I cannot tell you how incredibly embarrassed I was, as a 47 year old man, to be picking up this magazine. Obviously, I am not the intended audience. My real question, however, is “who is?” Is there really someone out there who would like to know what Archie’s life would be like if he were married to either Betty or Veronica? It’s not just one alternative universe, it’s two.
The answer is… um… tweens? I guess. As Munsey stated, the juvenile audience sort of sucks. You have to keep building or you’re going to start losing. Contrast this to the approach used at Marvel, the people who gave us the modern comic book age: Tell a good story and they will come. Try to hook them young and then hope they never leave. This seems to be where Archie is headed. You got the 6-10 year old girl comic reader market, why not extend it?
Archie was once part of a much larger concern called Columbia Magazines. Strike that. Not much larger, just slightly more diversified. Columbia was a low rung, but consistent pulp magazine house from the 1930s through about the 1960s. They didn’t really give up on pulps as much as they switched to paperbacks in the 1960s, founding the Ballantine imprint. During their pulp heyday, wherein they marketed themselves as Columbia, Double Action, Red Circle and Close Up, they had magazine and print offerings in a variety of genres.
Archie is now under new management (same family, new leadership) and we wish them all the best. I’m a little queasy about the magazine, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. Hopefully this is the start of all sorts of branching out. Heck knows the industry needs something.
Beyond any doubt, Mad magazine has been the flagship of the comic book industry for decades. Like the industry itself, it has of late taken a nose dive. I do not mean in terms of quality. Mad is better today than it’s been in 20 years. The Old Gang of Idiots has merged with a new Gang, and, after some fits and starts, created a very interesting new product in an old package. It’s much more interesting to read—and relevant—than it’s been in a long, long time. And it’s funny, too.
But things looked sucky for a while there. The corporate gods at DC/Warner had cut the magazine essentially down to 4 issues a year and were sprinkling reprints even into the not so special issues. I was thinking that the end was surely near. And then.. and then.. it sprang back to 8 issues and suddenly all got on track. Pick it up. It’s about as good as it can get.
Your author attended the Windy City Pulp and Paperback Show in Chicago a few weeks back and collected a few gems of information. (I may also have an announcement in the near future as a result of the show.) It seemed to be a nicely attended event, although due to a funeral, I was not able to make it on Saturday. If nothing else, it was a nice contrast to the bang and clang of Wizard World or whatever they are calling that Thing That Used To Be The Chicago Comicon.
I’m not even sure it is the Chicago Comicon. The Chicago Comicon was at the Pick Congress Hotel. The other things that have followed it have been either something far less or far different than the old event. I know the Pick Congress was (1) expensive (2) falling apart and (3) in a decades long labor dispute and ownership struggle, but it had a character that is really hard to replace. Those wonderful ballrooms, for instance. Even the ballways of the Pick Congress were nicer than any part of the Donald Stevens Convention Center, where Wizard is held.
(Not that I am still 10, but there is something wrong about hosting a comic book convention—a place to play homage to imaginary superheroes—in a convention center named after a real life super-criminal. For those of you not in the know, the little town of Rosemont is OWNED by a very nasty little part of the Chicago Underworld.)
I mention the Chicago Comicon because I ran into Larry, its originator and former operator, at Windy City. Larry is still alive. Moreover, he does not seem to have changed a bit. For just a few minutes, I was 12 again, having just navigated public transit to a bad neighborhood in the city, entered the sprawl to the wall splendor of the front of the store and was face to face with someone randomly gesticulating while not looking at me. Damn, it was good to see him. I told him that, too. Per Larry:”It’s good to be seen.”
I told you I was writing a novel, right? Ok. Well, I’m writing another one. Not because the first one is done. No, no. We don’t do that around here. No linear thinking. The other novel is going to involve some time keeping on my part, so my if my missives here get scattty, you will know why. I have invited some other author types to post, on similar historical subjects, but I have yet to get squat.
I have a short story I will be presenting soon and then an agenda of upcoming posts. Once novel two is done, I will be revamping the website again. In the mean time, please bare with me.
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