What is up at Archie Comics? The third great legacy comics house hasn’t been heard from much in recent months, Kevin Smith’s visit to Riverdale aside. Archie was distributed to comics stores by Diamond, but announced a move to Lunar soon after Diamond’s bankruptcy was filed and they haven’t been featured in any bankruptcy related news aside from that.
Maybe we haven’t heard much about their reactions to the Diamond situation because Archie is the only comics publisher that still relies on newsstand sales. After all these years, Archie still has expensive rack space at supermarkets for their popular digests, and these are the last vestige of the huge newsstand sales that once roamed the land. And presumably a $9.99 Archie digest is still a last resort for harried parents and purchased as a treat for kids to keep them quiet for a while.
But now it sounds like the digest plan is changing a bit? At least that’s my takeaway from this story at 13th Dimension that dropped late last week under the title: ARCHIE COMICS’ Publishing Line Is Evolving This Fall
Archie Comics this fall is revamping its classic-style publishing line with a new digest series that’ll be based on seasons/holidays and that will be on stands longer.
The new slate, which is being adjusted month-to month, actually kicks off Aug. 20 with the release of Archie Comics Digest #1, which will be fewer pages, taller in height and slimmer in width than previous digests, similar to the publisher’s popular supermarket puzzle books.
The dimensions of the books are not mentioned, but could this be closer to the “compact edition” size that has taken casual graphic novel sales by storm? With the larger size is also a higher price: $9.99 for 86 pages as opposed to $9.99 for 192 pages – some major shrinkflation there
The first of the “new digests” will be Halloween themed because what else would you do at that time of year? In October, a Christmas-focused collection will come out, and so on. Other line-up changes: Sabrina, the Teen-Age Witch #1 Facsimile Edition will come out in November instead of August, (but with a cute Andy Price variant cover seen below) and a Josie and the Pussycats one-shot will also come out in November. 13th Dimension goes on to list the official solicitations, along with the note that “there’s the potential for further shifts as the year goes on.”
The copy for the Halloween special gives more info:
ARCHIE COMICS DIGEST #1: HALLOWEEN SPECIAL
After 50+ years of Archie digests, our beloved archival collection is getting a new look, and what better time for this treat than Halloween?! Based on the success of our hugely popular Puzzle Book and Word Search series, ARCHIE COMICS DIGEST is back in a big way with the classic stories, puzzles, fashion pages, and pin-ups you know and love, all loaded with Halloween fun!
Script: Sy Reit, Tom DeFalco, Frank Doyle
Art: Bob White, Steven Butler, Dan DeCarlo
Cover: Dan Parent, Rosario “Tito” Peña
On Sale Date: 8/20
96-page, full color digest
$9.99 U.S.
This story actually raises more questions than it answers. Will the old digest line be continued? Where will these be racked? What about the rest of the line? Is Archie mostly a publisher of puzzles and word search magazines now? My understanding is that the digests have been the bedrock of Archie for decades and decades, so tinkering with the format is quite significant.
Perhaps some regular Beat commenters can give a more thorough report on the state of grocery/drug store check out aisles below – I live in NYC and most of my grocery stores (Trader Joes) don’t sell magazines at the checkout stand. When I travel, I do check out the magazine section for old times sake, but I’ve mostly noticed the number of pop-culture one-shots about Marvel Movies or Pokemon or other topical brands. People and Woman’s World are still around though. And yes, there are lots of crossword puzzle magazines.
These seasonal digests do seem to be an attempt to put out a product that has a longer shelf life, along the lines of those topical one-shots, but with added puzzles, which people still love.
Anyway, Archie has been quietly plugging away with digests comics, and digital reprints of some of their historical archives for a while now. They are available digitally via Comixology and GlobalComix, and at comics shops nationwide via Lunar, and in bookstores via PRH. And as the very last of the newsstand comics via a magazine distributor.
To put it bluntly, Archie Comics are in a death spiral. I’ve been documenting this on my Archie blog, Riverdale Reviewed. The company’s been deteriorating before our eyes, and no one’s been talking about it.
Floppy comics are basically seasonal reprints at this point and contain one new lead story (5 pages) and is usually of poor quality. The remaining writers and artists have been “jobbing it” for quite a while, and it seems no one except Holly Golightly gives a damn anymore.
The new 5-pagers in the digests were just as poor. The company, for whatever reason, was obsessed with creating a bunch of new characters that no one asked for and reviving every character in its history, no matter how antiquated, probably in a desperate attempt for something to catch on with readers (and maybe for trademark purposes).
Ditching the regular digests is probably the last nail in the coffin. Much less opportunities for new stories (not that the new stories are any good).
Big Archie fan here- the last few years have had 50 double-digests per year (four titles were 10/year, two were 5/year). No further issues of any of those have been solicited, so presumably they’re all gone for good. The new replacement is one title, set to publish 6x single-digests per year. Which means, in page count, the digest line is being reduced by 94%.
I noticed this a few months ago when this new digest was first solicited, and it’s surprising that nobody has reported on it until now! But maybe that speaks to why they’re reducing the line so severely. We don’t really know Archie’s sales numbers, but presumably they aren’t great. I’ve gotten the feeling recently that they’re in IP-creation mode, always introducing new characters and rehabilitating old ones, but rarely succeeding. The “New Archie” DM comics and the “Riverdale” show were a pretty successful era, and it seems they’re desperately trying to recapture that.
I actually saw this today at Walmart.It is the twenty first, so presumably they had it out yesterday. I was interested in buying it, especially as an Archie Halloween fan (i’ve done Archie exclusive Halloween variants the last couple of years), and didn’t because i recognized stories that I already have. Some relatively recent and it was nine ninety nine.
However it was not at the check out aisles. Walmart hardly has those anymore as nearly everything is self checkout. It was in the back with the magazines and books. So you don’t encounter them unless you’re looking specifically thru that section. I did notice.It was issue one though , and I thought that was interesting because I was surprised they were launching a new digest. I wish it well! Focusing on seasonal holidays is probably good!
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