WEEK OF 04-26-17:

JUDGE DREDD: JUDGMENT DAY TP
FLASH #21
DETECTIVE COMICS #955
WONDER WOMAN #21
THANOS #6
BEN REILLY THE SCARLET SPIDER #1
MAN-THING #3 (of 5)
DOOM PATROL #6
GREAT LAKES AVENGERS #7 (of 7)
KILL OR BE KILLED #8
SAVAGE DRAGON #223
DOLLFACE #4 (of 4)
FOREVER WAR #3 (of 6)
BATMAN THE SHADOW #1 (of 6)
BATMAN 66 MEETS WONDER WOMAN 77 #4 (of 6)
SCOOBY DOO TEAM UP #25
KAMANDI CHALLENGE #4 (of 12)
PATSY WALKER AKA HELLCAT #17 (of 17)
NICK FURY #1
X-MEN BLUE #1 & 2
SPOOKHOUSE #4
HILLBILLY #6
LOBSTER JOHNSON: THE PIRATE'S GHOST #2 (of 3)
ANNO DRACULA #2 (of 5)
MICRONAUTS: WRATH OF KARZA #1 (of 5)
KONG OF SKULL ISLAND #10 (of 12)
SPLITTING IMAGE! 80-PAGE GIANT (1-shot)
HONDO CITY LAW TP

Quote from: PTF on April 26, 2017, 08:36:06 AM
So the sad day is finally here. Another reminder that everything I like has to go away. Well, except for The Simpsons.

And if I had to say Ruiz' best art it's either Man from R.I.V.E.R.D.A.L.E. (Also my all-time favorite Archie story) or Cyrano Jones.

Yeah, now why hasn't that one been reprinted? The Cyrano Jones story, I mean. (He's also a character from the classic Star Trek series - different Cyrano Jones, but you wouldn't think the name would be that common.)

Apart from the fact that Jughead only ever had one trade paperback collection to himself, he does still have a mostly-reprint digest title, though, and they reprinted that "Jughead Jones: Semi-Private Eye" 4-parter last year, so why not the Cyrano Jones 4-parter? Archie Comics Double Digest reprints a lot of multi-part stories, so Jughead & Archie Double Digest should reprint some of the harder-to-find Jughead multi-part stories.

Quote from: Captain Jetpack on April 25, 2017, 05:19:47 PM
Album updated--to include the Legion Of Substitute Heroes.

After going through the entire LSH, are there even any ACP characters left to be "cast" as the Subs?

Quote from: irishmoxie on April 22, 2017, 11:23:30 PM

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on April 22, 2017, 09:09:36 PM

Quote from: Tuxedo Mark on April 22, 2017, 04:22:33 PM

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on April 22, 2017, 12:05:08 AM
Then I guess the other question would be: If print comics should cease to exist, what causes someone to initially seek out a digital comic, and what makes that seem worth 3 or 4 dollars to them?

I've noticed, while adding comics to my digital wish list on Amazon recently, a lot of the back issues from other publishers have gone down drastically in price (some to as little as 99 cents). The one publisher still at full price for back issues of current series? Archie.

Well, I guess that presumes that the price is the only barrier to new readers, but I was thinking about an even more basic question - how are new readers attracted to browsing the available digital comics on Amazon or elsewhere?

As applied to Archie digital comics specifically, if there were no longer any print versions, what would cause someone to seek out the digital versions if they had no prior familiarity with ACP's comics or characters, and no way of casually sampling them for free? In a store you can pick up a print comic and flip through it. Digital previews only show you 3 to 5 pages. Print comics get handed down to younger siblings or other relatives, loaned or given to friends, etc.

They're banking on Riverdale attracting new readers. I know when j see a movie I really like I seek out the source material. It's pretty easy with the overlap between anime and manga .

That's a motivation that works for readers of Star Wars comics, and might arguably work to some extent as far as the comic book series adapted from Riverdale published by ACP (although I would argue to a lesser degree).

I use Star Wars as a particular exemplar of a connection between film and comics because the action/epic adventure themes and the genres of sci-fi/fantasy and superheroes have a strong association with a comic book sensibility to the general public. Things like Star Wars can be called 'ready-made for adaptation' to comics, because comics can easily duplicate the kind of effects that are expensive and technically difficult in movies and television, while incurring no extra expense for production. The same is true for fantasy/adventure and sci-fi comic books which are later adapted to films and television.

Marvel's first Star Wars comic book appeared for sale even before the film premiered, and almost didn't happen at all. At the time Marvel's comics weren't selling well, and when George Lucas' company approached Marvel to do a comic book adaptation, they almost didn't take it. It was felt that with the comics selling poorly, a licensed adaptation had built-in overhead costs that would make the comic unprofitable. In the end, Lucas allowed them to do the adaptation for free, because he really wanted to see a Star Wars comic tie-in to his film, and the legend goes that the comic wound up making Marvel so much money that it became known around the editorial offices as "the comic that saved Marvel Comics".

On the other hand, down-to-earth reality and ordinary people and situations are not something the public automatically associates with a comic book sensibility, so anyone with no awareness of Archie Comics might not see anything particularly "comic-booky" in Riverdale the television show. Television and films are also arguably better, in actual practice, at capturing the nuances of realistic situations (facial expressions, emotion, relationships) better than the comic book medium, all things being equal (although there are no actual hard-and-fast limits on what comics can do, or can't), while comics might be said to more easily lend themselves to the expression of an exaggerated type of reality (including certain types of comedy).

As far as how much a TV/film-to-comics connection might work in a more vague, general sense for publishers like Marvel, DC Comics, or Archie Comics, it's debatable how much there is a direct correlation. I would say it has a lot to do with how closely the details of the comics and the adapted media reflect each other, and how familiar they feel to the reader coming from another medium like television or film. Star Wars is a strong example of a media tie-in comic book inspired by an original film property, but there are far more weak examples when the property being adapted flows in the opposite direction, from comics to film or TV. The schism apparent between what is in the Riverdale TV series and what is in the Archie Comics it was inspired by is a larger gap than what you would normally see between the details of a superhero film and a superhero comic.

Quote from: Tuxedo Mark on April 22, 2017, 04:22:33 PM

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on April 22, 2017, 12:05:08 AM
Then I guess the other question would be: If print comics should cease to exist, what causes someone to initially seek out a digital comic, and what makes that seem worth 3 or 4 dollars to them?

I've noticed, while adding comics to my digital wish list on Amazon recently, a lot of the back issues from other publishers have gone down drastically in price (some to as little as 99 cents). The one publisher still at full price for back issues of current series? Archie.

Well, I guess that presumes that the price is the only barrier to new readers, but I was thinking about an even more basic question - how are new readers attracted to browsing the available digital comics on Amazon or elsewhere?

As applied to Archie digital comics specifically, if there were no longer any print versions, what would cause someone to seek out the digital versions if they had no prior familiarity with ACP's comics or characters, and no way of casually sampling them for free? In a store you can pick up a print comic and flip through it. Digital previews only show you 3 to 5 pages. Print comics get handed down to younger siblings or other relatives, loaned or given to friends, etc.

Quote from: Tuxedo Mark on April 21, 2017, 03:24:55 PM
I'm not sure that there really is a long-term solution. When the direct distribution system was set up, comics became a niche product (nerds that are growing older). Back when there was a "local" comic shop around here (in the next county), I don't recall once seeing a kid in there.

In my 10+ years as a cashier, I recall selling only ONE digest. It was to a mom that was with her daughter. I asked who the Archie fan was, and the mom pointed at her daughter. So that's...something. Still, one digest in ten years. WTF?

And I doubt bringing the floppies back into the stores would help. Stores likely wouldn't want to carry them, and parents almost certainly wouldn't want to drop $4 on a 20-page story.

One possibility is printing collections in the size of typical children's/teens' paperback novels and stocking them in that area of the store. But even that's problematic because of the layout. At my Walmart, the children's, teens', and adults' books are pretty much all in the same area, and it isn't even next to toys (which would make sense). It's between the photo center and electronics. Sure, some gamers might walk over and browse...maybe, but I honestly don't even recall selling many children's or teens' books. It's all adults buying adult novels. And don't even consider a magazine format. Dead, dead, dead. Other than old people sometimes buying those pro-Trump tabloids, I never sell any magazines either. Each week, the magazine people come in, take back the unsold magazines, and put up new ones that won't sell.

In the end, I think digital-only is the way to go for new stories. Older material can be collected and printed for those that don't want digital.

Good observations, Mark. The "greying" of the comic book customer base is the major problem facing the comics industry (well, the print comics industry) today. With no (or at least very few) new readers coming in for ACP, that's a REAL problem, and one that arguably affects them more than it does superhero comics aimed at an older audience, because the superhero readers can be coming from other media that introduced them to the characters like animated shows and DVDs, feature films, or toys and action figures. Archie characters just don't have a big presence in other media and merchandising (apart from the new Riverdale TV series, which isn't really the appropriate vehicle for younger readers who might potentially be coming to the characters).

I totally agree with the idea that comics for younger readers should be stocked in bookstores or department stores right alongside other books aimed at younger readers. That should probably be Priority #1 for a company like Archie Comics, with the existing intellectual properties it owns. The have to get out of the insular ghetto of comic book stores, out into the real world where average people shop, where they can be seen and discovered by kids, right there on the shelves next to the book franchise characters they're already familiar with. If they can get in there and "brand" themselves so that they at least have recognition in the childrens' book market, that's the way to go. It probably wouldn't hurt to be thinking of branching off into prose stories, game/puzzle/activity, coloring and sticker books for the same market, either. An animated series would help a lot to advertise the characters. If they can't get one on a regular cable channel, what about a Flash-animated webtoon on its own YouTube channel? They need to partner up with some merchandisers to do this, probably.

I'd say the best that My Pal ARCHIE can hope for, since it's in the traditional comic book format and thus pretty well limited to comic book specialty stores, is to recapture a segment of lapsed older readers (nostalgia?) who may already be reading other comics. I doubt it would cause an older fan of Riverdale to seek out a comic book store for the first time, just based on liking the show. That seems like a forlorn hope. It wouldn't seem like there's anything but a superficial connection between the TV series and the makeover.

Then I guess the other question would be: If print comics should cease to exist, what causes someone to initially seek out a digital comic, and what makes that seem worth 3 or 4 dollars to them? Where any theoretical all-digital model of comics publishing is posited, my apprehension is that digital comics readers choose that format for the convenience of purchasing, storage, and anytime/anywhere-access to their comics on whatever their platform of choice happens to be, but that presupposes that a decision to read comics has already been made beforehand -- this applies whether we're postulating this model for the industry as a whole, or merely for one particular publisher's copyrighted intellectual properties. Lacking the existence of any print product that allows casual prior familiarization with the medium itself, where would the new readers be coming from in terms of cheap or free exposure to the comics medium in order to bait the hook" for newer generations of consumers, since unlike print comics, digital comics have no "pass-on" readership?

Quote from: JonInIowaCity on April 21, 2017, 03:19:46 PM

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on April 21, 2017, 02:43:42 PM

Quote from: JonInIowaCity on April 21, 2017, 02:03:58 PM
It ended up being published digitally, but not in print. Pretty good read.

You know what else has never been in print? Those Reggie & Me and Dilton DE miniseries. Doubt it will happen, just sayin'. Maybe then we can work on getting Kevin In The City... was that ever completed, in digital format?

It's supposed to wrap up by the end of summer. I forget if they've releases three issues so far or if we've made it to four yet.

It was only scheduled as a 4-issue mini, right? They could make a trade collection out of that. I checked ComiXology and they have 3 issues so far. #3 was released at the end of December 2016.

Quote from: JonInIowaCity on April 21, 2017, 02:03:58 PM
It ended up being published digitally, but not in print. Pretty good read.

You know what else has never been in print? Those Reggie & Me and Dilton DE miniseries. Doubt it will happen, just sayin'. Maybe then we can work on getting Kevin In The City... was that ever completed, in digital format?

Quote from: Vegan Jughead on April 21, 2017, 10:00:14 AM
I had forgotten about this!  Pretty sure Archie Comics has too.

Yeah, they've exhumed a lot of completed-but-never-printed stuff as Amazon pre-order listings, including that New Crusaders sequel, so hopefully we might see a second TP collection of THE FOX as well, if any of these actually do happen. I don't think Fernando's announced COSMO graphic novel project ever made it past the concept drawings stage, though.

... or is Amazon just fishing for preorders that it may not get, leading to this product being cancelled and never published?

https://www.amazon.com/Sam-Hill-Tom-DeFalco/dp/1619889056/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Quote from: SAGG on April 20, 2017, 09:43:07 AM

My all-time favorite Ruiz cover:


http://www.archiefans.com/index.php?media/item/b-vdd213.1409/


I love the little nuances like the girls simply taking in the sun at the beach, with the subtle light and shadows on them. The two beauties radiate sexuality, in fact, it could easily rival a DeCarlo cover in this regard (no offense DR). Ronica differentiates from Betty as she listens to her music while Betty simply lies there, possibly listening to the sea and feeling the breeze. Both girls are content. Nothing needs to be said. Excellent work...

Me too.

I think I saw FR had a print made of that cover illustration to sell, and it doesn't surprise me that would be one of his most popular covers and prints. It seems to be pretty well-recognized among Archie fans.

Quote from: irishmoxie on April 20, 2017, 11:37:01 PM

Makes me miss my comic book shop in Missouri which was run by a female. It had all the superhero stuff but also girlie, animal, and tons of kids comics. She actually made most of her money from selling figurines. And had tons of leftover Archie variants (guess she made the wrong bet on those) that she always tried to sell me. I discovered EMET comics there before seeing it on social media.


Female comics will probably never be the mainstay in comic shops and that's fine. I only hope to see more of these comics in places where girls like to be i.e. bookstores like Barnes and Noble, Kindle, tumblr, etc. Hopefully they will start generating more of a profit.

And of course the one thing I failed to mention in that equation that involves a retailer's purchasing decisions are that these are choices that the retailer makes, based on many factors such as what kind of comics the retailer likes or doesn't -- any comics retailer is also a comics reader, as well, so they are mentally picking and choosing not only the comics that will allow them to remain profitable and stay in business, but also they tend to want to promote and see succeed the kinds of genres and titles that they themselves enjoy as readers.

While it's unlikely that a retailer is going to be so influenced by their own personal tastes that they're going to ignore the obvious consumer demand or lack of demand when making their ordering choices, they can choose to actively promote less-popular (or newer) titles that appeal to them personally, and that's where the retailers' tastes in comics are going to affect which titles they choose to stock and make available to their customers. It's the kind of thing that can be done by eye-catching displays, in-store promo posters, and word-of-mouth recommendations at the register. Many stores have a little display of "store picks" or "staff picks".

It's an unusual type of retail business because it isn't like selling widgets where it's all accounting and what sells or doesn't -- where there's a gray area of "Will it sell, or won't it?", the retailer is prejudiced by their own sense of what makes for "good comics" according to their own personal definition. It could also be a source of frustration or disappointment for retailers when their own personal choices of "good comics" are not embraced by the store's clientele -- along with the more real and painful financial loss of money invested in non-returnable stock which fails to sell. The latter idea is also applicable to other levels of the comic marketplace -- what publishers, editors, or distributors like and think are good comics are not always successful. Steve Geppi, CEO of Diamond Comics, is a fan of classic Archie comics, but he can't get retailers or consumers in the direct market to purchase the comics he likes as opposed to the comics they really want.

To the degree that comic shop consumers have more than one comic shop to choose from among those that are within reasonable traveling distance to shop at, any individual store tends to attract those consumers whose tastes agree with the retailer's, but consumers are also realistically limited by the location of stores to which they have convenient access, and they're limited by their own budgetary constraints in picking and choosing which comics to buy, so they choose to purchase the comics most important to them that they can afford. If their comics budget is less constrained, they can often afford to be more eclectic in their choice of what to buy.

DURHAM RED: BITCH TP
STRONTIUM DOG: THE EARLY CASES TP
DARK HORSE PRESENTS #33 (final issue)
JEM & THE HOLOGRAMS #25 (of 26)
MICRONAUTS #11
BATMAN #21
BATWOMAN #2
STAR TREK/GREEN LANTERN (VOL. 2) #5 (of 6)
ASTRO CITY #43
THE WILD STORM #3
EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS' THE GREATEST ADVENTURE #1 (of 6)
BLACK HAMMER #8
SHAOLIN COWBOY WHOLL STOP THE REIGN #1 (of 4)
SKULL ISLAND: BIRTH OF KONG #1 (of ?)
STAR TREK: NEW VISIONS #15: THE TRAVELER
RESIDENT ALIEN TP VOL. 04: THE MAN WITH NO NAME

Quote from: irishmoxie on April 19, 2017, 05:05:53 PM
I hope non superhero stories keep getting published. I think there are a lot of girls out there who are hungry for slice of life type comics or even Image/Saga type stories. I've tried reading superhero stories but none have hooked me yet. I'll read DC Super girls or whatever it's called if it's free but it's not the first thing I reach for or look forward to each month. I like that there's a variety of stories in comics nowadays. To reach girls, EMET has been doing well with posting webcomics on Tumblr. EMET has also had a few successful Kickstarters.

What I'm trying to get at is that there's an inescapable tyranny of numbers in effect when it comes to the ordering of titles by comics retailers, because once ordered and paid for (before he resells those comics to his retail customers), the comics a retailer orders belong to him -- he's stuck with them if he can't sell them. There are hundreds of titles in every monthly order catalog from Diamond Comics Distribution, so most retailers (unless they have a large chain of stores, or one very large store located in a major metropolitan area) can't afford to order even ONE copy of each and every title offered. Variety is a good thing for a store, but there are realistic limits to that variety based on the retailer's financial resources (he pays for all his comics before he's even sold a single one), so his ordering patterns are dictated by an informed knowledge of his customer base's buying patterns, and some speculation on his part. For the most part, he's got to be careful and not take too many risks that might cause him to wind up with a lot of unsold comics at the end of the week or month, because the more time that goes by, the less likely he is to sell those comics.

This is where the domination of the superhero genre is coming into play, because that's a large part of what's informing his ordering decisions. He knows he can sell certain titles, and other titles/publishers/genres are much more of a gamble, so he's got to be somewhat conservative, or he may wind up out of business. He just can't afford to have a lot of slow-moving (or totally unsellable) stock in his store, and he's got to service his most regular and biggest-spending customers first, and worry about the people who might buy only a few titles or genres that are less popular afterwards. If, at the end of any given month, a retailer adds up all of his bills spent for new product from Diamond Comics, and compares that figure against all the money taken in at the register that month, and checks his inventory to see what product he was invoiced for that month that remains unsold, then the money he spent on purchasing those unsold comics has to be subtracted from whatever profit he made on the comics he was invoiced for that month that he DID sell. But of course the remainder doesn't equal the profit he actually made that month until he then subtracts his overhead costs for employees, monthly rent or mortgage, utilities like heat/air conditioning and electricity, phone and internet bills, etc.

Kickstarters and webcomics are fine, but that only relates to print comic books that your retailer orders far down the line (if at all).

I guess the thing I'm not getting here is how ACP expects this title to sell much better than Archie was when it was cancelled with issue #666, if it's basically selling to the same audience of older classic Archie readers.

Sure, we can reasonably expect better sales at first because of being a new #1 issue, and just the freshness and 'absence makes the heart grow fonder' -- but what level does it seem like the sales will ultimately settle down to?

The makeover seems to indicate that they hope to attract some new readers to level-up sales from where they were on the old classic Archie title, but where would those new readers be coming from and who are they?

EDIT: Okay, I just read the thing about it being a miniseries, but the questions I'm asking here still apply in the sense that if "This Is a Test", then what kind of new readers are they fishing for among the customers shopping in comic book stores, besides those readers who previously bought the old classic Archie floppy comic format?