Quote from: Shuester on April 19, 2017, 06:31:39 AM

1. In the past few years, I tried a couple of times to read superhero comics. I picked up some DC and Marvel issues on Free Comic Book Day, just to try them out. But I couldn't get into the stories. Some of them were continuations of previous issues that I hadn't read, and some of them were just not that interesting. Either way, none of them compelled me to continue. Even without that experience, I probably wouldn't have been able to get into superhero comics, though. They all have overarching storylines, and readers need to be familiar with the characters and events of the previous comic in order to fully enjoy the current one. I think that this is a part of the reason that comic sales, in general, are on a downturn. New fans, who may want to get into comics after watching the latest Batman movie, won't be interested if they can't understand what is going on when they begin with Issue #49.


2. I wouldn't say that comics are unknown to kids nowadays, but it is probably true that they are no longer the primary consumers of comic books. Even newspaper cartoons aren't read by kids- there are less of them appearing, the quality seems to be lower than it used to be, and they aren't really targeted at kids. Archie seems to have realized this, and is trying to adapt by aiming for a teen/young adult demographic with "Riverdale" and New Archie, while also trying to keep the kids and older fans with Classic Archie. So far, the TV show (which I started to watch, and surprisingly am enjoying) has been attracting attention from the right demographics. If the comics continue being published regularly, hopefully they will too.

But how do those observations relate to selling Archie Comics in comic book stores?  YOU don't like superhero comics, which is fine, but do you realistically think that someday the main consumer base in comic book stores will be anything else but? The entire existence of a retail store dedicated to selling comic books is built around three things: the monthly floppy comic book format, collecting, and superheroes. Those three things are intimately intertwined with the very existence of comic book stores. At least in the US and Canada. Most people just aren't going to be motivated to drive to a special store to buy something like a comic, unless they are already committed, in a very focused way, to it as a hobby. For some reason the superhero fans/readers/collector as a group just seem more motivated than readers of other genres. Or at least they are by far the most numerous of the motivated consumers.

Quote from: Fernando Ruiz on April 17, 2017, 06:16:52 PM

It's definitely a step in the right direction. It's too bad its a half of a step. Once again, we see Archie Comics trying to have their cake and eat it too. What a way of sub-dividing their brand! How many different Archies are we going to have? Reboot Archie, Classic Archie, New Classic Archie... Which of these is going to be the face of the company?

I have really mixed feelings about this. On the positive side, it's nice to see that Dan is getting more pages of work from Archie Comics. I'm not NOT going to buy it, because Dan isn't all of a sudden going to become a worse artist, but I could really do without yet another revamp. To be totally honest, I'd really have been ecstatic if the announcement had been that Dan's new story pages in all the digest titles had been expanded from 5 pages per issue to 10 pages, or that Dan was going to be doing a quarterly series of original 96-page classic Archie trade collections to be distributed through the book trade and regular newsstand distribution.

I'm a bit bored with "new look"s after 10+ years, and tinkering with Archie (and Sabrina, etc.) on a content level. Basically what this announcement tells me is that ACP is ignoring the real problem of connecting with its true traditional target audience. They're more interested in tying their success or failure to the traditional 32-page paper-covered periodical format, the traditional format favored by comic book collectors, and that format is ball-and-chained to the independent comic shop direct distribution system (you know, apart from the digital version).

The announcement may seem like great news if you're... well, us. "Comic book collectors", people who buy comic books and collect them, and do so by being customers of an independent comic book retailer (at a brick-and-mortar store, or by purchasing them online). But what about the 10-year-old girls? Are they suddenly going to begin making a monthly trip to a local comic book store? Common sense tells me "no". There's nothing wrong with classic Archie on a content level, as far as how Dan is writing and drawing stories for the digests. What's wrong is that the 32-page paper-covered periodical isn't reaching the right audience of readers.

And you know, I LOVE the fact that the dedicated comic book store network of independent retailers exists. It's great for ME. But maybe if you're a 10-year-old girl, not so much.

No, I don't think injecting a dose of "Riverdale TV fusion" is going to fix that issue.

I think the last non-graphic story book I finished (a couple of weeks ago) was THRILL POWER OVERLOAD (40-year history of the British sci-fi comic 2000 AD). Histories of comics and publishers fascinate me.

The next book I'm chomping at the bit for I should have next week. It's The Art and Inventions of Max Fleischer: American Animation Pioneer, and it's a biography that I've wanted to see written by someone for a long time. Fleischer is in many ways "the other Walt Disney" (although maybe not quite as savvy in his business dealings), and has never really gotten the recognition or acknowledgement due him (he produced a synchronized sound cartoon prior to Disney's Steamboat Willie). Hopefully this book will help with changing that.

I wouldn't be surprised to find the same cover gag duplicated on an Archie Comics cover and a Marvel/Atlas girl humor title. Especially when you consider that they employed some of the very same artists.

Yeah, there are a ton of these out there. To say nothing of comparing digest covers with older single issues. There was a short run there of a year or two where the digest covers were actually reprinted, not just redrawn with the same gag, from old issues too.

Then there are the recycled gags where it's not an identical copy down to even the same dialogue, but essentially it's the same joke if you examine it closely, even though the cover layouts of the drawings may not be the same in terms of composition (figures positioned slightly differently, angle or perspective of view, etc.), and wording in balloons may vary somewhat -- it's still the same joke, regardless.

There's even a category where the joke remains the same, but the characters are different from one iteration to another. You might think that would never work, but it's often specific to the nature of the joke, regarding which characters could fit the dialogue.

This is a good thread topic, Cosmo. I guess the only thing is, it requires a lot of time looking through whole runs of covers to find the gags that match each other, unless you happen to just stumble upon one that rings a bell.

Quote from: irishmoxie on April 14, 2017, 11:10:10 PM

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on April 14, 2017, 01:24:06 AM
My mom (87) had to go back into the hospital yesterday morning (released Wednesday PM after hip replacement surgery) for diverticulitis and colitis. May have been present earlier but exacerbated by the medication and surgery. Hoping it's nothing serious. She should have been in recovery at home this week and next.

Also, my LCS sold his building and I was helping him clear out (deadline Tuesday 2 PM). Sale was closed (finally settled by arbitration), but due to the buyer dragging his feet on a sales agreement that should have been finalized by first week in January, it was over 3 months before he could get a check that would allow him to sign a purchase agreement for a new location. That puts him 'in-between' actual brick & mortar retail stores until he can get re-situated. He's got an offer pending on one building and was looking at a different location on Thursday.

Sorry to hear about your mom DeCarlo Rules. Hopefully she does well with just IV antibiotics and doesn't require further surgery/drain placement.


Did your LCS have a close out sale? Sounds like he will be getting a new location though.

He tried to get word out that last Saturday would be the last actual day at the former address. I couldn't make it that day, so I don't know how it turned out. Then he had to send out an email (and FB/Twitter etc) to alert his mailing list that he'd be renting local hotel space just to service customers with this week's new product on Wednesday. Haven't talked to him since then, so we'll see how things go. Hard for him to plan ahead when he's left hanging by a buyer with a sales agreement that fails to close as arranged (which as I mentioned was supposed to be at the beginning of January). So he had to scuttle whatever plans he'd had at that point, not knowing whether he'd be left with an empty building which would then have to be relisted until a new buyer could be found. This buyer (a Domino's Pizza chain franchise owner) really did him the dirty, leaving him with a minimally-stocked retail store (he'd moved 80% of his stock into temp storage by January) for over 3 months. Hard to say how much of that he could afford to move back just for a one-day sale, while worrying about needing to empty the building by the following Tuesday at 2PM, as arbitrated by a judge the week before.

Just to show you what a sleazebag this Domino's franchise guy turned out to be (let's call him ... "Paul", even though that's his real name), he was supposed to show up in court for an arbitration judgment meeting a week and half earlier than the one I mentioned -- he sent his lawyer, couldn't be bothered to show up in person. Well, his current lawyer -- he fired the previous one he'd had in January when the sale didn't go through due to the lawyer failing to have the building inspected (wonder how that happened?) -- instead the buyer showed up by himself, looked around for like 25 seconds  and didn't see bare walls and floors and walked out in a huff (Larry, my LCS owner, tried to explain he could have the remaining stuff moved out in like 1-2 days as soon as the inspector approved the building and he got a check, but in the meantime, he had an actual day-to-day business to run). Later Paul fired his lawyer (one of many) so he could shift blame for failure to live up to the p&s agreement. Never mind that this guy Paul had walked into the store a few years ago (may have been driving around scouting potential locations), inquiring about purchasing the building and tried to offer Larry a lowball bid (it wasn't listed at the time and he hadn't been thinking of selling, so he turned him down flat).

Signing a P&S agreement with Paul turned out to be one of the biggest mistakes Larry ever made in the 20+ years of being in business. Don't know if Paul just wanted some kind of cheap revenge for Larry turning down his offer of a few years back cold, but he made him twist in the wind because he knew Larry couldn't get on with his business until concluding the sale of the old building. After the January P&S agreement failed to close, Larry more or less wanted to try to find some minor building code violation so he could kill the sale, then take care of the violation, and re-list (he never did). In the meantime, he'd stay in operation in the old location.

At least when he was moving 80% of his stock out he discovered tons of old stock packed away in the basement that he wasn't even aware he had, so selling that off to other dealers (no room for that in temp storage) he made enough profit to pay for all his temp storage, taxes, loans and credit balances, and he still had more than enough sellable stock to keep going. It was just like a HUGE quantity of overstock (issues in quantity or entire runs of old titles) that he didn't have the room to display in the main store, which he'd been tucking away bit-by-bit over 20+ years of operation once it was past its immediate shelf-life, and he never had any real inventory on, so the old stuff packed away turned out to be like finding money in an old coat pocket.

But in terms of what it cost Larry in dealing with this particular buyer, who dragged out a closing sale that should have been completed over 3 months ago? Well, 3 months of temporary storage space rent, 3 months of lost rent from the mechanic's garage (part of his building) next door, 3 months of whatever potential profits his standing stock might have generated (if it had been on display in the store, as opposed to in temp storage), and 3 months of potential profits from whatever NEW standing stock he might have purchased for retail sale that he didn't, because if not sold, then it would just have to be moved into temporary storage (I think the only new stuff he bought besides regular monthly comics in this period were some of the new DC Rebirth TPs (and a few select Image TPs) released and whatever overstock liquidation HCs or TPs Diamond was offering deep discount sales on).

Thanks for the good wishes about my mom. They kept her until Friday night after giving her enemas and meds for the diverticulitis and colitis, until she could go back on solid foods again. Hopefully all that is all over with now. I guess the hip replacement surgery itself came off without a hitch, but all the meds led to aggravated constipation (no bm since pre-op) and the d&c. We all tried to get her to see reason years ago and have the surgery, but who knows what she was thinking, something like "It's not a big deal, I can live with it." ... I mean, she couldn't couldn't even walk from the front yard to the door without hobbling along at a snail's pace. Maybe it was no big deal at home (single-story condo) where all she's got to do is totter from one side of the room to the other, but it's not going to fix itself, so did she expect to just go on that way until... ? Anyway, the hospital pre-fitted her with a cane and walker before the surgery, so she should be fine I'm hoping. Saw her briefly while my sister was about to bring her back to the hospital Thursday morning, but naturally I didn't want to delay them (they wound up waiting at the ER practically all day just to get a CAT scan). Can't see her Saturday because of overtime (12 hrs) work commitments (need to cover while someone else in the department's on vacation), but hopefully I can spend all of Sunday morning with her, probably Monday as well.

I guess these hip replacements are pretty routine stuff, though. Found out last week that a guy I know at work was having his hip replacement surgery (double!, and he's like 25-30 years younger than my mom) done the very same week (he refused to go through it twice, according to another co-worker at the gym). Wouldn't have guessed it, because even though he walked with a limp, I'd always see him in the fitness center at work every morning exercising, bending & stretching, etc. and he seemed in pretty good shape for a guy his age (not a pound overweight for his height). Maybe I never saw him on the treadmill; I can't recall now. I didn't really know the history of his medical problem, and didn't want to be nosey and ask -- just assumed it was more of an orthopedic thing, since he didn't look that bad off (this guy rides a motorcycle, BTW). He's more of a casual acquaintance - a good guy, though. Haven't seen him since, but hopefully he'll be back next week or so and I'll ask how it went for him.

Kind of rambling here, but you know how it is.

Quote from: steveinthecity on April 14, 2017, 02:27:13 AM

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on April 13, 2017, 05:52:14 AM
JUDGE DREDD: THE CURSED EARTH UNCENSORED HC
SILVER SURFER #10
SUPER POWERS #6 (of 6)
DETECTIVE COMICS #954
WONDER WOMAN #20
PLANET OF THE APES/GREEN LANTERN #3
HELLBOY & THE B.P.R.D. 1954: GHOST MOON #2
RAGNAROK #12
JONESY #12

I've been liking Jonesy.

For a few issues in the middle there it felt like it was starting to go off-track, but recent issues have been more on-the-mark. The new one was good.

My mom (87) had to go back into the hospital yesterday morning (released Wednesday PM after hip replacement surgery) for diverticulitis and colitis. May have been present earlier but exacerbated by the medication and surgery. Hoping it's nothing serious. She should have been in recovery at home this week and next.

Also, my LCS sold his building and I was helping him clear out (deadline Tuesday 2 PM). Sale was closed (finally settled by arbitration), but due to the buyer dragging his feet on a sales agreement that should have been finalized by first week in January, it was over 3 months before he could get a check that would allow him to sign a purchase agreement for a new location. That puts him 'in-between' actual brick & mortar retail stores until he can get re-situated. He's got an offer pending on one building and was looking at a different location on Thursday.

JUDGE DREDD: THE CURSED EARTH UNCENSORED HC
SILVER SURFER #10
SUPER POWERS #6 (of 6)
DETECTIVE COMICS #954
WONDER WOMAN #20
PLANET OF THE APES/GREEN LANTERN #3
HELLBOY & THE B.P.R.D. 1954: GHOST MOON #2
RAGNAROK #12
JONESY #12

Quote from: irishmoxie on April 12, 2017, 11:10:27 PM
I still don't understand how Archie Comics, something so inoffensive and banal (at least the classic ones), can inspire such vitriol in people. It boggles my mind.


I think people like Alexandra/Ronnie come on the forums to feel good about themselves because they think they can one up these innocent Archie Comics fans. They believe most Archie fans are stupid because the comics are so simplistic. 


There is enough negativity in this world. I come here to relax and have fun. Why not talk about other hobbies/interests you enjoy if there's nothing going on in the Archie-verse? There are enough places on the internet i.e. Reddit, the YouTube comments section were these negative types can go play word games with each other.

The main cause of my umbrage here is that RONNIE has the audacity to point her finger at people and call them out as "assholes". Did ANYONE bother to even read her reply to Oldiesmann, in response to the action he took as System Administrator and CREATOR of this forum? Let's just dwell on that little bit for a few seconds. Oldiesmann REMOVED the "smite" button in response to Ronnie's indignance at having been smited. He solved her immediate problem, and took time out from his day to look over all the related posts in order to arbitrate that decision. While he found Alexandra's posts to be culpably offensive, and thus banned her from this forum, he chose to overlook Ronnie's calling Cosmo an "asshole". Is Ronnie at all grateful for the time he took to review the situation, and the action he took to alleviate the source of her complaint? She is not. Rather, her assessment of the situation (see her reply to Oldiesmann earlier in this thread) is to cry foul AGAIN. She makes it clear that she now feels doubly victimized, and calls THE CREATOR AND ADMINISTRATOR of this very forum (ALL of the activity here which exists solely at his suffrage) an "asshole". Yet somehow, we're all supposed to overlook that. It's all good, no harm no foul? Ronnie didn't mean anything by it -- it's just one of those things. Let it go. "PLEASE COME BACK RONNIE, WE'RE SO SORRY WE OFFENDED YOU! What can we do to make amends?" It sickens me.

And nobody has a problem with that, or thinks she should bear any responsibility at all? Irish, you're the first person besides myself to call "Shame on Ronnie". JonInIowaCity, I know is a nice guy, but there are some lines crossed that are beyond forgiveness. Good riddance to bad rubbish. Yet there's no sense among the members here of any rebuke directed at Ronnie? We just let her have her parting shot, and let it stand as unchallenged by anyone?

It wouldn't surprise me if Oldiesmann's reaction to seeing that reply resulted in him saying to himself, "I don't need this headache. Time to pull the plug. Nighty-night, Archie Fans."

Well, if anyone is interested (I admit after considering it hypothetically, when I realized she only had 20 posts, I figured it wouldn't take up too much of my time):

http://www.archiefans.com/profile/?u=61;area=showposts;start=0

Not too surprisingly to me after the brouhaha created by her accusatory thread, I find the general tone of her posts (short as they are) to be bitter and snarky, with nearly half of them containing some sort of offensive comment, rude remark, or vulgarity.

A collection of snippets:

#1

QuoteYes, there is an asshole on this board and it's the 3 of you.

#2

QuoteJust don't shove it up my rear 24/7.

#3

QuoteOh, the SJW's: Screw them.

#4

QuoteMaybe Goldwater is a self-loathing closet-dweller that doesn't want to come out.

#5

QuoteWhat a useless piece of sh*t this is.  Thumbs down to whoever recommended this crap!

#6

QuoteToo much superhero garbage out there to the point these basement-dwelling dweebs don't even have a life. 

#7

QuoteHow about Jughead going down on Archie in the can? 

#8

QuoteKevin, Gay, Ripped, in New York and looking for love.....   We all know how this is going to come out 

#9 This one's a personal favorite, so I reprint it here in its entirety:

QuoteI have to ask this with no slight intended toward the artists - it's more directed to the idiots who like this crap.....

Are people that hung up on superhero comics?

Superhero comics are basically for basement-dwelling dweebs that don't have a life (here's a penny, go buy one, I want change back). For them a date is a nut that's something to eat and sex involves a sock and a supple right wrist along with the latest DC/Marvel comic for encouragement.

Her very first post, dated April 11, 2016, 07:30:51 PM:

QuoteSounds like I've missed a lot of drama here before joining 

Well, I admit there's nothing offensive in that one. I only quote it here for irony. At least she got to experience the drama firsthand by starting some herself.

So I find 9 arguably smite-worthy comments out of a mere 20 very short posts. Pretty high percentile there. If I was looking at fifty or one hundred posts of a few sentences to a paragraph each, maybe I'd just brush those questionable things off as of no account, merely random instances. But for such a limited total word count, she manages to be much more offensive than makes me comfortable, especially considering that the post I reprinted above in its entirety (#9) is one of the few containing more than a couple of sentences.

I will not miss her. She contributed nothing of any real value that I can see.

Did anyone ever think to ask Ronnie for a list of links to the posts for which she received the smites? If not, then how do you know the smites were gratuitous, rather than deserved? If Cosmo is a new member, it seems logical to me he might be spending time reading through a lot of older posts. If he found some offensive and rude, isn't that what the smite button existed for? And if he found a LOT of them rude, then that's just mute testimony to the behavior of people who feel free to abuse the power of free speech in a completely unmoderated setting.

Cosmo was attacked for the smiting, and accused of being an "asshole" (Ronnie's word, not mine). Judging from that one thread she posted (which is deserving of a smite in and of itself), I would tend to believe she was not innocent and victimized, but fully capable of the kind of rudeness for which the smiting button existed. Cosmo responded to the accusation in a restrained and polite manner, so I have no reason to think he's just someone who's sitting behind a keyboard cackling with maniacal glee thinking "I will DESTROY you! HAHAHAHAH!!!" Besides which, why then would he single out Ronnie? She's not that active in posting.

On the other hand, it seems some people don't require any proof of wrongdoing other than a mere accusation. The number of smites doesn't matter, not if you can't show me the posts that were smited to try to justify that the smites were unwarranted. You can't just smite a person multiple times by going to their profile page. You need to smite a specific post for what it contains. That's the only way it works. If Ronnie's posts that were smited were innocent of any offense, then let her show them to everyone. There's no way for anyone else to discover that for themselves, because only Ronnie got alerted when any of her posts received a smiting.

Quote from: SAGG on April 11, 2017, 09:08:24 AM

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on April 11, 2017, 04:41:54 AM

Quote from: SAGG on April 11, 2017, 04:29:11 AM

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on April 10, 2017, 09:50:07 PM
I would say it was about the best Little Archie comic I ever read. It's more of a thing like where I'm just into all those Franco & Baltazar comics: Itty Bitty Hellboy, Tiny Titans, Super Powers, Super Pets, Aw Yeah!, Action Cat, whatever.

Better than Bolling's Little Archie? Those are considered to be classics...

What can I say. LA just never really appealed to me. For whatever reason, I just like Franco & Baltazar. You know who they are, right SAGG? You must have seen or read their stuff, right? So to me, it's not Little Archie that has anything to do with me reading it, it's all Franco & Baltazar.

Oh, THOSE guys:
http://www.cbr.com/archie-comics-baltazar-franco-little-josie-and-the-pussycats/


Well, I've never really gotten into their stuff, but I'll take a gander... 

Hey, you gotta give those guys their due. They sort of built their own little micro-empire from scratch. It's literally "all them", None of those books is some previously-existing title (hey, come to think of it, Little Archie is the first one!)

Quote from: SAGG on April 11, 2017, 04:29:11 AM

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on April 10, 2017, 09:50:07 PM
I would say it was about the best Little Archie comic I ever read. It's more of a thing like where I'm just into all those Franco & Baltazar comics: Itty Bitty Hellboy, Tiny Titans, Super Powers, Super Pets, Aw Yeah!, Action Cat, whatever.

Better than Bolling's Little Archie? Those are considered to be classics...

What can I say. LA just never really appealed to me. For whatever reason, I just like Franco & Baltazar. You know who they are, right SAGG? You must have seen or read their stuff, right? So to me, it's not Little Archie that has anything to do with me reading it, it's all Franco & Baltazar.