Following in the tradition of announcing unusual or unpleasant news on Friday afternoon, Zuda Comics posted today that they were making some “important site changes”. They will be eliminating the monthly competition format, as of now. They acknowledged that the setup had both pluses and minuses: Those of you familiar with the history of the competition know that we’ve had our ups and downs. While I don’t think anyone can argue with the quality of previous competition winners like HIGH […]

On Thursday, the NY Times published an article about how up to 400,000 tax-exempt organizations — including charities and trade associations — may lose their exemptions on May 15. [F]ederal legislation passed in 2006 required all nonprofits to file tax forms the following year. Previously, only organizations with revenues of $25,000 or more — or the vast majority of nonprofit groups — had to file. The new law, embedded in the 393 pages of the Pension Protection Act of 2006, […]

Wow, I think this proves to me that the new management at Archie Comics is serious about making some well-needed changes to modernize the titles and brand. Archie Comics has announced that in September, new character Kevin Keller will be introduced. And he’s “openly gay”, to use their terms, which has led to speculation and jokes that someone else in the Archieverse is closeted. (Leading contenders: Jughead, Midge, and Miss Grundy, although that would be quite the stereotype.) Kevin will […]

A couple of weeks ago, Archie Comics announced that they were launching two new titles to follow the alternate universe Archie marriage stories, one each for Betty and Veronica. Now, they’ve changed their mind — the two storylines, “Archie Loves Betty” and “Archie Loves Veronica”, will be part of one comic magazine titled Life With Archie. Their reasoning? I quote the press release: Due to the vast amount of positive responses to the two new titles, “Archie Loves Betty” and […]

I’ve been remiss in not talking about Alex de Campi‘s Valentine comic before now. It’s a serialized graphic novel released on multiple platforms online that’s astounding in its scope. Written by de Campi, the art is by Christine Larsen. I just wish I liked the story better. It’s described as a fantasy thriller, two of my least favorite genres, involving two French cavalry officers during the War of 1812. I’m not sure the subject matters, though, since part of the […]

Archie Comics sent out a press release announcing that they would be creating two new titles in July: The Married Life: Archie Loves Betty and The Married Life: Archie Loves Veronica. So the imaginary Archie marriage storylines must have sold well! The titles are each described as “an entirely new ongoing series with endless possibilities in its creative evolution, both in terms of its visual aesthetics and its more literary approach to storytelling.” I’m not sure what Archie thinks makes […]

Continuing a yearly tradition, here are the Archie sales figures based on the Statements of Ownership, Management, and Circulation Archie Comics is required to file in their publications. This is my third year of posting: here are the figures published in 2009 and those printed in 2008. 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. […]