Quote from: Gisele on April 19, 2016, 05:05:48 PM
In any case, whether I like what I did here or not, Josie & the Pussycats IS the property I have interest in over at Archie.
I finally got my chance to do a short story in a digest about a year ago now. I would've like to have done more for the property, and done my way, but it's not in the cards, I'm afraid. At least it's one item off the bucket list now.

That story was great, and so was the one Sabrina story you got to do (not counting her appearance in ARCHIE). I'm sorry you never got to do more. I really loved the way those turned out.

They've done so many cover variants at this point, that they ought to just make a set of trading cards out of them. I'm sure they could do a 150-200 card set with no problem. Of course, if they did, I'm sure they would probably then commission some NEW art for variant randomly-packed "chase cards" which would be distributed in limited numbers per box and per carton. That's pretty much how the trading card business works.

Quote from: Colby Jack Cheese on April 19, 2016, 03:57:45 PM
World #61 is re-using a cover from another solicitation a few months (a year?) back.  Also, it seems like they have run out of ideas for what to call the annuals.  Don't get me wrong!  Great idea, but it seems like they are desperate for money/sales at this point.  R.I.P Old DIGEST Format.

The digest Annuals aren't literal Annuals, since they appear in the same digest title more than once a year. They used to run them more than once a year, but just simply call the issue "COMICS ANNUAL". Now at least they are differentiating the Annuals that appear in the same title by a seasonal or holiday theme. I believe the first digest issue to do that was BETTY AND VERONICA HALLOWEEN ANNUAL #237 (which came out back in October 2015), and - apart from BETTY AND VERONICA COMICS ANNUAL #240 (which I guess you could call the real, or "Annual Annual") - since then all of the Annual issues have had some theme -- "Winter Annual", "Spring Annual", "Easter Annual" (well, they can honestly say that there will only be ONE of each of those Annuals every year for each title). It does seem a little weird that we're already seeing a solicitation for a "Back To School Annual" in April, when school won't even let out yet for more than a month, but I guess the Back To School theme is as valid as any season or holiday theme. I don't think they've done a Valentine's Day Annual yet (have they?) but I'm hoping they do one next year. I kind of like the idea that most of the stories in an Annual digest have a common theme, as opposed to the Double or Jumbo Comics digests, that don't, and I'm all for more digest issues with more pages, since as a subscriber, those pages are FREE at no additional charge (the digest subscription rates are always based on the cover prices of the Double Digests).

ARCHIE COMPLETE DAILY NEWSPAPER COMICS HC 1946-1948 (Library of American Comics/IDW)
BATMAN ADVENTURES TP VOL 04 (DC)
RETURN OF THE GREMLINS HC (Dark Horse)
HELLBOY IN MEXICO 1956 TP (Dark Horse)
PAPER DREAMS: THE BEN DUNN SKETCHBOOK VOL. 2 TP (Antarctic Press)
CAPTAIN AMERICA 75th ANNIVERSARY MAGAZINE (Kirby variant cover)
CRIMINAL 10th ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL DEADLY EDITION MAGAZINE (Image)
SPONGEBOB COMICS #55
THE BADGER #3 (of 5) (F1RST Comics)
ALL NEW CLASSIC CAPTAIN CANUCK #1 (Chapterhouse)

Quote from: invisifan on April 19, 2016, 02:03:16 PM
One more B&V variant and they'll run out of alphabet ...

They won't be soliciting any of the RE (Retailer Exclusive) variants, because those don't get general distribution through Diamond, and are all the result of individual retailers making deals with ACP. They don't get letter designations, just "Midtown Comics Exclusive" or whatever the name of the retailer is. But you can be pretty sure that when it comes to adding up ALL of the variant covers, there will be more than 26.

I'm curious to see whether the "exciting" and/or "fun" lead stories in B&V FRIENDS JUMBO COMICS #250 and WORLD OF ARCHIE DOUBLE #61 are new stories, since they didn't specifically mention that, and I have a strange feeling of foreboding. Last month's solicitations contained one digest in which the lead story wasn't described as new, and this month's has two. 

Also, this makes two months in a row that the lead story in BETTY AND VERONICA DOUBLE didn't mention the lead story as an episode of "The Many Loves of Archie Andrews", so it looks like that series was aborted before completing its planned run of 10 episodes. 

I guess maybe they had to spend the money it would have cost for new stories in those two digests or the longer 10-page MLoAA episodes, on paying more artists to do variant covers for B&V. On the other hand, I suppose some people can now breathe a sigh of relief to see that "ALL NEW!" on the covers of the rebooted ARCHIE and JUGHEAD, and rest easy in the assurance that they won't contain any of those annoying time-wasting classic reprints in the back.

Quote from: irishmoxie on April 19, 2016, 01:35:32 PM
Bruce Lee The Dragon Rises #1

I have this, but haven't gotten around to reading it yet. Any good?

Quote from: invisifan on April 19, 2016, 02:11:27 PM
So "no self-respecting 21st-century girl is going to settle for a tambourine."
...

Any stories where they're listening to records or cassette tapes.

Never mind the tamborines. Some people would say that the fact that Betty continues to date Archie despite his treatment of her is proof enough of a lack of self-respect. But that's just another one of those things that don't really work when you shift the context from that of a lighthearted, cartoony, humorous comic to a more serious tone, like Big Moose beating the crap out of people -- as a cartoon it's funny, but in a more realistic context it's just tragic/sad.

All of the above stories offer ample proof that the lifespan of Archie digests is fated to end soon. While the outdated stories have always existed since the digests first began, in more recent decades the rate of change in technology and pop culture has only increased, while the "input" of newer stories that can be fed into the digests has slowed, and has now practically ground to a halt, with a mere 20 pages of new classic Archie stories per month. Somehow even that small lifeline seems like merely a temporary transitional hesitation of the part of ACP, just a short pause while they determine the ultimate acceptance of the New Riverdale. I seriously doubt that Dan Parent will still have work with the company in a year or two. That means the bulk of stories reprinted in the digests can only continue to become more and more dated, forcing the editors to be more and more selective to avoid those stories with dated references. That will mean even more repetition of the same reprints over and over again, and a reduction in the number of digest titles and their frequency and/or page count inevitably will follow. Five years from now they're likely to be down to only one or two digest titles.

Quote from: irishmoxie on April 18, 2016, 12:57:05 PM

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on April 18, 2016, 12:09:06 PM

Quote from: irishmoxie on April 18, 2016, 11:30:10 AM
WOW. A lot of comics come out every week. It's a wonder any series can survive. Those Replica editions are really expensive as well.


I'll be getting:
Princeless Raven #7
Jonesy #3 (Excited about this one. Great series)
Lumberjanes #25
WOA DD #58
Bee and Puppycat #11
Grumpy Cat & Pokey #3
Jem and the Holograms #14
Disney Princess #2
LDK Vol 4
Haunted Mansion #1
Puss in Boots #1

Jonesy is pretty good. I thought Haunted Mansion #1 was a big disappointment, but maybe you'll like it better than I did. What are those Replica editions you're referring to?

CANTON STREET PRESSMoon Girl #2 (Replica Edition), $17.99

You see what happened there, with your reply somehow shrinking down to microscopic size??  That kinda weirdness has been happening to me too, ever since the boards came back online. Just TRY copying and pasting things into a post, THEN you've got real trouble. What is UP with that?


... And the only way I could read it was to quote the thing first, then highlight the teeny-tiny text and change the font size to BIG.


Anyway, I didn't know what those were actually called, but I did get MOON GIRL #1 when it came out a few months back. Mainly out of curiosity, because I'd read about that early EC Comics title, which seems pretty plainly inspired by Wonder Woman, although surprisingly enough, it turns out to have a lot more originality to it than just as mere copy, as I at first feared. It was interesting, although I'd probably have to think about spending another $18 for a single issue.

Quote from: irishmoxie on April 18, 2016, 11:30:10 AM
WOW. A lot of comics come out every week. It's a wonder any series can survive. Those Replica editions are really expensive as well.


I'll be getting:
Princeless Raven #7
Jonesy #3 (Excited about this one. Great series)
Lumberjanes #25
WOA DD #58
Bee and Puppycat #11
Grumpy Cat & Pokey #3
Jem and the Holograms #14
Disney Princess #2
LDK Vol 4
Haunted Mansion #1
Puss in Boots #1

Jonesy is pretty good. I thought Haunted Mansion #1 was a big disappointment, but maybe you'll like it better than I did. What are those Replica editions you're referring to?

Quote from: daren on April 17, 2016, 07:13:46 PM
Okay I just found out her name is Claire Doyle and she IS his daughter. Who knows how many more father/child crossovers thereve been at Archie.

Well, there's Dan DeCarlo and his twin sons, Dan Jr. and Jim. When Dan first started at Archie, a lot of his work was being inked by his brother Vince DeCarlo, and Josie DeCarlo (or Josie Duvall) frequently had her name show up in the credits on fashion pages, and even once a TONY DeCarlo (not sure what relation he was). Supposedly Josie contributed a few story ideas as well. No daughters, though!

#3 should be available in about a week and a half! Can't wait!

Quote from: Mr.Lodge on April 17, 2016, 10:26:53 PM

Quote from: 60sBettyandReggie on April 17, 2016, 07:18:45 PM

Quote from: daren on April 17, 2016, 07:16:32 PM
But Archie isn't in the story DeCarlo Rules posted.

But Mrs Cooper is talking about him

If Archie is into vintage records, maybe he can tinker with Mrs. Cooper's turntable. 

Alice is looking pretty good on this page. It's a little weird how when you're reading the digests sometimes, you'll come across two stories, not separated in time by too many years, in which the Moms look SO different. There's a whole bunch of stories by Bob Bolling where (the teenage) Archie's mom looks more like his older sister, and I used to scratch my head and wonder whether Bolling didn't just somehow forget that he wasn't drawing a LITTLE Archie story. Then just the other day I read a Bolling story in a digest where you can tell by the style that it's not much older than those where Mary Andrews looks slim and young (another one of those stories was right next to it in the same digest issue). In this story, she still looks kind of young, but is significantly heavier (but otherwise is recognizable as the younger version of Mary Andrews Bolling drew in stories that are a little more recent).

We get that that's meant to be funny in the context of the times when it was published, but if you heard someone saying something like this in real life (unless you knew the person in question to possess a sardonic sense of humor) you'd have to question whether this wasn't a subliminal cry for help, and have the person checked out by a psychiatric professional.