Update: Sears has shut down all of its stores in Canada. That was fast- they'd closed down "select stores" in Canada earlier in the year, and have just decided to close up shop right before Christmas! Every store is a madhouse, and it's proving to be a disaster for Canadian malls, because most of them had JUST figured out what they're doing with all their abandoned Target locations! One of the malls it town had just renovated their old Target to have different store-space (converting a department store into a hallways with stores in it), and the West Edmonton Mall store is only NOW about to be filled with a few different things.

People are thinking the malls are gonna have to allow gyms to move in in order to survive, now.

It's not Fernando's fault that Toni was created- he told me during a Meet & Greet that she was more or less designed by committee, with each person at the office deciding on one element or another, solely to make another minority character "because nobody liked Chuck & Nancy".

He even cracked a joke that the committee made "The blandest Archie character ever!" So don't blame him .

Quote from: Shuester on February 27, 2017, 03:39:36 AM
I lurked around this site for about two months before the temporary shutdown happened. I'm really glad I became interested in the site then, because all of the information was enough to get me interested and keep scrolling for more.
If I had just discovered the site now, though, I don't know how long I would have stayed. Long conversations about characters and historical comics that are fascinating and have input from many users are much less frequent on the new site than the old one. I understand that it's no one's fault, and of course all of those conversations took years to develop. But if I hadn't found the site when it was full of lively discussions, I don't know that I would have eventually made an account.

Yeah, it was really tragic to lose the site because nobody was backing anything up. It was a really amateur-hour thing.

I used to love coming here a lot. I'd actually look up stuff every day, find old posts, and go on my trademark long-winded rants. Unfortunately, a lot of the "energy" to do that has faded. Posters like Zach Ziggster don't seem to be around- he was good people.  Even Mark's insanely-long threads about his old mall or his constantly-dying pets at least held SOME interest, but those are gone. The idea of arguing on the internet loses its luster now that I'm in my mid-30s and don't feel like arguing with people who don't seem like they can read or write properly, either, and we seem to have a lot more of those types all of a sudden.

Quote from: VintageJon on February 13, 2017, 01:53:52 PM
The whole Target launch up here was a complete Fiasco.  They lasted about a year. They grossly misunderstood what consumers here would want (we wanted an exact copy of the US stores, pricing included).   Instead, we were treated to half empty shelves and inflated prices. The parent company gave no time for the operation to become profitable.


Thousands lost jobs and most of the stores just stand empty now.  The retail landscape in Canada is very sparse compared to America as it is.  Walmart is pretty much the only department store we have now. We used to have Zellers, Woolworth/Woolco, Towers, Eaton's, Robinson's...etc.  Retail as we know it has had its day I'm afraid.   

Yeah, it was an absolute disaster. I read a HUGE article on it once- a lot of boring business-speak, but it also mentioned that the empty shelves were due to a poor distribution system- employees didn't want to get in trouble, so they clicked everything to be at a minimum, and the automatic system wouldn't flag them for it. So ALL of the stores were empty.

They also foolishly over-shot their limits- opening up DOZENS of stores when they should have done flagship launches in major cities, or in one area. They opened up THREE FRIGGIN' STORES in Edmonton near-simultaneously. Of COURSE that was going to be a disaster! Nobody can go from "zero stores" to "a hundred stores" overnight and make it work. I don't care if they WERE in major shopping centers (West Edmonton Mall & Kingsway).


And yeah, malls are now sitting with gigantic Big Boxes empty. West Edmonton Mall has JUST NOW figured out what they're going to do with theirs, and it's been empty for two or three years now. Target lost billions on this nonsense.

Quote from: nuageo on April 29, 2016, 01:55:14 AM
Why almost everything new members leave the forum after 1-2 weeks?
Many of these members are interesting and very active here. 

Does anyone realize how ironic it is that the person who made a thread complaining about this fact is themself a "Posts a bit, then deletes their account" poster?

Quote from: Alexandra Cabot on January 28, 2017, 01:11:33 AM
Okay, after years of hype, it looks like Riverdale is a ratings flop:

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/daily-ratings/tv-ratings-thursday-jan-26-2017/

It's a big stinking failure.  It won't get renewed for Season 2.  There will be no new episodes ordered.  The show is a bastardization of Archie's characters.  The only time in the future it will be brought up is when one of those niche YouTube reviewers goes, "Wow, remember that Riverdale show?  That really sucked!  What were they thinking?!  Let's play one of those stupid scenes of Archie having sexual relations with Miss Grundy to laugh at it!  Boy, this was one of the worst things to come out of 2017 by far!"

Since Archie has spent so much of its capital and reputation on this so called television program, we must now ask, who is to blame?  Well, one person to blame is Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, who will surely go down as one of the biggest hacks in the history of writing.  If Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa has an idea, chances are it's something completely idiotic.  He turns Archie characters into his own masturbatory fantasies that have no relation to the characters from the comics.  If Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa had written Catcher in the Rye, it would have been the worst book ever written in the history of the human race.   I hear he is a playwright.  Perhaps his next play should be,  "I'm a Really Bad Writer."  It should of course star himself.

Has he even read any of the comics?  That's a very good question in and of itself, yet he has been awarded the title of Chief Creative Officer of Archie Comics.  Why was he given this position?  No one knows.  His ideas suck worse than the most powerful Dyson vacuum cleaner.

For that I say Mr. Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa should resign from his position Chief Creative Officer of Archie Comics and be given the new title of Chief Dunce of Archie Comics.  Here's your dunce cap, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, you've earned it:



Of course Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa isn't the only person to blame.  Who approved this god awful mess?  Who appointed Aguirre-Sacasa as Chief Creative Officer of Archie Comics?  Well, that was most likely someone named Jonathan Goldwater.  Not the John L. Goldwater that built the company into a successful publishing giant in the comics world, but the Jonathan Goldwater who recently inherited the company via bloodline succession much like the kingdoms of ancient Europe.  As any good student of history knows, that doesn't always produce the best results for the kingdom.

Much like a drunk driver, Mr. Goldwater has been running his company off of a cliff into a ditch with gimmick after gimmick.  While comic book media outlets may pretend like everything he does is worthy of news, sales I don't think have panned out.  And now Riverdale is a big stinking failure.  Recently, Mr. Goldwater has been firing Archie veterans to replace them with people like the person who "drew" Squirrel Girl, who I heard was later replaced for not knowing how to draw.  I don't know why Mr. Goldwater keeps making ridiculous decisions, but perhaps he has a problem with alcohol abuse.  It's just a theory.  It could be true or not.  But regardless he's been metaphorically drunk with his direction of this company for quite some time.  So I gift unto you Mr. Goldwater, this book on the 12 step program:



Please get off the sauce and right the ship, Mr. Goldwater.  Children ruining their parents' businesses is kind of a tired cliche, don't you think?

Also there is another CEO named Nancy Silberkleit that should perhaps also be discussed.  According to reports by the mainstream news media, she is obsessed with calling people male body parts as opposed to their first and last names:

https://thehairpin.com/penis-penis-penis-the-legend-of-nancy-silberkleit-9c3bd69030b3#.rvpl245et

Now I don't know why a female CEO would be so obsessed with certain male organs to the point of seeing them in the corporate office instead of fellow co-workers wearing business attire, but perhaps this is something to best be addressed by a licensed psychiatrist.  To you Nancy Silberkleit, Co-CEO of Archie Comics, I bestow unto you this chair to sit in as you discuss your problems in a clinical setting:



I hope you make a full recovery and return to the realm of the sane.  The best of wishes to you, Nancy Silberkleit.

LOL, B-Ko- it IS you!! I don't know why I didn't notice at first!

Archie's been falling pretty consistently for ages- not only is print media faltering, but so are comics as a whole, and then you get into the fact that Archie's a distant, DISTANT competitor of the big guns. Honestly, their sales were falling for so long that they tried every gimmick they could to staunch the flow. Crossovers, celebrity guest-appearances, clumsy tie-ins and more. Some of it worked- they drew attention, and some sales (Archie vs. Predator, for example). But a lot of it came off as desperate.

It seemed like a rather blatant attempt to make the company look more popular than it was, and to sell the brand. Especially like that stretch where it seemed every other month or so, Archie was doing something to show up in the news (GAY KID!! GAY WEDDING!! GAY COMIC BOOK! ARCHIE DIES!!).


The new books seemed like a breath of fresh air, with some talented creators behind them, as sad as I was to see them stop producing original content in their ORIGINAL style. However... with the sales falling so quickly, it's pretty clear this was all "fad"-based thinking, and without a superstar like Fiona Staples on Archie, people aren't as interested. Especially when the story arcs haven't been terribly interesting in a while- I'm sorry, but I really can't get into the Cheryl/Band/Mayoral Election stuff as much as the Teen Antics that were going on in the early issues.


Possibly losing Sonic (and of course Archie will be quiet about this, announcing that "We have exciting new plans!" before quietly dropping it. Remember how Jughead was supposed to come back right away? That took YEARS!) is another bad sign, as that seemed to be a pretty steady seller (given than the friggin' games themselves haven't been top sellers for eons).


Archie still has a future as an IP, I guess. The sales of the main title can possibly be kept around their current level, especially if they get another hot artist on the book. But their Digests are probably losing ground & sales all the time (though you can still find them in Canada- where we're this weird cultural backwater where we even had Video Stores up until a couple of years ago , and that's the only thing really keeping them afloat.

As a comic book company? I can see them quietly shuttering their original content, and only releasing collections and/or one-shot specials. THAT at least has some potential, and is probably cheaper than busting out monthly stuff.


I dunno... it'll be sad to see them go. But I find myself getting fewer and fewer of their books- I was a routine Digest buyer even a few years ago, until the content switched to the more "modern" stuff that I didn't like so much. And I can really see them eventually closing down, even though they've been like cockroaches, surviving the ebbs and flows of the industry all these decades.

Sorry to resurrect this one, but I had to after going through the archives. Here's the bit from my own RPG build of the character:

-Trula Twyst was a great little storyline in the Jughead books last decade, and I kind of wish they'd do more with it. Forming her "J.U.S.T. Cause", she tracked Jughead, reading into his motives and personality traits, and created a complex plot to make him drop his distaste for romance (through placing herself in his location at every point, making him fascinated with her). This "epic" three-parter ended with Trula finally convincing Jughead that he might have been ROMANTICALLY INTERESTED IN HER. The fact that a woman could do this to Jug made all the other boys in Riverdale High interested in her (I mean, if the He-Man Woman-Hater could fall for a girl, she MUST be awesome, right?), and suddenly Trula was the most popular girl in school, with her pick of guys to date. WHICH WAS HER PLAN ALL ALONG. Doctor Doom, move over, you have been replaced in the Magnificent Bastard arena with a teenage girl.

-Trula appeared several more times over the years to vex Jughead, usually coming out as a surprise ending. Jug never trusted her after her initial manipulation, and she gleefully maneuvered him and others about like puppets on strings as a villainous Femme Fatale. Awesome stuff. And in actuality, she was the only person who almost NEVER got comeuppance from Jughead- his frequent victims Veronica & Reggie almost NEVER pull one over on him, but Trula? Trula nearly always remained victorious. At various points, she made Jughead convinced he spoke only French, subliminally write her initials everywher he went, and made him DISLIKE HAMBURGERS. This makes her one of the most unique Archie Comics females, and I wish they'd do something with her- she just kind of popped up in random backstories as a nemesis, and only in Jughead's book.

A VERY fun summation of what was going on at this time! Kudos!

I had a very large fascination for this series when I was younger, as I'd read the "Doug Crane" years of Jughead in one of the Digests (it was cycling through most of them), and was REALLY impressed with both the "Jughhead Moves Away" story (which was genuinely harrowing... until they just handwaved it away in the last page), and the "Jughead Forms a Love Triangle" story.

Unfortunately, the Love Triangle just turned Just into another Archie. Even though the characters commented on that as if it were the joke (now the aloof Juggie was getting into his own Archie-style messes!), it wasn't really the best for the character. It didn't help that the sad, weepy Joani and the brassy, alternative Debbie were both turned into fawning dweebs as soon as they hooked up with our hero- even ARCHIE didn't walk around with BOTH girls hanging off of his arms!


Here's a summation I made from the RPG thread I did of the Archie gang:


Jughead's Love Triangle:
* The early '90s were a VERY weird time for Archie Comics in general, and especially for Jughead. Among the more bizarre things they did was give Jughead a pair of weird sci-fi books (a time-cop adventure with Archie's sexy female descendant, and one where he... manages a diner), and then A PAIR OF GIRLFRIENDS.

* This bizarre story came about from the same Jughead run that featured the "Jug moves away" story mentioned above. Again given drama and actual emotion, Jughead reveals in a diary that "it's not that I hate girls- I just had my heart broken when I was younger!"- it turns out that a childhood crush on Joani Jummp, the girl-next-door, resulted in heartbreak when his family moved away. In the same issue, he meets a sexy rocker-chick who's into the same kind of music he is, and begins feeling those funny tingles for the first time in forever. And just as he's about to unsteadily step into the dating pool... JOANI MOVES TO RIVERDALE. Initially, this is treated as dramatic, incredible stuff, with Jug actually being terrified out of his mind, insanely confused ("oh, JOANI" he cries, after kissing her for the first time, "Now I'm more confused than ever!"), and more.

* This came off as REALLY deep stuff to me when I was a kid, and later re-reading it as a teen. Retrospect says it's way more "Fan-Ficcy" and a bit clumsy at times- the whole "Oh actually, I'm not like X, I'm like Y!" is a classic Retcon that comes off very awkwardly. The fact that JUGHEAD JONES was now dating also shocked fans, who pretty much seemed to hate it. The following issues actually dropped the drama and made it straight-up "Wacky Dating Hijinx", with bizarre situations like Jughead walking into the Chok'lit Shoppe with a girl on each arm, both of them kissing him on the cheek and hanging onto him- something that even ARCHIE never could pull off with Betty & Veronica. Essentially, it was the world's least-dramatic Love Triangle. The best part was seeing the aloof, lecturing JUGHEAD now forced to eat crow, as he ended up doing the same thing he'd always warned Archie about for years.

* Eventually, fan complaints (and Archie's own staff) intervened, and the arc was dropped. Even THAT was handled dramatically, however, with Jughead & Debbie having the mother of all fights when he accidentally stands her up by having dinner at Joani's. Debbie looks ENRAGED in one shot (again- not cartoonish stuff- actual human-looking anger), and Jug says some stupid thing that ends up with him getting dumped ("it depends- what are you having for dinner?"- NICE GOING, JUG. That's your "I'm sorry it happened to you, Courtney- but now you know how I FELT." line right there). Next up, Debbie's suddenly got a line of guys waiting to date her, while she's all going "tee-hee" like a train of dudes following you is totally a normal thing. Jughead prepares to go back to Joani... except it's revealed that she's MOVING TO ALASKA. Her & Jughead end up having a real, tearful goodbye (though at one point, he has a freak-out when she says "the only way I could stay here is if we GOT MARRIED!"), and they cap off the whole Love Triangle Arc like that. Except, because it's Archie, Jughead's Time-Travelling Space Girlfriend January McAndrews shows up halfway through to talk him through his troubles.

* The following issue is also pretty cool, as Jughead suddenly becomes a woman-hating SONGWRITER, singing about how horrible women are and how "they all done me WRONG!" This, naturally, is like CATNIP to the female population of Riverdale, leading to numerous songs that go increasingly-sexist until Betty & Veronica refuse to play them, and they get Big Ethel involved- the goofy Ethel (mostly kept out of the arc because it was too serious, and her own issues become kinda sad if you think about them for too long) ends up having a heart-to-heart with Jug, who basically confesses that he's done with romance, but isn't really willing to hate on all women anymore.

Debbie: Debbie initially came off as a cool rocker-chick with a short haircut & bangs, but shifted into a "Generic Hanger-On Girl". She's basically an entirely different character after her first appearance.

Joani Jummp: Joani is actually REALLY weird- her sole personality trait is a desperate, all-consuming love of JUGHEAD JONES. She hangs off of him, staring into his eyes, passionately going for kisses... it's almost like some weird male fantasy about the Loving Girlfriend or something. Unlike most girls in Riverdale, Joani has super-curly, long hair, making her stand out in group shots. She also has a father and chubby older brother, both of whom disapprove of Jughead and try to break them up (in the break-up story, they're seen high-fiving each other when Jug & Joani realize they won't see each other again). Joani actually appears on a few covers in her time, while Debbie gets far fewer.

I can see why they'd keep her away from Riverdale- it keeps her apart from and "above" the other kids- a snottier contrast to Veronica. Plus they probably don't want to CONSTANTLY have her around- it makes her appearances more of a "special deal".

Hi all- I've been statting up some Archie characters for the Mutants & Masterminds RPG (mostly designed for superheroes, but can fit everyone), including my own notes on the characters. I figured I'd share it here while I was in the midst of things: http://roninarmy.com/threads/149-Jab-s-Builds!?p=200601&viewfull=1#post200601.

A bunch of reasons, really:

* The movie lost a TON of money, thus hurting the brand.

* The books stopped selling. People keep SAYING they're fans of Josie & the Pussycats, but not putting their wallets where their mouths are and actually BUYING them.

* Repeated failed runs (or low-selling Mini-Series) over the past decades have made people more and more likely to not buy the books, figuring that it'll be just another quick cancellation.


* She's Josie is better anyways . A lot of the longtime fans think so, in any case.

My own character would be a guy (or girl) who was literally the only one in town to notice how INSANE everyone else is. Like, going "OH MY GOD! That huge guy just punched that other guy in the face for looking at his girl! That's assault! He has the mind of a child and he's somehow in High School! That red-headed kid just destroyed thousands of dollars worth of public property! Shouldn't he be made to pay for that, or his parents be called? That giant girl is committing sexual assault on that boy with the hat! And the same hat-wearing boy just ate enough food to KILL a normal person! And why do those two stone-cold hotties find that red-headed goof attractive?!? And who openly allows their boyfriend to two-time them, or waver between one and the other like that? That white-haired girl is practicing the occult!"

Basically, my character would be the Frank Grimes of the Archie Universe .

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on June 25, 2016, 04:07:13 AM

Quote from: Midge Klump on June 24, 2016, 02:26:34 PM
So Archie Andrews has dated just about every girl in Riverdale and the surrounding counties, but has there ever been a story where he has gone out on a date with Ethel? I don't seem to recall ever reading something like that before.

Yes, there was a story where he took Ethel to the prom. B&V mainly shamed him into it, after the usual bout of indecision over whether he'd ask Betty or Veronica, and they both agreed to sit this prom out in favor of Archie asking Ethel.

Yeah, I remember that one. Didn't he end up having a good time, and kissed her goodnight or something?

I have one of these now- it's as bizarre as you'd think. The WEIRDEST part might be that it's in the middle of the story (few Archie books are multi-parters in this era), and there's no real explanation as to what's going on. It's just one Soap Cliche after another. Which is fun in its own way.