...This is not a very optimistic board lately,  is it ?
  BTW,  speaking of internal conflict at ACP...what became of that sexual harassment/musconduct suit that one faction at Archie brought up +hat was written up in HARPER'S magazine in their front of the book section what is,  UFO,  maybe a couple of years ago by now?
  Also,  is the newspaper strip still running,? Even as reprint? I asked a ways ago about recent-putting up the link but it seems that no one ever did .

...I took my first trip to the K-Mart in Watsonville, 1 hr away by bus since I've been back here, to see if they still sell Archie digests. They do!
  B&V Jumbo Nos. 161 and 163, IIRC. I bought the former ~ from what seemed to be their only magazine rack. The digests occupied three of the four digest-sized spaces, but that's probably because someone left them spread out. I didn't see any Archie trademark on the digest-sized  racks, I saw something else. They were stocked right next to the Black Panther official tie-in, BTW! Only one Spanish-language magazine, Hola! I thought there'd be more. They had TV Guide, I hadn't seen that in a while/was wondering if they were still in business. Intreprid Boy Comics Reporter, signing out!

...I lost a draft of this .

...From what little I've seen of Harold Teen, I've always wanted to see more, but like  a whole lot of rather "homey " newspaper strips of old,  there appears to be little if any available reprints of it.  The strip was known for its trying to keep up with contemporary teenagers' slang, apparently -A touch different, since it appeared in daily newspapers back when essentially anyone literate bought one - And read the comics therein!!!!!!!!!   - so maybe it meant that HT tried to be more literally fashion-forward, as it were, than classic Archie, which -
arguably?? -updated itself,  but always in a juuussst cozily, mildly, behind the times manner? Maybe that's not so.  Discuss this?

...It was one of the " S "s
in the Sears sign that was missing color. I got there about 6:30 tonite (Sunday). They have 4 anchor stores, Sears, Target, Kohl's, and Macy's. Their closing time was 8 PM. The Sears was already closed ! As was a Lenscrafters by it. I suppose a Lenscrafters would need a liscenced glasses-grinder/exam-giver on site at all times, and I recall the speculation made here earlier about pharmacies, etcetera...And, did the " Black Friday " weekend have any effect on this? The Kohl's was open. By the time I got to the readon I came, Target (past 7), they seemed 100% closed. As I left (to go into the open-till-10 Chili's actually) about 9:45/50 the comics shop was still open and Kohl's was. I never got a look at Macy's.

...I really have to say that, though Donald Trump unquestionably won, a popular-vote loss of over 2,750,000 million to his closest competitor is hardly a " landslide - And he insists ~ with absolutely no backing whatsoever ~ that that popular vote margin for his opponent was 100% improper votes, while producing no backing for that...and still encouraging " Lock her up! " chants at those rallies he keeps throwing!   In 2012, when, at one point on election night, it looked as if Obama might win a 2nd term with an Electoral College win but a popular vote loss (This turned out not to be the case ~ Obama won both popular and Electoral in 2012, as he had in 2008.)...Trump sent out a tweet that arguably called for a violent uprising against an Obama victory!

...On the old board I started to post about - But never finished - my reading of a pre-1920s novel titled SEVENTEEN, by Booth Tarkington, a humorous novel about a (pretty well-off, actually) Midwstern teenager of that time.
  I think that may be able to lay the claim to bring the first " teenager " work of fiction!

...The Sears at the Capitola Mall in Santa Cruz County is in decent shape, actually! The S-K thing was discussed on another (non-comics) board of mine. Although an outside of the building " Sears " sign was missing color in one of its As, when I went inside, the Capitola Sears was decent'looking, tidy & well-stocked - Not the run-down ghost town I was anticipating! (Someone at that other board works there.)


The mall itself isn't super crowded, I suppose - their food court consisted of three stands! The had a " pay a fee to play video games on a big screen " place, and a comicsgames store, with Magic tables set up in the back - I don't think I'd seen a comics shop in a mall since the boom comics shop years ended in a crash in 1994 or so - Frankly, though I like them, I thought that malls tended to snobbiness about " teenager-attracting businesses " like comics and vg places. Perhaps they can't be so snobbish anymore?

...Actually, DCR, I believe I was talking about ACP's decision to make B&V 16 in the official guide/statistics on the website!
  I tbought that what I wrote made that entirely clear that that was what I was writing about! Perhaps I failed to do so...

...You know, this reminds me of a story from some years ago, IIRC in Betty and Veronica Spectacular...that showed the Coopers leaving either Archie and Betty alone in the house or alone as they went to bed - But the story showed the gang immediately showing up at the Coopers' door, rather indicating that ACP's theory was that the Coopers (or Andrews) trust thir children, but in practice being really alone in the house never happens for very long!
  As for Veronics, it appears that the Lodges have live-in servants on-site at all times...But has that ever been absolutely spelled out ?

...ACP's " guide ", back at their Web site, said that Archie was 17/18, and a junior in HS??, as were all. He may have been 15/16 before?? (I do believe B&V went, likewise, in the official guide from being 15 (16) to 16 (17) - presumably make them closer to
" fully legal " - and " Sweet Sixteen " .)
  This was the pre-2015 Archie, and furthermore, not the itself-seperate I suppose YPA version, I guess..." A boo-boo on the writer's part", is about the only real explanation!

...Each are more-or-less 50-50 divided between classic-era (Um. Pre-the late 80s/" grim & grittyy/kick-ass " setting in.) and, yes, kid's line - Adventures -  reprints from this century, I believe.

Okay - HOW MANY FLIPPING VERSIONS, ALREADY, HAVE their been of the " serious " super-heroes published by ACP have there been? I was tending to call them " the MLJ heroes, yes, evem[size=78%] including the ones who originated after the MLJ name was given up, but I saw a Wikipedia entry saying " Red Circle " was the prefered generic phrase. Which one?[/size]

...I bought the Spidey one, and I migh t very well buy this'n...But what's with this " collector's item " sh*t*? (Feeling Vertigo-esque .) Are we really going back to the Nineties in this way, here?   This sort of thing was maybe cute on vintage Stan Lee house ad copy, but NOW? ?  Reprint titles are generally of pretty minimum collectibility, anyway...Yeah, anyhows...AS IF there'd be enuff demanx for a 2nd printing!

...I forget what I had to say, I'm afraid ...My health has continued to be a problem, still...And when I tell you, well, though, in fact, I suppose I am literally on the upward track now...I am down to 4&1/2 toes total   (Yup, diabetes.), and I'm now in a.convalescent/nursing place, with tbis thing called a WoundVac perpetually a ball-and-chain on my right " foot ", which has just one toe on it now . I am taking a Paratransit ride to downtown Santa Cruz today ( Which I've again moved to from San Francisco .) and I plan to restablish the relationship I had with my LCS here, so I feel neat-o now!