Thanks for letting me know that. I didn't have the other books you mentioned, but glad I didn't pay a lot for it. I remember a short time ago they took some of the 400 page books & reprinted them in the 1000 page books. I usually buy the 1000 pagers, but had seen the 400's in the store. All the same stories, page for page. The plates for the comics didn't have time to cool. Now THAT is recycling! You are right, they need to dig a little deeper in the last 75 years for some different stories. I'd LOVE to see them reprint that classic story where it turns out to be Betty as a mysterious kissing bandit, who is kissing everyone. Boys & girls. Now THAT is a page turner. They could reprint any of those stories from the late 50's to late 60's for me any day.

Just was wondering if anyone else picked up the new Archie #1/75th anniversary digest? In Canada it has a cover price of $8.99, but WalMart has a great deal where you can pick up any  3 digests, regardless of price, for 10 bucks. The second story in the digest is a Frank Doyle gem "Once Upon A Tune". Very 'Mad Magazine'/'MadHouse' kind of story. Really miss that kind of thing with Archie. Starting to look like a good purchase of reprints for a year (12 issues). Would love to see them do this with other Archie books. Just a year long-12 issue digest series. With 'Laugh', 'Pep', to choose from. Wouldn't be hard. Reprints of 'Madhouse' wouldn't hurt either. Hard to say if they'd be popular today. The digest did reprint a 'Josie' story ('Headcount') that was just reprinted recently. No complaints, great story. Anyone else enjoy the issue?

Just want to add to this: TV shows from this era, once they enter syndication, get messy. For exampe: Total Television's 'Underdog', 'Tennessee Tuxedo & His tales' & 'King Leonardo & his short Subjects'. I have 2 x 16mm copies of Network Prints, with original commercials, of 'Tennessee Tuxedo'. I know they're not original run prints because each contain a 'Commander McBragg' episode & a 'King Leonardo' short'. Plus the General Mills commercials are with 'Rocky & Bullwinkle', a Jay Ward Production.  When you watch the 1/2 hour prints on the DVD set of 'Archie's Funhouse' watch the 'Giant Jukebox' parts. Some episodes have 1, some 3. As mentioned above, in their original hour run they each contained 2 x Sabrina cartoons. There is a push on the get 'Underdog' restored to its original NBC run. The DVD sets, while nice to have, are nothing like the original run. Tennesse Tuxedo is worse! They used the original cartoon opening credits, with a different theme song! The Horror! Quick trivia note: The voice of Commander McBragg is veteran Radio voice 'Kenny Delmar'. Kenny Delmar was famous on the 'Fred Allen Show' as a character known as Senator Beauregard Claghorn. Warner Brothers copied the voice as 'Foghorn Leghorn' & then tried to sue Delmar for copywrite infringement. They lost. Well (As Fred Allen used to say) let's head down Allen's Alley & see who we meet. . .

These are the digests in printing now:
-Archie
-World of Archie
-Betty and Veronica
-Betty and Veronica Friends (called 'B&V Friends')
-Jughead & Archie
-Archie's Funhouse
Where it gets messy is sometimes they're called 'Digests', ''Double Digests', 'Comics Annuals', 'Comics Digests', 'Comics Double Digests'. Some are printed 6 times a year, some 10/11. Believe me it seems to change month to month. For example. B&V Friends is 6 times a year, but in a 2 month period we had 3 issues. Starting this fall they're is going to be a new one, but only published for 12 issues, it's a 75th anniversary special. If you'd like to know what's published in each digest, just ask. If I don't post it some one else will. Some of them have classics from the 50's such as Super Duck, Wilbur, Suzie, etc. Just so you know, every 4 months they print 1000 page specials. These books reprint everything from the digests of that period before, minus the non-Archie characters (Jose, Jinx, etc.) For the $10 bucks (WalMart) a great deal. I bought them all, there's been 13 so far.

Where some of the confusion on 'Archie's Funhouse' comes from is that originally it was an hour show. The Sabrina cartoons were part of Archie's funhouse in its first run. Hour TV shows are notoriously hard to syndicate, so after it's original run the TV show was cut to 1/2 hour & all the Sabrina cartoons became her own show.

See, that's an interesting point. B&V sell 70,000 copies with 25 different covers. So the question is- how many different people are buying this comic? Not that (less than) 3,000 people are buying all 25, but issue #1 of a comic usually sells well. And as you mentioned these artists & writers are not cheap. You are quite correct about Kevin Keller. After year one (2007) sales dropped 40% in year 2 (2008). What's really brutal is the drop in sales of the digests. I believe they only sell less than 25% of total printed. I grew up in the era of 10 cent & 12 cent comics. Sure, it's 2016, but $6.99 for a ever shrinking digest of reprints? A while ago I bought the dvd-rom sets of bronze age Archie & Betty/Veronica (1970-79) comics. Grand total for both sets from Amazon Canada? -the princely sum of 10 bucks. Ten dollars for 240 digital comics? Works for me.

When I wrote the post I had mentioned the re-boot of 'Sabrina' & 'Jose & the Pussycats' and then deleted that part of the post. I was just reading the Jose stories in 'Betty & Veronica Friends' digest #249 (While I try & get #250). As for Kevin Keller, he got a raw deal. I suspect with the reboot of 'Archie' coming Kevin got the boot before his time. I actually subscribed to Kevin Keller & thought it was a good comic.

Everyone has a secondary character that they like. From Bingo Wilkin to Jinx, but here's my question:
Did the Madhouse Glads/Ma-ads get cheated out of their own comic because of bad timing?
In the first run of Madhouse (#01 to 65) the comic was a very 'Mad Magazine' style of comic, with their very own 'Alfred E. Newman' character 'Clyde Diddit'. But starting in issue #66 it was all about a rock band called 'The Madhouse Ma-ads' with their very own groupie Fran. However. . . there was a very famous cartoon right about that time (1969 to 1970) call 'Scooby Doo, Where are you?'. Now we all know Archie comics. If something is a trend, they follow. So beginning in issue #73 the 'Madhouse Ma-ads' became the 'Madhouse Glads' & it was downhill from there. Starting in issue #82 (Feb 1972) suddenly this rock band was traveling around solving mysteries. Hum? Where have I seen that before? And then by issue #94 it was all over. Here's another problem. In 1969 a made-up band called 'The Archies' had a Billboard #1 song called 'Sugar, sugar'. Which has probably never gone off the oldies stations. So in theory you have Archie comics with a rock band called 'The Archies' and a rock band called 'The Madhouse Glads'. Let's also not forget that 'That Wilkin Boy' also had a rock band. For the brief time they were around I really liked the Madhouse Mads/Glads, but as you can see - they were doomed by timing. I've always thought that these characters could make a comeback in either of the Archie styles, old/new, as a traveling 60's tribute band. It's certainly been mention in this forum before. Secondary characters are very under used by Archie Comics.

100% right. For example I haven't gotten 'Betty & Veronica Friends' digest #250. It's been out at the grocery stores for about 3 - 4 weeks. So - once again - tomorrow I'll have to send them off an email. They give you up to 90 days to report a missing book, but it's a question of yes/no they'll send you a replacement book. My subscription ends at #251 & then I'll go back to buying it (at a discount) in store. On a more positive note, B&V friends #249 was a good digest. Good assortment of artists from past years & good stories.

Three years ago I renewed my subscriptions to the digests for 2 years. Got a great deal at that time. Of course, some books went from 10/11 times a year to 6, so the subscriptions for some books turned into 3 years. Last summer when Archie closed their offices for 2 weeks, laid off staff, and changed their distribution center - trouble started. While they were closed for 2 weeks I missed 3 books. I emailed them about it & they said the books were 'sold out'. To be fair they did extend my subscriptions, but since then I've emailed them about every 2 months for missed issues. My subscriptions run out next month & I'm not renewing. OK, now here's the good news. In Canada you can go into any WalMart & get 3 digests (you have to buy 3), regardless of the cover price, for $10.00 Canadian + tax. Most of the digests in Canada are $5.99 and $6.99. You can do the math. If I subscribe I have to pay in U$ Dollar$. I just check as each digest comes out, wander over to the WalMart Supercenter & pick them up. Every now & then I have to take a 'Sonic' book to make up 3 because of the lag in books coming out. Trust me, I'm still ahead. Do I still buy Archie books? Sure, but I won't subscribe again.