated intent (more or less — do you know anything about it already?) ... I'd like it to succeed actually, but not sure if they're going to pull it off ...

Don't know anything about it or Marvel but the art looked cool.

Gwen Poole is a comic fan who got "displaced" during a multi-universe event ... her version of Earth is essentially ours, and she's read all sorts of Marvel comics so when she ends up on that earth she decides she's dreaming or part of a book/narrative and must be the hero — so she will win in the end and nothing horribly bad can happen ... and if she is the hero in a superhero world then she gets to be a superhero ... and starts living out her fantasies ... and things get ... weird ...

Pretty much seems like Marvel's answer to Harley Quinn to me... the adventures of a dangerously loopy chick.

Quote from: irishmoxie on April 13, 2016, 07:24:12 PM

Quote from: invisifan on April 13, 2016, 07:06:08 PM

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on April 13, 2016, 03:47:04 PM

QuoteHENCHGIRL #6 (Things take an interesting turn in this issue.)

Definitely — may you live in interesting times.

Just as I gave up on the series. Boo. Maybe I'll have to pick it up again. Too bad they don't do digital issues. I guess I'll slog through the web comic.

Webcomics are annoying to you to the point where you'd rather pay for a PDF (or whatever digital format it is you're used to reading) than to "slog" through it for FREE? Or you know, save a bunch of the webcomics as JPGs and put them in a file folder on your tablet where your comic reader app can access them? This I don't get. The fact that they're free is what keeps me reading webcomics. Other digital comics that are available in print, it's just easier to get the print copy. When they're not available (or hard to find) in print, then it's just annoying. Unless they're free webcomics.

The other thing I realized the other day when thinking about this is that I have absolutely NO sense of urgency about getting digital comics. They're not going to NOT be available next week, next month, or next year, or harder to find, or more expensive. (In fact, they occasionally are later on sale cheaper, for 99 cents or something, on ComiXology, or other places that have sales on digital comics.) That makes them a lot lower priority for me, because I need to find the stuff that won't be easy to find next week, next month, next year FIRST. So that stuff goes to the top of my list, while digital comics go to the bottom. A lot of the stuff I read and/or collect isn't available digitally anyway.

Gotta say that I liked Shrill's old look better. I wish the original version of her had been in more stories.

Quote from: Gisele on April 13, 2016, 02:28:14 AM
I just recently did a Captain Canuck cover (can't show it yet.) I'm starting to dabble in it! hehe

Cool; I remember the original Captain Canuck by George Freeman (is he still around?), and I got a copy of the first trade paperback collection of the rebooted Captain Canuck (haven't had a chance to get to it yet). Now I see where they're bringing the original Captain back in a separate series (due to numerous requests?)  Which series did you do a cover for?

You know, I'm not entirely sure how this works, but I've been googling images on the web, and finding things from the old site. Sometimes things that I myself posted on the old site. Not only that, but when I click on these images, the text that accompanies them from the old site is still there... SOMEHOW. So I'm reading snatches of things I posted (or remember others having posted). But if I click the button that says "Go to this page", it takes me NOT to the Wayback Machine or some saved mirror image of the old page, but right back to this site (where of course I can't see the image OR the text the google image search just told me it found). Weird.

Oldiesmann?  Anyone? Any ideas about where these ghosts in the machine are coming from?

Quote from: invisifan on April 13, 2016, 01:48:12 PM
0-day so I've read (so far):

   
• Spidey #4
• Spider-Gwen #7
• The Unbelievable Gwenpool #1

Saving Princeless book 5 #1 for last ...

"0-day"?

Wow, I read a few pages into SPIDEY #4 and then just gave up. What a difference the art of Nick Bradshaw made on the first 3 issues of that book (which are slated to be reprinted in a one-shot deluxe Marvel Treasury Edition). Unless Bradshaw's just skipping an issue or two before coming back, I guess I'm done with it.

Here's what I read today:
REGGIE'S WISE GUY JOKES #13 (June 1970)
HENCHGIRL #6 (Things take an interesting turn in this issue.)
AW YEAH COMICS ACTION CAT AND ADVENTURE BUG #2
WALT DISNEY'S COMICS AND STORIES #730
THANOS: THE INFINITY FINALE (OGN) - (This being the third OGN by Jim Starlin in a trilogy. It occurs to me I may have missed the second one, so I'll have to look into reordering that.)
SILVER SURFER #3 (I just love what Dan Slott and Mike Allred have been doing with this character. Great stuff.)
HERCULES #6 (A title I was only slowly warming up to, this issue totally sold me on the revised concept. Absolutely zero action in this issue, but the characterization and dialogue held me riveted for the entire issue. A teaser on the last page leads me to believe this is the final under this title, to be replace by a new #1 called THE GODS OF WAR.)
MOON KNIGHT #1 (I haven't been a huge fan of Jeff Lemire's writing, so I almost skipped this, but I'm glad I read it now. I'll read at least a couple more issues now, as he kind of hooked me with the general concept here.)
BATMAN/TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES #5 (of 6)
JUPITER'S CIRCLE - Book 2 #5 (of 6)
ROUGH RIDERS #1

I have more to get to from this week's haul, but that's probably it for today. Other stuff I got today:
THE PHANTOM COMPLETE SUNDAYS VOL 3 HC
DONALD DUCK: GHOST OF THE GROTTO TP
DONALD DUCK: THE GOLDEN HELMET TP
BLACK BAT DOUBLE NOVEL #3
THE SHADOW DOUBLE NOVEL #105
MONSTER BASH #26
CAPTAIN AMERICA 70TH ANNIVERSARY MAGAZINE (Free)
DC REBIRTH PREVIEWS MAGAZINE (Free again)
WONDER WOMAN '77 SPECIAL #3
DOC SAVAGE: THE SPIDER'S WEB #5 (of 5)
BRUCE LEE: THE DRAGON RISES #1
THE THREE STOOGES: THE BOYS ARE BACK #1

Quote from: 60sBettyandReggie on April 13, 2016, 01:16:41 PM
No, this isn't the first time I noticed this. I know they love to repeat stories over and over but it still makes me mad....I didn't know about HS Hijinks being cancelled. Is it the same one as Pep Rally, or is that another one?

Well, you got me with that one. I hadn't even heard of any Spectacular called "Pep Rally", so I had to google that one for more information. Most of those turned out to be dead ends (like the Walmart.com listings) that didn't provide any information or even show a cover image.

No, I had to go all the way to a bookstore in Malaysia to find a listing for that with a little more info and a cover image, which indeed -- does turn out to be the same cover as "High School Hijinks". Unlike a lot of the other listings, this one actually identified the book correctly as being cancelled.

https://malaysia.kinokuniya.com/bw/9781627388665

Quote from: 60sBettyandReggie on April 13, 2016, 12:53:43 PM

Quote from: 60sBettyandReggie on April 12, 2016, 01:11:36 PM
This morning I finished reading Archie Comics Spectacular Block Party.
I'm gonna start reading Archie 1000 Page Comics Gala.

I hate that they repeat the same stories in different books. I started reading 1000 page comics Gala and there are 8 stories in a row that I had already read on Block Party. 

I can't believe you're just noticing this for the first time. You know that the 1000 Page digests just contain straight chunks of pages (several stories in the exact same order) as the regular digest titles from 3 or 4 months earlier, right?  And the Spectaculars just reprint the stories from recent digest titles on better paper, grouped by some kind of theme (very loosely themed, I should say). At any rate, they cancelled the last Spectacular (High School Hijinks) that they solicited, so it looks like there will be no more of those.

Today I found a copy of ARCHIE'S CAR by Al Hartley, and it was in pretty good condition. This was one of the later printings, from 1986, under the Barbour imprint (they took over after Spire Christian Comics and just reprinted the comics exactly except for the company imprint and cover price -- this one was priced at 69 cents). I think there were 17 different Archie comics done by Hartley under Spire, and I'm keeping an eye out for these. I got a kick out of it, anyway.

Ten years from now people will be watching the Riverdale TV pilot on YouTube and laughing about what a ridiculous distortion of the characters it is.

Quote from: JonInIowaCity on April 12, 2016, 09:49:12 PM

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on April 12, 2016, 09:28:23 PM

Quote from: BettyReggie on April 12, 2016, 09:11:32 PM
Why is Shrill involved in the comic, I didn't think she even knew Kevin. What Kevin's friends Wendy & William. And what about his relationship with boy he dated in school. Was it Devon?

Kevin and Devon broke up. That's not Shrill.

According to the interview, that is indeed Shrill.

As to why she's there? They've become friends since high school? They go to the same college? I'm sure we'll find out in a couple of months.

Yeah, I suppose. Well, she doesn't look like Shrill, but I guess people change, and don't wear the same kind of clothes they did in high school. Apparently she also stopped wearing contacts and decided to wear regular glasses. She went from being "Riverdale goth" to "artnerd".

Quote from: The Bee on April 12, 2016, 09:34:33 PM
Yeah I knew they did this but I wasn't aware they would throw in a digest from the 90's if they had it available. I thought it was mostly recent stuff in the bundles.

Here's the way those bundles break down. You'll only find digests from the last couple of years in the Super Sample Pack, because that contains 10 random Jumbo Comics and Annual digests, and those have only been around a couple of years. I think there used to be a category that just had the older traditional (96-128) page 'single' digests, which were discontinued in 2010. You still might find a couple of those older ones in the Digest Sample Pack. The Double Digest Pack contains just Double Digests, none of the older 96-128 page ones, or any of the newer Jumbo or Annual ones -- but it could still contain some of the older Double Digests from 1990s.

Quote from: The Bee on April 12, 2016, 09:30:46 PM
So will this be a continuation of what Dan has done in with Kevin in the past or is this going to be like the other two rebooted series starting new?

I think they're giving you a hint with the title. LIFE WITH KEVIN is to KEVIN KELLER as LIFE WITH ARCHIE (magazine) was to ARCHIE (classic). A possible future for the teenage Kevin.

Quote from: The Bee on April 12, 2016, 04:48:44 PM
I also always wondered what they do with the surplus digests. Do they put them in a warehouse and save them for a later date and then put them as part of there bundle of digests in what they attempt t sell on the site or do they shred them after a certain amount of time?

Here's the way ArchieComics.com sells its backstock of older digests now. Snapshot taken off their website today (4-12-16).