Well that was ONE writer's idea of Midge's character, anyway...

It's still wide open, and I'm sure some writers would be aghast at anything other than "Moose & Midge 4-EVA"...

Hell, it would have been interesting if she'd wound up with Reggie after all! Anything's possible really.

I remember it. It wasn't one of those concepts that did anything for me personally, sort of like Archie's R/C Racers. Just another fad ACP tried to cash in on (I guess CSI had big ratings then).

Quote from: beatman10 on December 14, 2022, 09:22:59 PM

Quote 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).

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.

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.
      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.

That actually makes sense if you think about it. If the major change between the two universes is whether Archie married Betty or Veronica, it's those three who are going to be affected by that decision the most, and the other cast members only more peripherally.

If different circumstances don't dictate that the other characters behave differently, then it's not surprising that they'd behave in a common way in both universes. Some of their circumstances can change in random ways in the different universes, but they wouldn't ALL change, and where they didn't the character would react mostly the same way.

As far as I'm concerned, every single time (and boy, were there lots of them) that Mr. Lodge and/or Smithers gave Archie the old heave-ho out the front door of the Lodge mansion, he was perfectly justified. Good for him!

I 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).

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.

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.

It's a violation of Mr. Lodge's basic character. Sure, there are plenty of stories where he doesn't like Archie and tries to thwart him. And there are stories where sometimes there is an adversarial relationship between Lodge and "the gang" in general because of a generation gap thing -- but in pretty much ALL of those stories, Mr. Lodge comes around in the end. In most classic Archie stories, Mr. Lodge is not an bad man at all... he's shown to be a good man, despite the fact that he's rich. There are many instances where the gang points out an issue which Lodge helps resolve through his philanthropy.

Quote from: Jabroniville on November 26, 2022, 01:40:43 AM

Quote 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).

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'm curious what you think the flaws were. Apologies if the re-read is now too long ago for you to remember XD.

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 .

The only writer switch in THE MARRIED LIFE (or LIFE WITH ARCHIE magazine, if you prefer) was at the very beginning, where issue #1 is the setup written by Mike Uslan -- and immediately after that, it's Paul Kupperberg for the follow-up through the rest of the series.

The major flaw is a lack of any general plan or direction (until looming cancellation forces one upon Kupperberg; i.e. "The Death of Archie"). The pendulum swings wide with Mr. Lodge initially as the seeming villain, and then (as things take a distinct turn towards more of a harder SF theme) seemingly Dilton Doiley... but then Kupperberg backs away on the SF angle (perhaps due to reader reaction?) shortly after launching a meandering plotline featuring Veronica's lost plane crossing into the Bettyverse. Sure the various twists kept readers on tenterhooks from issue to issue of the magazine, but read as a whole there's no real plot structure overall. Various characters' threads get lost in the miasma in the latter half.

ARCHIE: THE MARRIED LIFE 10th ANNIVERSARY has Mike Uslan back in the driver's seat again, but this time it's "10 Years Later" after the original "ARCHIE MARRIES..." (ARCHIE #600-606), and while incorporating some of Uslan's ideas from LIFE WITH ARCHIE Magazine #1, goes off on completely different tangents than Kupperberg's story did.

While the preponderance of clues do indicate the AMB timeline, it does make me wonder if they were completely consistent about that or if they messed up by putting something in there that could only have indicated the AMV timeline.

Somehow Archie Comics' policy of messing around with history has always escaped the wrath of the Time Variance Authority. And the Time Police, too... isn't that supposed to be their job?

The two writers who seem to be on the same wavelength to the extent that you might not guess who wrote which story are Bill Golliher and Dan Parent. Those two started out together 35 years ago, and worked so closely with each other so often, that it's not too surprising that they think alike.

Ah, ok I get it now... the complaint is she should have called him Juggers.

But even so, it seems to me that most secondary characters that amount to anything at all, only do so in the hands of their original creator. Like... I wouldn't expect Craig Boldman to suddenly turn in a story featuring Veronica's cousin Marcy and have it feel authentic, either.

I get the feeling with the recent re-appearances of a lot of lesser-seen characters that it's just the editor deciding on which characters will be featured, then handing out the assignments to whoever's available. Rather than it's an idea the writer came up with on his own -- which you have to admit, would be a lot easier to believe if Dan Parent was writing a new cousin Marcy story, or Craig Boldman was writing a new Trula story.

Quote from: PTF on August 30, 2022, 02:41:39 AMMy only complaint is that she never called him Juggers

But she DID call him Juggers... that nickname was entirely the invention of Craig Boldman. Many people call him "Jug" or "Juggie" for short, but ONLY Trula calls him "Juggers". I'd have to check, but that might even go all the way back to Trula's first appearance in JUGHEAD (1987 series) #89.

For the record, I consider any Trula Twyst story NOT written by Craig Boldman to be at best of negligible importance, if not an entirely alternate-universe (as in the case of Big Ethel Energy) version of the character. Fortunately, Boldman has recently written a couple of new stories for Archie Comics, but it's actually kind of hard to write a new Trula Twyst story that reveals any new aspects of her character (and Jughead) in a mere 5 pages.

That's true of many of the less-seen characters, too. You can't get into any complex plots (never mind complex character development) with a strict limit of 5 pages per story, so that limits the kinds of stories you can tell now in "traditional style" Archie stories. I miss the days when they could expand, at their discretion, a story for up to 22 pages.

Quote from: beatman10 on August 21, 2022, 08:56:13 AMI think Jughead has some power over Trula if he really wanted to use it. That is, simply by ignoring her. Maybe Archie Comics could do a story on that and how Trula's reaction would be.

The way Jughead's mind works though, is that he'd be immediately worried if his attempt to ignore Trula resulted in zero response from her (which is just how she'd play it).... and the more he continued to ignore her and she continued to not respond in any way, the more it would vex and frustrate Jughead, because he would certainly conclude that her non-response to his ignoring her meant that she was biding her time secretly calculating (and maybe even carrying out, without him being aware of it) even more sinister mind games with him in mind. And unfortunately, that is how Jughead thinks. Trula can well afford not to obsess over him if she doesn't want to, but Jughead isn't capable of that -- the only thing he's really capable of is pretending to ignore her, because in reality when she seemingly does nothing, that's when he's most worried about what she might do next.

But of course you'll have to sort out the source of each story title yourself. Looks like a fairly representative line-up with a small selection of stories spanning each of the various eras. Looking forward to this one!