Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on March 01, 2017, 07:06:55 AM
BEDTIME STORIES FOR IMPRESSIONABLE CHILDREN #1

I read this too but was disappointed in it. I liked Spook House better.

Mr. Crypt 1-3: Hilarious situational comedy kids' comics. I wish there were more modern comics like these. Humor like Pink Panther, Harvey comics.

Quote from: 60sBettyandReggie on February 27, 2017, 10:37:04 PM

Quote from: kassandralove on February 27, 2017, 08:02:15 PM
I rewatched this episode and was thinking if they are going to do a jughead loves Betty story line.
Jughead played Rebel without a Cause out of Betty's suggestion. I wonder if it ties into how he likes her more then a friend? 


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Well I saw there's a video of them kissing so it seems there is going to be a romantic plot with those two.

I totally thought they had vibes between them too.

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on February 27, 2017, 03:52:48 AM

I realize this info does nothing to ameliorate any potential embarrassment you might experience if seen reading FRANKEN FRAN, but I guess the only solution would be to go literally old-school and make your own book cover out of a plain brown paper bag. While various protective vinyl covers for paperbacks are sold at bookstores, few of them would fit these otherwise-standard-MMPB-dimensions Seven Seas manga omnibuses due to the 400-page thickness.

Haha I totally used to put slip covers on paperbacks I read as a kid/teen because I was embarrassed when strangers kept asking me what I was reading. I think it was Sweet Valley High or something. Of course this made them ask more. I probably borrowed the slip covers from some old hymnals.


I also remember the stretchy fabric covers for textbooks like these:



I totally had that blue camo one. Of course I remember the grocery paper bag book covers. Those you could decorate yourself with your drawings.

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on February 26, 2017, 04:42:54 PM
FRANKEN FRAN by Katsuhisa Kigitsu. Seven Seas published this in 4 large omnibus volumes (originally the series ran 8 tankobon volumes published by Akita Shoten in Japan), totaling about 1600 pages. I spent the better part of 5 days reading the whole thing. Not what I was originally expecting. The covers sort of make it look like part of the 'sexy monster girl' subgenre of manga, but it was nothing of the kind (in fact, there's no fanservice here at all, and Fran never appears other than modestly clothed). It was more of a horror/black comedy thing, and it was excellent. A bit gory and grotesque (particularly the earlier stories), but what would you expect from Franken-anything? The earliest stories in the first volume weren't as good as later ones, and I didn't always quite comprehend what the endings were about. It gets quite a bit better as it progresses though, especially after the author begins to include a fair amount of real bio-science as the basis of the stories (I think I may actually have learned a few things about biology here, as explained by Fran). That aspect of it reminded me a lot of Osamu Tezuka's stories of the rogue surgeon BLACK JACK, which always included a fair amount of medical science to make the stories feel convincing (since Tezuka did have a medical doctorate). That made me wonder whether Kigitsu had studied biology and/or medicine as well, as he has included a lot of factual background explanations. The emphasis on the grotesque and disturbing here is of the human fear of biological processes and body morphology horror, similar to Junji Ito's TOMIE. The stories for the most part seem to have those black comedy twist endings based on irony or karmic turnabout of the same type favored in the classic E.C. Comics, although sometimes they varied by being of the open-ended "... The End?" type where the reader is left to wonder what sort of consequences (surely bad) would result. Kigitsu managed to cover quite a few genres or tropes as satires, too. Actually I'd say that there's quite a bit more than just horror and comedy here, as the stories become more varied as they go along. Each 24 page chapter is a complete story (although many of the stories are subsequently revisited by sequels in chapters later on), with 16 stories per omnibus volume (plus a couple of 6-page bonus stories, 2 one-page gags, and 2 pages of the author's notes on the stories), making up about 400 pages for each of the four omnibus volumes.

Fran Madaraki is a patchwork girl who resembles a very thin teenager with long straight blonde hair (her character design reminded me somewhat of Tim Burton's THE CORPSE BRIDE), if you ignore the fact (and almost everyone seems to) that she has two giant electrodes (the heads of which are the approximate size of tuna cans) protruding from the temples of her skull and her body is covered with stitched-up seams. She is considered the daughter of the famous (and now long-missing) Professor Madaraki, whose cutting edge work for the government of Japan in bio-engineering had begun back in World War II (so if still alive somewhere, and it's implied that he is, he'd be quite ancient). In reality, she's his greatest creation and his greatest pupil (in later stories, when Fran speaks of the Professor, it's clear that her love for him is more than that of a daughter for her father). She seems to be quite famous herself, and no one in the stories ever displays any shock or alarm at her stitches or electrodes. Whenever she's walking along the artist has drawn little "wobble, wobble" and "totter, totter" SFX to indicate that her gait or balance is somewhat unsteady or shaky, but in the operating room Fran's a positive dynamo of energy (and she usually preps for the surgery by upgrading herself with a pair or two of extra arms beforehand), announcing with great enthusiasm, "BEGIN THE OPERATION!!" or something similar. She's most commonly seen in a pensive mood sitting at her computer or at a desk with pen and notepad, pondering a biomedical challenge with a thoughtful look and a finger on her chin. Fran's personality is what really stitches all the stories together, as she sometimes plays a minor role (in terms of panel time), with the bulk of the story being given over to the patient or subject of her experimentation. Fran really does have the highest respect for saving (or restoring) a life, but she's perhaps a little less fussy about exactly what form that life might take, so you might say her morality is a little more flexible than the average person's, and she has no natural revulsion for the gruesome biological details, or prejudices regarding other forms of life than human. Her experimental surgery frequently leads to unforeseen results, and her patients should always think carefully before they engage her services. Then too, sometimes her best intentions have a way of going awry -- and at other times, her desire to prove an experimental theory seems to have overwhelmed her better judgment in considering the potential negative consequences. Or maybe her lack of a childhood and social upbringing leaves her somewhat clueless when it comes to understanding how normal humans view things. She charges exorbitant fees for clients that can afford them, yet she can be moved to tears by a luckless patient's story of true love lost, and waive her fees to grant their wishes. For a mad scientist, her optimism and good intentions are actually pretty charming.

Too bad this isn't available digitally. The covers are a bit too...not readable in public. Her look reminds me of Princess Leia.

The Deep #1 - Just awesome. Great 1st issue. More comics like this please.

Quote from: JonInIowaCity on February 23, 2017, 09:34:05 PM
I'm watching Riverdale!

Me too!

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on February 23, 2017, 01:56:15 AM

Quote from: irishmoxie on February 22, 2017, 04:03:59 PM

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on February 22, 2017, 02:15:45 PM
All of the new 5-page lead stories in the digest titles have had a monthly theme for the last 3 solicitations. The March digests all feature "storybook" tales, April's digests have an "international" theme, and May's digests all have a musical theme. I wonder what they're thinking with this? I suppose those 5-page themed stories could add up to a single floppy comic if they wanted to reprint them, but that seems really unlikely. I guess maybe they're hoping it will encourage a few people to buy every digest title that month, if they didn't normally get them them all?

Exactly I'm more interested in getting all the titles those months when I usually don't. Especially international and musical.

Even though low sales leading to the cancellation of Archie with #666, and B&V with #278 in 2015 demonstrates that the idea of a floppy comic reprinting the new Dan Parent 5-page lead stories from the digests probably isn't workable, ACP could still possibly offer a series of one-shots (or maybe an ongoing series) as a digital exclusive, collecting those new lead digest stories. Maybe an ongoing DE under the umbrella title of CLASSIC ARCHIE would generate some interest in digital subscriptions (or possibly even garner a few new all-access subscribers for Archie Digital). There are a lot of people who might not want to buy a whole $4.99-$7.99 digest issue just to get the one new 5-page lead story if they didn't care for the selection of reprinted stories that might buy something like that.

They did this for all the 2015 lead stories.

Archie #17 - Classic Cheryl shenanigans. A favorite issue that could be read as a standalone. I only wish there was a Cheryl reprint in the back instead of Riverdale character bios.

Is anyone looking forward to Little Josie? I love Josie but I just don't think it'll work in a "Little" story.

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on February 22, 2017, 02:15:45 PM
All of the new 5-page lead stories in the digest titles have had a monthly theme for the last 3 solicitations. The March digests all feature "storybook" tales, April's digests have an "international" theme, and May's digests all have a musical theme. I wonder what they're thinking with this? I suppose those 5-page themed stories could add up to a single floppy comic if they wanted to reprint them, but that seems really unlikely. I guess maybe they're hoping it will encourage a few people to buy every digest title that month, if they didn't normally get them them all?

Exactly I'm more interested in getting all the titles those months when I usually don't. Especially international and musical.

When is Betty and Veronica Issue #3 coming out? How can they release a trade without that issue?

Quote from: BettyReggie on February 20, 2017, 06:09:35 PM
I read these books for 12 minutes each
🎃 Archie Comics Double Digest #273
🐯 Archie 1000 Page Comics Gala
💕 Archie 1000 Page Comics 75th Anniversary Bash
🐤 Archie Giant Comics Party
⛵ Blue Is The Warmest Color
🎭 My Friend Jeffrey Dahmer
💐 Sacred Heart

How is My Friend Jeffrey Dahmer? He grew up near where I'm from.

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on February 19, 2017, 05:18:59 AM
JUGHEAD AND ARCHIE JUMBO COMICS DIGEST #25 - I was pleasantly surprised to find my subscription copy in the mailbox yesterday, 5 days ahead of its release in comic shops next Wednesday. The lead story in here by Dan Parent is "Child's Play", in which Archie and Jughead get jobs working as costumed performers on a local kids' show, "Jollie's Circus Show" (turns out Jughead is a big fan of Jollie's - he never misses the show). Archie gets hired to wear a rabbit suit (Mr. Floppy), and Jughead winds up cast as Bobo the Bear. They get the jobs because the show needs a guitarist and a drummer (so it's kind of like The Banana Splits?) Jollie turns out to be not-so-jolly, and Jughead is disillusioned (and this reminded me of stories I heard about a certain local kid's show host when I was young; it may be that there are a lot of local legends like that). It's a funny story, but the premise immediately struck me as oddly dated. I remember local programming of kids' shows from my childhood (and I'm sure Dan does as well), but I could have sworn these type of locally-produced programs ceased to exist a couple (or three) decades ago. Am I wrong about that? I guess I can just let it go, and say Riverdale is stuck in a never-neverland nostalgic timeless era.

I remember local TV programming for homework. Where you could call in and a tutor would help you with a math problem live on the show.


Costume characters are still fairly popular at children's birthday parties. Like women dressed up as Elsa or other Disney princesses.

Glad to see Grundy go. The kid actors were acting circles around her. But I think she'll be back too.


They had a drive in story in the early 90's. I think it was in Archie & Friends except in that story they save the drive in.


They showed a picture of Jellybean. I wonder if we will see her again. She looked closer to Jughead's age in the pic and not a baby.


Poor homeless Jughead. I wonder if he will ever date Betty. Maybe there will be a fight between Archie and Jughead over Betty later on.


Veronica and Cheryl continue to rule as characters.