World of Betty and Veronica Jumbo Comics Digest #29 (November 2023) - CRUSADERS story: "Return of Denim!" has the older Joe Higgins Shield (gray hair and bearded). Fly Girl, the Jaguar, and the Web (younger New Crusaders versions) are also in the story.

Then in World of Betty and Veronica Jumbo Comics Digest #31 (January 2024) - THE JAGUAR story: "Reindeer of Terror" has both the original Jaguar (Ralph Hardy) and Ivette Velez, the younger female Jaguar!

Then in World of Archie Jumbo Comics Digest #138 (May 2024) - THE SHIELD story: "Picture Perfect!" has the young Joe Higgins wearing his original (1940s) Shield costume, which he hasn't worn since before the NEW CRUSADERS: Rise of the Heroes miniseries in 2012.

I have also seen other digest stories where the younger (female) Shield appeared. Some recent stories have Fly-Girl now being referred to as "Firefly" (but of course there's already another MLJ superhero named Firefly, as well as one named Fireball).

Also in some digest stories the Crusaders coexist with Pureheart, Evilheart, Captain Hero, Superteen, and Powerteen, and in other stories where the superheroes appear there's no mention of Archie, Jughead, Betty & Veronica's alter egos...?

I have seen character design previews for an upcoming story by Dan Parent that will apparently feature both Fly-Girl and The Fly (don't know how that's possible if the latter character is still owned by the estate of Joe Simon), versus a new supervillain named Murder Hornet.

Granted that these various superhero digest stories are all being written by different people (mostly by Ian Flynn or Dan Parent, it seems) but doesn't Mike Pellerito actually do any editing so that everyone's writing the same versions of the characters?

Whatever happened to Jeff Shultz? I haven't seen a new story drawn by him in a good while now. On the other hand, Bill Galvan's artwork actually seems to have improved in the last year or two, it's good to have Holly G back drawing again, and the team of Steven & Lily Butler are doing some fine work in the classic style as well, somwhat helping to make up for the loss of the Fabulous K-Bros.

The worst thing any comic book publisher can do is to put all their eggs in one basket (meaning... all their comics in one genre). That's really what's been the downfall of Archie Comics... they failed to diversify their product line enough down through the decades. You can't expect to survive in the long run in publishing if you ONLY do humor, or ONLY do horror. Even Marvel and DC, as successful as they've been at superheroes, can't do ONLY superheroes. Overspecialization is a dead end.

The current owners will still own the company, and still sell digital Archie Comics... maybe not any new ones, though. Maybe just a few trade paperbacks for printed comics. Any new comics might be licensed to someone else (but probably not IDW, they have enough problems of their own).

...you're just starting to worry about the future of Archie Comics NOW? I've been worried about them since they cancelled ARCHIE with #666 and BETTY & VERONICA with #278 back in 2015!! That's almost 10 years now, and it's been a long downhill slide to the point where I've come to accept the inevitable.

Come to think of it, licensing the Archie characters to some other comic book company might be the best thing that Archie Comics could do for its fans.

Is ARCHIE MILESTONES DIGEST turning into the newest incarnation of JUGHEAD DIGEST?

That's taking a pretty long view of the asked-about "after 1968"...

Inflation didn't happen overnight, but a retailer doesn't care about your desire for cheap entertainment, he cares about how much money he makes when he sells you an item. If he has to make less profit per unit, he better know for sure he can make more money by selling LOTS of units.

Same thing that happened to the sales of every other comic book publisher after 1968. Retailers didn't want to devote their precious display space to comics, because the profit margin was so low, and that display space could better be used for items that generated more profit for the space it took to display it. The profit margin on digest comics was higher, and they took up correspondingly less display space, so those were able to hang in there with retailers much longer.

Seems like there's a pretty simple explanation for how Archie lost the report (with no backup copy). If he was using the library's computer, he probably saved his report as a document on a flash drive. After printing it out, he then (in typical Archie fashion) loses the flash drive. His computer at home is broken, so he didn't save a copy there, and anyway he didn't have time to go home - then the printed copy gets ruined (somehow... maybe the backpack was unzipped when Jughead dumped his chili dog on it).

Now I'm wondering if there was a story where the magic hat pin worked its magic on Betty and/or Veronica. I seem to vaguely recall there was a story where it worked on Cheryl -- but Jughead rebuffed her.

Quote from: beatman10 on June 04, 2023, 08:43:32 AMI have noticed that in many of the stories (not all) where Jughead finds romance, most of the girls have this one physical trait: Short Hair!!! Anyone else pick up on this? Not there's anything wrong with that!!

I've never been able to tell just how long or short Big Ethel's hair is, because she seems to pin it up. Debbie Dalton and January McAndrews had short hair, but Joani Jumpp didn't. Jackie Frost and Trula Twyst didn't have short hair. In "Freshman Year", Sadie Cameron from Silby, Montana had short hair. In "Farewell, Betty & Veronica", exchange students Violette (from France) and Banni (from India) were both attracted to Jughead; Violette had short hair, but Banni had long hair. Midge Klump has the shortest hair of all of them, and in "The Married Life", Jughead married her!

I'm sure the short-hair thing is just a coincidence, though.

For years I'd been wondering where/when this plot wrinkle originated, and I recently discovered it all began in JUGHEAD (1st series) #283 (Dec. 1978). The Grand Comics Database offered the following information about that issue:

QuoteThis issue introduces one of the most unusual continuing storylines in Archie comics history: an unseen, mysterious force finally makes Jughead attracted to girls, and gives him a new, supernatural pin on his hat. The storyline was strung through stories in "Jughead," "Archie" and "Betty and Veronica" around this time. After reader reaction was not positive, the story was dropped without explanation. However, Jughead's attraction to girls, as well as his magic pin, were briefly brought back in 1982 during another attempt to make Jughead more of a ladies' man.

The stories in this issue also try out a new design for Jughead, more conventionally handsome and with a square jawline. It was dropped along with the storyline.

I'd love to read all of the stories involved in this experimental phase of Jughead's evolution. Does anyone have a complete list of the various stories that touched on this plot device, and where they first appeared?

You can arrange to categorize comics (or manga) by sub-genres however you like -- it tells you nothing about the relative popularity of the sub-genre described, so it really tells you absolutely nothing about actual sales.

What I'm suggesting here is that IF, theoretically, Betty & Veronica ARE in actuality, ACP's most popular and best-selling characters, ACP is shooting themselves in the foot by choosing to market trade collections under the ARCHIE logo, rather than the BETTY & VERONICA logo. If it is indeed true, then their own marketing practices are hampering the sales potential of trade collections that feature reprints of BETTY & VERONICA stories by labeling those collections as "ARCHIE". I don't see what you fail to understand about this -- if B&V are the main attractions, then products marketed under the name B&V should sell better than those that aren't. So if it's true, then ACP is failing to take advantage by selling more trade collections marketed with the B&V logo.

And I don't believe that for a minute. If the ARCHIE logo appears on the cover far more often, it's not because it's the company's name, it's because books marketed with the ARCHIE logo sell better than those that aren't.

None of the above explains what is obvious on the face of things... that the title logo ARCHIE (not BETTY & VERONICA) by far dominates the number of trade collections (in GIANT or 1000-PAGE, or any other formats) that ACP releases. Which makes absolutely no sense if ACP's major seller is B&V, as opposed to ARCHIE. If B&V are the top attraction for consumers, shouldn't the number of trade collections with BETTY AND VERONICA in the title far outnumber those with ARCHIE in the title? Yet it's exactly the opposite. What other conclusion is there to draw?

And why are there four Archie digests (Archie Jumbo Comics, World of Archie Jumbo Comics, Archie Milestones, Archie Showcase) to B&V's two (B&V Jumbo Comics, World of B&V Jumbo Comics)?

I mean, they could easily repackage/recycle the same stories from B&V Jumbo Comics and World of B&V Jumbo Comics in 1000-PAGE and GIANT formats, yet there's never been a single one yet. I'll leave you to count all those ARCHIE 1000-PAGE and GIANT COMICS releases on your own.

Quote from: Jabroniville on November 27, 2022, 03:13:57 AMI think Jughead's lack of appeal to modern readers is more linked to Archie's current fanbase, of which a huge portion is female. They typically went over that audience above all others... this means that Betty & Veronica typically does the best, and then Archie (the flagship) does the rest. Jughead kind of loses out among the Big Four, as he ends up with the most male-centric book (since Archie's book also involves Betty & Veronica inherently).

But there hasn't been a regular B&V title (unless you count those quarterly one-shots that are 75% reprint) since 2015 when their classic ongoing title ended. Only two miniseries, VIXENS and the Adam Hughes one, while ARCHIE had an ongoing title that ran for 47 issues, plus a number of miniseries. JUGHEAD's ongoing title at least managed 16 issues -- while what would presumably have been the start of an ongoing "New Riverdale" series (Adam Hughes') for B&V managed a mere 3 issues (released over a span of one-and-a-half years!)

Have you not kept track of what titles ACP has released as trade paperbacks? True enough that JUGHEAD comes in dead last of the Big Three with a bare few, but B&V trail, far, far, far behind the numerous trade collections released for ARCHIE.

That should debunk the theory that B&V is still ACP's biggest cash cow. It hasn't been for at least 10-15 years now.

Quote from: beatman10 on January 31, 2023, 10:05:20 PMI'm curious to know if Mr. Uslan had written more chapters of"Life With Archie" but they got shelved when he opted out and Mr. Kupperberg took over.

I'm sure if Uslan had actually written more chapters that he'd have been paid for those scripts, and ACP would have used them. I'm more curious why the series didn't just start out with Kupperberg as the writer. As in, did Uslan have some disagreement with editor Gorelick that caused a parting of ways, or was it always the intention that Uslan "lay the foundation stone" for the series by writing #1 (and ONLY #1) and then move on to other projects?

NOT kidding~~!!