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Show posts MenuQuote from: beatman10 on December 14, 2022, 09:22:59 PMQuote from: DeCarlo Rules on December 09, 2022, 09:17:34 AMI only started reading LIFE WITH ARCHIE with the last two comic book sized issues (#36 and 37) in 2014. Not that I hadn't been casually reading some ARCHIE and BETTY & VERONICA issues before that, along with SABRINA (the pre-manga version).I believe most readers of these stories felt the same way, that it was less confusing reading each storyline"one at a time" rather than alternately. But there were some very similar storylines in both universes that had very small changes that caused those stories to have different outcomes. And these were more obvious in the early issues. Mr. Lodge was trying to buy the Chock'lit Shop in both, but for slightly different reasons, In AMV, he was intent on making Riverdale a metropolis, using Archie and Veronica to force Pop to sell. But in AMB, it was more about Mr. Lodge trying to ruin Archie and his friends for rejecting his bribe to leave Betty and marry Veronica.
But "The Death of Archie" touched off a frenzy in me to start hoarding everything Archie. I looked back over the past five or six years of ACP's publishing history and suddenly realized the company had been steadily cancelling one long-running title after another, and thought to myself... "OMG! It's really happening! The Death of Archie isn't just some 'what if' story, it's a metaphor for what's actually happening to this long-running line of classic comic books." That's when I realized that the Archie characters had become an endangered species.
Thus began a mad scramble for me to find every recent back issue comic book from "Archie Marries..." (ARCHIE #600, Oct. 2009) onwards, and all the ACP trade paperback collections then in print.
A little less than a year later they published ARCHIE #666, the last issue of the classic ongoing series that had been running since 1943... then five months later, the last issue of the long-running BETTY & VERONICA, #278.
After that I was forced to rely on the digests (and trade paperback collections) for my Archie stories, plus the occasional one-shot floppy comic book. Occasionally I'd find old stacks of back issues but (apart from JOSIE and SABRINA) I was really only interested in the more recent ones (since the late 1980s re-numbering). I wasn't having any of that "New ARCHIE" nonsense.
So when I did finally get around to reading the full story from LIFE WITH ARCHIE, it was in the form of the six-volume ARCHIE: THE MARRIED LIFE trade paperbacks. Even in that form it was confusing to try to remember everything that was going on, as the chapters alternated back and forth between "Archie Marries Betty" and "Archie Marries Veronica". A few years ago I read it all again, but the second time around I went through all six books, first reading just the "Archie Marries Betty" chapters, and then all the "Archie Marries Veronica" chapters. It was somewhat easier to keep things straight in my mind the second time.
Another storyline that was very similar was Midge finding the stimulus loan application to help Jughead buy the Chock'lit Shop in both universes. But only in AMB is there a line in the application about the SBA favoring married applicants, which prompted Midge to propose to Jughead. I know there are more similar storylines such as Moe Miller meeting Jughead and after eating his burgers decides to make Jug a franchise mogul.
Quote from: beatman10 on November 28, 2022, 09:59:13 PMFrom what I've read, most readers didn't like seeing Mr. Lodge as a villain.
Quote from: Jabroniville on November 26, 2022, 01:40:43 AMQuote from: DeCarlo Rules on November 07, 2019, 12:21:29 AMSeems like it's ignoring everything after LIFE WITH ARCHIE #1 (i.e., all of "The Married Life" stories written by Paul Kupperberg). I like the art (well, except for Dan's decision that an older Archie should have a huge jaw in order to distinguish him from teenage Archie), but it's still too soon for me to pass final judgment on it as a story. I plan to re-read the whole thing in one sitting sometime after the last issue is released (or I might just wait for the TP), and maybe I'll have a clearer feeling about it by then. Clearly it's not a sequel to the run of LIFE WITH ARCHIE as written by Kupperberg, though. Having re-read the whole prior Married Life story fairly recently, both the strengths and flaws inherent in that series became a lot more obvious to me. After reading the whole thing again, I revised my initial opinion downward in terms of plot and story continuity, but felt like where it stood out was in terms of character interaction scenes and dialogue (only possible where you have a lot of pages for that kind of stuff).I'm curious what you think the flaws were. Apologies if the re-read is now too long ago for you to remember XD.
That said, the story doesn't have anywhere near the same room to breath as the original LIFE WITH ARCHIE magazine, and the plot is necessarily compacted to fit into six standard-sized floppy comic issues -- which amounts to the same as only THREE magazine-sized issues of The Married Life, so it's hardly fair to compare one to the other as a complete series, either. Then again, I can recall the same sort of complaints about the final B&V story arc by Uslan and Parent. Either one is still miles better than what we're getting in the current ongoing ARCHIE title and miniseries like SABRINA.
I found that it had definitely gone off the rails at some point (I believe during a writer switch) and sometimes the two universes weren't different enough to really justify having both stories. It was neat seeing Little Ambrose and others return, though.
Quote from: PTF on August 30, 2022, 02:41:39 AMMy only complaint is that she never called him Juggers