Quote from: BettyReggie on March 23, 2018, 10:35:08 PM
I preorder Riverdale & some of the Digests. I couldn't find Archie #32. Is it on a break?

ARCHIE is not quite published monthly; since issue #1, dated September 2015, it has skipped the months of December 2015, March 2016, June 2016, February 2018, and June 2018. On average that's more like 10 issues per year than monthly, although it obviously isn't sticking to a standard pattern of skipping certain months of the year. For the year 2017, it actually WAS monthly since there were 12 issues published that year.

Look at how scared Archie looks on that Francavilla cover variant. Now, I'm a huge fan of Francavilla's work in general (although to honest, AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE is probably one of my least favorites of all the things he's worked on; I much prefer Francavilla's creator-owned series, BLACK BEETLE), but I'm thinking about skipping that cover variant because it's just not suited to this particular comic book, tone-wise.

Sandy Jarrell's variant is my absolute favorite here, and he(or she)'s an artist whose prior work I'm entirely unfamiliar with. The biggest point to make about that art is that it's the best-designed of all the covers, and perfectly captures a vibe of fun and grooviness that's totally in sync with those late-1960s issues of LIFE WITH ARCHIE where The Archies made their first appearances. I'm kind of embarassed to say it, but s/he's outdone some of my favorite artists on that one cover, including Dan Parent, Mike Allred, Francesco Francavilla and Ty Templeton. Their covers are fine, but none of them are illustrations which I'd place near the top of each of their personal lists of most outstanding covers.

Francesco Francavilla's "AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE MEETS BATMAN '66" #1 variant cover --

Sandy Jarrell's variant cover for ARCHIE MEETS BATMAN '66 #1 --

I checked into the first appearance of Chuck Clayton and found that it was actually in "The New Generation", an Archies story written by Dick Malmgren and drawn by Bob Bolling, from LIFE WITH ARCHIE #110 (Chuck also appeared in LWA#111, 112, and 113). In the story, the Archies meet up with a depressed and disillusioned Vietnam veteran, and the example of how all the Riverdale teens get along (regardless of differences of race) gives the veteran new hope for future generations.

LIFE WITH ARCHIE #113 came out the same month (September 1971) as PEP #257, with the Big Moose story "My Reputation" where Chuck manhandles the terror of Riverdale High by tossing him around using judo throws which his father taught him. LWA #113 that same month had a story where Chuck became The Archies' business manager. I can recall other early Chuck stories which portrayed him as a hypochondriac and as being particularly inept with girls (which causes him to seek advice from Archie and Reggie), and a couple where he acts like an egotistical braggart (including one I read just recently). It seems as though having introduced Chuck by editorial mandate, early on the writers at ACP really didn't have much of a grasp on exactly what sort of character he was, and were experimenting with a lot of different personality traits and quirks in those early stories.

Here's the story on ARCHIE MEETS BATMAN '66 from Diamond Comics' PREVIEWSWORLD site:

Batman and Robin Swing Into Riverdale!

Batman and Robin are swinging their way to Riverdale and things are going to get really wild, really fast! Archie Comics and DC Entertainment are proud to present the crossover adventure 50 years in the making: ARCHIE MEETS BATMAN 66! The groovy six-issue mini-series from writers Jeff Parker and Michael Moreci, penciler Dan Parent, inker J. Bone, colorist Kelly Fitzpatrick, and letterer Jack Morelli will see Gotham's caped crusaders (as seen in the classic 1960s TV series) on a mission to Riverdale that upends the lives of Archie and the gang in a madcap adventure for the ages.

"Following the success of a monster hit like HARLEY & IVY MEET BETTY & VERONICA is tough, but not impossible, and we're going to prove that with ARCHIE MEETS BATMAN '66, which meshes two of the most iconic characters in the world," said Archie Comics CEO/Publisher Jon Goldwater. "Like Batman, Archie is one of the most famous, global characters in comics, and we'll see the best of both heroes in the pages of this mini-series, including tons of cameos and plenty of action."

"We considered many different combinations for this next pairing between DC Universe and Archie characters, and Batman '66 and Archie Andrews really stood out as the perfect choice," said Hank Kanalz, DC SVP of Editorial Strategy and Administration. "What DC and Archie started with HARLEY & IVY MEET BETTY & VERONICA last year continues with this off-the-wall pairing of Archie and The Caped Crusader; we believe fans of the classic TV shows and their modern interpretations will be excited about this new series."

"Look, we all want to know what Jughead and The Joker make of each other and we want to see the romance dynamics of Riverdale High thrown completely out of gear by bringing in Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon," said co-writer Jeff Parker. "It's very cool to work with a heavy hitting team of top talent. Michael and I synched up immediately with plotting, and Dan and J. Bone are the exact right cartoonists to make a mash-up like this really work."

"It's rare that you get a call to work with character/property that you love, but to do TWO at the same time? That's more than I can ask for," added co-writer Michael Moreci. "And to work with such an amazing team -- this is one of those rare dream projects, and I can't wait to bring all this love to the series."

For artist Dan Parent, this team-up is a childhood dream come true as well. "I've been lucky enough to have a career drawing characters I love from my childhood. But the first show I ever got excited about (and my mom can verify this) was the original Batman series!" "So, the chance to combine these two big influences in my life into one project is a total thrill. And to work on it with Jeff and Michael, as well as my friend and colleague J. Bone, makes it even that much sweeter!"

The action and intrigue of ARCHIE MEETS BATMAN '66 begins when a team of Gotham's most notorious villains decide they need a new base of operations, one with a resident millionaire and fewer superheroes to stop them. Their plan doesn't go unnoticed for long, and soon enough, Riverdale High has a couple new transfer students: Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon!

ARCHIE MEETS BATMAN '66 #1 goes on sale July 18, 2018 with a main cover by Mike Allred and variant covers by Derek Charm, Francesco Francavilla, Sandy Jarrell (with Kelly Fitzpatrick colors), Dan Parent (with J. Bone inks, Tito Pena colors), and Ty Templeton.

Quote from: Vegan Jughead on March 21, 2018, 06:36:41 PM

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on March 21, 2018, 11:18:12 AM


I don't know if anyone else noticed, but a year ago Dan Parent was writing and drawing all the 5-page lead stories in the digests (and doing the covers as well), and now he's only writing most of them, and drawing some of the B&V stories.

I noticed but I figured that was because he was doing Your Pal Archie and now he's gonna do this crossover and the new Betty and Veronica miniseries, in addition to all his Die Kitty Die stuff.  I'm pretty sure Archie will keep Dan as busy as he wants, or at least as busy as they can.  He was the last "classic" artist for awhile until they started bringing some of those folks back and I'm sure it's because he's the favorite of Archie Comics. 

I think eventually they're gonna have to cancel the reboot flagship series since sales are dropping, and maybe there will be new "classic" style comics for Dan to draw then!

In Dan Parent's interview in COMIC BOOK CREATOR #16, he mentions that he's always kept a low profile when dealing with Archie management and tried to just do the work as best he can, not taking any sides in the various management issues that had cropped up between the Goldwater and Silberkleit camps. On the other hand, Fernando Ruiz made his feelings plain to management about how he felt about their treatment of him when classic Archie work dried up. Taking into account that DIE KITTY DIE rather ruthlessly satirizes management people at a company not too dissimilar from ACP, I have to wonder if someone in ACP management may not have had a sense of humor about being parodied, because it does seem to indicate Dan & Fernando in alignment with regard to how they perceive things at ACP.

And it's ironic that Jeff Shultz, Bill Galvan, Pat & Tim Kennedy, Bill Golliher, Angelo DeCesare, Alex Segura, Tom DeFalco, Rich Koslowski and Jim Amash can come back and do new work for ACP on classic Archie stories after a couple of years downtime, but Fernando Ruiz can't (and probably doesn't want to). With just the 5-page new lead stories in 5 digests (that's just 250 pages of new stories a year) those pages can probably be filled easily even without Dan Parent and Fernando Ruiz. Only the floppy comics readers care about the individual creators, and there are no ongoing classic Archie comics in the floppy comic format (until and unless BETTY AND VERONICA FRIENDS FOREVER is proven to be an actual ongoing title).

I'd be just as happy (more than ecstatic, really) if I could see new issues of DIE KITTY DIE even on a bimonthly basis, without having to mount a new Kickstarter campaign for each new miniseries. It matters less to me what characters Dan and Fernando are working on as long as they're producing a comic book in the teen humor genre. Same goes for Darin Henry & Jeff Shultz' SUPER 'SUCKERS. I love reading the big fat Binge Books but would be happier if it were a regular-sized comic coming out on a regular publishing schedule. Both of these titles are being published less for commercial reasons than as a sheer labor of love for the creators, although neither one could obviously continue if the creators weren't able to make some money off them.

I blame the comic shop market which insists on the floppy comic format, but that doesn't really like teen humor comics. That puts Archie Comic Publications in a difficult position when it comes to the floppy comic format, which is hard for the main audience (kids) of teen humor genre comics to find (and not perceived as a very good value at $4 for 20 pages of story, compared to the Jumbo Comics digests which have 175-180 pages of content for $7). They're used to purchasing Archie Comics in regular retail stores (supermarkets, Walmart, Barnes & Noble) -- not having to subscribe, mail-order, or make a special trip to a comic book store to get them.

The fact of the matter is that ACP is now publishing forty 192-page Jumbo Comics digests a year, and ten 128-page ARCHIE AND ME Comics Digests a year, burning through the reprint cycle at a prodigious rate -- much faster than it did a decade ago, when ACP was publishing four 98-page digests and four 188-page Double Digests (which were each, on average, published about 8 times a year). At that same time ACP was still publishing 6 or 8 Archie-related floppy titles generating 22-24 pages of new stories in every issue. You'll notice that the bulk of the stories reprinted now in the digests are from floppy comics that originally appeared in the mid-1990s through the mid-2010s, so you can easily say that older reprints begin to lose their relevance to a young audience as time passes. That stream of new stories feeding into the digests to keep the pipeline of more recent stories flowing has slowed to a mere trickle of its former self, as the classic Archie-related floppy comic titles began succumbing to cancellation, one by one, in the 2010s. Which begs the question, where will the future classic Archie reprints be coming from, given the fact that they're already being reprinted with greater frequency than ever before? Not from the floppy comic titles, it seems, as those can't seem to manage to sustain themselves in comic book shops where the main consumer base is indifferent to teen humor comics, and not from those special crossover projects like Archie Meets Kiss, Archie Meets Glee, Archie vs. Predator, Archie/Sharknado, Archie Meets Ramones, and Archie Meets Batman '66, either. Personally, I'd be happy to pay a buck or two more for the cover price of a Jumbo Comics digest if it contained 20 pages of new stories. Or maybe ACP could come up with some new hybrid format with less pages, but a larger page size on slightly better paper -- say the same size as the old Archie & Friends All-Stars trade collections, with 20 pages of new stories, 100 pages of reprints, and 12-18 pages of advertising/editorial content. Those would still fit in supermarket racks, as they're about the same size as The Old Farmer's Almanac and other similar-sized publications.

Quote from: Vegan Jughead on March 21, 2018, 06:32:31 PM

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on March 21, 2018, 10:47:08 AM
I think I get it. I was just desperate for new Archie titles probably accounts for a lot of their sales these days to people who were reading Archie comics before Afterlife With Archie and the New Riverdale Archie. You can't read comics that they don't publish, you can only pick from the handful of new comics they DO publish.

And it's slim pickings for this month's solicitations, with neither a new issue of ARCHIE, or of JUGHEAD THE HUNGER being solicited. I'll be getting the two B&V Jumbo digests by subscription as usual, so I just need to special-order SUPERTEENS VS MIGHTY CRUSADERS #1 and VIXENS #7, and I'm only really semi-interested in those. I'll probably read VAMPIRONICA #3 and not buy it, if there are copies in my LCS, but I sort of feel like if I happened to miss it, it wouldn't be any big deal to me either. Haven't made up my mind yet, but I may quit Vixens after #10 (that's assuming it goes any further than that). So if there aren't any new titles coming along besides ARCHIE MEETS BATMAN '66, by the time that's solicited I may be down to just that for ACP floppy titles. My biggest disappointment is there are no trade collections solicited this month.

If you mean the month I posted, there are two trade collections: Archie at Riverdale High Vol 1 and The Complete COSMO 


ARCHIE comes out in late May and again in early July according to Archie Comics when I asked them on Facebook.  Not sure why The Hunger isn't solicited in June unless it's destined for miniseries status!

Ah. OK, I guess I was looking at the solicits on the Previewsworld site and had the filter set to "comics" rather than "all products" for ACP. I'll be getting COSMO but passing on RIVERDALE HIGH.

THE HUNGER may just be skipping a month after #6, to begin a new story arc the following month. That's what happened with VIXENS -- which has a new artist on the second story arc, "Hunted", Jen Vaughn... and that will affect whether or not I continue with that title. Can't say I've been too impressed with either of Vaughn's covers for #6 or 7, as solicited. That has me a little worried, since Eva Cabrera's interior art didn't measure up to her cover artwork. If Jen Vaughn's covers don't look that good, it has me leery about what the interior art will look like.

03-15-18 to 03-21-18:
THE PIN-UP ART OF HUMORAMA TP
CHERRY #1-22 (1982-2000)
THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF NICK WILSON #3 (of 5)
KILL OR BE KILLED #17
KICK-ASS #2
THANOS #17
ICE CREAM MAN #3
MOONSHINE #8
BATMAN/TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES II #5 (of 6)
BATMAN: SINS OF THE FATHER #2 (of 6)
DEADMAN #5 (of 6)
FUTURE QUEST PRESENTS: MIGHTOR #8
INFINITY 8 #1
MIGHTY CRUSADERS #4 (of 4)
THE UNQUOTABLE TRUMP GN
DON'T MEDDLE WITH MY DAUGHTER VOL 03 (of 3) tankobon

ARCHIE'S GIRLS BETTY AND VERONICA #37, 128, 154, 155, 156
BETTY AND VERONICA SPECTACULAR #42
BETTY'S DIARY #28
BETTY #87, 89, 92
JUGHEAD (V2) #134
LAUGH COMICS #326
PEP COMICS #257
LIFE WITH ARCHIE #101, 107, 275
ARCHIE'S PALS'N'GALS #159, 211
ARCHIE #498, 502, 503, 504, 505
ARCHIE AND ME #24
ARCHIE'S JOKE BOOK #176, 244
JUGHEAD'S JOKES #75
LI'L JINX GIANT LAUGH-OUT (ARCHIE GIANT SERIES) #33

JUGHEAD #134 had a good example of how Jug obsesses over Trula, in the story "Do the Write Thing" (Trula doesn't actually DO anything in the story; Jughead just *thinks* she's up to something). AGB&V #156 had another Sugar Plum story, "Some Things Never Change" by Kathleen Webb & Jeff Shultz. Issue #37 of AGB&V (from 1958) was in such poor shape that both covers were detached and the covers and pages' edges were literally flaking off in my hands as I handled it. Good stories, though! PEP #257 has a story which *might* (I haven't checked into it yet) be the first Chuck Clayton story... his initial character design looks a little different than later became standard, and he does introduce himself to Moose (it's actually a "Big Moose" story). Also in the story, Chuck uses judo to toss Moose around like a rag doll (several times), and says that his father, the new assistant coach at Riverdale, taught it to him.

BETTY #87 had the first appearance of Adam Chisolm, in a 5-page story by George Gladir and Stan Goldberg titled "Dilemma". The final panel of page 5 is a response coupon for the reader to cut out and mail back to the editor, telling how the reader felt about Adam. The following multiple choice checkboxes were given:

DEAR EDITOR,
   
  BETTY SHOULD:

[ ]  DUMP ARCHIE                      [ ]  PLAY THE FIELD

[ ]  SAY SAYONARA TO ADAM    [ ]  DATE ARCHIE AND ADAM

[ ]  OR_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Various ACP floppy comics contain stories which for one reason or another you just know are never going to be reprinted in a digest. This is a good example, because the story only existed to get the readers' response on whether they should proceed with the idea of Adam, a character representing a rival to Archie for Betty's affection (and thus adding a second romantic triangle). I'm always glad to find these type of stories in a back issue. Given the nature of this story, I would have been sure to recognize this as Adam's introduction, so if the coupon had already been cut out it would have been very frustrating to wonder what had been in that final panel! By the way, a later "From the Editor" column which ran in all the Archie titles that month mentioned that the response to that request for reader feedback in BETTY #87 had been very good, and that they were working on a 2-part follow-up story featuring Adam and Betty. That story didn't appear until BETTY #99 & 100 (cover-dated July & August of 2001), "The Big Break-Up!", but those who voted to "Dump Archie" got their wish (temporarily), while later on after the conclusion of the two-parter, those who voted for Betty to "Date Archie AND Adam" also got their wish.

Dan Parent told me about this a year and a half ago, but told me not to spread it around until it was announced, because... well, you know how these things go. There are all sorts of negotiations that need to be committed to and a contract signed. I think he made the mistake once of telling people about his sequel to ARCHIE MEETS KISS, and then for whatever reason, it didn't go ahead as planned.

After all this time passed and the BATMAN '66 comics had ended (prior crossover miniseries had been released by DC like clockwork, with a new one beginning a month or two after the previous one ended), it seemed like with BATMAN '66 MEETS THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES (which was only a one-shot) last year, the whole wave of Batman '66 merchandise (which started in 2016 for the 50th anniversary of the show) had finally come to a close. There were a few other licensed toys and things after that, but I just figured those things take longer, production-wise, and were just dribbling out of the pipeline.

I wasn't sure it was actually going to happen, so I tried not to get my hopes up too much. Then there was the HARLEY & IVY MEET BETTY & VERONICA thing. Which, if it had been done by Dan Parent, would actually have been even better than ARCHIE MEETS BATMAN '66.

I just hope they keep finding new projects for Dan to do at ACP, because the last thing was the digital-exclusive LIFE WITH KEVIN, which took what seemed like forever to complete its four-issue run and be compiled into a trade collection. I don't know if anyone else noticed, but a year ago Dan Parent was writing and drawing all the 5-page lead stories in the digests (and doing the covers as well), and now he's only writing most of them, and drawing some of the B&V stories.

I think I get it. I was just desperate for new Archie titles probably accounts for a lot of their sales these days to people who were reading Archie comics before Afterlife With Archie and the New Riverdale Archie. You can't read comics that they don't publish, you can only pick from the handful of new comics they DO publish.

And it's slim pickings for this month's solicitations, with neither a new issue of ARCHIE, or of JUGHEAD THE HUNGER being solicited. I'll be getting the two B&V Jumbo digests by subscription as usual, so I just need to special-order SUPERTEENS VS MIGHTY CRUSADERS #1 and VIXENS #7, and I'm only really semi-interested in those. I'll probably read VAMPIRONICA #3 and not buy it, if there are copies in my LCS, but I sort of feel like if I happened to miss it, it wouldn't be any big deal to me either. Haven't made up my mind yet, but I may quit Vixens after #10 (that's assuming it goes any further than that). So if there aren't any new titles coming along besides ARCHIE MEETS BATMAN '66, by the time that's solicited I may be down to just that for ACP floppy titles. My biggest disappointment is there are no trade collections solicited this month.

Quote from: Vegan Jughead on March 19, 2018, 06:26:46 PM
Looking forward to the Archie At Riverdale High trade paperback and for some reason, despite not being all that interested, I'm thinking of picking up Vampironica after seeing #3 in this solicit. 

Just curious why #3, presuming from what you've said that you didn't pick up #1?

Or for that matter, what about THE HUNGER made you want to read that (which you liked, IIRC) "despite not being all that interested" in VAMPIRONICA. What's interesting is that (at least prior to Vampironica #1) The Hunger is currently ACP's best-selling floppy comic title. It's kind of hard to judge on the writing, but I at least thought the artwork in Vampironica was a little better than that in Jughead (and actually, better than that in Sabrina, as well).

I was left fairly underwhelmed by VAMPIRONICA #1 based on the fact that nothing about it feels particularly interesting or unique. It's far too similar in tone to its obvious model, VAMPIRELLA. Oh, another good female vampire who fights to protect people from evil vampires (and whatever other supernatural evils or monsters threaten humanity)? It just feels too derivative of lots of other vampire stories.

If this keeps up the next title they should come out with is a HUNGER companion title, THAT WILKIN WEREWOLF. Or maybe they could just keep ripping off Vampirella. Since that series had a spinoff character called PANTHA, a woman who could change herself into a black panther, maybe they should do a Josie & the Pussycats horror book where they all turn into various large, predator species of cats (lioness, leopardess, pantheress).

One other possibility just occurred to me, which... if it turned out to be true, I'd find REALLY funny and ironic. What if one of the musical artists (The Monkees, Tegan & Sarah, Blondie, or whomever...) ONLY signed the contract with ACP to allow use of their likeness(es) under the mistaken impression that they'd be appearing in a comic book story with "The Archies"? Which is to say, what if they'd grown up with and been a fan of (the CLASSIC) Archie comic books, and were expecting to get "Archiefied" in a story with... THESE guys?



And then were SO disappointed to discover what the finished product looked like, that they felt that they'd been deceived and tricked??

Quote from: Vegan Jughead on March 18, 2018, 01:08:26 PM

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on March 18, 2018, 12:48:29 AM

Quote from: Tuxedo Mark on March 17, 2018, 07:20:00 PM
Has the series been cancelled after #5? That's the last issue that I saw on Amazon, and it seems like the entire series was removed around a week or two ago.

Issue #7 was the last to be solicited through Diamond Comics. Whether #6 or 7 will actually see print NOWseems iffy at best. Sounds like ACP may have run into some legal difficulties having to do with licensing rights to the musicians appearing in the series. That probably means no trade paperback collection, either. Or at least, no COMPLETE trade paperback collection.

I hope that's not the case.  I can't imagine the disappointment of Alex Segura and Dan Parent if the Blondie issue doesn't happen.  They both LOVE Blondie and of course Dan has a variant cover on that issue.

I know! I ordered #6 specifically for Dan's variant cover. Still, I'm at a loss for any other explanation that would account for the sudden withdrawal of already-published issues of The Archies. It's like when you suddenly see some product removed from retail sale... nobody wants the loss of revenue, so you can only assume that there exists some greater danger to the company that produced the product if they continue to sell it.

I will allow that perhaps the legal kerfluffle pertains only to the digital licensing rights... that would allow for the existing material written and drawn for print publication to go ahead as planned. The lost revenue from digital sales might have so impacted the title's profitability as to account for its sudden discontinuation as of #7.

Now, what I am imagining here is that there is some dispute over exactly what intellectual property rights were being granted under the contract which the musicians (or their legal representatives) signed, granting rights to use their likenesses (which are their "intellectual property") to Archie Comic Publications.

In the day-to-day world of comic book publishing, most creators (like Alex Segura, comic book writer, or Joe Eisma, comic book artist) are creating intellectual property for the publisher under a "work for hire" contract. What that means is that they are in effect assigning all future intellectual property rights in the work they are creating to the publisher, and the publisher then becomes the creator of record for all purposes going forward. That means that Archie Comic Publications can continue to exploit the work created by Alex Segura or Joe Eisma for ACP under contract for any future profit they might derive from it, in reprints and whatever formats they choose to exploit.

In the wider publishing world, "work for hire" isn't a standard contract agreement. If Stephen King writes a novel for say, Random House, he does not sign away all future interest in his work to the publisher. By the same principle, if Capcom licenses the rights to ACP to publish a MEGA MAN comic book, they are only granting those rights to ACP in a limited fashion for a limited time, which may either expire or be revoked after "first use" or "first publication", or for a specific period of time stated in the contract. They are not granting the rights to ACP to use Mega Man in its comic books (or reprint those comic books later or in different formats) in perpetuity. The same goes for musicians who are granting ACP use of their likenesses for the purposes of creating comic books designed to generate profit for the publisher.

I would venture to guess that the legal dispute has something to do with how "first use" or "first publication" (unless otherwise defined as a specific time period in the legal contract binding the musicians) relates to digital comics. Unlike traditional publishing, in digital comics their are no "second printings" or "reprints", because the original "first publication" never exhausts itself. Unlike print publishing, there is no finite number of copies being initially printed, so that digital comic can in fact remain "on sale now" and be delivered on demand to any customers who choose to purchase it at any time after it first becomes available. Is a digital comic a "reprint" of the print publication? Not exactly, but then again, after a certain time has passed all original first printing copies of a comic book may become unavailable for purchase by any retailer choosing to stock the product -- this will never happen to a digital comic. Perhaps one of the musical groups took issue with this, arguing that they did not grant ACP the rights to use their likeness in digital comic books that could potentially continue to sell forever, or as long as any consumer interest remains.

Quote from: SAGG on March 17, 2018, 09:55:45 AM
...Is available on Comixology. However, 99 cents for only 11 pages?    No way, pass....

Are these the same as those digital freebee issues they're giving away on ArchieComics.com with the codes appearing in the print digests?

Since those are all samplers of older digital digest issues anyway, you'd think they could at least give you 20-odd pages or so. Still, if you do the math it's less than 10 cents/per page of story, while a regular ACP floppy comic (even in digital format) is costing you 20 cents/per page of story.

Regular floppy comics in digital format should be 99 cents anyway. There's no paper, no ink for the publisher to buy, no distributor (or no retailer... depending on how you want to define whomever you're actually paying for the digital comic), and no costs associated with warehousing or transportation, like there is with print comic books. They make WAY too much profit off those things considering that once the creative and editorial personnel get paid for their work, there's very little additional cost incurred by the publisher.