Johnny Cash's evangelical comic from the Bronze Age

Relevant magazine wrote about a Christian-themed comic produced by singer Johnny Cash in 1976, illustrated by Al Hartley, who'd worked for Archie for 3 decades or so:

In 1976, at the height of his fame, Cash handed his life story to a 32-page evangelical comic book. It was called ‘Hello, I’m Johnny Cash,’ it cost less than fifty cents, and it was drawn by a man who spent three decades drawing Archie.

Z2 Comics is reissuing it for its 50th anniversary, on September 23.

The original came from Spire Christian Comics, an imprint of the religious publisher Fleming H. Revell, which spent the ’70s turning testimonies into newsprint — ‘The Cross and the Switchblade,’ ‘God’s Smuggler,’ ‘The Hiding Place.’ The script was by Billy Zeoli, an evangelical film producer who ran Gospel Films and sent Gerald Ford a weekly devotional the entire time Ford was in the White House. [...]

The book does not sand the story down. There’s a panel of Cash backstage surrounded by women, thinking “IT’S GONNA BE TOUGH LIVIN’ A CHRISTIAN LIFE IN THIS BUSINESS!!!” There’s the word DECEPTION in red across a spilled pill bottle. There’s a phone call where June Carter tells him she has thrown his pills away and he asks what he’s supposed to do now, and she tells him to read the Gideon Bible in his room, and he asks her to read hers to him instead. Philippians 4:13 runs across a close-up of his eyes. He takes more pills on the next page anyway, and there’s a police car.

The last page has him in a boat with June and their son, holding up a fish, over Proverbs 22:6. [...]

The reissue runs $9.99, limited to 1,000 copies, with new covers by Chip Kidd and Tim Bradstreet and an essay by comics writer Alex Segura. [...]

That they're charging even close to 10 dollars for this is the only problem here, because if this isn't something book length, why force anybody to pay even that much for a story that's just 32 pages? That's decidedly unfair to anybody who thinks this makes a worthy read. Stories like this, biographical or otherwise, are unlikely to be published today by the majors, based on all the PC that's brought down entertainment and morale, and charging $10 for something short is no improvement.

Rolling Stone has a surprising thing to tell about Cash's history though:

Johnny Cash was a lot of things — devout Christian, country superstar, anti-Vietnam activist, variety show host. But folks might not remember him as the writer and star of his own comic book, Hello, I’m Johnny Cash. Now, that little-known comic is getting a 50th-anniversary rerelease from Z2 Comics, set to come out on Wednesday, Sept. 23, which is Local Comic Store Day.

Wow, depending how you view this, it's rather surprising a guy who's said to be pious would oppose a war against communism at the time. If he didn't denounce the Viet Cong, that's honestly a problem, because we shouldn't devalue the lives of innocent foreigners, and it was the failure to destroy the commie HQ in northern Vietnam that made the war a big loss, and one that leftists exploited for destroying morale ever further.

I think Judeo-Christian-themed comics like these, along with biographical ones, can have potential, but that doesn't mean we should approve of people taking lenient views on how to deal with barbarism that grows overseas. That's also what led to tragedies like September 11, 2001, and importing bad ideologies like Islam to the USA only made the situation worse. I'm sure Cash was a talented musician in his time. But it's a shame he had to be the kind of guy who may have catered to the wrong crowd regarding how to wage a war against tyrants. That didn't improve the situation in the long run at all.

Basketball star develops a comic with Archie

Variety reports Shaquille o'Neal, famous veteran basketball player, is developing a comic at Archie, about the history of a former African king who'd fallen victim to slavery and gained freedom through piracy:

NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal has partnered with Archie Comics to develop “Vengeance Unchained: The Legend of Black Caesar,” a new comic book series about the rise of the mythological West African pirate. Stephanie Williams will write the series, while Ray-Anthony Height and Studio Sky-Tiger will handle the art.

The official logline for “Vengeance Unchained” reads, “An African king of extraordinary physical presence must navigate the brutal transformation from royalty to slavery to piracy, searching for his kidnapped love while discovering that freedom in the Caribbean comes only to those willing to take it by force.”

“Growing up I always loved stories about warriors who refused to quit,” said O’Neal. “Black Caesar starts as a king, loses everything, and takes his freedom back on his own terms. That’s the kind of story I want to help tell. We built something that’s going to entertain you and make you think, and I’m ready for the world to see what we created with Archie Comics, an iconic brand I have been a big fan of for many years. Archie has such an incredible legacy of storytelling and being able to collaborate with a brand that has meant so much to generations of fans made this project even more exciting for me.”

What I don't understand is why O'Neal wants to do this with a company that's long succumbed to wokery, and based on that, is hardly the best place to do such a project. There's bound to be plenty of independent publishers where he could've produced this project, and it would've been just as significant. I'm sure the history O'Neal's building on has importance, but doing it at Archie is decidedly not recommended. They tainted their legacy in the past 15 years, and it still doesn't seem like they'll ever mend it.

What some specialty stores had to tell for FCBD

The Kingston Whig-Standard in Canada wrote about Free Comic Book Day, and told the following:

In Kingston, local comic retailers and educators say the day is about more than giveaways — it’s about challenging perceptions and encouraging people to explore a rich, expanding world of storytelling.

Okay, here's a challenging question: were any stories that aren't PC-influenced offered? Because that's the only way this current event will work well. But if nothing of the sort's offered, what's the use of continuing with it?

KRVN880 in Nebraska also wrote about FCBD, and says:

The free day isn’t a free for all. There’s a special selection of books just for this event.

“You’re not getting old books… we have completely brand new books,” Dame said. “Everything for Free Comic Book Day is brand new comics that were made specifically for this day from all your favorite publishers.”

Those publishers include Marvel Comics, DC Comics, and Image Comics. Many offer preview editions of upcoming series, while others release special standalone issues. Dame noted that Archie titles are a consistent favorite for kids.

The event is designed to appeal to a wide audience—from longtime collectors to families with young readers.

“Free Comic Book Day is for everybody,” Dame said. “It has stuff for the little ones and it has stuff for the big ones.”

Well sure, it can be for everybody, but when they emphasize new books rather than old, it risks suggesting the older ones aren't worth their weight compared to the new ones. Also, what if the individual pamphlets are little more than advertisements for something longer, but not better? Such is the case regarding recent fare from DC/Marvel, and quite possibly Image. Better still, just what items do they have for children, and from where? If they were dishing out stuff like this, that would be very bad, and the same could be said if they were dishing out political propaganda.

I'm sure there are some decent items that could be offered for FCBD and the recent rival event formed. But their failure to identify any of them clearly is problematic, and another reason why this is hardly an event to celebrate anymore.

After nearly 3 decades, Newsarama is closed down

Popverse, which, ideologically speaking, isn't all that different from Newsarama, announced the latter site's been closed down by Games Radar, the last to maintain ownership:

The storied comic news site Newsarama is seemingly defunct, after a series of layoffs by parent company Future PLC resulted in the elimination of the last dedicated person working on the website. Long-time Newsarama staff writer George Marson announced earlier this month that they had been laid off earlier this month as part of a broader round of cuts across the journalism & events corporation. [...]

Newsarama was formally launched in 1998 and quickly became one of the primary places to get news, interviews, and commentary on the North American comic book industry online. The site changed as the comics industry and the digital industries changed, and following a series of acquisitions, it was folded into the comics vertical of the website GamesRadar.com by 2018, while keeping the Newsarama branding, alongside other publications including Total Film and SFX. In the past 12 months however, the Newsarama branding on the GamesRadar.com website was largely eliminated, with the comics coverage remaining left as a secondary vertical and writing efforts minimized to focus primarily on games, film, & TV related to comics.

At its peak, Newsarama had a full-time staff of three with various additional writers, videographers, and others working in a freelance capacity. That was cut down to two by 2022, and, following his abrupt departure, co-founder Mike Doran was replaced by a general 'comics editor' that was shifted soon after to focus (in title and in work) on streaming TV & film, leaving Marston as the sole remaining Newsarama staffer until now.

Considering how biased they were towards the worst of the industry's leftists, their closure is no big loss. Unfortunately, Popverse is little more than a continuation of the same MO, perhaps even worse, and it's not like the writer's pointing out whether they made mistakes that need to be mended.

A writer at First Comics News, who used to work for Newsarama, tells the following:

Launched in 1998 by co-founders Matt Brady & Michael Doran, Newsarama quickly became a must-read destination during the early days of online comics coverage. It delivered breaking news, in-depth interviews, convention reports, and thoughtful analysis at a time when the internet was still finding its footing as a journalism platform. [...]

I had the privilege of contributing to Newsarama during its vibrant early online years. In 2004, I began producing interviews for the site. By 2005, I was regularly writing for both Newsarama and Comic Book Resources (CBR). Those were exciting times; the comics internet was exploding with new voices, and Newsarama sat at the center of it all.

Interviewing creators, covering trends, and helping to document the industry during a period of rapid change remain among my fondest memories in comics journalism. Newsarama wasn’t just a job; it was part of a community that connected fans directly with the people making the comics we loved. My time there bridged my earlier work at Silver Bullet Comic Books and led to my role as Public Relations Coordinator at Archie Comics starting in late 2005.

For close to three decades, Newsarama set the standard. It broke major stories, platformed emerging talent, and provided a professional home for writers who truly understood and cared about the medium. Many of us who built careers in this space, whether as journalists, publicists, or creators, passed through its virtual pages.

Yes, please tell us about it. There's quite a few who don't, no matter what they say. Otherwise, we wouldn't have had the embarrassments seen since the early 2000s, like Avengers: Disassembled, Identity Crisis, Infinite Crisis, Civil War, One More/Brand New Day and Forever Evil. They never argued whether fandom should ask if it's time to boycott the Big Two, if company wide crossovers, forced villifications, forced leftist politics and forced erasure of the Spider-marriage signaled they were going way too far at the expense of talented writing and artwork.

The comics community is resilient. New voices and platforms will rise to fill the gap, First Comics News among them, where I continue the work I started decades ago. But we should take a moment to honor what Newsarama accomplished and thank the journalists, editors, and contributors who made it special.

There was nothing special in it, since the writers never took objective stances on what Marvel/DC were doing wrong. Not even Dark Horse and Image. In past years, they fluff-coated the topic of deaths in company wide crossovers, they even gushed over the worst of Green Lantern stories, sugarcoated the forced replacement of Dr. Strange with Clea using his codename (and IIRC, she was later replaced too), and made no distinction between best and worst Spider-Man writers. Some of those examples may be more recent forms of tabloid nonsense they wrote up, but with that kind of propaganda being put out, is it any wonder if nobody liked their news in the end? Yet the former contributor saw fit to fluff-coat the site's MO, serving as little more than an apologist, and if that's how it's going to be, he can't be surprised if nobody cares in the end.

Newsarama won't be missed. But it's clear Popverse and First Comics News won't be good successors, if their sugary tales say anything. I have no thanks to offer, so long as they don't focus on how it's possible for propagandists like them to make serious mistakes, much like the industry insiders.

FCBD will see changes, based on new competing event with different publishers

Fox8 reports that this year's Free Comic Book Day held in the Piedmont Triad area (North Carolina) will also see another alternate event, previously mentioned here:

Historically, many of the major comic publishers, including giants Marvel and DC, have participated in the event together. This year, however, the event is splitting in two.

The breakup follows after Diamond Comic Distributors went bankrupt in 2025, leaving other companies to swoop in and pick up where Diamond left off.

The rights to the “Free Comic Book Day” brand were sold to Universal Distribution, which plans to bring Free Comic Book Day back on May 2. On the same day, Penguin Random House plans to launch a rival event called Comics Giveaway Day.

This means you’ll still get plenty of free comics, but this time they will be separated with some coming under the Free Comic Book Day branding and others arriving under the Comics Giveaway Day branding.

Free Comic Book Day will include publishers like DC, Image, Dynamite and Archie Comics.

Comics Giveaway Day will include publishers such as Marvel, Dark Horse, Boom! Studios and Tokyopop.

They certainly did split into 2 rival events, with 3-4 publishers each, if we go by what's listed. But what if any of their offerings amount to little more than "throwaway day"? Years ago when FCBD first launched, I obtained a few items that weren't worth the paper they were printed upon, artistically speaking. So why must we assume this year's double event will be any improvement? I have no idea why Marvel decided to shift to a competing event, unless they believe there's still plenty of mindless zombies out there who'll buy their books no matter what the quality, or lack thereof, but this really isn't anything to be excited about anymore. Interesting though that the company who must've bought some of Diamond's old assets is actually going to continue FCBD though. Because who knows if it'll turn a profit for them any more than it ever did for Diamond? For all we know, it probably won't.

Artist for Archie sugarcoats their shift to wokeness

An artist named Bill Golliher, who's worked for Archie, was interviewed by Outlook, and unshockingly, he justifies their forced shifts to wokeness over the past 15 years:

How have Archie characters evolved to reflect contemporary diversity and gender dynamics without losing the essence of Riverdale?

We adapt to cultural and social progress thoughtfully. A big way we introduce new themes is through new characters like Kevin Keller in the 1990s, who resonated deeply with readers and is still part of the universe today. If a character representing newer identities or contemporary issues connects with the audience, they stay. The approach ensures representation without destabilising the original personalities that define Riverdale.

Without clear sales figures to back that up, his claim falls flat on its face. And why does he inaccurately say the 1990s, when it was only about 15 years ago they introduced the Keller character? Oddly enough, for the next question, he answers:

What is the future of print comics in a world increasingly shifting to digital?

Print hasn’t become obsolete yet, and we hope it never does. There’s something irreplaceable about holding a comic book. That said, younger audiences increasingly prefer digital formats, and we embrace that too. Digital also opens new possibilities—animation, interactivity and emerging technologies like AI could expand the storytelling canvas. So, the future isn’t print or digital. It’s both, coexisting to serve different kinds of readers.

Gee, doesn't that kind of put his claims of resonation in question for how the Keller character is viewed? If, as this suggests, not many are buying their printed books, why should we buy that digital sales are doing any better? Golliher's talk of digital viewing conflicts with what he says about printed books, and his defense of AI could signal he's doesn't have much faith in traditional human effort. Also, though not clearly mentioned in the article, their shift to horror is another appalling issue.

I guess he's the kind of artist who just isn't very dedicated to the job he works in, so much as he is to wokeness. One must also wonder how much longer a company like Archie will be in business, since if their comics aren't selling as well as they want everyone to believe, then how have they gotten as far as they have till now?

Archie crosses over with Army of Darkness, and Canadian schools remove explicit GNs from library shelves

There've decidedly been far too many pointless combinations of various comics properties of recent, and the following news from Comic Book Club Live makes clear Archie's still going miles out of their way to emphasize the horror genre:

Archie Comics is in a crossover renaissance, thanks to the one-shot Archie Meets Jay and Silent Bob, which introduced the Riverdale teens to Kevin Smith’s creations, and Archie vs. Minor Threats, a currently running miniseries pitting them against Patton Oswalt and Jordan Blum’s C-tier supervillains. Well, get ready for the hat trick, as Archie and Dynamite have announced an upcoming crossover between Archie and Army of Darkness.

This isn’t the first time the two publishers have crossed over. Previously, they released a 12-issue-long crossover between Betty and Veronica and Red Sonja and Vampirella. And while there were no further details released about this upcoming crossover, including creative team on the book, issue count, release date, or even the actual title, Dynamite does promise that this is “the first in a series of crossovers,” calling it “part of a new multi-title deal for a slate of blockbuster pop culture collaborations.”

This also comes at an interesting time for both publishers. While Dynamite is reportedly struggling thanks to the ongoing situation with the bankrupt Diamond Comics Distributors, Archie Comics has also reportedly been seeing some issues, including declining release of their classic digest editions. However, things seem to be turning around, as Archie recently announced a movie adaptation from writer Tom King, and there’s a rumored Disney+ adaptation of Afterlife with Archie as well.

It makes little difference whether Army of Darkness is based on the Sam Raimi film, which was a form of horror comedy, it's still touting the horror theme all the same, and doesn't improve the sad situation Archie's sinking into as well when they participate in such a project. But interesting the news site's telling us Archie's seen a slump in sales for their publications, as that suggests their woke pandering has taken a toll on their output. And who knows, it might also suggest they may not last much longer as a publisher with the woke way they're going.

Interestingly enough, this article also notes that Canadian schools in the Alberta province are removing books, including GNs, considered sexually explicit, and for this, they actually complain about alleged censorship:

In the latest case of mass book banning, Edmonton Public Schools in Canada will reportedly remove 200 books, including several graphic novels.

The news comes from Bleeding Cool via the CBC, per a memo from the schools, which states that, “Following a division review process, the following books have been identified as containing explicit sexual content.” As usual with these sorts of bans, beyond YA books by John Green and classics like The Handmaid’s Tale, Brave New World, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Perks of Being a Wallflower all being pulled, the books also contain a fair amount of LGBTQ+ subject matter branded as “sexual content.”

That includes Gender Queer, the Oni Press graphic novel frequently listed as the most banned book in America, as well as Saga, Watchmen, Fun Home, Blankets, Preacher and bizarrely only the eighth volume of Giant Days.

Let's be clear for starters that if the GNs in focus aren't suitable for children under 13, in example, then they don't belong in schools where underaged children go to learn. And second, the aforementioned GNs like Gender Queer have some of the most explicit content on the market, making it all the more horrific these comics were even allowed within the schools to start with. And CB Club actually thinks this is okay in every way, shape and form for schools with underaged children? Wait, do they believe that only LGBT content should get a free pass? It's regrettable there seems to be a certain segment in society that thinks homosexuality is better for children than heterosexuality. I guess boys and girls shouldn't be falling in love with each other, huh? But then, this same news site previously indicated they don't care about Spider-Man's marriage to Mary Jane Watson, so I guess there's more than meets the eye to all the contempt that was heaped upon Spidey and his lady fair back in 2007.

This certainly makes clear some alleged pop culture commentators have no respect for parenthood or the well being of children, nor do they have any respect for what Archie once stood for, considering how for nearly 15 years now, they've also gone miles out of their way to lionize LGBT ideology with the creation of the Kevin Keller character, and using such a character as a platform for promotion. Archie's long past relevance, and how they still survive today is bewildering.

A movie based on Archie is in planning, with Tom King as writer

Shortlist says there's a live action adaptation of Archie being planned, but with a terrible comics-to-screen scriptwriter attached:

Anyone who is a fan of the classic Archie comics - or who fangirled over the Spider-Verse series - is about to get seriously excited, as a feature adaptation of the Archie comic books is officially in the world.

Universal Pictures is at the helm of the franchise adaptation, along with Spider-Verse producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller.

There’s always a lot of pressure on the writers to make these adaptations meet the expectations of every nerd who's already getting excited about them (it’s us, we’re the nerds), so it’s not surprising they’ve drafted an Eisner-winning comic book author. Tom King will be turning his hand to screenwriting, penning the script for the as-yet-untitled Archie movie. We currently don’t have any plot details for the film, though as these are being kept firmly under wraps - although anyone who is an avid fan will have some idea of the possible antics thanks to the comics.

Well this is very bad news alright, but surely not a surprise when you consider how woke the producers themselves already could've been. So it's almost hilarious they're lecturing us that the assigned screenplay scribes are pressed to make things meet expectations. Especially when the original comics were victimized as much as Marvel/DC have already been. But in the end, it's not a funny matter at all, and with somebody like King at the helm, it's bound to be even less funny indeed. What if the screenplay he brews up incorporates a lot of the contrived traumatic situations he already put in other mainstream comics he's written?

It wouldn't surprise me if any planned Archie film turns out to be a financial flop, and something tells me it's unlikely to lead to more films for a teenage crowd, like there used to be up until possibly 15 years ago. Now, movies aimed at teens, last time I looked, were largely scarce, thanks to all the PC that's ruined mainstream moviegoing today. With somebody as awful a writer as King assigned to develop a screenplay, it'd be best to stay away from this film project.

Update: when the Hollywood Reporter brought this news up, they said:

Archie Comics, over an 85-year history, has sold over three billion comics worldwide and retains a massive social media presence. The Archie gang debuted in 1941’s Pep Comics No. 22, and many of the publisher’s stories harken back to the idea of small-town Americana.

While historically Archie has not had sales that rival comic book giants Marvel and DC Comics, the property enjoys strong brand recognition thanks to decades of its comics being sold at grocery store checkout lines.

The sales figures may have made sense from a historical perspective, but today, they hardly sell much, and no better than Marvel/DC, with figures that can be in the low thousands (yet no clear sales figures are given from recent times), and do they still sell in grocery stores? I wouldn't be shocked if they aren't, if at all, considering how insular the medium became since the mid-90s, and comics were all but relegated to specialty stores. Let's also not forget they've also degenerated into horror themes in recent years, and that too, along with divisive politics, has taken away from any entertainment value they may have once had. That the trade paper isn't clear about that is unsurprising.

Dan Parent is unqualified for promoting Indian comics in the USA

The Times of India tells that Archie writer/artist Dan Parent, quite a leftist ideologue, allegedly supports Indian comics finding wider availability in the USA:

Renowned American comic book artist and writer Dan Parent is celebrated for introducing gender diversity to Archie Comics.

He made waves in 2010 with the introduction of Kevin Keller, the first openly gay character in the Archie universe. "It was a ground-breaking moment in comic book history. Creating Kevin was about taking a more inclusive and diverse approach to storytelling," Parent told TOI in an exclusive interview.

He consistently pushed boundaries in comic storytelling. His innovative work on ‘Love Showdown' series, exploring mature themes within Archie-Veronica-Betty dynamics, significantly modernised the franchise. "Over the years, I saw a lot more artists, including me, writing their own work. As far as adapting to younger audiences is concerned, you have to look at modern trends and styles that attract kids today. But you have to maintain enough of the classic traits of the characters, too," said Parent.

What about values of good taste? That's not what he did when he shoehorned LGBT propaganda into their output in the past 15 years. And all this time, Parent and his cronies threw away a big chance to explore something like customs of countries like India itself and Thailand, including but not limited to their religious practices. And on the topic of drawing in younger audiences? They've failed because they're not being inspiring. The only "modern" trends they speak of are LGBT ideology. Which is actually part of the "mature" themes they speak of, and the boundaries he was pushing. But it's nothing challenging at all compared to what he could've explored on a most serious basis, like foreign nationalities. But all men like him seem to care about is LGBT issues and leftism.

Following his successful stint at Comic Con Bengaluru last year, Parent expressed admiration for Indian comics and advocated wider availability of Indian comic books in the US. "I was introduced to some Indian comic books, and I am amazed at the scope of content that India is producing. I wish it was more readily available back in the US. I've definitely noticed parallels between Western and Indian comics because general themes of justice, freedom, and fun are universal," he said. Reflecting on OTT adaptations like 'Riverdale', 'Sabrina', and so on, Parent remarked, "The main thing I notice about these live-action shows is that they introduced these characters to a whole new audience. A lot of Riverdale viewers weren't even aware it was based on a comic book series." [...]

Currently immersed in Archie Summer stories and crafting covers for Fall and Winter 2025 editions, Parent anticipates evolution in comic storytelling. "I see more diverse graphic novels and non-superhero themes happening, along with adaptations of classic stories in this format. I am also working on a new sketchbook with some sketch covers to draw on and also a few things that should be announced soon," he said.

One can only wonder if that alludes to the kind of "diversity" he specializes in himself. Which is why he's unqualified for promoting India's comics in the USA, and something tells me the crowd he allegedly panders to stateside wouldn't care for them anyway. Also, has it ever occurred to Parent that, if even Archie themselves have dealt with horror themes, that's not truly "fun" that he speaks of? It's definitely not optimism, let alone humorous subject matter. Maybe what he fails to consider is that, if more artists and writers like him are doing their own work, it would've served him better to put a character like Kevin Keller who's characterized as homosexual in a separate property that Parent himself were to create. Instead, he shoehorned such a character into an established franchise whose company no longer has faith to market to children anymore. Which makes what Parent said laughable. A shame the convention in India welcomed somebody like him to attend. They deserve much better than such a wokester.

Harley Quinn doesn't belong on a fashion list for Intl. Women's Day

Elle's India affiliate listed five comics heroines - and unfortunately, at least one villainess - whose fashions they think could be a great citation for International Women's Day. The decidedly inappropriate choice they added is none other than Harley Quinn, and they put it all across rather confusingly:

She’s the gleeful character who battles villains, while wearing clown makeup, replete with her signature red and black top and shorts with matchy socks. Once just a sidekick-turned-Joker flame, she blazes away at the baddies in her girlish-meets-fierce personality, depicting a sense of complete freedom. Quinn has seen a gamut of style changes — she once wore a jumpsuit, followed by bodice-pants and pigtails, going from blonde to black hair. No one could pull this off better than Margot Robbie! Her punk portrayal of the character in 'Suicide Squad (2016)' makes nasty look cool, with shorts, spikes, graphic tops, dark makeup and differently coloured ponytails. Guess what? Lady Gaga has also channelled Harley Quinn on a number of occasions in her quirky pigtails and leather ensembles.

Gee, Lady Gaga took inspiration from Quinn? That's too bad. HQ may have battled villains not unlike what she herself was characterized as for over 30 years, but the point is, despite what they ambiguously make it sound like here, she's a murderous villainess, and her portrayal as the years went by was nothing short of insulting to the intellect. Maybe if she could be remade as an honest character, or an antiheroine like Catwoman was written as, they'd be getting somewhere. For now, however, HQ remains largely canonized as a lethal lunkhead, and is not a good role model for women and girls at all. If they're alluding to the movie editions, I'm sorry, it's no excuse. Nor is it good to make nastiness look "cool". And what's this about "freedom"? Not if Quinn's still a lethal villainess, and if she was written taking innocent lives, that just makes this all the more problematic.

Interestingly enough, the list doesn't include any Marvel heroines, despite how Invisible Girl could make a good choice, and even Scarlet Witch could, certainly if you don't go by the abominable direction Brian Bendis took her on during the 2000s in Avengers: Disassembled, a characterization that regrettably was employed for TV shows and films like WandaVision and Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Storm would make another excellent choice if they wanted to. Why, even the real Ms. Marvel, Carol Danvers, could've made a great choice, but something tells me they wouldn't even dream of researching her early stories to make that point. All they'd likely care about is the Muslim Ms. Marvel Kamala Khan, despite how politically motivated her creation was, and despite what a failure recent attempts to adapt the character to live action turned out to to be.

And now that I recall, the Birds of Prey movie featuring HQ was also a disaster, so it's hardly new if HQ isn't proving as successful a franchise as the press makes it sound like. For now, it's sad how a character who's often been consistently portrayed as a villainess is made to look like a great choice for stuff where, based on her characterization, she's an inappropriate selection, and is thus an embarrassment to Intl. Women's Day.

Matthew Rosenberg talked about his time working in music

Leftist comics writer Matthew Rosenberg was interviewed by Dying Scene, where, along with a new comic he's written titled What's the Furthest Place From Here, he also told them about a career he had in music distribution:

Dying Scene (Forrest Gaddis): For people who aren’t familiar with you, can you give us a little background and tell us a little bit about What’s The Furthest Place From Here?

Matthew Rosenberg: I’m in New York City. I’m from here. I grew up in the punk and hardcore scene in New York. I used to run a small indie label (Red Leader Records) in my bedroom, tour with bands, put on shows, but eventually I worked at a merch company for a while. All the stuff that is punk rock jobs; I worked at a record store, worked at record labels. Putting out records was really kind of brutal. We were putting out records in a time of the rise of iTunes. Everything’s online and people were downloading things and it was hard to figure out how to sell music to people. We just kept having distributors go out of business on us. We put the label away and stopped doing it. I sort of looked for another job that I could do that was something I was as passionate about as music and punk rock. The only other thing in my life that was a constant was comics. So, I set out to make comics. I’ve been a comics writer professionally for a decade now. I got my start at Black Mask Comics. They first published me which was really serendipitous because they were all punk rock people. Black Mask was founded by Steve Niles who wrote 30 Days of Night.

Dying Scene: Okay, is it Steve Niles? I always thought it was Brett (Gurewitz) from Epitaph also?

Matthew Rosenberg: Yeah, it was also founded by Steve, who was in a bunch of Dischord bands back in the day. He was in a group with Matt Pizzolo, who is the third partner. He was a Long Island hardcore guy and put out the New York Hardcore documentary and a bunch of music stuff. I had friends who knew him. I went through Black Mask and did a couple books there and then moved on to Marvel. Now, I make books at DC and Image including What’s the Furthest Place From Here? which is my current ongoing series that I do with Tyler Boss.

With his politics, that he forced upon the Punisher, it's hard to see how he does better with this, even if this time, he's working on his own creations and productions. But, this does tell why he went into comicdom more than music. Because the downloading business all but rendered the music distribution business obsolete.

Dying Scene: Did you and Tyler come up with the concept together?

Matthew Rosenberg: Yeah, me and Tyler did a book together called Four Kids Walk Into A Bank and we knew we wanted to do another book together after that. So we started doing a different book and we realized that it was just Four Kids Walk Into A Bank, but sci-fi. We realized we didn’t want to do the same thing again. So, we sat down and tried to think of a book that would be very different from the book we made before and that’s some of What’s the Furthest Place from Here is. We wanted to do something that was big, sort of sci-fi and post-apocalyptic, ongoing, and had a big cast. We wanted to tell a story about kids who grew up in subculture, if that makes sense. We didn’t want to do a story about kids who loved comics and I said it should be kids who love punk rock. It should be kids who grew up surrounded by punk rock whether or not they fully understood it. The premise of What’s The Furthest Place From Here? is, it’s a post-apocalyptic story where there’s no adults left in the world. It’s just gangs of children and each gang lives in a building where they take on the personality of the business or the entity in the building beforehand. So, the kids who live in the bank control commerce and the kids who live in the police station try and enforce their own laws and rules on people. Our story follows the kids who grew up in a record store. They worship all the records that they grew up around and consider them their gods. They take care of them and try to do right by them. I’ve been working on it now for four years.

Based on how he describes the teens living at the police precinct, it wouldn't be shocking if it turned out they were the baddies, and this GN another metaphor for leftist anti-police propaganda. That's practically why Donald Trump was elected 4 months ago. Why, it wouldn't be a surprise if, based on what's told about the teen bankers, this were also an anti-capitalist metaphor.

Dying Scene: Has anybody asked about doing a film or TV adaptation of What’s The Furthest Place From Here?

Matthew Rosenberg: I can’t talk too much about that, but we have a deal for it. It’s being developed now. The thing I can talk about is that when you put out a comic on a certain level, like an Image Comic, it’s very much on the radar of a lot of Hollywood people from the go. They’re always looking out for things to adapt and buy, and so when a book comes out that’s like our book, you get a lot of inquiries from the start. You get a lot of producers and actors and directors and studios just asking if the rights are available? It’s always flattering, but me and Tyler knew that we were doing a huge story, and we’re doing a sort of non-traditional story. In a lot of comics, you read the first issue and it says, well, this is the premise of the book. These are the good guys. These are the bad guys. You’re going to follow them. Our book doesn’t work like that. We wanted to do a real three-act structure through the whole narrative of thirty-plus issues. You don’t really know what the book is about for a long time, and we didn’t want to go into conversations with people about adapting it or buying it or anything without them knowing what it was. We told everyone, we’re not going to have conversations about selling it or optioning it until we’re 10 issues out. We took it off the market immediately, which business-wise is probably stupid, but artistically I think was the right choice to do. When we brought it back out, we had meetings with all these people and big studios. A lot of them said, well, how would you see this as being a movie? I don’t have any idea how you’d make this a movie. It’s got this huge scale. Then we met with one company who said, “We know how to do it. It would be super faithful. We want you guys involved. This is how we do it.” It just made so much sense what they said. We don’t need to go out and have a bidding war on this. They understand what it is and they want to do it. They brought in some amazing people to work on it. So we’re really excited because people who’ve done some of my favorite stories in recent years are attached.

Dying Scene: I saw that you were in Ireland because they are making Four Kids Walk Into A Bank a movie.

Matthew Rosenberg: Yeah, me and Tyler went over to Dublin for a week right before Christmas. I think they just wrapped shooting the other day. Shooting over six weeks in and around Ireland. It’s really fun. It was a weird one.

Dying Scene: Did they do a good job matching it to Tyler’s art?

Matthew Rosenberg: Me and Tyler are producers on the movie, so nothing caught us off guard. We’ve been there at every step and we’ve seen from the concept art, look books, casting, and all of that. There’s places where they made choices to go a different way, which totally made sense because the comic would be hard to adapt as a movie. There’s a lot of stuff that is specifically for comics. You want someone other really talented people to come in and say, I’m going to do my version. Like when a band does a cover song and it sounds like the original song, what was the point of this? So they took their old spin on it. It’s incredibly faithful. I think it was really intense for Tyler being in the house that looks like the house and car he drew. It’s especially funny because the car he drew was based on his grandmother’s old car. So he said, it’s really weird that someone had to go out and buy the same model car as my grandmother drove in the 90s.

Sounds like we have here yet another GN that was only produced for the sake of providing moviemakers with more material, not to mention pushing potential propaganda, even at a time when wokery's alienated many people. There have been some people who've argued comics can't be developed solely to get movie and TV deals, or even theater adaptations, and the upcoming adaptation Rosenberg and Boss have in the works only explains all the more why this is becoming quite a farce already. Even novels have for too long been used as a source for producing screenplays.

Dying Scene: I saw you did work on some of the Archie comics, too.

Matthew Rosenberg: I did. I’m really good friends with Alex Segura, who used to be a vice president of Archie. He’s a music guy and wrote Archie Meets Kiss. I said to him you should do an Archie Meets Kiss book, but with a band that doesn’t suck. The obvious one is Archie Meets Ramones. I said, how do we do that? You have to go out and get the Ramones’ license. I spent about 18 months. everything is different estates If we want the logo, that’s the licensing department. If you want likeness rights, that’s estates and that’s people. If you want to reference songs, that’s publishing. I came back to Archie and they were baffled that I did that. It did really well. The folks at Archie called me and said, we want to do a music thing. Do you want to do The Archies as a band touring and draw from some of your experience touring with bands? There was a special musical guest in every issue. And we got awesome ones. I mean, we had Blondie and Tegan and Sara, but I had lined up some more for later on. Bands that they were pretty confused by that I got. The Mountain Goats gave us permission and that was going to be fun and I was talking to Converge about coming on. I wanted to do the Archies get booked onto a hardcore show in a basement. It was a Converge show at a Legion Hall, everyone’s spin kicking and crowd killing and all this stuff. Then, The Archies have to get up and play. Then the book folded right before we were going to figure out how we were going to do the Converge one. The Archie company is owned by this family and these people who’ve owned Archie for years. They would send us notes like, can we get Van Halen? I don’t think we can get Van Halen, but also that’s not exactly selling comics to teenagers in the supermarket. I think the legal nightmare of us trying to get Van Halen in a comic is going to kill us. Whereas I just went to a Mountain Goats’ show and was like, hey, guys, can we do this?

I'm sure Rosenberg's work on Archie is bad news too. If a specific project was shelved, however, it's fortunate, because the less propaganda like his on the market, the better. And selling to teens? They threw all that away long ago for the sake of PC. Whatever they've been writing up in the past decade has been bottom of the barrel, woke stuff, including how the Kevin Keller character is depicted as homosexual, and how they put such an emphasis on horror themes, another serious issue plauging the entertainment scene of recent.

Dying Scene: The other thing I saw online randomly, and I have to ask, is you wrote an album with a member of the Wu-Tang Clan?

Matthew Rosenberg: My first published comic, I got hired through music people to write the companion comic to an album by Ghostface called, 12 Reasons to Die that RZA produced. I did a six-issue comic that was a concept album of a story of a mobster who got killed. Ghostface played the mobster who got killed and came back from the dead to haunt the twelve gangsters who killed him. I wrote the comic to it. I got along with RZA and Ghost. Ghost wanted to do another concept record. It was weird, he did a 12 Reasons to Die 2 that I didn’t work on. Adrian Younge, the producer, and his team put that album together, but then Ghost wanted to do another concept album that was sort of similar. They hired me to write a story. It’s called 36 Seasons. Tommy Boy put it out. I wrote the story. They said, we don’t really know how to do this. It’s just a story. You didn’t break it up. I broke it up into songs. This is what the song is. You have to figure out who the guest vocalists are and give them characters. We can figure out who they are and where they appear. I had all these conversations with legal where they said, we can’t do that because of music publishing and the way it works, you didn’t write lyrics or music. While the whole thing is based on your writing, there’s not a legal definition for what it is. you’re an influence. I literally titled the album. I think I named some of the songs, but not all of them. None of those fall under ASCAP BMI songwriting.

Well there's another form of darkness produced even within the framework of the music industry we could do without. Sometimes, I wonder if even musicians are too hung up on darkness, and sadly, probably have been for a long time. And here's more about another comic Rosenberg recently published:

Dying Scene: So looking ahead, I know you got, We’re Taking Everyone Down With Us.

Matthew Rosenberg: Yeah. I won’t say where I got the title from, but I am a big Against Me! fan from the No Idea days and back. Coincidence.

Dying Scene: Do you want to give a little bit of the premise of it?

Matthew Rosenberg: We’re Taking Everyone Down With Us is sort of a 1970s James Bond type spy story about sexy super spies, crazy mad scientists, power-hungry humans, but it’s told from the POV of a 13-year-old girl who is the daughter of the world’s greatest scientist. Everything goes wrong for the girl, she discovers who her father is at the same time that the world discovers who he is and where he has been hiding. She and her robot guard set out with sort of a choice whether she wants to follow in her father’s newly discovered footsteps and become this villain and get revenge for the wrongdoings that have been done to her and her family; or she could go and live a normal life for the first time. It’s a revenge story about family and regret and the way violence sort of ripples through their lives. The way that generations of anger and resentment and hate sort of manifest. It’s a dark comedy too. I made it sound like a bummer, but it is actually funny. That comes out March 26.

Even the mention of "dark comedy" is cause for dismay, as is the talk of violence as a tool used by the star characters in the comic. At the end, they say:

Dying Scene: Thank you very much for this. This was awesome.

Matthew Rosenberg: Thank you, I never get to talk about the music. Comics people don’t know what to say about music stuff. You meet a lot of people in comics doing this. When I worked at Black Mask, most of the staff at Black Mask was straight edge, punk rock and hardcore kids.

Dying Scene: I feel comics are the punk rock art form.

Matthew Rosenberg: Yeah, I always think that it’s pretty egalitarian. There’s a low bar to entry and anyone can do it. It’s like mini-comics are our demo tapes or 7-inches. I think it’s a really good way to put it.

Unfortunately, the "low bar" is more easily accessed by leftists, certainly in the mainstream. That's how Rosenberg got the assignments he did in the past decade. Alas, he's just another overrated liberal ideologue, and it won't be surprising if, in another number of years, nobody will care much about his pretentious stories.

IGN serves as apologist for Diamond

IGN's writing apologia for Diamond Distribution, which as previously reported is filing for Chapter 11 due to bankruptcy:

So what exactly is going on with Diamond right now? The gist is that Diamond was, until relatively recently, the only major distributor of monthly comics in the US. The company had a de facto monopoly on the market, to the point that the Justice Department opened an investigation back in 1997 (one it ultimately closed without pursuing further action). To their credit, Diamond helped the industry survive and eventually thrive again after the dark days of the mid-’90s comic book crash, but they’ve also been steadily criticized over the years for substandard customer service and a failure to innovate.

You could also say the same thing about Marvel/DC in modern times. They certainly failed to prove entertaining without being alienating, and abandoned good taste to boot.

While many of these publishers still sub-distribute through Diamond (meaning comic shops can order through Diamond if they prefer), the number of publishers exclusive to Diamond has steadily dwindled over the past several years. Their biggest exclusives remaining include Dynamite Entertainment, DSTLRY, Valiant Entertainment, and Archie Comics.

Unsurprisingly, Diamond - a company already battered by the COVID-19 pandemic - has struggled to deal with the loss of so much revenue. Late last year, they closed their Plattsburgh, New York, warehouse, thereby consolidating their entire operation to a single warehouse. In recent weeks, many comic shop owners have voiced complaints about late deliveries, suggesting Diamond is struggling to keep up with demand and fulfill orders. And now we come to this.

Well how come nobody took issue with how one company monopolized the landscape, and didn't encourage others be established, or that publishers try to change their format and approach to printing and marketing? If they don't want to "upset the applecart", they have only themselves to blame for painting themselves into a corner. And if they won't complain about the dire state of artistic quality in modern comicdom, that's another reason why sales have fallen, to the point where even Diamond won't make much money from the mainstream.

Again, Diamond isn’t necessarily fading away into the ether just yet, but should the company ultimately fold, the consequences could be pretty dire for the industry. Neither Penguin Random House nor Lunar have shown much interest in catering to smaller publishers, meaning the Archies and Dynamites of the industry could be left with no means of distribution. Where do they go from there? Do they try to find alternate avenues or pivot to a digital-only business model? Is the digital market enough to sustain these publishers on its own? And what about the many creators and editors who depend on those publishers for their livelihood or their first big break?

Wow, we're supposed to care about a publisher that turned to woke pandering nearly 15 years ago? Even Dynamite went that route to some extent. If Archie collapses, it'll be their fault too, because who wants their children to read heavy-handed leftist ideology?

Diamond may no longer be the monopolistic force it once was, but it’s still an important one. It’s especially crucial to many comic shops as a source for buying collectibles and action figures. Those items tend to have much higher profit margins than comic books, which is why so many comic shops in recent years have pivoted to wall-to-wall Funko Pop! displays. Those toys pay the bills, and Diamond was the best outlet for acquiring them. Diamond Select Toys itself is one of the last companies targeting the more affordable end of the collectibles market, so it would be a real shame if they didn’t survive this situation.

If Diamond goes under, a lot of publishers and comic shops are going to be dragged down in the wake. That would in turn have ripple effects that even the larger publishers would feel. Again, PRH is Diamond’s single biggest creditor. According to ICv2’s Rob Salkowitz, the $9.2 million debt represents several years’ worth of profit for PRH. Now the biggest force in comics distribution in the US, how much would a total write-off of that debt affect PRH? How does that in turn affect big guns like Marvel and Boom? At the very least, a massive write-off would make PRH much more risk-averse and even less likely to take on the publishers left out in the cold by Diamond.

I should think there's dozens of distributors who could handle toy merchandise with discounts available, and if it's really hard to sell comics now, maybe they should just run a toy store. I certainly can't understand why anybody's expected to sell pamphlet comics, that's for sure. Another topic never explored by these propagandists.

All of this fear and uncertainty comes at a time when the industry already has plenty of both to spare. While 2024 had several very successful launches, from DC’s Absolute Universe to IDW’s star-studded TMNT relaunch, overall graphic novel sales were down 11.4% last year (despite the book market in general holding fairly steady).

If they're going to sugarcoat Jason Aaron's writing, I'm not sure what they're talking about. This also fails to consider IDW really brought themselves down to an abyss with their woke pandering and marketing, and I'd strongly recommend any independent creators part ways with them at this point.

That’s to say nothing of fears over the potential impact of the Trump administration’s proposed tariffs. American comics are largely printed in Canada, and a 25% tariff would force major price hikes across the board. $4.99 is rapidly becoming the new standard cover price for monthly comics. Will increasingly cash-strapped readers put up with a $6 or $7 cover price for a 20-page comic? At what point do people become priced out of the hobby entirely?

Why won't they ask if readers would be more comfortable buying a paperback/hardcover comic with a few hundred pages? This sure is cheap and provokes no thought at all. And the claim comics are "largely printed in Canada" is hugely exaggerated, since according to this list on LinkedIn, there are printing companies for comics in the USA, like PrintingCenterUSA, Greko and PrintNinja, and they do offer decent prices for the job. So the above is just an anti-Trump smear, which they apparently see as better than complaining why USA industry doesn't try to make its services more affordable, to say nothing of how Marvel/DC don't try to make their comics more entertaining again without vicious leftism stuffed in.

It's clear IGN's writer is not interested in encouraging the industry to better itself, artistically, businesswise, or otherwise. He wasted several paragraphs for this laughable puff piece that only excuses all the guilty parties in the downfall of comicdom that really went into hyperspeed post-2000, and the continued refusal to do so is exactly why the industry will collapse, with or without Diamond.

Archie keeps sending their cast through the gates of Hades

The Wrap reports Archie publishing's still putting their cast of characters in the depths of Hell, and this time, they've even hired one of the wokest writers to do the job:

Riverdale’s resident hero Archie goes darker in a new comic book series.

“Archie Comics: Judgment Day,” which fully plunges the gang into the heart of darkness, hits comic book stands on May 22 from the Archie Horror imprint. The three-issue miniseries is the first Archie Premium Event, “which will designate upcoming Archie stories that are simply too grand for a single one-shot release” (according to the official release).

The new series was written by Aubrey Sitterson with art by Megan Hutchison, colors by Matt Herms and letters by Jack Morelli. According to the official synopsis, this new series “sets Archie Andrews on a daring quest to cleanse an alternate version of Riverdale overrun by demons. After claiming some destructive powers of his own, Archie is forced to destroy corrupted versions of the people closest to him, ostensibly in the name of the greater good. As questions about his own morality and the sacrifices he’s made start to pile up, Archie must confront if his efforts are truly good, or in fact the work or pure evil?”

It sounds almost like they want to put the older values of the comics on trial, and even went out of their way to hire the same writer who caused a scandal several years back with his woke scripting on GI Joe at IDW when they still had the publishing license, which at the time led to his dismissal, but who knows if Hasbro would be so responsible with their products today? The Archie staff continued to gush on:

“Judgment Day is the first in a compelling slate of events. As we look to the future of Archie, we wanted to translate our success in TV and film to focus that sense of grandeur back to our core publishing efforts. With our Archie Premium Event series, we’ve imbued each project with an epic sense of storytelling that is evocative of the exciting new direction for the company,” said Jonathan Betancourt, Archie Comics Senior Vice President in an official release. “In addition to our concentrated focus on elevated storytelling, these new series are also investments for the larger comic book community, transforming what would be a normal print issue into a must-have collector’s item.”

So this isn't just a forced direction written in the depths of desperation. It's also an attempt to salvage their sales by promoting this garbage to the speculator market, no matter how much it's long become a joke that's done more harm than good to the community. But if they keep on with their woke directions, it could even have the effect of lowering the value of even the older stories from decades past, because there are investors out there who might have a problem with collecting stuff that's embarrassingly woke, and it might not be easy to trade around, as some speculators keep doing. At best, such items might be considered acceptable investment with the more woke ideologues. But then again, maybe they won't be, which would just confirm the only reason stories laced with identity politics have for being is to litter bargain bins and serve the purpose of spreading propaganda en masse.

When the speculator market becomes the foremost focus, it's obvious merit-based storytelling isn't what the publishers are interested in. And Archie's obsession with the horror genre has long gotten out of hand, becoming very insufferable.

Fishy report about what a university's doing with its comics research, and how

In this Denton Record-Chronicle article, they tell about the North Texas University's studies in comicdom, but there's something appalling that comes up:

The collection of comic books, graphic novels and manga is housed on the third floor of the Willis Library. The shelf is chock-full of newspaper comic collections, graphic adaptations of classic novels, manga, superhero comics, queer graphic novels and other must-read staples of the genre.

Just what we need to hear about. "Queer" GNs, because to them, nationalities like Bulgarian and Portuguese are worthless by comparison as an identity. The paper does, however, note that:

There is also already a concerted effort to fill the collection with award-winning books, such as Marjane Satrapi’s award-winning graphic novel Persepolis, Campbell said.

That's certainly amazing a GN like Persepolis turns up in a university like this, because something tells me anything that could be critical of Islam won't be available at these colleges much longer. But now, here's the part that's really disturbing, focused on Archie comics:

Comics studies’ next hosted event is “Into the Archieverse,” happening May 10-11. This two-day conference will be on everything Archie Comics: history, books, movies, television, music and more.

Recently, UNT gained access to the World of Archie Comics Archive for students and faculty to use, featuring back files of more than 100 comics titles from the 1940s to 2020 featuring characters and stories from the Archie universe.

The organizers of Into the Archieverse are currently accepting proposals on anything Archie, using the official archive at UNT, to present at the conference.

Think Archie in television and film, Archie fashion, Archie noir, the music of Archie, queering Archie and more — Campbell said they’re open to the unique and interesting. [...]

When they talk about "queering" Archie, that's a telling sign something's wrong. It's never enough that they already did that over a decade ago with a character called Kevin Keller, and they've probably already changed one of the established female characters into a transsexual. And it's not even enough that, no thanks to the social justice meddling, Archie stories are no longer suitable for children.

This kind of university project is exactly why nobody sensible should turn to them for reading material, and there's no chance they'll do anything creative with Archie, based on their hints at where they're going now.

Netflix is no place for even an India-themed film based on Archie

The BBC is writing about a musical film produced on Netflix, said to be based on Archie, or an India-based variation on the comics, also telling the history of how Archie comics became significant in India, and predictably, this article ends up being sugarcoated about what went wrong with how comics like these were produced. First:

The comic is back in the news, with Netflix set to launch The Archies, a musical adapted from the comic, later this year.

The coming-of-age film is based in 1960s India and explores teenage themes of love, heartbreak and rebellion through the lens of the Anglo-Indian community. The trailer has already been viewed over 800,000 times on YouTube.

The news of the film has sparked a lot of conversation among fans of the comic.

Some say the comic will benefit from having a more Indian context, while others have criticised the film for having characters that "don't look Indian". While the jury's still out on the film, there's no denying the influence Archie Comics once had over city-bred youngsters in India.

But Netflix isn't the place to broadcast it. They've produced so much content that's potentially PC-woke, and why should we assume this couldn't screw up the same way? This BBC article certainly does by the time it gets around to the following history:

By the time the comic became popular in India, it had gone out of fashion in America. Comics were popular in US in the 1950s and 60s - in fact, Archie made his debut in December 1941 - but sales began dropping towards the end of the century.

Publishers have tried to reinvent Archie Comics by adding diverse characters, including the first gay character; exploring darker plotlines tied to current issues like gun control, body shaming, recession and even the challenges of sustaining long-term relationships like marriage.

The art has evolved - the highly stylised drawings of the 50s and 60s morphed into softer, more realistic cartoonish drawings in the 90s. In the 2000s, artists experimented with digital artwork to give the comic a more modern look.

Umm, doesn't this give strong hints why the Archie franchise plummeted by the turn of the century? They resorted to LGBT ideology, and last time I looked, were still fully willing to remain nailed tight on it, and darkness is another letdown. The part about gun control is also quite telling where things have been going lately. And by body shaming, do they mean obesity? Let's be clear. Obesity is nothing to mock. But if we're not even allowed to criticize how unhealthy it can be, especially for women, then it's hard to comprehend what this is all about. Though the part about marriage is certainly eyebrow raising. In an age where marriage is being devastated all over the place, who knows if they even take an objective approach to that?

Some like Reneysh Vittal say they miss the playfulness and simplicity of the older Archie Comics. "Our generation was lucky enough to experience life just before the internet took over and for me, Archie Comics will always represent that pre-internet age of innocence," he says.

Regrettably, with the way wokeism took over their company, right down to the horror-themed stories they emphasized in recent years, there's no chance they'll ever be willing to return to a format free of the politicized themes they've forced onto the franchise. Maybe one day, if it all becomes public domain, somebody will have what it takes to conceive Archie stories in better taste than seen now. But that day is, most unfortunately, still a long way off. And again, it's not a good idea to produce movie adaptations on a network like Netflix.

Archie retcons established character into transsexual

A decade since they introduced a male homosexual character named Kevin Keller, now Archie's continuing further down the drain to practically retconning an older creation into a transsexual, as reported by Warner Todd Huston. And the worst part is that a certain moonbat who'd gone into obscurity a few years ago is helming this monstrosity:

Continuing its walk down the ultra woke path, Archie Comics is now announcing the introduction of a new transgender character.

In an upcoming issue of its offshoot line, Archie Horror, the company is set to introduce a brand new “transgender woman” character named Danni Molloy, according to an exclusive sneak peek published by Gizmodo.

While the gender angle is new, the Molloy character itself is not exactly new. The character was first introduced in the 1980s and was portrayed as a sometimes girlfriend to Riverdale’s resident genius, Dilton Doiley. But now, for issue #1 of Archie Horror’s new comic, Chilling Adventures Presents: Strange Science, Malloy will be retconned as a “transgender woman.”

The entire purpose of this one-off comic book, which is set for release in August, is to erase Molloy as a woman and recreate the character as a man who now identifies as a female.

Not mentioned in the advanced gushing over the book is whether scientist character Dilton Doiley will now be portrayed as gay or if he was duped by Molloy since the character has dated Molloy in past issues of the Archie series.

“I’ve been wanting to make this happen for a long time, and it’s really cool to see it finally come to fruition. I never wanted Danni’s trans identity to be gimmicky, or for her to feel like she was only created to be trans. So, I’d like to apologize for sneaking her over the line like this,” the writer of Archie Horror’s series Jinx’s Grim Fairy Tales, Magdalene Visaggio, told Gizmodo.

It's just like Gizmodo to gush over this kind of news, and sugarcoat a bad writer whose actual name is Brian, and who undermined at least a few other publishers with his ideology. It makes no difference whether this is an alternate universe where this retcon occurs; it's a slap in the face to the writers who originally introduced Molloy decades ago, and an embarrassment next to the original stories where Dilton dated Molloy.

And look how Archie's decided to bring a bad ideologue writer out of obscurity for the sake of another woke statement, along with continuing this wretched horror thriller line of theirs. The time's come to boycott Archie as much as Marvel/DC. They effectively destroyed a classic humor comic for the sake of something very unfunny.

Archie produces horror anthology set at summer camp

The Valdosta Daily Times is sugarcoating a new anthology special from Archie built on horror themes, which they seem to be overusing quite a bit in the past number of years:

As part of the Archie Comics horror line, “Chilling Adventures Presents ...,” Archie Comics is scheduled to publish “Camp Pickens” in June.

It will be a one-shot anthology issue featuring three horror stories, according to a statement from Archie Comics.

“Stories set at summer camp are synonymous with Archie,” Jamie L. Rotante, Archie Comics senior director of editorial, said in a statement. “Many fans will agree that some of their fondest memories were reading Archie digests while at camp. So, naturally, we had to do a camp-based horror one-shot.”

And the book will feature some of the Riverdale gang.

One must wonder why they think anybody who read their comics at camp for humor would suddenly beg for jarring mayhem instead. That's "natural"? Please. One of the stories included is this:

And there is “Down and Out and Death Cursed, a “slasher send-up” by writer Tim Seeley and artist Mike Norton.

And that's all we need, isn't it? That Archie degenerated into this kind of crude embarrassment over the past decade is despicable, yet it seems they've gone that way because horror's become far more acceptable to whole generations than comedy, recalling how just recently, Jennifer Aniston stated there's only so many who now find the 1994-2004 Friends sitcom "offensive". Yet horror themes are almost throughly acceptable, and go by without a whisper of complaint. And the worst part is that historically, the Friday the 13th series of movies from the 1980s precipitated where the entertainment industry's arrived nowadays, ditto the Nightmare on Elm Street films. Let's hope those who liked the humor comics from Archie will make sure to avoid these atrocities they're brewing at the moment, and due to the politics they've injected over the past decade, that's why they'll have to avoid all their products entirely.

A Canadian artist's creations

The Brantford Expositor interviewed a creator from Ontario who's been putting out his own adventures, sci-fi and fantasy:

Working from the conventional surroundings of his Brantford home, Andrew Thomas is helping take comic book lovers on otherworldly journeys with stories and graphics bounded only by his creativity.

And it’s earning the cartoonist, graphic designer and comic book letterer recognition in a highly competitive industry.

“There’s no limit to what you can do creatively in comics,” said Thomas. “You can have out-of-world premises, be experimental with art. You can bend the rules.”

Be that as it may, the problem neither he nor the paper actually focus upon is whether far-leftists believe it permittable to impose limits on what you can do for the right reasons. No surprise most MSM publications overlook that issue though.

He has gone on to dream up a series featuring a superhero hailing from Timmins, Ontario, and done interior and cover art for more than 150 publications, including Disney, BOOM! Studios, Archie Comics, Chapterhouse and, most recently, Dark Horse, working with one of his idols — American filmmaker, actor, comedian, and comic book writer, Kevin Smith.

This news disappointed me, because Smith's long proven he's overrated and gratuitous for a writer, and what's the use of working alongside somebody like him? Smith is more a reason for discouragement, IMO, than encouragement. And wouldn't you know it, Thomas lets know his top favorite superhero is:

Always a “doodle-bug,” Thomas had childhood aspirations of being a Disney animator but didn’t seriously begin collecting comics until 2011, when he fell in love with a re-launched series of books that included his all-time favourite superhero, Batman.

Yup, once again, we're told the Masked Manhunter is the numero uno favorite of a creator or salesman of the week, not Superman. This is getting awfully cliched already.

It's great Thomas has found success but too bad he goes for all the easy choices when it comes to who he works with, and what he reads for pastime.

Valdosta Daily Times sugarcoats work of an overrated author

The Valdosta Daily Times highlighted an Archie horror comic written by a writer whom graphic novelist Richard Meyer once described as a "dude in a dress". The comic in focus is titled Jinx: A Cursed Life:

Jinx Holliday is the “new scream queen” of the Archie horror imprint.

“Writer Magdalene Visaggio (‘Eternity Girl’) and artist Craig Cermak (‘Red Team’) reunite in a book-length sequel to their short story in the bestselling anthology ‘Jinx: Grim Fairy Tales,’” according to a statement from Archie Comics. “That sold-out special issue introduced a modernized take on the classic character as a horror icon, sharing stories from her chilling collection of arcane books which continues to play a role in the new comic.” [...]

Jinx is not new to comics. She’s nearly as old as Superman and Captain America. She was introduced as Li’l Jinx in a 1946 issue of Pep Comics. She was a regular character of bad luck and mischief throughout decades of traditional Archie comics.

And this newer comic is written by a man pretending to be a woman, whose poor conduct and bad storytelling eventually convinced some of the fools who hired him out of virtue signaling diversity to abandon him; he's been mostly gone from the comics scene for 3 years already, and is little heard of today. What's so special about something like this, building on horror cliches as it does? All Archie's done is tarnish their properties much more, subjecting more of them to these heavy-handed cliches that are less about comedy, and more about PC.

The same paper also recommended Sean Howe's Marvel Comics: The Untold Story, about a dozen years after its publication:

Anyone wanting to know or confirm or compare any of the behind the scenes activities at Marvel Comics from then to now should pick up Sean Howe’s “Marvel Comics: The Untold Story.”

While Douglas Wolk’s “All of the Marvels” put an emphasis on character origins, story arcs, various eras of various Marvel titles, with some behind the scenes action, Howe trains the spotlight on all of the back scene actions from character development to relationships to betrayals to battles for creative credits, etc., with some details about character development, stories, etc.

[...] “Marvel Comics: The Untold Story” is likely not for the casual comic book fan or even new comic book readers or fans who only know the characters from the movies.

But for long-time fans who have heard various stories about the creators of beloved characters, “The Untold Story” has quite the Marvel tale to tell.

While I did once discover excerpts showing it seems to tell some eyebrow raising details from around the early 90s, if Howe didn't remain fully objective when reaching the 2000s and the Quesada era, that's why it'd be a failure in the long run. Save for that, however, why shouldn't casual readers and moviegoers want to know about Marvel's histofy from past decades? Wouldn't it kind of defeat the purpose of learning from history to say it's only for veteran readers and devotees? It's just like a mainstream paper of this sort to spoil everything with the suggestion only core audiences could care or get into it. Though again, if Howe was unwilling to take a critical eye of the time Quesada was the EIC, that's not giving moviegoers much to think about either. And the columnist's not improving by failing to admit that.

Archie brings back Bob Phantom

And it's unlikely it'll be for altruistic reasons. The Valdosta Daily Times writes about this revival of an obscure Golden Age creation from 1939, and it sounds like they're turning the character inside out for the sake of liberal PC:

Archie Comics provided this background synopsis of the character: "By day, he’s Walter Whitney, a fledgling theater columnist with a wild imagination, but by night he’s Bob Phantom, the 'Scourge of the Underworld' — or is he?

"Using his power to become immaterial, Walt beats up criminals and then breaks the news of his exploits in his newspaper column ... but New York City is not as it once was and with less crime that means less news. So, if there’s no crime left to fight, there’s only one thing to do: create enemies. Is Bob Phantom really the Scourge of the Underworld, or its leader?"

So, Bob Phantom returns ... with a twist.

"Writer James III (Netflix's 'Astronomy Club') and artist Richard Ortiz ('The Fox') set their mind-bending noir-tinged adventure in the shadowy alleyways of New York City's theater district," according to a statement from Archie Comics.

"(James) is the exact type of person you want on a project like this," said Jamie L. Rotante, Archie Comics senior director of editorial. "He's dusting off Bob Phantom's cobwebs and giving him a second chance to be a main event player."

For leftists, that figures, seeing as the writer in question is a Netflix writer. That's only a strong warning to everyone else why they might not want to look this over. Because:

"Boasting a multitude of superpowers and talents, he fought crime by night and worked as theater critic and gossip columnist Walt Whitney by day, often antagonizing police," according to the comics company statement. "In the new version, James III explores the possibility that Walt's anti-authoritarian streak may run deeper than the surface as he creates news in order to report it."

Well, does this suggest this'll be an anti-police screed of the kind that's become common in the past 2 years, ever since Antifa/BLM rampaged through leftist-run cities around the USA? With all the destruction that's continuing till this day, increasingly unreported by the MSM, a story setup like this in the new take on an old comics tale is the last thing we need. And then, Archie has the gall to make it look like New York City's got no serious crime left to worry about, when here, mayoral incumbent Eric Adams has done little to improve the shambles left behind by Bill de Blasio, with the way illegal immigrants are still largely accepted in the area, at everyone else's expense.

This confirms Archie's firmly in the far-left camp, now exploiting ancient properties for the sake of bizarre leftist propaganda, and not contributing anything promising in an era where social and economic stability are crumbling under the weight of PC. And the newspaper has the gall to sugarcoat the upcoming story premise.