It won’t be Marvel, since they’re busy crashing comiXology’s servers by giving away 700 free digital first issues. Digital comics are great until you can’t read them because too many other people are trying to do the same thing. Just a reminder that you don’t really own any of the comics you get through them.

Anyway, Marvel is doing too well with its movies, still rules the comic direct market, and they’re actively reaching for new markets, as seen by their recent digital announcements. Much as we hate their policies, their lack of bookstore support (such as their refusal to keep collections in print) and their head honcho’s love of cost-cutting to the bone means that comics are still a viable business for them.

So I’m unsure whether to bet on DC or Archie. Few people making decisions at DC these days at the highest levels have the kind of history with or love for the comic business their chiefs used to have. However, there’s still too much of a “we want to be Marvel” attitude for them to strike out in such a fresh direction. If something that drastic was to happen, I’d bet on a simple shutdown instead of reprint publications.

So I guess I’ll pick Archie. Their newest product, Archie Double Double Digest #238 for $5.99, provided hours of reading with over 300 pages of content, all of which was reprint. The stories came from all eras — in fact, it was hard to place many of them once we get into the time where fashions become more generic, since the plots, if not involving fads, seem timeless. The only obvious ones were the 1940s reprints in a section titled “From the Vault of Archie”, which I’m guessing were repurposed from the recent Archives line. Particularly if you’re targeting a young audience, if they’re never read them before, it’s a great value, regardless of when they originally came out.

The Best of Dan DeCarlo Volume 4

For a real review of the books in this series, see KC’s comments on volume 2. These are just some thoughts that hit me while reading the new installment.

Aside from appreciating some absolutely expert storytelling and cartooning, I enjoy the bizarre glimpses into long-ago social mores and fads. From the idiocy of putting faces on the butts of your pants (with the guys playing leapfrog, no less) to how bizarrely distracted Archie gets from just kissing Veronica (no world of teen pregnancy here!) to not wearing shoes as a trend, it’s a time capsule of wackiness. A particular standout is the one where Veronica seems willing to kiss every boy in school to convince them to vote for Archie as class president. Sex for votes? And Veronica too stupid to realize that that tactic would get all the girls against them?

The most fun for me, though, is suddenly discovering that I know one of these tales. I must have read it in a digest reprint as a kid — and because I was a kid, I read them over and over, so they’re seared in some weird recess of the back of my brain. This time, it was the one where Veronica gets wise to how Archie is acting like a “Chicken” at scary movies just to cuddle up with her. How could I ever forget Archie’s greeting, “Hello, lamb’s lettuce! How’s my little angel fluff?” (Much more entertaining than “‘Sup? What’s shaking, baby?”) Best is the last panel, with Betty holding Archie in a honeymoon carry and the line “You bet your ever lovin’ boots I do!”

Some of these tales seem designed just to show off artistically, like the one where everyone’s walking with a “Tilt” due to heavy wind. Oh, and DeCarlo doesn’t take the easy way out, tilting all his characters the same way — they’re all aimed in different directions and angles. It can’t be easy to draw all your cast askew to each other.

Unfortunately, there is one story included, about how stupid that women’s lib stuff is and how when women get riled up they riot, that is outright offensive. The others are just outdated — Does anyone need to ask why we don’t have kissing booths any more? Does anyone doubt that going out with two bikers just because being dateless on a Friday would be worse is a dumb idea? The Josie section, prominently featuring Melody, is a smorgasbord of stereotypes and exaggerated gender conventions.

Finally, the volume wraps up with the first appearance of Sabrina, introducing herself in a fashion reminiscent of Kim Novak in Bell, Book, and Candle, complete with the soon-forgotten “witches can’t cry” rule.

This is my sixth year compiling the Archie sales figures filed with the government from the Statements of Ownership, Management, and Circulation the company is required to include in their publications. These numbers appeared in issues published between January 16 and March 6, 2013; the data was filed with the government on October 18, 2012. Here are previous years for books:

• published in 2011
• published in 2010
• published in 2009
• published in 2008
• published in 2007

Note that these figures don’t cover the videogame titles — Sonic, Mega Man — or other non-Archie-character books. That’s because I don’t read those and so don’t have access to the data. Reportedly, those books do better than these. Note also that the core Archie line is down to three periodicals — Archie, Betty & Veronica, and Kevin Keller — one magazine-format comic — Life With Archie — and six double digests — Archie, Archie & Friends, Betty & Veronica, Betty & Veronica Friends, Jughead, and World of Archie. Archie has just launched a Double Double Digest format, but that’s too early to include.

So, on to the numbers. For the single issues, these are the Total Paid and/or Requested Circulation figures that Archie files with the government. The first number is the Average No. Copies Each Issue During Preceding 12 Months; the second is No. Copies of Single Issue Published Nearest to Filing Date.

Kevin Keller, which last year looked like a great success, has lost 40% of its sales bump from launch (last year = 12,327). That’s not surprising, as the curious likely got their fix from the first issue or so and may not want to follow a continuing series — especially since Kevin hasn’t been shown as actively dating or romantically interacting with other guys very much (particularly when compared to how the core cast is portrayed).

Archie is down to three comic periodicals, with Jughead cancelled last year. Only Archie appears monthly; the other two publish six issues a year. Most Archie issues went bimonthly in 2010.

Let’s chart these issues over the past six years, using average sales.

(Veronica became Kevin Keller in 2011, based on sales figure continuation, which is why that’s just one line. I still miss Sabrina.)

If, based on this chart and the title history, the cancellation line is around 9,000 copies sold, then Kevin Keller is likely hanging on for reasons other than sales (which is a fine strategy, if they believe in the title for outreach purposes or to give a new character time to catch on), and Betty & Veronica is in danger.

On to digests! These are all Double Digests, since singles went away in 2010.

On the plus side, these numbers are relatively stable, if you compare average sales to nearest issue. The titles aren’t rising or falling significantly. On the negative side, sales are down by 10,000-20,000 copies on all titles compared to last year, and they’ve gone from selling at least 36% of the print run to selling only a quarter of it. (Back in 2010, they were selling 40% of the print run.)

Here’s a chart of the double digests over the past six years, using average sales. Sadly, it’s a story of sales falling greatly over the past two years. Weird how they kind of end up in the same place, isn’t it?

Archie’s Pals ‘n’ Gals became Archie & Friends in 2010, which gave it a temporary sales boost. The single digests were all selling above 47,000 when they were cancelled (or where the highest-selling double digest is now), so this can’t be good.

Last (I know! would you rather I have broken all this up into multiple posts?) comes the title ranking, best- to worst-selling, based on nearest issue figures.

1. Archie Double
2. Betty & Veronica Double
3. World of Archie Double
4. Archie & Friends Double
5. Betty & Veronica Friends Double
6. Jughead Double
7. Archie
8. Betty & Veronica
9. Kevin Keller

No surprises here if you’ve read this far. Some shuffling among the digests, with various place swaps, but this is generally in keeping with expectations, although Jughead’s place has kept falling over the past two years. Wild, baseless speculation: With an actual gay character in the Riverdale lineup, is his position as the one non-girl-crazy boy character less special? Or is it just that fewer kids want to read about someone who can eat all the junk they want without gaining weight?

I wasn’t sure what to expect when the Archie/Glee crossover was announced last summer, but I was pleasantly surprised to see how well this worked out.

Dilton, science guy, is the plot device character, of course — he’s invented a device to open portals to parallel universes. This lets him meet and talk with Brittany, who thinks he’s her “imaginary friend who lives in her locker”. This structure allows for introductions of all the various characters to someone who might know one of the properties but not another.

In fact, much of this issue is less a story and more of an illustrated essay comparing the two casts to each other. Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa does a good job drawing parallels between Archie and Finn, Veronica and Rachel (both drama queens), Betty and Quinn (which leads to an incredibly geeky superhero reference from Dilton, who apparently reads DC comics), Reggie and Puck, and so on. Brittany, in return, thinks Dilton is another Artie.

The art fills the page attractively and gives a good sense of energy. The colors, by Digikore Studios, give the feel of a candy-coated amusement park that only temporarily resembles a high school.

I did wonder when Dilton played with the Archies. Apparently he’s on rhythm guitar. Also, this story has backed up a couple of years in the Glee world — everyone’s still in high school together, allowing for the best-known show characters to better fit with the perpetual Archie teenagers. There are more parallels with the core Archie triangle if Finn is involved with both Quinn and Rachel. And I was glad to see Santana, although I would have paired her up with Veronica, because I think she could out-attitude the rich girl. Dilton compares her to Cheryl Blossom, but Santana’s got more smarts than the redhead, who’s primarily defined by her selfishness.

Those are the kinds of debates this issue provokes, so read it with another fan. This is only the setup for next issue, where the characters get intermixed and we see how they interact in the other universe. The storyline will run for a total of four parts.

Life With Archie #21 came out in 1963 and features Archie getting trapped in TV land. It’s a wacky story, and reading about it only made me want to read it. Enjoy this walk down memory lane from a time when people actually tried to repair their TV sets. And find out what KC calls “the scariest panel of art to ever appear in an Archie Comics Code approved book”.

What KC didn’t mention was the issue’s opening panel blurb, which says, “This adventure really happened!! In fact, it could some day happen to YOU!!” Who’s writing this stuff, Criswell, the guy from Ed Wood?

Archie Comics today announced Afterlife With Archie, an ongoing comic title debuting this fall. It will be written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, but no artist has been announced. The company described it as

“a zombie series revolving around the beloved characters. The comic will blend attributes of horror comics along with the typical Archie fare, for both new and old fans to enjoy.”

I know every comic company wishes they had the huge success of The Walking Dead, but I find it pretty tasteless to do a comic about dead Archie characters. Are we supposed to be entertained by kids with body parts falling off trying to date? (But what do I know, I don’t like zombies.) I do think it’s about two years too late to launch a series starring them, though.

Update: ICv2 has some more information on the series, saying the first two storylines will be “Escape from Riverdale” and “Betty RIP”. Aguirre-Sacasa is quoted as describing the concept as follows:

“This series came out of conversations with Jon [Goldwater, co-CEO], asking questions like, ‘what if the Archie characters found themselves in a Stephen King novel like The Stand or a Sam Raimi movie like The Evil Dead?‘” he said. “Could we pull that off, tonally? We’re really going for it.”

Kevin

All the current Archie comic issues are carrying a full-page ad for Kevin, a novel written about Archie’s first gay character by Paul Kupperberg. It’s a hardcover telling the story of “Kevin’s early, awkward years and the struggles and joys of his inspirational road to self-discovery.” The book is due out April 18, but the interesting thing, to me, is how Archie hasn’t offered it to comic shops through the Previews catalog. They’re promoing it to a wide audience, as shown by this marketing text:

This sweet and funny coming-of-age story features a strong anti-bullying message and is a perfect gift for Archie fans, parents, and anyone who has — or is –struggling to find their place.

And clearly, by plugging it in all their comics, they want to get the word out. It’s being published by Grosset & Dunlap. Perhaps that explains the lack of direct market selling. Maybe they’re the ones who need to get a solicit to Diamond.

I know I said before that Archie shouldn’t be using overly retro imagery to promote this effort, but this goes too fair for me. Archie shouldn’t have an earring, let alone six and an eyebrow piercing. The girls are much too shiny, too, in my opinion. I do like his freckles, though — they look much better than Betty’s.

[The monthly comics] are important in the fact that we are able to create new stories, and it’s really for us something that is more a promotional tool than something that is generating any revenue of significance. It is not generating any revenue that is meaningful, but it is a fabulous promotional vehicle for us. That is how we use the traditional comic books going forward. If we could figure out how to monetize them, that would be fabulous. I’m still trying to figure out how to make that happen.

Digital, for us, that’s the diamond mine that needs to be mined.

It’s rare that a publisher will be so honest about the fall of print, but it matches what I’ve been seeing over the past year, with declining sales and dropping titles from their lineup.

I also find it significant that their next big deal, “Archie’s Girls” makeup from MAC Cosmetics, is being promoted with art that looks like the 1940s Archie, as shown here, instead of anything more modern, especially since they want it “to rebrand Archie on a global level.” That goes along with Best of Archie doing so well for them — for a lot of people, this is a nostalgia brand.

The Archie comic issues, the standard format ones, have usually featured new stories, which are then reprinted later in the digests. However, the latest issue of Betty & Veronica, #263, contains two stories. The second one, “Cheering Section”, is an unlabeled reprint. I knew this because I made fun of it four years ago. (The opening image is physically impossible.) I don’t know the original source, but the digest was Betty & Veronica Double Digest #158.

With the lack of outside advertising, declining sales figures, and fewer titles published this year, I can’t help seeing this as another sign that Archie Comics is changing the way it operates as a publisher. I wonder how much longer we’re going to see new stories that aren’t starring Kevin Keller or pop culture cameos.

The “foil enhanced” cover, drawn by Dan Parent, is shown here. The magazine is intended to be released quarterly (but then, publisher Archie Comics intended to put out a Veronica & Betty magazine two years ago that never appeared). Most of the content is reprints, described as “the greatest Christmas stories from the Archie vault”, as well as one story new to print, “Betty and Veronica Save Christmas (or Not!)”. That tale was previously available digitally two years ago.

Based on this contents page, in addition to the comics, there will also be a few fashion pages, a creator spotlight on Dan Parent, and a small number of features — although I’m suspicious that “Graphic Novel-PALOOZA” and “Archie Swag” are really ads masquerading as news. The whole package is 128 pages for $9.99, making it similar to a small collection, although as a magazine, it can be rolled up and stuck in a stocking.

I’ll leave you with these two preview pages of the Josie story, because the uncredited Dan DeCarlo could really draw Melody.

Certainly, whether a company chooses to offer a subscription to a particular title isn’t necessary related to its continuing health. DC doesn’t allow subscriptions to all of their titles, for example. Last time this discussion came up in regards to Archie, it was about Betty, which did end up disappearing many months later.

As seen by the company’s sales figures, Jughead is far and away the poorest-selling of the (small) line of comics Archie puts out, so its departure wouldn’t be a surprise. But I was disappointed to hear it, especially after I saw a commenter at the ArchieFans site point out that the character’s solo title has been running since 1949!

Jughead is also one of the company’s most entertaining titles, focusing on humor in unexpected ways and often moving beyond the love triangle-style stories. Then there’s the hat, which has its own fascinating history as a time capsule artifact.

Another commenter, “Tuxedo Mark”, writes

I’ve crunched some numbers. In 2011, there were 6 floppies published for a total of 48 issues in the year. In 2012, Betty, Veronica, and Archie & Friends were axed. Kevin Keller was added. That brought the total number of issues published down to 30 for the year. With Jughead ending, 2013 will likely see a total of 24 issues published.

Meanwhile, the 6 digests offer a total of 60 issues per year (the last page says they’re published 10 times per year; the subscription site says 11; I went by 10).

It really does seem like the digests take up the majority of the Archieverse at this point, although I’m not sure how much of each digest consists of new stories (then again, you could take the “everything old is new again” approach, which means Cheryl effectively has a regular series again ). That’s just as well, since the digests are far more accessible than the floppies (although the trade-off is smaller artwork).

Conversely, all of the headline-making material is in the floppies: Archie, Betty and Veronica, and Kevin Keller.

I have the feeling that Archie Comics is using the remaining floppies as laboratories for headline-making material and publicity, knowing they will eventually be reprinted at little cost in the mainstream digests.

I agree with this analysis. Most of what Archie is putting out these days is either 1) bait for free publicity, such as the Kevin Keller series bringing an out gay character to the group or the “occupy” Riverdale storyline or 2) reprints, which don’t require paying anyone other than the editor who assembles them.

If this is true — and let me reiterate, it may just be jumping to conclusions — then Archie is down to only four periodicals: Archie, Betty and Veronica, Kevin Keller, and the Life With Archie magazine.

Update: At Robot6, Brigid Alverson got a confirmation from the publisher: “we’ve put the Jughead comic on hiatus until the relaunch happens. Fans of Jughead can rest assured that they’ll definitely be seeing more of him in the future.”

Fans of the characters will likely get the volumes as long as Dark Horse continues the series, and non-Archie comic readers have better starting points, but I think it’s interesting to note how different these stories are from the Archie of today.

Archie Archives Volume 6

The introduction by Mark Hamill makes an excellent observation about one of the points of appeal of the Riverdale gang: they were a close-knit substitute family, dear friends who were always there for each other. Lonely kids without those kinds of pals enjoy the fantasy of such a group, predictable personalities and all. However, that analysis applies to Archie in general, not this group of stories. This set shows much more comedy, with very little dating or romantic complications, and there are no mixed-gender groups hanging out, as we’re used to reading.

These pieces are either pure slapstick, as Archie messes something up with escalating consequences, or family gags, showing Archie at home interacting with his parents. For example, the first story features Archie and his father getting in trouble at a farm. They’ve gone to collect rocks to build an outdoor fireplace for Mother’s birthday present — even though she’s said she wants a watch. Later, the two go on a hunting trip where they shoot a bear!

Other situations are less rural and more familiar in premise to today’s readers, even if the way they go about solving them is old-fashioned. There are all kinds of mishaps when Archie takes Veronica skiing or when Dad tries to fix a stuck closet door. The girls go autograph hunting when a celebrity’s in town, and Archie borrows his father’s car only to have to get the fender fixed. A longer piece features Archie losing tickets for a date with Veronica in a coffee grinder donated to a charity auction. That one’s remarkable because Archie and the boys keep going skinny-dipping in a nearby pond. Not something you’d see in today’s comics!

Most of the art here is drawn by Bill Vigoda, whom I know little about. By this point, original artist Bob Montana had moved over to the newspaper strip. Vigoda’s work is a bit smoother, less idiosyncratic. It’s an easy read, focused on the exaggerated actions as Reggie and Archie fight or Archie’s father wants to join in with the boys playing football or Archie buys a horse. Even the story where Betty and Veronica compete as salesgirls to win a favorite dress is full of exaggerated hits and falls.

Some of the appeal of these volumes for me is, like the (more affordable, if you’re looking for that option) Americana series, seeing the fashions and social trends portrayed. It’s still weird to me seeing Archie’s mom looking so old, with dowdy clothes and white hair, but we have very different expectations these days for what a 40-year-old looks like, what with dye and exercise classes and more common cosmetic procedures considered part of the everyday. Another surprise to me was how often everyone’s hanging around outside. A Saturday outing for the gang is planned to be a hayride. A fishing trip is considered a good date suggestion for Veronica. Nowadays, we’re indoors a lot more.

A particularly outrageous story starts with Riverdale High installing a flight trainer so the boys (only the boys) can learn to fly airplanes. Betty and Veronica complain to Mr. Wetherbee, but his response is, “Women flyers! I should say not — it’s bad enough they drive autos!” The girls manage to change his mind, but not before Betty is frightened by a mouse and climbs on a table. Were schools that subject to rodents back then? Another one shows up in a later story with Veronica.

I’m glad that more eras of comic history are available in easily readable form with updated color and without the worry of damaging fragile old issues. There are plenty of classic superhero stories reprinted, but I want researchers and librarians to have access to the other genres of comics as well. Particularly since these issues, dating from 1946, were million-sellers in their day! That’s shown directly on the cover of issue #19, with the prominent line “This printing is over 1,256,000 magazines”. (By next issue, it’s up to 1,306,000.) It’s comfortable to be part of the crowd. Perhaps the country was ready for light-hearted teenage hijinks after the war was over. (The publisher provided a digital review copy.)

Archie continues to drive sales with special events. The latest is another pop culture crossover. Unlike the Kiss appearance, this one’s a little more age-appropriate, as Archie meets Glee in a yet-unscheduled four-issue event. It’ll be written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, who writes for the TV show and previously wrote the Fantastic Four comic. Art is by Dan Parent. Comics Alliance interviewed Archie head Jon Goldwater about the project.

Given my feelings on Kickstarter and similar self-funding mechanisms, it’s not going to surprise anyone that I find the idea of begging people to buy your books but calling it a reverse fundraiser a bit goofy and sad. Alterna Comics put out some books, which put their founder in debt. Now, they’re asking people to help bail him out by buying books on IndieGoGo. On one hand, this is how business is supposed to work — starting a company might require debt until products take off, and a smart entrepreneur takes that into account for the business plan. On the other, it’s too easy to start a comic company, and too many people get into it without thinking through the long-term money requirements. All they focus on is getting out an issue, often without enough concern for whether there’s really an audience or demand for it. Why involve a third party in this case when you could just promote your own online store? Unless it’s trying to hook onto a trend that’s getting more press than you ever could previously.

Hey, remember Diamond Digital? That was the monopoly comic distributor’s attempt to not become completely irrelevant in the digital market. Only it’s almost a year late. The new launch date is July 23.

The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA) in New York City has abruptly closed its physical location, sending out the following statement:

[The museum] will be closing its physical location effective immediately. The SoHo museum, currently at 594 Broadway, recently celebrated its tenth anniversary. While the physical space is closing, plans are afoot to continue MoCCA in a new and exciting incarnation. An announcement of MoCCA’s future arrangements will be forthcoming by the end of July.

That’s pretty weird. Normally, you want to have those new arrangements ready to announce — otherwise, it looks like things are pretty mixed up. There have already been a lot of questions about the museum’s status and future. This just contributes to more.

I particularly like the way he subs the creators’ names for the submitters’.

Writer: Christos Gage
Penciler: David Baldeon
Inker: Jordi Tarragona
Marvel, $2.99

Rogue and Ms. Marvel face off as part of the Avengers vs. X-Men crossover, a particularly fraught battle due to their history. (I assume she’s still Ms. Marvel for now. I couldn’t find her name in the issue.) Ms. Marvel wants to talk about the danger the Phoenix Five represent, while Rogue has taken their side in the “war” against the Avengers.

It’s a good conflict, one that helps personalize the big event, with lots of intriguing concepts. For example, is it fair to stop someone based on what could happen? Ms. Marvel’s fears are more hypothetical than actual at this point, although we all know that power corrupts, especially in superhero comics.

What really struck me about this issue, though, is that Gage manages to sum up the difference between the two mega-teams in simple phrases. As Rogue says,

Guess that’s the difference between us and the Avengers. The world already looked pretty good to them. They fought to keep it as it was. We fought to make it better.

And that’s what drives most political debates, right? Whether you feel as though you’re part of the establishment, or left out of it.

I also like Baldeon’s chunky figures, who have good action poses that convey energy while still seeming achievable. It’s refreshing to see a super-comic featuring women where the emphasis is on their power, not butt shots. In this issue, they’re fighting, struggling to come out on top, without posing for the viewer.

Resident Alien #2

Writer: Peter Hogan
Artist: Steve Parkhouse
Dark Horse, $3.50

I can’t really recommend buying this issue, #2 of 3 (not counting the #0 introduction), because at this point, I think you should just get the eventual collection. I like this tale of an extraterrestrial masquerading as town doctor, shanghaied into investigating a murder mystery.

This issue fills in much of the history, of the victims, of the visitor (and how he arrived), and of the nurse, the only person who suspects the doctor isn’t what he seems. Her family — she seeks guidance from her dad — ties the story back to the Southwestern location as well as explaining, a bit, her unique status. He also provides good advice, restraining the American need to do SOMEthing about weirdness, instead counseling acceptance and patience.

The characters and setting are well-delineated, a pleasure to view, with distinctive coloring and personalities, expressed both through voice and visually. There is a bit of fortuitous circumstance, as a patient I don’t recall seeing before gives the doctor the clue he needs to start tying the killings together, but I like the plain-spoken man’s take on how to be healthy: “I eat well, I sleep well, I walk a lot, and I don’t take crap from anyone.”

Angel & Faith #11

Writer: Christos Gage
Art: Rebekah Isaacs
Dark Horse, $2.99

This series keeps surprising me. This issue is part one of a new “Family Reunion” storyline, which means we see several well-known characters reappear to cause trouble. There are three big names here, which I won’t spoil, one of whom is my favorite, one of whom is always a pleasure to see (although I thought he was dead), and one of whom I can’t stand.

I’m not sure how I feel about the structure of this series. The TV show, back when, revolved around “there’s a monster, we must stop it.” This story is more proactive, with Angel trying to do something stupid. It allows for more different types of tales, as there’s an excuse for Faith and Angel to go do something instead of waiting for trouble to come to them, but invariably, we still get the “zompire” battle scenes. It’s a difficult line to walk, too, with readers wanting to know what’s going on with their favorite characters, but at least in my case, I need a series that still works if you remember very little about the details and didn’t read all of Buffy Season 8 or the previous Angel comic series.

So far, this is balancing well. Devoted franchise followers may find some of the discussion here exposition-heavy, as one of the guest stars has her own quest that intersects with Angel’s desires tangentially. I found it helpful to remind us where we’d left things, and it’s leavened with plenty of humor. (I’m quickly becoming a Gage fangirl.) There’s an underlying theme running through the series, too, which is how the lack of any magic in the world is making it a worse place to be. (Except that there are still plenty of residual artifacts and demons and such — it’s not a consistency that bothers me, though, because with absolutely no magic, we’d have about 20% of our cast members.)

This issue is very talky, as much of the premise is set up, and given what they set out to do and where they’re going, I expect it will be balanced out in the rest of the storyline with more action and wild visuals. Isaacs’ characters are nicely done, with enough resemblance to the actors we know, but with the kind of expression lacking in more heavily photo-referenced works. There are lots of feelings on display, as folks reunite and get sad and yell at each other. Very nice hair, too.

Archie #634

Writer: Dan Parent
Penciler: Dan Parent
Inker: Rich Koslowski
Archie, $2.99

The “Archie Marries Valerie” storyline concludes by satirizing the company’s tendency to run these kinds of events. The writer appears to have gotten tired of pairing off Archie and Valerie as a musical family, giving them a prodigal daughter named Star, so eight pages in, Valerie goes walking back down Memory Lane. That’s the magical lamppost that shows characters their potential futures.

Since she (and the reader) are bored of the story they’ve been reading, we start getting glimpses of Archie alternately marrying every other female character in Riverdale — Cheryl Blossom, Sabrina, Josie, Ginger, even Midge and Ethel. None are happy, based on what we see, leading Valerie to disavow planning for the future in terms of relationships. That makes sense for the characters, perpetually stuck as teens, but it’s not so great a message for the readers. It’s also a ridiculously over-the-top “resolution” to this event storyline, running the concept into the ground.

The book ends with (the sadly non-paired) Dilton telling us no one can know the future, so we should “seize the day”. Which leaves Archie and Valerie smooching, a state of affairs I suspect won’t be followed up on until the publisher needs another “ratings boost”. Or maybe they want to see which possible marriage for Archie catches the attention of readers.

The settlement details are confidential, but Silberkleit lawyer Howard D. Simmons said the pact restored her reputation and her post at Archie.

“Nancy Silberkleit and Jon Goldwater are no longer in an adversarial position, and they are beginning their working relationship anew,” Simmons said. “She’s thrilled to have settled this extremely upsetting matter.”

However, there may be storm clouds on the horizon. Goldwater gets his 50% share through control of a trust that benefits his nieces and holds 25%. Those women are making noises about suing over the CEOs’ “dirty hands”. The three nieces claim that their trust hasn’t gotten any money since he took over and accuse Goldwater of “misusing the company’s assets”.

Archie Archives Volume 5

Volume 5 reprints Archie Comics #15–#18 and the Archie stories from Pep Comics #54–#56, both from 1945 and 1946. That last issue, Pep #56, is historically significant, since it marked the publisher’s name change from MLJ Magazines to Archie Comic Publications. Also different in this book is how much of the art is done by Bill Vigoda instead of Bob Montana.

Readers likely won’t notice, though, since the cast has that old-fashioned humorous approach we’ve seen throughout these early issues. Even though they’re wearing out-of-date looks, many of the situations are familiar: Archie stumbles all over himself at a costume party. Veronica teases him (and the readers) with some sexy outfits. Archie tries out for a sports team, tries to get a band for the dance, or adopts a monkey. (That one’s a little weird.) Reggie uses ventriloquism to get Archie in trouble. Archie wants to date the new girl in town or runs for class president.

What’s a bit more unusual is the presence of a couple of stories that aren’t focused exclusively on the teens. One early story shows Archie’s dad as a hypochondriac, while another sends him golfing (with Archie as idiotic caddie). The stories about the girls have them often competing, but it’s not always over Archie. Instead, they sometimes battle over who can meet a visiting star or baking a cake.

Other tales are poignant reminders of the time, with one story featuring Archie trying to cope with a blackout. Another has him try to sell using a horse and cart to Veronica by talking about how patriotic it was not to use gas. Overall, the humor here is very similar to modern-day Archie (without as much romance), but the look is very much of its time, with more exaggerated takes on the characters.

The book includes the fashion pages (which at this time were ads for patterns readers could order through the mail), puzzle pages, text stories, and Archie-related ads. (The publisher provided a review copy.)

The story is written by Tania del Rio, who spent several years creating the manga version of Sabrina, so she knows her stuff. Art and covers are by Gisele, continuing from the previous issue, which features Occupy Riverdale.

Yesterday, the New York Times posted a lengthy article summing up the current struggle between the CEOs of Archie Comics, with various charges asserted and lawsuits filed. I particularly like the illustrations (one excerpted here), featuring the players in the style of old Archie comics, by Mark Matcho.

It’s a good summary of where the situation stands — in court-ordered mediation. I had the pleasure of speaking with the article writer, Robin Finn, and providing some background on the company and how it was perceived by the comic press and fans. She got some insightful quotes from co-CEO Jon Goldwater on how he came to be in his position and how he sees the company, including the news that Archie made a profit last year. Unfortunately, Nancy Silberkleit is unable to comment on her side of things, given the legal action.