... and hey, what do you know? "Editor's Notebook" is back after a decade or so MIA (now written by Mike Pellerito); He says (unless I misinterpreted) that both World of B&V Jumbo Digest and Archie 80th Anniversary Jumbo Digest will be featuring new 10-page lead stories. That's a good sign, as is the fact that they printed an address for letters and fan art -- almost as if they WANT to hear from readers all of a sudden.

Huh. That was a surprise. Since it was 10 pages I thought they were going to do the version of B&V (by Rotante & Williams) that they've been pushing so hard with previews of the OGN in the back pages of both B&V digests for the last few months.

But no, this is just a regular "Archie classic"-style story written by Rotante and drawn by good 'ol reliable Bill Galvan. Nothing different about it except that it's 10 pages instead of the usual 5. But, you know... it wouldn't hurt to start making all the new lead stories in the digests 10 pages, since they're not really publishing much new in the floppy comics.

It's inconsistent, just like Pureheart the Powerful. As far as I know, the magic ponytail-twisting thing is only mentioned once, in the story "Superteen Strikes Again" from BETTY AND ME #3.

In the origin story "It All Began..." in that same issue, she doesn't need to twist her ponytail to first turn into Superteen. She's already trying to save Archie (and has her hands full trying to hold on to him) when her ponytail gets caught in a small bush, and it's the only thing keeping both her and Archie from plunging to their deaths on a teetering rock ledge sticking out from the face of a cliff. A caption in a panel where she strains to hold on to Archie suggests "Maybe it was the superhuman desire and determination to save the one she loved, ...but suddenly..." In fact, a close reading of that story seems to suggest that it's really Betty's purity of heart and unselfish desire to protect Archie that calls up superpower somewhere from deep within her. On page 2 it was mentioned in a caption that "The yearning to hold and protect kept building and building...'

In stories from before BETTY AND ME #3 like "Just Imagine" (B&V 118) and "The Consumer" (B&V 119) she just changes into Superteen without doing anything special, and the suggestion seems to be she just changes from her street clothes into her superhero costume, but "It All Began..." seems to be presented as a flashback story.

BUT will we ever see the Betty Cooper SUPERTEEN one-shot, the ARCHIE MEETS FLASH GORDON one-shot, or the conclusion to the all-new all-different SUPER DUCK miniseries? 

Somehow despite everything happening, that MADAM SATAN one-shot managed to squeak out (it was good). C'mon guys!! 

Would you trust Archie Andrews to be your guide to the world of dating? Let's face it, he's not exactly Jiminy Cricket.

Spoiler Alert: I already know The Secret of Betty's Ponytail.
(It's that little black ribbon she uses to tie around her hair.)

I was wondering why this was in such an odd size.



But then (despite it being only 256 pages) I realized it's claiming kinship with THE BEST OF ARCHIE COMICS trade paperbacks (which hasn't had a new volume in years, discounting those reworked Deluxe Edition HCs). That series were usually over 400 pages per volume. This book came out a few weeks ago, but this collection must have been back-burnered in production from last year or even earlier. It still lists Victor Gorelick as Co-President/Editor-In-Chief on the credits page.

The greatest joy was seeing not only each and every story with creator credits, but the source of the original printing of the story is cited along with the date of original publication. I sure wish they'd make that standard procedure on every trade collection they publish.

Quote from: ASS-P on January 13, 2019, 11:42:43 AM...Why are hot dog buns sold in packages of eight but hot dogs in packages of ten ?

So you'll have a couple of emergency stand-by hot dogs, in case of some untimely accident where your hot dog slipped out of the bun and fell on the floor (you mustard fans know what I'm talking about). No need to toss away a perfectly good bun, just replace the dog.

I could have lived without the Jamie Rotante/Brittney Williams double-length new story in favor of a Dan Parent double-length story, but I will be getting it.

I hope "Hundreds of Possibilities" finally does see print in the Archie 80th Anniversary digest.

February is a good month! When was the last time we saw nothing but classic Archie titles coming out? Still waiting for an ARCHIE SHOWCASE DIGEST #3.

I'm crazy about BATS!

Archie digests have been very annoying in 2020 with the content described in solicitations not being correct in the printed digests -- but then they had that problem sometimes even before the COVID situation.

First week in October is another JUGHEAD Digest! (Technically titled Archie Showcase Digest #2.)
Including World of Archie Jumbo Comics Digest #103's Special Jughead Issue from the last week in September, that makes TWO Jughead digests in 2 weeks! With luck, maybe there will be an ongoing Jughead digest title by this time next year!

Okay -- I hadn't been getting this digest for a couple of years now, but decided to make an exception for the 100th issue. Not bad for a special issue (more older stories), but that by itself doesn't convince me to start buying WoA on a regular basis again.

What IS special is that I just discovered that issues 101-103 all bear a cover image of Jughead's head in a circle with the words "Special Jughead Issue" circling around. The cover logo still says ARCHIE, but the stories inside are ALL Jughead stories.

#101's actual cover uses the same design for the "Special Jughead Issue" as #102 & #103 as depicted, not that black crown-shaped blurb... that's an early cover mockup.

So what this seems to amount to is a digest comic miniseries-within-a-series... It occurs to me this must be some sort of trial run to determine (based on sales performance) whether or not to give Jughead his own ongoing digest series again... or maybe they're even considering changing "World of Archie" into "World of Jughead" Jumbo Comics Digest.

#104 and 105 have already been solicited and they look like the usual Christmas-season issues of WoA. But if they DO decide to publish a Jughead digest I'd buy it.

Just goes to show that you never really know (until you see solicitations) what's going on at ArchieCo HQ.
A few months back, this happened without any warning...

#281 was the last actual issue to bear the traditional title logo. Cover previews of issues 282 and 283 show the same logo, but when those issues actually went on sale, they had THIS new logo:

Which makes B & V FRIENDS (now "BEST FRIENDS", but at a much-reduced font size) nearly indistinguishable, without a close look, from the regular BETTY AND VERONICA Jumbo Comics Digest. No change at all in content (same special sections for Josie and L'il Jinx), but I figure there must be some reasoning behind it. The other B & V digest sells better for some reason, so maybe it's the logo?? That's all I can come up with.
 

ARCHIE SHOWCASE DIGEST #1 (despite focusing on a character who isn't exactly lacking in exposure) was pretty good. A much higher than average dose of the older classic stories in this one. Especially looking forward to #2 featuring Jughead.

Waitin' for Satan. The Madam Satan one-shot. Wonder if we'll see Superteen #1 or Archie Meets Flash Gordon #1 before that?

Oh, irony... the Archie Comics FCBD book shipped from Diamond this week. Nothing to write home about. I read it, but I'm tossing it back to my LCS next week.

Due next week from Diamond:
ARCHIE & FRIENDS FOREVER TP
ARCHIE EXPLORERS OF THE UNKNOWN TP
B & V FRIENDS JUMBO COMICS DIGEST #282
(...and who knows what else; mainly just keeping track of the classic stuff for myself.)

Also, that ARCHIE SHOWCASE DIGEST #1 apparently is out this week, but since I forgot to order a copy until last week, I won't get mine until next week. I'd be more excited if the character being showcased was anyone but Archie.

Quote from: Tuxedo Mark on July 15, 2020, 09:38:06 PM

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on March 27, 2020, 02:42:30 AMWorld of ARCHIE 100th Issue Special:

Not on my usual reading list, but I'll certainly be picking this one up (I HOPE!!) based on this solicitation description:
(W) Bill Golliher (A) Various (CA) Pat & Tim Kennedy
BRAND NEW STORY: "Hundreds of Possibilities!" Celebrate the milestone 100th issue of World of Archie! Archie takes a nap only to be awakened by someone pounding on his door. To his surprise, it's his best friend Jughead-but not the Jughead he recognizes. This one belongs to something called the Time Police, and he comes with a warning: all the Archie space time continuum will soon be collapsed into one reality. Archie must join forces with Jughead to save the day-and all of time as we know it!
In Shops: Jun 17, 2020
SRP: $7.99

Ooooh!! An Archie Multiverse story featuring Deputy Marshal Forsythe P. Jones of the Time Police!! SWEET!! Doesn't say whether the new story is longer than the standard digest lead of 5 pages, but one hopes against hope for a one-time exception 20-pager in honor of reaching 100 issues. Certainly sounds like more plot than they can squeeze down into a standard 5-pager, though. FINGERS CROSSED!

The digest came out, but the new story isn't in it. Instead, the featured story is a reprint of "Welcome to Mirrordale".

RATS! I was really looking forward to that new story. Now I'll probably never know when (or IF) it's published in some other digest.

I guess WORLD OF ARCHIE JUMBO DIGEST #100 was still worth buying though, because of the variety of reprints. I haven't read an issue in about 2 years, and can't even remember the last digest that had a "From the Vault" section (let alone TWO!!). I think the Pat the Brat story was new, but I'm not 100% sure... plus there was Super Duck, Ginger, Katy Keene, and even a Reggie story. Aside from the missing new story, if every issue of WOA was like that, I'd be buying it regularly. At least it looked a lot better than ARCHIE JUMBO DIGEST #300, which aside from a new 5-pager whose plot revolved around the number 300 (typical), it looks like they put zero effort into making it special at all.

And since they seem to be doing all these special "limited" 12-issue digest series lately, why not one composed of nothing but classics "From the Vault" of the many different titles published in the 1950s and 1960s?