Quote from: Jabroniville on November 27, 2022, 03:13:57 AMI think Jughead's lack of appeal to modern readers is more linked to Archie's current fanbase, of which a huge portion is female. They typically went over that audience above all others... this means that Betty & Veronica typically does the best, and then Archie (the flagship) does the rest. Jughead kind of loses out among the Big Four, as he ends up with the most male-centric book (since Archie's book also involves Betty & Veronica inherently).

But there hasn't been a regular B&V title (unless you count those quarterly one-shots that are 75% reprint) since 2015 when their classic ongoing title ended. Only two miniseries, VIXENS and the Adam Hughes one, while ARCHIE had an ongoing title that ran for 47 issues, plus a number of miniseries. JUGHEAD's ongoing title at least managed 16 issues -- while what would presumably have been the start of an ongoing "New Riverdale" series (Adam Hughes') for B&V managed a mere 3 issues (released over a span of one-and-a-half years!)

Have you not kept track of what titles ACP has released as trade paperbacks? True enough that JUGHEAD comes in dead last of the Big Three with a bare few, but B&V trail, far, far, far behind the numerous trade collections released for ARCHIE.

That should debunk the theory that B&V is still ACP's biggest cash cow. It hasn't been for at least 10-15 years now.

I review "A Night at the Opera" from Your Pal Archie #2.

So Brian Hibbs' NPD Bookscan chart column covering 2022 recently came out. I spent a few hours reading it. Archie wasn't mentioned. I asked him a few questions in a comment, and he confirmed the chart doesn't cover periodicals (such as digests). As in 2021, the top-selling Archie title in the bookstore market in 2022 was "80 Years of Christmas", and it sold "just over" 1,500 copies (basically around a 50% decrease from 2021).

I apologize for all the underlines in my previous post. Don't know how that happened. The one thing I liked that Michael Uslan did in the "10th Anniversary" as well as in the 2009 "Archie Wedding" and the one issue he wrote in LWA, is, he made the Archie/Veronica marriage more of an equal partnership. I felt In the LWA Kupperberg "Veronica" story, Archie took on a subordinate roll, not only in business, but in their marriage as well. Veronica believed her father about the phony dowry story and never questioned Archie about it even though he was living in a roach motel and waiting tables at Jughead's. Hardly what someone would be doing with millions in bribe money. And it took until Issue #23 before Veronica asked for the truth from her Dad. In the 10 Anniversary, Uslan paints her more sympathetic. She loses her father to a heart attack and is now the head of Lodge industries. And she now has to juggle her business obligations while being a wife and mother. And she has issues with Archie, who, while working long hours, put Veronica feeling like she was a single parent raising their children. I liked the way Betty put it all in perspective to Archie near the end.

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on March 16, 2023, 12:21:56 PM

Quote from: beatman10 on January 31, 2023, 10:05:20 PMI'm curious to know if Mr. Uslan had written more chapters of"Life With Archie" but they got shelved when he opted out and Mr. Kupperberg took over.

I'm sure if Uslan had actually written more chapters that he'd have been paid for those scripts, and ACP would have used them. I'm more curious why the series didn't just start out with Kupperberg as the writer. As in, did Uslan have some disagreement with editor Gorelick that caused a parting of ways, or was it always the intention that Uslan "lay the foundation stone" for the series by writing #1 (and ONLY #1) and then move on to other projects?

I believe your second theory is correct about Uslan 'laying the foundation". Kupperberg had said "Michael (Uslan) simply wasn't able to commit" full time to writing for LWA. Kupperberg also credits Uslan with "getting the ball rolling" on the project. Uslan did set up a lot of good storylines for Kupperberg to explore and make his own.  Moose running for mayor, Ms. Grundy's illness, Mr. Lodge's character, bringing back Ambrose were all Uslan's ideas. He even toyed with Veronica possibly dying when a picture Dilton is showing has an "X" over her face. Although I liked the 10 Anniversary series, there were two things I found puzzling: What happened to Moose's girlfriend, Illana and why was Ambrose made to be a creep in this series? That's why I wondered if Uslan had more chapters that didn't make the cut. Kind of like when a band makes an album with 12 songs on it but another additional 5 were recorded and they were left off.

Quote from: steveinthecity on March 17, 2023, 09:23:19 PMI was thinking about this recently when placing pre-orders.  The $9.99 Digest will still cost me $6.99 after discount, and that just doesn't seem worth it.  I haven't done any real study or drilled down the price per unit vs. inflation, etc., but the price point is off-putting to where I'm not really interested.  I don't see how the Digests can be any sort of impulse buy with such a high retail tag.

I recently flipped through some of the digests at my local Publix recently out of curiosity. They're no longer in the front checkout area; they're shoved back with the magazines in a certain aisle of the store.

Anyway, I decided to count the total number of story/puzzle/quiz/fashion pages to see what customers would actually be getting for their money. 177 pages was the total in each digest that I checked. That works out to $0.0564406779661017 per page at the full retail price of $9.99 (not including sales tax) and $0.0394915254237288 per page at the $6.99 price point that you mentioned.

I just decided to count the pages in World of Betty and Veronica Jumbo Comics Digest #1, which came out at the beginning of 2021. 177 pages. At $7.99, that works out to $0.0451412429378531 per page.

So Archie Comics has increased the price by $1 two years in a row but hasn't increased the content.

That's still better than the $0.1995 per page for a new $3.99 floppy or the $0.1495 per page for a $2.99 reprint floppy with one new 5-page story in it.

Quote from: Tuxedo Mark on March 03, 2023, 09:31:01 AMAnyone else concerned that digest prices increased to $8.99 at the beginning of 2022 and $9.99 at the beginning of this year? I find it hard to believe that these would be attractive as impulse buys for parents to keep their kids entertained, particularly since they could just download the free samples from Amazon and get all of the new stories at no cost.

Based on the sales figures released through 2012 and the pattern of percentage increases and decreases in sales, I calculated the following projections for 2022 monthly digest sales:

Archie: 15,838
Betty and Veronica: 16,839
World of Archie: 4,146
World of Betty and Veronica: 9,029

I was thinking about this recently when placing pre-orders.  The $9.99 Digest will still cost me $6.99 after discount, and that just doesn't seem worth it.  I haven't done any real study or drilled down the price per unit vs. inflation, etc., but the price point is off-putting to where I'm not really interested.  I don't see how the Digests can be any sort of impulse buy with such a high retail tag.

Quote from: beatman10 on January 31, 2023, 10:05:20 PMI'm curious to know if Mr. Uslan had written more chapters of"Life With Archie" but they got shelved when he opted out and Mr. Kupperberg took over.

I'm sure if Uslan had actually written more chapters that he'd have been paid for those scripts, and ACP would have used them. I'm more curious why the series didn't just start out with Kupperberg as the writer. As in, did Uslan have some disagreement with editor Gorelick that caused a parting of ways, or was it always the intention that Uslan "lay the foundation stone" for the series by writing #1 (and ONLY #1) and then move on to other projects?

I review "Rock Candi" from Betty and Veronica: Friends Forever #19 (Rock and Roll #1).

I review "Yacht's Wrong With You?!" from World of Betty and Veronica Jumbo Comics Digest #23.