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ARCHIE’S DOUBLE DIGEST #193

“To Play or Not to Play”: Feeling the stress of studies, extracurricular activities and college applications, the gang decides to put the Archies on hiatus – until Jughead convinces his band mates to appear in a high school musical he’s written about a teen rock band stressed out by their studies, extracurricular activities and college applications! 

SCRIPT: George Gladir. 

ART: Fernando Ruiz. 

 “Toy Story”: A short time ago, in a town called Riverdale not too far away… Jughead has dragged Archie to a toy store at midnight so he can be among the first to purchase the new “Star Lores” action figures! 

SCRIPT AND ART: Bill Galvan. 

 “Pre-Exam Insurance”: Archie’s convinced that petting Betty’s cat Carmel is good luck before an exam… but the only thing between Archie and a passing grade is the tree Carmel’s stuck in! 

SCRIPT: George Gladir. 

ART: Henry Scarpelli. 

PLUS: Other new and classic tales! 

SCRIPT AND ART: Various talents. 

BONUS: Puzzles, games and pin-ups!   

Shipping Date: October 22^nd, 2008

On Sale at Comic Specialty Shops: October 29^th, 2008

On Sale on Newsstands: November 11^th, 2008

176-page, full color digest

$3.69 US.

…WHO SWEARS HE’S COMPETENT.

Okay,Forbidden Planet [Bristol] sucks. Every week since May this year I’ve gone in to pick up my standing order -which I’ve had since 1995- and have had issues missing,excuses given and re-set up my standing order.  Then the next week..the same.  Week after? The same.  After 5 months [FIVE MONTHS] you think the situation might sort itself out?

No.  I’ve just given up trying now.  I’ve lost so many issues to limited series or ongoing series that I’ve given up on them.  This week,some of my order and the rest I took off the shelves myself.  I’ve been getting NOBLE CAUSES since #1 but now another issue is gone.  This week’s issue.  Apparently,like every other title FP forget [or really just can’t be bothered with],”we can’t re-order”.  You cannot,as part of a big chain store get a copy of THIS WEEK’S issue?!?

I will not write what I thought.

Well,Image can’t be bothered helping out so they’ve now been excluded from coverage -in case you wonder I sent an email to Image publisher,Eric Stephenson since Joe Kealey was not responding. How seriously did they treat my emails? Nothing.  Well,more Press Releases.

So,no Image Comics for me to review -no review. No Arcana Comics to review -no review.

A god awful comic shop -I’m going to have to look elsewhere outside Bristol.

After 30 years as a loyal Forbidden Planet customer I am **** off.  What management.  what staff.

This item from Joe Gordon at the Forbidden Planet International Blog:

“We’re doing a mention for the marketing folks who are promoting the DVD and Blu-Ray of Wanted as a favour – they have arranged a video chat with Mark Millar for this coming Monday (27th) between 1 and 2pm, with a chance for readers to go to the website over the weekend and put in their very own questions to ask Mark come the Monday. Links and details are all on the FP blog:

http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/?p=9908. “

In case you are still wondering about the Archie characters being used by DC very soon,starting in Brave And The Bold,well everything you need to know about the characters [hey,you’ll know more than JMS!] you can find at the great Mighty Crusaders Handbook:

http://www.mightycrusaders.net/handbook/bobphantom.htm

Then again,JMS will probably “reinvent” [read “screw-up”] the characters though luckily he cannot touch the Fly or Private Strong:The Shield as they are [c]Joe Simon!

The Mid-Ohio-Con 2008 Charity Auction Is On!

The Mid-Ohio-Con Charity Auction Features 35 Lots with Original Art and Other Great Items

Save The Date For Next Year’s Mid-Ohio-Con on the Weekend of October 3-4, 2009 in Columbus, Ohio

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

The Mid-Ohio-Con 2008 Charity Auction is now live on eBay. The auction features original art drawn by many of our guests at Mid-Ohio-Con 2008, as well as a number of other special contributions. All proceeds from the Mid-Ohio-2008 charity auction will be donated to The Hero Initiative and The Make-A-Wish Foundation. Click here to visit our all listings on eBay or on any of the links below to see an individual item.

About Mid-Ohio-Con

Now entering 29th year, Mid-Ohio-Con is one of America’s longest-running and most successful pop culture conventions. Each year, Mid-Ohio-Con brings fans of all ages together with leading comic book writers and artists, film and television creators and stars, as well as publishers and retailers from across the nation.

Insomnia Publications new “Red Eye” blog have a great announcement:

“Unbelievable Signing - Insomnia Captures The Beast of Bryn Boncath  

With BICS 2008 now a fortnight in the past We are ready to announce our first signing from the show: Unbelievable (The Man Who Ate Daffodils) written and drawn by the Welsh Wonder that is Simon Wyatt. 

Unbelievable: (Adjective: Not to be believed: inconceivable, incredible, unimaginable, unthinkable. Idioms: beyond belief, contrary to all reason). 

The remote mining village of

A new neighbour has moved in. A man long thought dead has returned. Livestock are missing. There are noises in the night. People are afraid to go into out after dark and sightings of a giant hound, or maybe a big cat are on the increase once again. 

Suddenly it seems to Ben that what he took to be the tall tales of his grandfather may be more than just stories. It seems that something is stirring in the forests and the mountains around Bryn Boncath. It seems that ancient history is repeating and this time round Ben has an important part to play. 

Unbelievable is a dark masterpiece that weaves strands of Welsh legend, modern murder mystery and horror with a dash of crytozoology that wonders: What if seeing isn’t always believing, but believing will allow you to see? 

Nic Wilkinson, Creative Director says: 

“I first saw Simon’s work in progress on Unbelievable on his comicspace page back before I was working with Insomnia, and the art just blew me away. I love British mythology and we chatted about an earlier project of his, Mabinogion - Dawn of The Gods. He promised to draw me a sketch of my favourite Unbelievable character if we met up at BICS later in the year. 

Months pass. 

BICS rolls round. 

I meet Simon in person at the launch party on the Friday night and he tells me he has my sketch. On Saturday morning I spot him sitting at the Orang-Utan table, drawing away and go to collect my picture. It is fantastic. Since we last spoke about Unbelievable things have changed. Under the table is a big black folder with the art almost complete and a spiral bound pitch book with character backgrounds, concept sketches, the full plot breakdown the whole works. I am now working for Insomnia. 

If the samples in comic space looked good, the whole thing together was incredible - unbelievable, even. I hurry back to tell Crawford what I have found. They talk. We talk. BICS ends. There are lots of questions and emails and phone calls and things to work out. On Friday last week the deal was done. 

I am very proud to be able to say this was my first signing for Insomnia, and it exemplifies everything we are looking for in a book and from a creator. In short, being able to bring out work like this is everything that we, as a company, are trying to do. 

Simon has been illustrating books, comics and games for over 20 years and was National Young Cartoonist of the Year for

YOUNG GODS JOINS THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION!

New sci-fi action/adventure comic to be distributed FREE online!  “I haven’t been this impressed by an independent team of teen-to-twenties heroes since Valiant’s HARBINGER.” – Project Fanboy 

Orang Utan Comics Studio today announced a bold new move into the realm of digital publishing as they revealed their plans to release their highly anticipated sci-fi action/adventure series Young Gods for FREE online. The Young Gods series, which sees a team of teenage “Extra Humans” employed by a government agency to police the Extra Human community, will be available to read in a purely digital format via the ground breaking online publishing platform myebook. Orang Utan Comics Studio were the first organisaton to sign up to myebook’s publishing partnership plan when it went live earlier today. 

“I think we recognized the huge potential of myebook about thirty seconds after first being shown it,” said Orang Utan Comics Studio’s Managing Editor and Young Gods’ creator, Ian Sharman. “It’s an ideal solution for small studios like ourselves who want to get our work in front of as many people as possible but don’t have the capital to finance large print runs.” Ian Sharman has been working on Young Gods since he was a teenager, gaining the initial inspiration while listening to the Little Angels album of the same name. However, the road from original idea to the comic book page has been a long one, and finding the right creative team to bring his ideas to life proved very challenging. “I think we went through seven artists, including at one point myself, before we found Ezequiel Pineda. His unique style was exactly what I was looking for, allowing the focus to shift from the overblown superheroics to the diverse characters that make up the team,” added series writer, Ian Sharman. The addition of Mauro Barbosa on colours proved that lightening can strike twice, as his dynamic colours proved to be the perfect complement to Ezequiel’s art. “I’ve been incredibly fortunate,” Ian continued, “finding not only one, but two extremely talented artists with the same passion for this comic that I have.” 

Orang Utan Comics Studio plan to make the first part of the Young Gods graphic novel available via myebook in the middle of November, but until then you can get a taste of what’s in store by reading a six page preview, available on myebook now.  However, for people who prefer to read their comics on the move, rather than sat at a computer, Orang Utan Comics Studio are also exploring other areas of the digital revolution in comics, making Young Gods available to download to your mobile phone via ROK Comics. 

The success of Young Gods will almost entirely depend on fan support, on word of mouth and the book spreading across the internet in a viral fashion. With this in mind, Orang Utan Comics Studio have produced a promotional video which they are encouraging their fans and supporters to put on their blogs and websites in order to spread the word about this ground breaking release.  To find out more about Young Gods, read character bios and creator profiles, please visit www.younggodscomic.co.uk 

For more information on Orang Utan Comics Studio visit them online at www.orangutancomics.co.uk  

Further Information
Orang Utan Comics
 Orang Utan Comics Studio began life in 2007, bringing together rising talent from across the World.  Since coming together to form the studio OUC creators have worked on titles including Contraband, Starship Troopers and Kong.  Their Eagle Award Nominated Anthology “Eleventh Hour” was recently picked up by AAM/Markosia.  They are also developing a number of new comic projects including Slam Ridley, Young Gods, Mamluk and 5^th Outlaw.. For more information about Orang Utan Comics visit www.orangutancomics.co.uk. myebookMyebook.com (http://www.myebook.com), a web-based ebook community, gives people the tools to create book content and ‘get it out there’ for free. Every aspect of publishing content is covered - from creating, to sharing and reading - in a slick and simple way. ROK ComicsROK Comics is a new way of delivering comics in partnership with comics creators to mobile handsets using a sophisticated digital publishing system and Digitally Rights technology. As a digital publisher ROK Comics enables you to create and upload your own comic strips for free that can then be delivered to mobile phones worldwide. http://www.rokcomics.com

 The old Marvel UK site appears to have vanished!  However,there is an EXCELLENT site by Mark Roberts called “It Came From Darkmoor” that I’d recommend.

Give it a try.

http://itcamefromdarkmoor.blogspot.com/

I seriously cannot be bothered posting anything else this week,or maybe even next week.  If publishers want to be asses then so be it.  No other site is going to give them as much space for their books as CBO.

Roll on January.

Some VERY fast responses from four Independent comic publishers wanting to fill the little gap left by Arcana and Image.

However,as I explained,if you want your comics promoted or reviewed you have to send them first.  All four were kind enough to point out that I “Can buy review copies online at our store…”

 **** off.

As a publisher you should -if competent- have put aside a certain number of books to sendout for review.  To ask someone to not just promote your books but buy them to do so..well,I’m not a moron. My site and I can pick and choose who to promote -as I pointed out to all four.

Any serious Independent publishers out there?