Of course there's no rule saying that if there were to be a Vol. 2 collection of LwA, it couldn't contain some of the stories from the issues that were skipped over by Vol. 1 -- BUT... it seems apparent that they don't want to invest in any real work of scanning and/or recoloring older stories which have not as yet been digitized. I'm sure that decision is based strictly on economics. They clearly don't want to incur the cost of employing people to do that work, and the mandate here with the "Archie Comics Presents..." series of trade collections seems to be to try to generate income while using only the reprint material they already have on hand.

Which is a crying shame.   

issue	cvr date	title	pgs	story	pencils
[LwA #  1]	Sep-58	Rise and Shine	6	Sy Reit	Samm Schwartz
[LwA #  1]	Sep-58	By Hook or Cook	5	Sy Reit	Samm Schwartz
[LwA #16]	Sep-62	Hi-Jinks and Deep Divers!	23	Sy Reit	Bob White
[LwA #23]	Oct-63	A Very Lodge Problem	23	Sy Reit	Bob White
[LwA #26]	Mar-64	The Great Carnival Mystery!	23	Sy Reit	Bob White
[LwA #27]	May-64	The Strange Case of Patient X!	24	George Gladir	Bob White
[LwA #30]	Oct-64	Power Play	6	Frank Doyle	Harry Lucey
[LwA #30]	Oct-64	Oh Poi	6	Frank Doyle	Harry Lucey
[LwA #31]	Nov-64	Rough, Tough - But Fair Enough!	24	George Gladir	Bob White
[LwA #33]	Jan-65	A Christmas Tale	13	Frank Doyle	Bob White
[LwA #33]	Jan-65	Me Tarpan, You Jane!	11	Frank Doyle	Dan DeCarlo
[LwA #34]	Feb-65	The Beatnik Caper!	13	Bob White	Bob White
[LwA #35]	Mar-65	It's A Small World!	13	Frank Doyle	Bob White
[LwA #35]	Mar-65	Plane and Fancy!	10	Frank Doyle	Bob White
[LwA #37]	May-65	Plane Crazy!	13	George Gladir	Bob White
[LwA #39]	Jul-65	Taking Up Space	5	Bob Bolling	Bob Bolling
			218

This is all classic Silver Age ACP material, so if rated by content alone, this collection would get an "A". We can note here that in the earliest stages of LwA, Sy Reit seems to be the default writer, while Bob White was (as indeed he continued to be until the later 1960s) the default artist of this title. I always felt that Bob White never got enough recognition for his contributions to the company, so hopefully this collection will go some ways towards rectifying that.

While not as spotty a collection as ARCHIE AT RIVERDALE HIGH VOL 1, this book still falls far short of being ideal (in other words, a lot closer to what BETTY AND VERONICA SPECTACULAR VOL 1 was). What I'm seeing here is just a rearranging of stories I recognized as having mostly read in digest reprints prior to this. They're good stories, and some of the wilder plots as far as Archie stories go. In sharp contrast to the ARCHIE AT RIVERDALE HIGH VOL 1, while these are also atypical Archie stories for the most part, comedy still remains central despite all the outlandishness, so big points for that. The single story which is probably the highlight of this collection is "Rough, Tough - But Fair Enough!" (the title given on the contents page doesn't actually appear on the story itself, and was taken from the -- here unreproduced -- cover copy). This is the one where Archie and the gang visit the 1964 World's Fair (and a counterpart to a similar JOSIE epic). The most amazing part of this is a 10-page chase sequence motivated by a randomly-introduced incidental character, a taxi driver at the fair. George Gladir had real fun with this one, but I almost think it reads more like a Frank Doyle story... I wonder.

Another thing to note is the first two stories in this collection. Read carefully between the lines of those first two short from LwA #1. In the first story "Rise and Shine", Archie seemingly misses out on an opportunity to attend a class field trip. The next story in this collection "By Hook or Cook", from the same issue, shows the students have just returned from the aforementioned field trip, and Archie is among them -- so in the four stories from LwA #1 NOT reprinted here that came between the two that ARE reprinted ("Please Be Seated," "Mummy Knows Best," "Water Boy," "U.N. Antics" -- story titles courtesy of GCDb), something has occurred which resulted in Archie getting to go on that field trip after all. Too bad the rest of issue #1 is not reprinted so we could see what it was. But what's notable here (as was typically the case with She's JOSIE stories) is that the individual stories in a single issue actually maintain continuity between them.

Overall grade:  B+ (would have rated much higher if they hadn't skipped so many issues, particularly between issues #2 and 15, and between #17 and 22).

This was also covered in an article by Andy Mangels in the recently-released BACK ISSUE #107.

The song was never offered to the Monkees. That was a long-standing misconception because of the Don Kirshner connection with both groups.

Also of interest is the fact (pointed out in Mangels' article) that "Sugar, Sugar" was written in about 20 minutes.

Quote from: ASS-P on August 30, 2018, 04:23:15 PM
...WI1'm an extremely long-serving comic book fan, and I know th background very well! For one quick comment for now, I have been seeing 24- and 28- pagers (I'm not counting the covers, remember.)...and the 24-page format/template was used way back in the 70s, during the underground era!

I've checked this against the actual comic book. It is indeed 24 pages -- and yes, we count the covers, as that follows the standard convention. When you see the page count listed somewhere, it includes the covers.

BETTY AND VERONICA FRIENDS FOREVER has 24 pages. By comparison to another ACP floppy comic format title, the Archie Horror title VAMPIRONICA has the formerly-standard 32 pages, 8 pages of which are advertising or editorial content  -- one of these is a text feature, "The Riverdale Gazette", which takes up 2/3 page, with 1/3 page devoted to Upcoming Releases, while another whole page is devoted to a Variant Cover Gallery. Both comics devote the inside front cover to a page of credits and the indicia, and the back cover is not the usual advertisement, but more like the back cover of a paperback book, describing the interior story. Both B&VFF and VAMPIRONICA have in common that all of the pages are printed on the same heavy stock as the cover.

Comparing the two above titles with a third ACP title, ARCHIE MEETS BATMAN '66, that comic has yet a different page count than the other two -- 36 pages, 11 of which are devoted to advertising. In common with the other two titles, it devotes the inside front cover to credits and the indica, and has a back cover that describes the inside contents. All three titles also have a single page devoted to a preview of "Next Issue" (a single illustration plus text). Where ARCHIE MEETS BATMAN '66 differs from the other two is that the interior pages are printed on a thinner paper stock (still white) than the covers (which are identical to the paper stock used on all pages of both B&VFF and VAMPIRONICA). Since none of these comics are printed on newsprint stock, we can assume that the old ground rules of 16-page signatures no longer apply. The only thing I could discover about the printing plant used is that the titles are all "printed in Canada". 4-page signatures seem to be the minimum now, since we have examples of a 24-page, 32-page, and 36-page floppy comic book all from the same publisher (theoretically it would be possible to produce a 28-page or 40-page comic as well).

Comics like B&VFF and VAMPIRONICA which use the same paper stock for both covers and interior pages can be printed together during the same print run -- what used to be called 'gang-printing'. Formerly when different paper stock was used for covers and interior pages, the covers got printed in a separate print run from the interior pages, and were only brought together in the bindery stage (when the staples are added) of the printing process. ARCHIE MEETS BATMAN '66 might have had its cover run combined with the print run of the other two (assuming they had the same shipping dates, or close enough), but since the interior stock used is different, that would have meant those pages needed to be printed separately.

I mention all these details only because they're something crucial (along with what it costs to pay the creative team for each page of story and cover, and what portion of the printing costs can be defrayed by advertising income from paid ads) to what the price of the comic is to the consumer -- the more pages that can be combined during a single print run, the lower the cost to ACP to produce the comic.

Quote from: ASS-P on August 30, 2018, 01:45:38 AM
...My point was how many paper pages the B&V:FF comic book had, not how many story pages it had! It's packed away now, but I recall it having only 20 interior pages - all story, with no ads   - plus the cover. Only 20 pages !

I don't have it in front of me now, but it seems unlikely, based on how comics are printed. The original comic book size was determined by taking a full-size newspaper page (already folded once, so it would actually be 4 pages, front and back) and folding that in half (exactly the way the paper is when delivered to you), then in half again -- and trimming the edges. That means that all floppy comics would have to contain pages in multiples of (4x2)x2, or 16. So that determines the page count (not the story page count) of comic books. 16, 32, 48, 64, 80 -- and you can indeed confirm from those last three page counts that over the years many comic book specials or annuals have been "48-Page Giants", "64-Page Giants", or "80-Page Giants".

Quote from: ASS-P on August 29, 2018, 02:54:42 AM
...Yes, of course under-21s can go alone to restaurants that serve booze, but you seem to talking about a " bar/pub " more than about a " restraint/eating places that also offers alcohol ", if you get yhe distinction that I'm making here! Somewhere where alcohol is more the focal point...

Many restaurants that serve both food and alcohol refer to themselves as pubs. From Pop's perspective, the focal point is making money. Whether the focal point from the customer's perspective was food or alcohol, or just a social venue for hanging out with friends, would vary according to the individual. Some college students are indeed of legal drinking age, as well, so Pop would just be taking advantage of his location relative to the college. What I'm getting at here is that the nature of Pop's business would change from a quaintly nostalgic "ice cream restaurant" to something more realistically relatable to readers as the kind of place they can recognize. Of course there are also many neighborhood bars calling themselves pubs, catering mostly to older men for the express purpose of getting drunk, and I understand that that's what you're thinking of.

Quote from: ASS-P on August 28, 2018, 04:30:14 AM
...Wouldn't a pub as a hangout be difficult when the drinking age is ,21 in America? The driving age could be legally scooted around more easily.o

Many restaurants sell alcoholic beverages, and they don't prohibit people under the legal drinking age from being customers. Of course they're required by law to confirm positive ID of age before serving those beverages. In a more realistic vein, whether that actually occurs (or whether underage drinkers use fake IDs) is another question. So think of Chili's or some chain like that, except that Pop's wouldn't be a franchise, just a local eatery.

Quote from: ASS-P on August 28, 2018, 04:42:37 AM
I was not aware, as it says here, that the $2.99 BETTY AND VERONICA: FRIENDS FOREVER was reprints! From the digests?
  For its size, I had never seen a 20-pages-plus-cover comic book before, I think, from a still[size=78%] technically ' big ' company.[/size]

Sure you have. B&V:FF  has 20 pages of comic story (comprised of four individual 5-page stories) for $3 (plus ads). Other comics with $4 cover prices also have 20 pages of comic story (and sometimes even one or two pages less) plus ads. To be clearer, B&V:FF isn't a 20-page comic book -- it's a 32-page comic book which includes 20 pages of comics stories, 8 pages of advertising/editorial content, and the 4 pages which comprise the front and back cover & inside front cover and inside back cover. 20+8+4=32. It's the standard format for periodical comic magazines. That said, depending on the publisher, a 32 page comic could contain more than 20 pages of story if the publisher decided to sacrifice some of the advertising pages (which are really 11, since of the 4 pages that make up the covers, 3 of those are actually being used for advertising). In truth, the number of pages of story is less dependent on losing that ad space than on how many pages of story the publisher can afford to pay for.

The reason B&V:FF is priced at $1 cheaper than other floppy format comics that ACP publishes is that those 20 pages are pulling double-duty (with the four stories being spread out over the two most recently-published issues of both the Betty and Veronica Jumbo Comics digest, and the B&V Friends Jumbo Comics digest).

The 4 stories appeared in the digest titles so recently prior to being seen in B&V:FF that I guess they're almost considered 'simul-prints', but in different formats. That seems to bear out the idea that ACP's perception is that the audiences for their digest comics and their floppy format comics don't intersect much. The bulk of the copies printed and sold of floppy comics will be sold by comic book stores, while the bulk of the copies of digest format comics will be sold outside those stores.

GIGANTOR Vol. 1 (of 1) by Ben Dunn, Ted Nomura, & David Hutchinson [Sentai Studios, 2006] - Reprints issues 1-12 of the Ameri-manga adapted from the US-translated (by Fred Ladd) anime published by Antarctic Press. Antarctic had issued the same collection earlier in a slightly smaller-sized "Pocket Manga" collection (same size as Japanese tankobon paperback). It adapts a few episodes of the TV series, but is mainly interesting for giving the first American version of Gigantor's origin story. Tetsujin 28 (or Ironman No. 28) in the Japanese version was the 28th iteration of a robot secret weapon project begun by the Japanese army prior to the end of WWII. The original robot was never activated, as the laboratory was bombed by American B-29s before the robot could be completed. However, the creator continued to work on the project himself after the war ended, with the idea of dedicating the new weapon to be used not for war, but to uphold justice and secure world peace. Ben Dunn's version incorporates that basic storyline, but is a little vague on why "Dr. Sparks" (the Americanized translated name of a character who was originally a Japanese scientist) would have been working for Japan during WWII. At any rate, Dunn adds a lot of interesting new characters, like Lord Jim and Emma East (obviously an homage to John Steed and Emma Peel, England's The Avengers). In his version, Lord Jim wears a bowler derby like John Steed, but also a mask. Emma East is a female spy who looks and dresses a lot like Jackie Kennedy in the early 1960s. Also seen were avatars for Marvel's Fantastic Four, and a certain General Reese (who looks exactly like THE HULK's General "Thunderbolt" Ross), and treats scientist Bob Brilliant with the same disdain and disrespect that Ross treated Bruce Banner. One panel even featured a cameo from a certain "Captain Franco" who looks exactly like Space Pirate Captain Phantom F. Harlock. He had real fun with the three-part origin story, but the later issues which are straight episode adaptations lose a lot of their liveliness. Still, all in all, one of the better series adapted by American creators from a Japanese animated show. Dunn had previously worked on the first 11 issues of Eternity Comics' CAPTAIN HARLOCK (also very good work), and a two-issue crossover of his own creator-owned NINJA HIGH SCHOOL with Now Comics' SPEED RACER. Later he'd work with Marvel Comics to try to establish the MARVEL MANGAVERSE in a couple of one-shots and a 6-issue miniseries.

THE OFFICIAL GIGANTOR EPISODE GUIDE AND COMPENDIUM by Fred Ladd [Antarctic Press, 2000]

TETSUJIN 28 DE LUXE by Mitsuteru Yokoyama (appears to be Volume 1 of the series, though un-numbered), published by Kobunsha in -- I think -- 1996. Import title, Japanese text. This was a  "best of" collection of Ironman No. 28 at full manga magazine size, sort of a facsimile edition that reprinted some of the earliest highlights of the giant robot's manga career, although as originally seen here in the very first story, it begins without any origin as such, and Tetsujin is merely a threatening giant robot being controlled by a criminal gang. It's nice to view it (though on better paper) in full size as printed the same way it appeared in manga magazines in the 1950s, with some pages in different colored inks, some with tones, some two-color or even full-color, along with the original chapter 'splash' or 'title' page (many of these were photo covers, as well). It's surprising how many of those early chapters don't even feature the giant robot on the title page, as I guess Yokoyama-san must have thought it was going to be either a one-time deal for that first story, or a minor backup plot device that he could pull out from time to time as sort of a "Hail Mary play" to save the day. From the later stories, it's clearer that readers were giving feedback and warming to the fact that the giant robot Tetsujin was the main draw to the ongoing feature.

Jiro Kuwata's WORLD OF MEMORIES: Boys' Manga Theater 1957-1963 [deluxe softcover collection, Kodansha 2009/import (Japanese text only)]

  An interesting retrospective of some of "Mr. Bat-manga" Kuwata-san's earliest and most significant works in the superhero manga genre, all of which were adapted to (or from) tokusatsu hero or anime TV series. Included are the earliest appearances of the characters Phantom Detective (1957), Moonlight Mask (a.k.a. Gekko Kamen, 1958, adapted from a live-action TV superhero) and, most importantly to me, 8 Man (1963, and known to U.S. audiences as Tobor the 8th MAN). The last of these accounts for approximately 1/2 the comic pages in the book. 8 Man, created by Kuwata in collaboration with established SF prose author Kazumasa Hirai, was the first Japanese cyborg superhero, narrowly beating out Shotaro Ishinomori's CYBORG 009 (1964, and bearing remarkable similarities with Marvel's X-MEN which debuted that same year) for the honor of that distinction, and being adapted into an anime series as well in 1963. In this book we can see a rapid compression of the evolution of Kuwata's art style over a short period of 5 years. The earliest Phantom Detective story here from 1957 is drawn firmly in the popularly established style pioneered by manga no kamisama ("God of Manga") Osamu Tezuka, a style carried on by two of Tezuka's former assistants, the aforementioned Mr. Ishinomori, and Mitsuteru Yokoyama (creator of Tetsujin 28 -- a.k.a. Gigantor -- and Giant Robo, among many others). By the 1963 debut of 8 Man, Kuwata's style appeared less rounded and cartoony, and (though still simplified) very dynamic and fashion-forward in its design aesthetics. It seems impossible to conclude anything else but that Kuwata-san was studying the artwork of his American contemporaries, particular Jack Kirby, and adapting a sort of fusion of the sensibilities of both Western and Eastern superheroes. There is a notable influence of Kirby's signature foreshortening of anatomical perspective on display here, lending power and grace, as well as a boldness to the figure drawing. Kuwata's style would go on to become a major influence on the anime studio Tatsunoko Productions, which later produced the very popular series MACH GO-GO-GO (known internationally as Speed Racer) and GATCHAMAN (adapted for Western audiences as Battle of the Planets). Also included are many color pages displaying artwork (mostly covers) from a dozen or so more series from Mr. Kuwata's oevre of the 1960s-1970s -- a profusion of very interesting-looking and diverse home-grown superheroes little seen outside Japan.

PHANTOM DETECTIVE - Boy heroes (as opposed to sidekicks) have always been popular protagonists in the shonen manga magazines. Phantom Detective is one such boy, a gifted amateur sleuth who dresses entirely in black (save for a red cap and yellow scarf), rides a motorcycle, knows karate, and not only carries a gun, but TWO of them! All in good fun, and PD never actually kills, but is one of those expert marksmen who can shoot a pistol out of a gangster's hand without blinking an eye. Japanese boys were indeed made of stern stuff in those days (or would love to imagine themselves as so).

MOONLIGHT MASK - Based on a previously-created (or not, it isn't quite clear whether Kuwata-san had any hand in the show's conception or character design) TV series, the inspiration for Gekko Kamen seems to have come from airings in Japan of old 1940s movie serials, and a successful run on Japan TV of the Clayton Moore Lone Ranger series. Japan's homegrown masked man swaps the horse for a motorcycle, but carries guns in the best tradition of both western lone gunfighter heroes and Republic serial heroes. He dresses all in white, with a long gold scarf (as consistent a design aesthetic for superheroes in Japan as capes are for U.S. superheroes), gold boots and gloves, dark goggles and white turban (!) with a gold crescent moon symbol, making him look a bit like an urban desert bandit. Once again, the motorcycle seems inspired by the old motorcycle chases seen in occidental Saturday matinee serials. Moonlight Mask, being the first of the "tokusatu" genre of TV superheroes, left an enormous impression. Only Golden Bat (the equivalent of a Japanese 'mystery man' pulp hero from the 1930s) was older and more influential in that respect.

8 MAN - A detective is murdered by criminals, only to have his dying body recovered and hauled to the secret home laboratory of a well-meaning 'good' mad scientist, who after seven attempts at imprinting an android body with the recorded thoughts and memories of a human brain, finally succeeds on his 8th attempt, and so 8 Man is born. The wonderfully bold use of black-and-white for a design aesthetic is again observed by Mr. Kuwata, resulting in a strikingly modern-looking hero by the standards of 1963 Japan. As with Tezuka's AstroBoy, resurrected detective-turned-superhero 8 Man spends the majority of his time fighting against rogue robots and cyborg criminals (as well as the occasional monster or alien) -- an interesting-looking gallery of arch-villains in cross-section. An ingenious innovation is the way that 8 Man is able to change his outward appearance from normal human to superhero, with a vertical line passing across his body in a 'wipe-effect' to complete the transition. When his android body runs low on energy, our hero is able to recharge by seemingly nonchalantly smoking a cigarette -- in reality a cleverly-disguised battery-booster! This makes Jiro Kuwata the co-creator of the idea of the electric cigarette! It's also worth noting that long before GHOST IN THE SHELL, Kuwata portrayed brainwaves-converted-to-digital data and housed in an entirely prosthetic cybernetic body.

In looking at Mr. Kuwata's simple but very appealing cartooning style, it's easy to 'read' these comics (in the visual sense). I'm struck by the similar quality inherent in the character designs of the great American cartoonist, Alex Toth, in designing so many heroes, villains, and incidental characters and props for Hanna-Barbara's adventure cartoons of the late 1960s, or Bruce Timm's DC animated cartoons of the 1990s-early 2000s. It is my fervent wish that in the wake of DC Comics' successful translations of Jiro Kuwata's Batman manga, that some enterprising U.S. publisher (Dark Horse, Kodansha, Seven Seas, or Viz would be the likeliest prospects) would take a chance and translate more of Kuwata-san's work into English for U.S. readers. Especially to be hoped for are the groundbreaking characters of 8 Man and Moonlight Mask.

One other thing I noticed was that ACP had two full-page ads in that issue, but I guess they just love to flush an opportunity to make some money right down the drain. What are the ads for? The New Riverdale trades and the Riverdale TV series. Uh... yeah, thanks for bringing those to our attention, we somehow just spaced out and plain didn't realize they existed.

Apparently they don't bother targeting the ads to the consumer base of the magazine they're advertising in. It's for fans of BRONZE AGE comics, you dummies!!! Instead of trying to target the ads to spotlight the creme-de-la-creme of their existing trade collections of classic Archie material (and oh, as long as they're at it... how about selling some of those Red/Dark Circle trades in a magazine whose usual readership is superhero fans?). What about selling some digest subscriptions and 1000-Page Comics bricks? No, they waste the ad space on something pretty much everyone already knows about. If they care about such things (in itself doubtful), BACK ISSUE's readers have already bought the comics or trades, and watched the show, but what they might NOT be aware of is the digests are still being published (because you don't really SEE them much in comic book stores), and that ACP has an extensive line of material targeted towards readers who already LOVE the old classic stories from the 1970s and 1980s. The Best of Archie Comics Deluxe HCs? "Archie Comics Presents..."? Archie Americana? They could easily have squeezed the covers of 25 different TP collections onto a single magazine-sized ad page. Nah, just toss 'em the same old ads we run in the digests and regular floppy comics we publish. It's not the same audience, you idiots!!

Quote from: Nostalgic on August 23, 2018, 08:45:25 AM
I remember a story where Jughead is wearing a new pair of boots. I think it was  Archie who was admiring them. Jughead explained the construction in great detail including how the leather was "chewed to a delightful softness by Eskimo maidens" and the heals were made from the hooves of Tibitian mountain goats. Is there anybody  who can help me locate this comic? Thanks!

Those things are stumpers, all right. I think I remember reading the story, but couldn't tell you the title or where (probably a reprint in a digest).

The quote you gave makes it sound more like an older (early-1970s if it's the one I'm thinking of) story by either Frank Doyle or Samm Schwartz, although if it's a longer story it could be one of those late-'90s ones written by Craig Boldman (it's his kind of plot, to have Jughead obsessing over some particular new quirk of his, for a single story) and drawn by Rex Lindsey. Without some other detail like whether the artist was Samm Schwartz or Rex Lindsey, it'd me tough for me to narrow it down further. Sorry I could't help.

Quote from: Vegan Jughead on August 23, 2018, 07:59:40 AM

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on August 23, 2018, 12:40:40 AM
BACK ISSUE #107 - Archie Comics in the Bronze Age!

3

I got this one too. Just starting on it.  Cool stuff!

It is indeed an awesome magazine! TBH, I was expecting that maybe about 1/3 to 1/2 of the issue would focus on Archie-related articles, and the rest on the usual hodgepodge of different features. Was I pleasantly surprised to discover that the entire 75-page magazine was devoted to Archie Comics, and nothing else! My mind was boggled JUST by the amount of surprising (and unknown to me) information in the very first article. Things I didn't know, and in some cases, hadn't even thought to wonder about -- truly a treasure-trove of ACP data. I hope everyone here will buy the magazine -- they will NOT be disappointed -- because I can envision the possibility that if that issue were to sell particularly well, TwoMorrows might decide to use it as the basis for an expanded trade paperback (they usually run somewhere in the neighborhood of 250-300 pages) with even more critical information, articles, and data. For example, they could have listed all the album tracks from The Archies' albums, and all the NEW episodes in each of the various Filmation animated incarnations of Archie and Sabrina. They definitely could have included an article on Josie and the Pussycats, perhaps even one about the Madhouse Glads, and maybe they could have even dug up an older interview with Dan DeCarlo that had been published years ago in some more obscure, little-seen fanzine. They should definitely include a more detailed article focusing on the publishing history of the Archie digests, as well as one on Archie collectibles. It would not be the first time TwoMorrows has expanded on a single-issue magazine focus on one particular publisher, in a later-published, greatly expanded trade paperback collection.

BACK ISSUE #107 - Archie Comics in the Bronze Age!
SCOOBY-DOO! TEAM-UP #41 (with Penelope Pitstop)
THE TERRIFICS #7
BLACK HAMMER: AGE OF DOOM #4
THE SENTRY #3
PUNISHER (2018) #1
RED SONJA/TARZAN #4
HIT-GIRL #7
MANGA:
  TOKYO TARAREBA GIRLS VOL 02
  DEVILMAN VS HADES VOL 02
  PLATINUM END VOLS 2-6

Quote from: SAGG on August 21, 2018, 04:28:28 AM
One word: Recycling. 😆

Oh, don't get me wrong... I'm aware that there are probably hundreds of recycled cover gags distributed randomly through the various comics published over the decades by ACP. It still seems incredible that they'd used the same one on two consecutive issues of the same title, even if there WAS a 9-year gap between them. Obviously the common wisdom that applied was that almost nobody who read REGGIE #14 would still be buying comics nine years later when #15 was released. But they had to realize that copies of REGGIE #14 would still be around in 1963, being passed down, traded, or re-sold, when they repeated that same gag on the very next issue #, and that at least a few people were collecting REGGIE comics, and would be certain to notice it -- almost as if they TRYING to draw attention to the fact that recycling cover gags was a common practice for the company.

The other thing notable about this particular gag is Betty's rather quaint usage of the slang term "scored" in the context of this gag, as a metaphor for LOVE. As in, "scored" = "made love" -- the actual reverse of its meaning in tennis terms, where if you HAVE scored, then you DON"T have "love". In tennis terms, love is worth bupkis, nada, zilch -- scoring is what's important. If she wanted to speak more plainly and less delicately or euphemistically, she might have just admitted that she was frustrated because she hadn't managed to bang Archie yet. It seems like just another humorous gag at first glance, until you analyze it more minutely. Seems like the editor was asleep at the switch on that one.

That gag could very easily have been recycled from an earlier gag used in one of those sexy men's humor digests, with the girl in question drawn in a much more overtly sensual manner, and the strongly suggestive innuendo of that gag perfectly fits the requirements of a men's magazine cartoon. And in fact, I wouldn't be surprised to discover the same gag existed as a Dan DeCarlo cartoon that had been published in one of the digest titles he drew for publisher Martin Goodman. I just read an interview (BACK ISSUE #107) with George Gladir where he mentions that in the early 1960s, he was specializing in writing those single-panel gags for a LOT of different publishers, some of those "men's humor" digests among them.