Archie Comics gets a major makeover.
 

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=94511

But frankly, :wtf:

This is a DRASTIC change compared to the current "house style," and I'm not sure if readers are ready to embrace the more "realistic" look, though. http://webpages.charter.net/connecti...isagree/45.gif

...although are they using it for all things Archie, or just "Betty and Veronica"?

I dunno. They won't know unless they try, I guess, and if nothing else, it drums up some press.

No matter what the art style is, though, Veronica Lodge will forever reign over Betty Cooper. Get your head in the game, Archie!

I've heard it will essentially be used in all the main Archie Comics titles by the end of 2007.

Do they even make Archie "comics" anymore or just the digests?

I haven't read Archie in years, but I read the comics all the time as a kid. I'm sorry but this new makeover just looks weird and wrong. :down:

You're lucky your a moderator, so I'll keep my reply to myself. :mad:

Man, it looks like crap!

Cool, now Archie fans can have something more realistic to whack to. :up:

Is it me or does their new style make them look like they're from the 1980's and not 2006?

They should license the Archie stuff to Vertigo: Betty and Veronica would make a nice lesbian couple. Jughead's a stoner. Archie's bisexual. Mr. Weatherby is a Neo-Nazi.

All the Saturday morning cartoons about teenagers, like Sabrina, look like each other. Now Archie looks like that too.

It's almost as though a new management team came aboard and said, "Disney cartoons are popular. Make Archie look like them."

I agree that it's time for an update. It is certainly time that Archie lose his tic-tac-toe, and Jughead get rid of that 50s felt hat. But they need to keep something distinctive.

Horrible.

Sabrina the Teenage Witch was an Archie spin-off, and the original comics were drawn in that same style.

Blech.

I'll tell you what: we'll team up and take out Archie. I get dibs on Veronica. Betty's all yours. We both go to jail for statutory rape before the month's out.

It's good that they're not aping the 'manga style' again, as few american artists can do that without failing.

That said, this is still ugly as hell. I think the main problem is that they're keeping the character designs, but doing them realistically. It reminds me of that simpsons episode where homer pictures his kids drawn realistically.

If they wanted to update it they should work on layouts, backgrounds, and story.

without coming off as an ass...

Who still reads Archie Comics? Seriously?

I understand that some comics stay in production only to retain certain rights. But is anybody planning an Archie movie? I don't expect Archie to ever really make a comeback. It was a product of its time, and has never been reinvented into a product that works again like many super hero comics.

Again, I mean no disrespect to fans of Archie Comics, and full well understand there place in comic fandom and history. However I don't see the relevence.

I'm guessing 80% of Archie books are unsold, at least.

Yet DC and Marvel cancel shit all the time no matter how much people like them. -ohbfrank-

I doubt all that many people buy them religiously, but they're inoffensive, they're everywhere, there's pretty much zero continuity... You could have picked up a copy in 1993 and picked up another last Thursday while getting a loaf of bread without missing a beat. I guess someone's buying 'em 'cause they're everywhere. I have to admit that for a couple of years when I graduated from college, everytime I was in the grocery store I'd fight the urge to grab a digest. I have no idea why, but the idea of buying an Archie digest fascinated me.

I used to pick up the digests years ago, and this year I had the same urge that you had and picked up a few. Not much there. I'd probably get more enjoyment out of digging up my old ones and rereading them.

I don't really like it at all, but as I don't buy their comics, it seems tough to bitch about it.

According to "Rik" on Newsarama who apparently works at Archie:

I like the idea of a more realistic Archie. Perhaps he can get drunk and beat Veronica while fucking Betty on the side.

Ever since Archie met the Punisher things in Riverdale just haven't been the same.

I haven't read an Archie comic since the 70s (except for the above mentioned cross-over) but I really think the change is a crappy idea. What's next, an updated Charlie Brown?

I don't think that we're the best judges of who still reads Archie. I imagine there are mostly adults or teens on this forum and Archie is really not intended to be read by older kids or adults, which makes it unusual in a day when most comics have a majority adult audience. Some kids must still be reading it since I still see lots of issues and digests at my local book and grocery stores.

I'd definitely try to get my future kids into Archie. I really enjoyed the books as a kid. If this move keeps Archie around, that's all the better. By the way, the Archie/Punisher comic is a lot better than you might think.

If we're in a particularly painful grocery line, I'll occasionally pick up an Archie and read one of the short stories for a chuckle or two. It's something I know would be safe enough for my future kids.

Does anyone else think Veronica's look was based on Anne Hathaway?

http://www.newsarama.com/Archie/bvdd151.jpg

http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.ya...y/brokepre.jpg

The question on my mind is: Is Archie still fucking Mr. Weatherbee? :D

Archie comics sell about 800,000 copies a month spread over 22 titles. They may not be powerplayers in the average comicbook shop...but they rule as impluse buys in grocery stores and newsstands.

where is that number from? i might believe that many copies are circulated across 22 titles across the world...but are they Archie comics...and are they sold copies, or circulated copies.

when i was a kid. archie put out the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics, and no doubt they outsold anything with Jughead on the cover...

Came from Publisher's Weekly's web site...

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6323792.html

As for sold vs circulated copies...don't know. We don't even know that for mainstream Marvel/DC stuff. We get figures for how many copies retailer's purchase but we don't know how many of those are bought by customers. For instance SPIDER-MAN: REIGN has been touted as a sell-out from the supplier's. But my LCS has about a billion unsold copies on the self (as of Thurs, 8 days after release).

[flame bait]

Anyone else want to see Rob Leifeld get a crack at the Archie universe?

[/flame bait]

Vanity Fair article on the Archie phenomenon (I didn't read the whole thing)

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/fe...2/archie200612

I guess now after Betty and Veronica eat at Pop Tate's Chok'lit Shoppe, they'll go into the bathroom to barf and shoot some heroin.

I have a bunch of Archie comics from the late 70s and early 80s, plus some digests from that same time, which are republications of stuff from the 50s, 60s, and 70s. I still enjoy reeading them from time to time.

I bought a few new digests last summer. It was horrible! Archie no longer owns the jalopy. He now drives a modern car. So I looked it up on the internet, and it turns out that his jalopy was destroyed in issue 238 of "Life With Archie" from 1983:

http://www.comics.org/graphics/cover...940_4_0238.jpg

And Sabrina no longer looks like Sabrina. They changed her to look like Melissa Joan Hart. And then they changed her again to look like a Japanese manga character. The original Sabrina was way cooler than Betty or Veronica:

http://www.comics.org/graphics/cover...7209_4_076.jpg

Big Ethel is no longer ugly, and she no longer devotes her life to chasing after Jughead. They eliminated everything that made her interesting.

Frank Doyle, the best writer who wrote 10,000 cartoons from the 50s through the 90s, died about a decade ago.

It seems that the current digests are afraid to print anything from the great classic years.

I think they need to start publishing an "Americana Digest." The Americana trade paperbacks sold pretty well. But $10 for 100 pages isn't a good deal. They should do a monthly digest that only has stuff from before Archie lost his jalopy.

Big Moose has been diagnosed with dyslexia, he no longer says "D'uh!" and he no longer beats up Reggie. They keep eliminating all the things that made the series interesting.

You are kidding, right?

Comparing Archie to other foreign comics, I have to say he aged poorly compared to:

http://www.helsinki.fi/~lakoma/comic...ix/asterix.gif

and

http://e1.i1.yimg.com/espanol.docs.y...to_main180.gif

You can read issues of these from the 1970s and they are still as funny/relevant/entertaining as they are today, both for kids and adults.

No, I'm not kidding.

This is from page 5 of the article that's linked to in post 34: