Last Week Tonight

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on September 11, 2016, 03:22:50 AM
@irishmoxie - Thanks for the contents listing comparison, it's always good to know.

I was a little surprised by the trade collection, because it didn't seem anywhere near as thematic as the solicitation description had led me to believe. I had figured that there would have been a lot more "and Friends" as the focus of this collection, like first appearances of a lot of the most notable female supporting characters or stories which put one of them in the spotlight as one of the main characters. Josie's name is mentioned on the back cover, but there's not a single Josie story in this collection, unless you count her cameo appearance in "The Great Switcheroo!" as the leader of 'Joey and the Junkyard Dogs'. A lot of the other reoccurring female characters are nowhere to be found in this collection, either. At least there was a short Jughead story ("No Fear") featuring Trula Twyst that I hadn't read before.

I also expected the trade paperback to be in the usual "Archie & Friends All-Stars" format (6" x 9"), but instead it was in the smaller 5.3" x 8" format used for ARCHIE'S CAMPFIRE STORIES (which was the last new collection of classic Archie stories released in trade paperback, back in July of 2015). At least it was printed on nice, bright white paper. All in all though, after I finished reading it I was left with the feeling that the same story contents list could have been used to fill a Jumbo Comics edition of one of the B&V digests, and I would never really even have taken notice of the theme. There were even a couple of Archie and Jughead stories (that didn't really feature any of the girls prominently) included in the contents, which seemed a little strange for a B&V collection.

When reading through this trade paperback, it seemed to be a mix of Boys vs. Girls stories and girls' friendship stories. It seemed to combine 2 Pep Digitals. One called World of Archie Pals vs Gals featuring "The Trouble With Girls", "No Fear", "Bicentennial Banter", and "The Great Switcheroo" and one called Betty and Veronica Friendship Fun featuring "Photo Op", "Poor Little Rich Girl", "Sweet as Butter", "200 Things I Like About You!", "Best Buds", "A Battle Royal", "Sleepover", "Best Friends", "Share and Share Alike", "Friends 'Til the End", "Let Betty Do It", and "Friendship Wrecked."

I wonder if whoever puts these collections together gets points for using stories that have already been used recently.

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on August 18, 2016, 04:39:08 AM
Wednesday, August 24th, 2016 - BETTY AND VERONICA: GIRLS RULE! trade paperback is released to comic shops. Solicitation description follows...

QuoteAnything boys can do, girls can do better! The gals are taking center stage and showing the boys who's boss! Watch the girls as they challenge their male counterparts to a dance-off, show them what's what on the sports field and even fight crime! It's not just a battle of the sexes, but also a fun walk through history, highlighting important female figures throughout time standing up for what's right! This collection spotlights the girls of Riverdale, including Betty, Veronica, Nancy, Cheryl, Ethel, Ginger, Trula Twyst and Brigitte, featuring a special introduction by comics legend Gail Simone! In this collection, the girls really do rule!

$10.99/$11.99CAN
5 1/4 x 8"
224 pp, Full Color

I love B&V "theme" collection trade paperbacks. If they put out one every single month, I would buy it.

1) This is the first classic Archie trade paperback (which is in the ARCHIE & FRIENDS ALL-STARS format of 5.25" x 8") to be released by ACP in over a year. (I discount 1000 Page Comics Digests and Giant Comics Digests as true trade paperbacks, even though that's what ACP calls them. They are simply bargain-priced digest omnibuses, that reprint the same stories as appeared in the regular digests in the previous 2 or 3 months. They're a great money-saving value for those who don't follow the digest titles on a regular basis, but for regular digest consumers, they're redundant.)

2) The last previous thematic collection of classic Archie stories in trade paperback was ARCHIE CAMPFIRE STORIES, released in July 2015, so it's been a long drought for classic Archie TPBs since then. Several solicitations for classic Archie trade paperbacks have appeared since then, but none of them have actually made it to print.

3) The last previous BETTY & VERONICA trade paperback collection was SHOPPING SPREE, released in December 2014.

4) This particular B&V collection, GIRLS RULE, has an especially twisty history on its road to print publication. If you're a reader of digital, you may remember this Digital Exclusive collection which was first released way back in December 2012:

(original release cover, under the Archie Digital iVerse app.)

(re-release cover as PEP DIGITAL #29, under the Archie Digital Madefire app.)

It's interesting to compare the description of that DE release with the new trade paperback version:

QuotePEP Digital #29: B & V Friends Girls Rule!
111 pages!
Anything boys can do, girls can do better! The gals are taking center stage and showing the boys who's boss! Watch the girls as they challenge their male counterparts to a dance-off, show them what's what on the sports field and even fight crime! It's not just a battle of the sexes, but also a fun walk through history, highlighting important female figures throughout time, standing up for what's right! This 100+ page digital exclusive features the lovely ladies of Riverdale, including Betty, Veronica, Nancy, Cheryl, Ethel, Ginger, Trula Twyst and Brigitte! In this collection, the girls really do rule!

Hmm... very similar to the print release as solicited above, except for using B&V FRIENDS instead of BETTY & VERONICA in the title. However, it can't be exactly the same collection, because the digital exclusive release was only 111 pages, while the new TPB release is 224 pages, over twice the page count. What stories might be the same in both collections is anyone's guess.

This particular trade paperback collection has been solicited at least twice before, but it looks like it will finally arrive in stores on August 24th.

In case you or anyone else cares, the TPB and digital collection do share a lot of the same stories:


B&V Friends Girls Rule! (111 pages)
"Obstacle Coarse" 5 pg
"Action Girl" 5 pg Nancy story
"Cheer Factor" 11 pg Jughead story
"A Women's Lib-Rib" 5 pg That Wilkin Boy story
"Bicentennial Banter" 5 pg
"Charming Chuckle" 1 pg
"The New Girl in Town" 5 pg Brigitte story 1st appearance?
"Pulling An Archie" 6 pg Ginger Lopez story
"The Chase" 5 pg Jughead story
"Women's Rights" 4 pg
"You Came A Long Way, Baby.." 6 pg
"The Battle of the Jitterbugs" 7 pg
"Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" 5 pg
"Meow Row" 5 pg
"Toolbelt Diva!" 6 pg Ginger Lopez
"No Fear" 6 pg Jughead/Trula Twyst story
"Turnabout" 5 pg Archie and Jughead cross dress
"Radio Daze" 11 pg Cheryl Blossom story
"Modest Mood" 1 pg
"The Big Chase" 6 pg

Betty and Veronica Girls Rule! (226 pgs)
"Friends 'Til The End" part 1 and 2 11 pg
"The New Girl in Town" 5 pg Brigitte story
"Bicentennial Banter" 5 pg
"Girl Power" 6 pg
"The Battle of the Jitterbugs" 7 pg
"Sweet as Butter" 6 pg
"Obstacle Coarse" 5 pg
"Cheer Factor" 11 pg
"Meow Row" 5 pg
"Let Betty Do It" 5 pg
"A Women's Lib-Rib" 5 pg
"Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" 5 pg
"200 Things I Like About You!" part 1, 2, and 3. 21 pg
"Women's Rights" 4 pg
"Modest Mood" 1 pg
"The Great Switcheroo!" Sabrina story 20 pg
"Chase Race" 6 pg
"A Battle Royal" 11 pg
"You Came A Long Way, Baby.." 6 pg
"Sleepover!" part 1 and 2 11 pg. Brigitte story
"Radio Daze" 11 pg Cheryl Blossom story
"The Trouble With Girls" 5 pg
"Poor Little Rich Girl!" 7 pg
"Best Friends" 11 pg
"No Fear" 6 pg
"Photo Op!" 5 pg
"Friendship Wrecked" 5 pg
"The Chase" 5 pg
"Best Buds" 5 pg
"Share & Share Alike" 5 pg

Charlie Brown It's the Great Pumpkin


Halloweentown

I had a vague understanding of what Dilton was talking about as iterative algorithms are used in CT image processing but I agree with DeCarlo Rules it was purposely written to be confusing to the general public.

I only read a few pages of the story so far but I found Ryan's commentary rather unnecessary. I think it's the reason why Betty Reggie didn't like this issue. It bogs down the story a bit.

As long as the new/inventoried stories don't feature dated pop cultural references we'll be good. Or maybe it would be more fun if they did??

The Christmas ones

My favorites are when Archie goes on dates with multiple girls on the same night.

Loved this issue which I picked up just because I'm a Pussycats fan. I only read the first 4 or 5 issues of Afterlife but I didn't have any problems following the story here. The next issue where the Pussycats visit Riverdale I'll definitely be reading.

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on August 31, 2016, 09:19:27 AM
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT by Osamu Tezuka (adapted from Fyodor Dostoyevsky) TP
BRAVE DAN by Osamu Tezuka TP
TRITON OF THE SEA by Osamu Tezuka VOL 1 TP
ATOMCAT by Osamu Tezuka TP
ASTONISHING ANT-MAN #11
AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE #10
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES UNIVERSE #1
DUCK AVENGER #0
HOWARD THE DUCK #10 (of 11)
SILVER SURFER #6 (#200)
FUTURE QUEST #4
PREDATOR VS. JUDGE DREDD VS. ALIENS #2
WORLD OF TANKS #1
TANK GIRL: 2 GIRLS 1 TANK #4 (of 4)
TRITON OF THE SEA by Osamu Tezuka TP - 1st 86 pages (of 432 pages)
ROM #1 & 2
MICKEY MOUSE: SHORTS SEASON ONE #2 (of 4)

No Betty and Veronica #2?

They've been doing new lead stories in digests since the 90's. I have some digests from then with stories that aren't printed elsewhere. Another thing I noticed is that these lead stories aren't heavily reprinted like other stories are.

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on August 28, 2016, 11:47:43 PM
Sunday: Listened to the rest of the Riverdale Podcast, watched 4 more episodes of JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS IN OUTER SPACE, read some manga.

Worth watching? I was put off by Veronica's southern accent in the other cartoons.

1. Sabrina. I love all of them except Little Sabrina/animated version. Not a huge fan of Chilling.
2. Josie and the Pussycats
3. Betty and Veronica (classic) 
4. Life with Kevin >>> regular Kevin
5. Celebrity or parody issues of classic Archie

Mostly phone when I'm at work but it makes typing up long replies hard.