Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on March 03, 2019, 12:55:27 PMACP continues to confuse the $#!+ out of me. What the heck is bannering a certain few titles with the logo "Archie Forever" supposed to mean, anyway?

Just "Yeah, Archie forever, woo-hoo!" That's it. Nothing more complicated than that.

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on March 03, 2019, 12:55:27 PMWhen both ARCHIE #700 and BETTY & VERONICA #1 (of 5) came out around the same time, with both of the series' characters beginning their Senior year of school at Riverdale High, I assumed it meant that these titles were vaguely related somehow, i.e. they shared a common universe. Except now it doesn't seem like that can be the case. It took the previously-numbered ARCHIE series from 2015 to 2018 (and 32 issues worth of comicbook-time) to get through their Junior year, and it doesn't look like time is moving all that differently now in the new Archie series re-numbered from #700 onwards. Yet Betty & Veronica, who started Senior year in their issue #1 around the same time as Archie 700, raced through two semesters in 5 issues and are already ready for Graduation Day. Meanwhile, Sabrina is doing the girlfriend-boyfriend thing with Archie over in his title, but in her own title, she just seems to be arriving in Riverdale for the first time (and is it just me, or does the cover image above make Sabrina look Asian?)... so it doesn't seem like any of these books can inhabit the same continuity.

Soon after the Jughead reboot started, I realized the various New Riverdale titles don't inhabit the same continuity. Each title stands on its own and doesn't count in regard to the others.

The only seeming exception is Jamie Rotante's statement that, in her mind, the B&V miniseries occurs in the future of the Archie title, but I've already found contradictions. So it's best to think of each title as its own separate continuity.

Oh, and Sabrina's moving to Greendale in her new miniseries, not Riverdale.

This week, I review "The New Archies" episode, "Take My Butler, Please".

I review "It's in Her Kiss" from Cheryl Blossom, No. 23.

I review "Taking Care of Business" from B&V #257.

I review "Fall" from Betty and Veronica, Vol. 4, No. 2.

I review "Faith, Hope and Cheryl!" from Cheryl Blossom Special, No. 2.

I review "Brotherly Love" from Cheryl Blossom, No. 22.

I review "Wild Things" from Riverdale, No. 3.

Quote from: ASS-P on January 12, 2019, 03:52:40 PM
...I'd like to say some things started off by this amazing!   work of effort.
  I do assume that you're, in oart, looking through your own past here . I'm SURE! I'm the oldest regular of any sort here - I'm 58 . Perhaps you're early-mud 30s? Younger? The concept of this does post reminds me of that " Beloit Guide " (or whatever it's called) that appears in the media every year, which talks about what the stsndsrd-aged (17-18) were born after/before/experienced in their childhood. I:m sure you've encounty it too.
  I'll stop this kickoff comment here, I'm on a lil' phone now - and am once again in a hospital bed ! (Anyway, they got wi-fi .) I hope you'll have something to say.

Yes, my post was indeed inspired by the Beloit College Mindset List, but I've gone far beyond it, trying to pin down a day-by-day series of events that the gang would have experienced.
By the way, I'm 40.

This week, I review the first issue of the new "Betty & Veronica" miniseries.

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on January 11, 2019, 05:39:00 AM
Plus you don't worry about whether any particular store is stocking the titles you like, or whether or not they'll be sold out before you get there.

This was actually a problem when I was ordering physical comics online from TFAW. If I waited a week or two after an issue came out in order to order multiple titles together and save on shipping, well, there was a chance that that title would no longer be available, so I was forced to order single issues weekly and pay for shipping each time. This resulted in numerous charges on my credit card bill, and I had to make a special trip to the bank once per month to pay it off. I eventually decided it wasn't worth it. In addition to physical comics, I also gave up using my credit card. Yeah, that means I have to buy an Amazon gift card every so often, but it's a lot more convenient, saving me money, a monthly trip to the bank, and a monthly bill in the mail.
As for ChAoS, I recently read an article where the person complained about the filler, due to the episodes approaching one hour in length. Yeah, s/he totally has a point. Even with only ten episodes in a season, it sometimes feels like the series is spinning its wheels. I'm not sure what the solution is. Maybe ten 30-minute episodes?

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on January 10, 2019, 09:44:07 AM
I don't know what it is about digital comics, but if there's a print comic and a digital comic of the same thing at the same price I'll go for the print comic every single time. They're just a lot more convenient to read (although they do take up a lot more space). That said, I'm always on the lookout for digital comics that can't be had (at least not easily or cheaply) in print. Loosely translated, what that mostly means for me is OLD comics; comics that are now public domain that someone scanned and uploaded to sites like Digital Comic Museum or ComicBookPlus, or fan-translated scans (scanslations) of Japanese manga which the regular American print publishers have chosen NOT to translate. Or webcomics that can be saved by right-clicking the images. AND of course, what all those things have in common is that they're FREE. I might feel differently about 'regular' digital comics if they were cheaper, like maybe $1 for a 20-page story. I mean, I can see why print comics cost $4 for a single floppy. They're printed on decent paper, but they don't print a hell of a lot of them, so I can see where the money's going. Most people only think about what the writers, artists, editors, production people and the publisher need to charge to make a living... but with print comics, a large part of that $4 cover price is keeping a printer, a distributor, and a retailer in business. What's digital's excuse? It literally costs NOTHING to make as many copies as they can sell. There are NO material costs beyond the cost of initial production, no paper, ink, shipping costs, etc. Maybe they'd sell more if they weren't so profit-greedy. Yet at the same time, if they make them TOO cheap, then they're stabbing the print end of their publishing operation right through the heart. I say digital comics won't really be practical until they don't compete directly with print comics, nor do I want to contribute to the death of print comics, so I guess it's print for me, as long as it still exists.

I was paying a lot in shipping for physical comics, because there are no physical comic shops near me and haven't been in years (the only one that comes up in a search is 18 miles away, in the next county). So I quit physical comics in December of 2016, switched to digital, and haven't looked back.
As for the price of digital comics, well, I think $3.99 is a bit too much, regardless of whether it's digital or physical. But does anyone know how much that Archie pays the writers, artists, and letterers per issue? The $3.99 price might make some sense in terms of a way to recoup costs.
For me, it's always more convenient to read something digitally, because I'm constantly parked in front of my computer until my mom goes to bed, so it's just a matter of opening it up in my Kindle for PC program.

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on January 10, 2019, 04:32:27 AM
I have a huge backlog of comics (and other stuff) to READ at any given time (plus stuff I'd love to RE-read again, that I first read years ago, if I can find the time), so my time is increasingly dominated by reading as opposed to viewing.

I haven't been much of a reader (of books) historically, but, last year, I decided to start reading ebooks, and I've been keeping track of my progress on Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/13874241-mark
Usually, I read 2-3 books at a time but only a chapter of each per day.
As for comics, I gave away a ton of unread non-Archie comics to a thrift store yesterday. If I ever feel like reading comics, I just buy the Kindle version (and it's usually an Archie).

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on January 09, 2019, 11:23:33 AM
You might be the odd man out on this opinion. I always assumed people wanted MORE episodes of series that they liked, not less. It may just be that you have a heavy schedule with too much TV viewing on your plate.

That's not really the reason. Well, it's part of it. It's more like I have so little free time that I have a backlog of DVDs and Blu-rays to watch - and anything interesting that I find on Netflix on top of that. I have a job, and I live with my 78-year-old mom, who deals with constant pain (and constantly makes me aware of it) and is rather dumb when it comes to technology - and who also feels I have to take up the rather pointless tasks of doing yard work now that she she no longer can (the only times that I even go outside are to check the mail, so I really don't see the point, but that's unacceptable to her). Plus, she generally parks herself on the living room couch all day and either Skypes with relatives, plays sound-effect-laden computer games, or watches her endless supply of cop shows, leaving me only about a couple hours in the evening to get any kind of viewing in.

Also, I read an article a few months ago that said the trend for millennials and younger is to watch content usually not much longer than 20 minutes in length (often, this is content created by their peers and shared on YouTube), so a 22-episode (or more) season of 40-minute episodes is too much by comparison. (Heck, I myself take a few days to watch one movie.)

Also, I recently got into a discussion on the Supergirl TV Reddit, and the feeling is a 22-episode season is too much, and it's made even worse by constantly going on hiatus, which makes people forget plot details and even entire characters (I watch reaction videos, and the reactors are often confused for a while as to who certain people are supposed to be). I had suggested either a shorter season or multiple mini-story arcs per season (or even - gasp! - stand-alone episodes that have nothing to do with anything else), but the response that I got was this would come off as a foreign concept to the network.
Heck, the reason that Riverdale's ratings went up from season 1 to season 2 is due to new, younger viewers discovering the series on Netflix (it went up the week after the season finale, I believe) and binge-watching it.
Personally, it took me two years to "binge-watch" the entire Star Trek franchise and a few months to do "Charmed". Between my weekly blog, fanfics, watching YouTube videos, and trying to get some original novels done, I simply can't spare an entire day to watch an entire season of a series.

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on January 07, 2019, 05:41:47 PM
Wow, "Season" must mean something different than it used to mean. It used to mean somewhere around 26 weeks

Yeah, and thank Goddess those days are over. 26 episodes per year is way too much. Heck, seasons were even longer before that. "Bonanza" had 30+ episodes per season for most of its run. So did "Gunsmoke" for its first 11 seasons.
Even now, television seasons are too long. 22 episodes seem to be the standard now, but "Supergirl" got an extra episode last season. TV seems to be unable to adapt to changing times. Netflix, by contrast, recently cut their own seasons down from 13 episodes to 10 (see: "Alexa and Katie" season 2 versus season 1). That seems about right, especially considering the longer episode lengths that Netflix has.
By the way, the first season of ChAoS equals, in length, 26 episodes of the MJH series (or more than the entire first season of 24 episodes).

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on January 07, 2019, 05:41:47 PM
So the show's been renewed for the next three years? I never even heard of such a thing. It used to be they'd just play it by ear and watch the ratings from one year's batch of episodes (whatever number that might be) to the next year's.

Well, the CW renewed "Beauty and the Beast" for seasons 3 and 4 at the same time.