600 issues doesn’t really sound like a lot. I mean it’s been around since the 1940’s, so that makes it quite meager. Though actually these 600 are just the big, A4 size, thin ones, and doesn’t include the digests, double digests, spin-offs etc.
Confused? Don’t be. I’m talking again about the newest Archie comics.
Actually I am writing this just fresh off reading a new issue and didn’t waste any time around it. It has gotten me a little excited because it is issue # 600. The number isn’t the significant part. The fact that this is part 1 of 6 of ‘The Proposal – Archie Marries Veronica’, is.
It is funny, but it goes to prove what I wrote in my last post. That one cannot get these comics out of sight or out of mind. I hadn’t bought one for years and years, only indulging on mangy used copies that I got for a much lower price. But the hype around this latest twist has found me as I found this in a book store today and had to pick it up (thankfully it isn’t very expensive).
I would say it was somewhere in the 1990’s that Archie sent tumbling downhill with the illustration and story both suffering, and prices skyrocketing. But despite all of this, I can’t imagine any other comic books making it to Indian daily newspapers, as these did when recently one read about the comic book news of the decade – Archie gets engaged to Veronica.
I read how this has caused outpouring of consent and dissent from readers and ho this marks the biggest step (forward or backward, I do not know) in the comics that have seen generations of readers. The moot point is that it hides the question “What next” within this occurrence. In one panel Mrs. Andrews does herself say, “Archie, my very own Peter Pan! Even a boy who doesn’t want to grow up has to face reality!” Could we be any more fatalistic?
The creators have not kept all their eggs in one basket and this is a clever 6 part series, which no doubt will keep space for change according to reader responses. Moreover the entire story is unfolding as a dream-like sequence and maybe we will all just wake up to a money-spinner.
But, whatever it is, I know that though I wasn’t looking out for this (probably because we still don’t get movie/book releases in India as soon as the international release) but when I spotted it I knew there was no two ways about buying it. The problem is that now I am caught up, I am part of this unfolding saga-to-be, but the next part will only be out on stands on September 28, meaning there will not be a quick release. I am trapped once again (the other instance being with Bone, more on which on a later post).
Who do I choose between Betty and Veronica? Hard to say. Betty’s the natural choice, but now Veronica’s the underdog. Either way, it ain’t over till it’s over.
Confused? Don’t be. I’m talking again about the newest Archie comics.
Actually I am writing this just fresh off reading a new issue and didn’t waste any time around it. It has gotten me a little excited because it is issue # 600. The number isn’t the significant part. The fact that this is part 1 of 6 of ‘The Proposal – Archie Marries Veronica’, is.
It is funny, but it goes to prove what I wrote in my last post. That one cannot get these comics out of sight or out of mind. I hadn’t bought one for years and years, only indulging on mangy used copies that I got for a much lower price. But the hype around this latest twist has found me as I found this in a book store today and had to pick it up (thankfully it isn’t very expensive).
I would say it was somewhere in the 1990’s that Archie sent tumbling downhill with the illustration and story both suffering, and prices skyrocketing. But despite all of this, I can’t imagine any other comic books making it to Indian daily newspapers, as these did when recently one read about the comic book news of the decade – Archie gets engaged to Veronica.
I read how this has caused outpouring of consent and dissent from readers and ho this marks the biggest step (forward or backward, I do not know) in the comics that have seen generations of readers. The moot point is that it hides the question “What next” within this occurrence. In one panel Mrs. Andrews does herself say, “Archie, my very own Peter Pan! Even a boy who doesn’t want to grow up has to face reality!” Could we be any more fatalistic?
The creators have not kept all their eggs in one basket and this is a clever 6 part series, which no doubt will keep space for change according to reader responses. Moreover the entire story is unfolding as a dream-like sequence and maybe we will all just wake up to a money-spinner.
But, whatever it is, I know that though I wasn’t looking out for this (probably because we still don’t get movie/book releases in India as soon as the international release) but when I spotted it I knew there was no two ways about buying it. The problem is that now I am caught up, I am part of this unfolding saga-to-be, but the next part will only be out on stands on September 28, meaning there will not be a quick release. I am trapped once again (the other instance being with Bone, more on which on a later post).
Who do I choose between Betty and Veronica? Hard to say. Betty’s the natural choice, but now Veronica’s the underdog. Either way, it ain’t over till it’s over.
Veronica is definitely not the underdog,Sumit. But Archies is one comic that sticks to predictability and in a way stereotypes...the hungry Jughead, The dilphenk Archie, the strict Principal and the two most predictable girls - the obvious choice is Betty, but maybe she is not...maybe its going to be predictably unpredictable :)
ReplyDeleteHaha, maybe it will be. Archie is definately based on the steroetypes of its characters. The cast is almost uni-dimensional to us now, we know them so well. There have been changes to some characters every so often (sometimes successful, sometimes not) but they end in a return to the ordained order.
ReplyDeleteVeronica is the underdog only now, because characters in the comics and the readers are a concerned for, and in favour of Betty, making Veronica quite disliked.
Time will tell how this will turn out. It will take a few months for this 6-part series to fully unravel.