Showing posts with label Archie comics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Archie comics. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 26, 2022
Ooh, topical. Could probably reprint it every 6-7 years.
Tuesday, March 30, 2021
It literally may have never occurred to me to search for it by name before.
This digest was a collection of most of Jughead's short-lived superhero series, Jughead as Captain Hero from 1966-67. It's pretty obviously "inspired" by the Batman TV show, but it's fun. Archie also had a superheroic identity, Pureheart the Powerful, with an amusing explanation on why no one notices his super-powered antics: his power "fogs the mind of ordinary beings." Reggie gets into the act as Evilheart the Great, only doing good deeds incidentally to showing Pureheart up: his unrepentant dickishness seems more amusing to me as an old grouch. Betty appears as Superteen in one story to bail out PH; while Veronica was usually the hostage to get the plot going and sadly doesn't get her own heroic identity.
I'm not sure what happened to my copy; it could well be somewhere. But I'm not sure I ever looked for a replacement, since there are like fourteen million Archie digests, and I thought it would be under "Archie" or "Laugh" or something. There's another old digest story I remember, with Reggie claiming to have the power of mind over matter, as he's able to withstand winter chill in a light sweater; but of course there's a trick and comeuppance to it. Finding that one, though...that's going to be trickier.
Read more!
Monday, May 05, 2008
Presented without commentary...aw, hell, there's commentary.
The Youngest set this up. I had given him a little pile of Simpsons toys, since he loves the movie, and I had brought that Corgi Batmobile from my desk at work for another strip...that I haven't had time to take any photos for. Hell.
I took Monday off, since it was a busy, busy weekend. The Oldest's tenth birthday ended up running for three days: Saturday with Free Comic Book Day and Iron Man, Sunday with a barbecue and party at his grandparents, and Monday with lunch and more presents from my folks. Rest assured, he got a ton of stuff, a ton of cake, and generally spoiled rotten. Oh, and Iron Man was all kinds of fun, and even with a ton of other comic book movies coming out this year, it's going to be a tough one to beat.
A quick note on Free Comic Book Day: as usual, the Comic Book Shop fixed me and the boys up. My personal favorite? Probably the Marvel Spider-Man/Iron Man/Hulk one, although the Atomic Robo story was solid, and I did like the Hellboy one a lot, but it loses a few points for being a bit tied up in the current storylines.
Greg Land gets a lot of flack for his art being overly photo-referenced, but I liked the FCBD X-Men issue more than I'd expected. Still, and I know she's a pre-existing character from New X-Men, but every time I see Pixie, I'm going to think of some editor telling the writers, "We need a new audience identification figure, like Kitty Pryde or Jubilee. Something like, I don't know, Pixie or something, just not as lame. Oh, and this time, I don't care if she's fourteen or thirty-seven, I want her built."
Saturday morning, before we left the house, the Wife asked me if I knew anything about German Idealism. Not off the top of my head, but I recommended Action Philosophers! which became the first comic books the Wife ever bought or read! Congratulations to Fred van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey, especially since she had proven resistant to just about every other comic. She picked up two trades, and we'll have to dig up the last one later. The Wife's enjoyed them a lot, although she might also be a Marxist now. Well, baby steps--she also loved Iron Man.
Also, I fixed the toilet with my dad, which involved sawing off a plastic lug nut from a stripped bolt. Most people don't have to use garden shears for plumbing, but I say, you can't argue with results. I also took my bike in to get new tubes, so we'll see how long they last me this year. While I was waiting, I dug through the quarter boxes at the Comic Book Shop again, until I found that issue of Balder the Brave that I'm theoretically missing. I also stumbled across this one:
The more things change, huh? But would this work, ever? In high school, for a while I dated a girl that had an older brother who was often the source of my group's booze. Even though I didn't think it was going anywhere, and tried to break up with her more than once, on one occasion I went to see her, bound and determined to end it once and for all right then and there. Except she had got her brother to buy us a Party Ball. I zipped my lip and took one for the team without any hesitation. After all, she was prettier than Denise...
(Anyone else remember the Party Ball? If not, you're either younger than me, weren't a teenage drunkard, or had a bigger social group, like enough friends for a keg. The thing was kind of a pain in the ass, since I think we had to find a pump for it...God, I can't even remember what kind of beer it was. Coors? No?)
Speaking of beer, it comes up a lot in this one, which I read while waiting at the Youngest's therapy:
Switchblade Honey isn't one of his major works, but it is a fun story from Warren Ellis, one he admits in the introduction to be "a joke told in my voice, full of my usual rubbish." It's a fun sci-fi adventure, that's like a dirtier, British Star Trek with drinking, smoking, cursing, and other stuff that makes life, if not worth living, mildly tolerable. Ellis seems to have most of his stuff through Avatar now, so I'm not sure if this one is easily available or not, but it's well worth digging up.
Gah, busy day. New figure comic Wednesday. I know I won't have this much going on between now and then...
Read more!
The Youngest set this up. I had given him a little pile of Simpsons toys, since he loves the movie, and I had brought that Corgi Batmobile from my desk at work for another strip...that I haven't had time to take any photos for. Hell. I took Monday off, since it was a busy, busy weekend. The Oldest's tenth birthday ended up running for three days: Saturday with Free Comic Book Day and Iron Man, Sunday with a barbecue and party at his grandparents, and Monday with lunch and more presents from my folks. Rest assured, he got a ton of stuff, a ton of cake, and generally spoiled rotten. Oh, and Iron Man was all kinds of fun, and even with a ton of other comic book movies coming out this year, it's going to be a tough one to beat.
A quick note on Free Comic Book Day: as usual, the Comic Book Shop fixed me and the boys up. My personal favorite? Probably the Marvel Spider-Man/Iron Man/Hulk one, although the Atomic Robo story was solid, and I did like the Hellboy one a lot, but it loses a few points for being a bit tied up in the current storylines.
Greg Land gets a lot of flack for his art being overly photo-referenced, but I liked the FCBD X-Men issue more than I'd expected. Still, and I know she's a pre-existing character from New X-Men, but every time I see Pixie, I'm going to think of some editor telling the writers, "We need a new audience identification figure, like Kitty Pryde or Jubilee. Something like, I don't know, Pixie or something, just not as lame. Oh, and this time, I don't care if she's fourteen or thirty-seven, I want her built."
Saturday morning, before we left the house, the Wife asked me if I knew anything about German Idealism. Not off the top of my head, but I recommended Action Philosophers! which became the first comic books the Wife ever bought or read! Congratulations to Fred van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey, especially since she had proven resistant to just about every other comic. She picked up two trades, and we'll have to dig up the last one later. The Wife's enjoyed them a lot, although she might also be a Marxist now. Well, baby steps--she also loved Iron Man.
Also, I fixed the toilet with my dad, which involved sawing off a plastic lug nut from a stripped bolt. Most people don't have to use garden shears for plumbing, but I say, you can't argue with results. I also took my bike in to get new tubes, so we'll see how long they last me this year. While I was waiting, I dug through the quarter boxes at the Comic Book Shop again, until I found that issue of Balder the Brave that I'm theoretically missing. I also stumbled across this one:
The more things change, huh? But would this work, ever? In high school, for a while I dated a girl that had an older brother who was often the source of my group's booze. Even though I didn't think it was going anywhere, and tried to break up with her more than once, on one occasion I went to see her, bound and determined to end it once and for all right then and there. Except she had got her brother to buy us a Party Ball. I zipped my lip and took one for the team without any hesitation. After all, she was prettier than Denise...
(Anyone else remember the Party Ball? If not, you're either younger than me, weren't a teenage drunkard, or had a bigger social group, like enough friends for a keg. The thing was kind of a pain in the ass, since I think we had to find a pump for it...God, I can't even remember what kind of beer it was. Coors? No?)
Speaking of beer, it comes up a lot in this one, which I read while waiting at the Youngest's therapy:
Switchblade Honey isn't one of his major works, but it is a fun story from Warren Ellis, one he admits in the introduction to be "a joke told in my voice, full of my usual rubbish." It's a fun sci-fi adventure, that's like a dirtier, British Star Trek with drinking, smoking, cursing, and other stuff that makes life, if not worth living, mildly tolerable. Ellis seems to have most of his stuff through Avatar now, so I'm not sure if this one is easily available or not, but it's well worth digging up.
Gah, busy day. New figure comic Wednesday. I know I won't have this much going on between now and then...
Read more!
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
I practically drooled when I found this old issue.
Sweet Rao, I saw this cover, and thought it was going to be fricking hilarious. I'm afraid, not so much. In fact, the Space Archie story is the second story in the issue, and I couldn't tell you way.
I'm not the hugest Archie fan: I can remember reading occasional issues as a kid, and that's about it. And since I'm old, back then Archie wasn't the only younger-reader comic on the spinner rack: for me, Archie comics were in the same vein as Richie Rich, Donald Duck, Sad Sack, or Dennis the Menace; so I probably didn't get as many Archies as a lot of you. Which means, I'm don't know if this sort of story was common for the more-dramatic themed Life with Archie or not.
I also don't have the same unconditional love for Archie comics that I do for, say, old Star Wars comics, or Warlord, or even Man-Wolf.
Much like a 70's variety show, the regular Archie characters are cast in different roles in this story. Their starship low on 'regurge fluid,' Archie and Jughead set out for a local settlement, and find it done up in a western motif.
Unless time travel's your whole thing, like Dr. Who or something, there has got to be a moratorium on this 'alien culture based on old Earth era,' routine. Star Trek reruns have been on lately, and I know it turns up at least three times off the top of my head. Anyway, everything's all westerny but with ray guns and androids and crap.
After witnessing a double-disintegration in a shootout, Archie and Jughead get to the stables and check out the hover-horses. Then, they hear the clamor of "Maverick McClintock bringing in his herd!" Not cattle: "Like the song says---long little doggies!"
Aside from the terrible, terrible pun; I remember racking my eight-year-old skull trying to figure out why the ever-living hell you would build those. Archie and Jughead wisely decide to bail out, and run straight into the "savages."
Jughead sends the Indians the wrong way, saving the day and the townspeople and so on. A grateful mayor offers Jughead the sheriff's job, which he seriously considers. For a second.
And there's a little nightmare fuel for you today. Pretty sure Mad beat them to that one. That joke couldn't have possibly been new in 1979, and it's not aged well.
Oh, and the first story in this issue is even more unbelievable: in "Stranded in the Storm!" Betty and Veronica are trapped at the Lodges' mountain cabin during, you guessed it, a surprise snowstorm. While Arch and Jughead, against all common sense, set out on cross-country skis from the Lodge mansion to rescue the girls; a pair of looters invade the cabin and force the girls to...
...cook for them. The horror, the horror.
Anyway, the boys outwit one of the looters, but are saved by...Veronica?
Veronica clubs down a potential assailant: believable. Veronica cooks something that smells good to Jughead: impossible. You might as well have Dillon win a fight or Reggie help an orphan or Moose drown puppies: it's just out of character. I could buy Betty administering justice and making a helluva dinner afterwards, but sadly she doesn't get much to do in this one. Yes, I like Betty better. Shut up.
All panels and cover from Life with Archie #204. Sadly, no credits were given, but there was a statement of ownership. "Total paid circulation: Actual no. of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 128,004." That's sold, with 160,719 returned, since this was pre-Direct Market and they printed over a quarter of a million copies per issue. If I'm reading that and June's sale numbers from the Beat, this would have been a top ten book, just behind the fifth issue of Dark Tower: the Gunslinger Born.
Holy hell, I have to go lie down now... Read more!
Sweet Rao, I saw this cover, and thought it was going to be fricking hilarious. I'm afraid, not so much. In fact, the Space Archie story is the second story in the issue, and I couldn't tell you way.
I'm not the hugest Archie fan: I can remember reading occasional issues as a kid, and that's about it. And since I'm old, back then Archie wasn't the only younger-reader comic on the spinner rack: for me, Archie comics were in the same vein as Richie Rich, Donald Duck, Sad Sack, or Dennis the Menace; so I probably didn't get as many Archies as a lot of you. Which means, I'm don't know if this sort of story was common for the more-dramatic themed Life with Archie or not.
I also don't have the same unconditional love for Archie comics that I do for, say, old Star Wars comics, or Warlord, or even Man-Wolf.
Much like a 70's variety show, the regular Archie characters are cast in different roles in this story. Their starship low on 'regurge fluid,' Archie and Jughead set out for a local settlement, and find it done up in a western motif.
Unless time travel's your whole thing, like Dr. Who or something, there has got to be a moratorium on this 'alien culture based on old Earth era,' routine. Star Trek reruns have been on lately, and I know it turns up at least three times off the top of my head. Anyway, everything's all westerny but with ray guns and androids and crap.
After witnessing a double-disintegration in a shootout, Archie and Jughead get to the stables and check out the hover-horses. Then, they hear the clamor of "Maverick McClintock bringing in his herd!" Not cattle: "Like the song says---long little doggies!"
Aside from the terrible, terrible pun; I remember racking my eight-year-old skull trying to figure out why the ever-living hell you would build those. Archie and Jughead wisely decide to bail out, and run straight into the "savages."
Jughead sends the Indians the wrong way, saving the day and the townspeople and so on. A grateful mayor offers Jughead the sheriff's job, which he seriously considers. For a second.
And there's a little nightmare fuel for you today. Pretty sure Mad beat them to that one. That joke couldn't have possibly been new in 1979, and it's not aged well.
Oh, and the first story in this issue is even more unbelievable: in "Stranded in the Storm!" Betty and Veronica are trapped at the Lodges' mountain cabin during, you guessed it, a surprise snowstorm. While Arch and Jughead, against all common sense, set out on cross-country skis from the Lodge mansion to rescue the girls; a pair of looters invade the cabin and force the girls to...
...cook for them. The horror, the horror.
Anyway, the boys outwit one of the looters, but are saved by...Veronica?
Veronica clubs down a potential assailant: believable. Veronica cooks something that smells good to Jughead: impossible. You might as well have Dillon win a fight or Reggie help an orphan or Moose drown puppies: it's just out of character. I could buy Betty administering justice and making a helluva dinner afterwards, but sadly she doesn't get much to do in this one. Yes, I like Betty better. Shut up. All panels and cover from Life with Archie #204. Sadly, no credits were given, but there was a statement of ownership. "Total paid circulation: Actual no. of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 128,004." That's sold, with 160,719 returned, since this was pre-Direct Market and they printed over a quarter of a million copies per issue. If I'm reading that and June's sale numbers from the Beat, this would have been a top ten book, just behind the fifth issue of Dark Tower: the Gunslinger Born.
Holy hell, I have to go lie down now... Read more!
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