wwk5d, I thought something as american as Archie would have even less sucess on the Middle East, culturally more distant from the US, than in Europe, which is much closer.

Anyway, I still think the Barks' ducks story are much better "made in USA" kid's comics than Archie. I understand they are published in Egypt, but have no idea of how sucessful they are.

Best,
Hunter (Pedro Bouça)

I take the point about Carl Barks' popularity in Europe but the 'Good Duck Artist' doesn't seem to have much of a fan following in the U.S. itself. I had to pre-order the 'Carl Barks Collection' from Amazon UK after the American site abruptly pulled the plug on the book.

Now, Disney comics, in particular the Carl Barks classics, are HUGE! They are decadent on most markets due to the lack of new quality stories (Don Rosa is the exception), but on the past they were the best-selling comics in most of the world's markets.

Best,
Hunter (Pedro Bouça)

Archie has never been published here in Brazil. I can't say if it's been published in other South American countries, though.

I'm not sure exactly why that is so, but if I had to take a guess, I'd say that here in Brazil the "funny" comics tend to be local productions, as Brazil has a healthy comedy tradition, while the adventure fiction tends to be imported from the USA, because Brazilians usually don't produce adventure fiction on their own.

Either that, or the sort of slice of American life depicted in the books just don't resonate with us. But I can't say for sure, because I've never read it. It may be also because there was never a Archie cartoon or movie to pave the way (well, maybe there was?).

I think the only foreign funny comics that have been published in Brazil with any success are Disney comics. They used to be huge here a few years ago, not so much right now.

Marvel and DC and Image heroes are huge here. Teens here grow up reading this stuff. That is why there are so many Brazilian pencillers doing work in American comics I suppose (yeah, we can take the blame for T&A artists like Ed Benez and Ivan Reis). But just like in the USA, the "serious", mass public remained unaware of many heroes until the X-Men movies started the current trend of movie adaptations.

Actually, superhero comics per se are not terribly popular in India; apart from the DC trinity of Superman-Batman-Wonder Woman and Marvel's Spider-Man, costumed adventurers simply aren't familiar names. (OK, maybe Hulk and Iron Man just now because of the films, but then so were the Fantastic Four and X-Men some time ago before they too were forgotten.)

While Archie books tended to get abandoned as soon as the kids were/are old enough to read Superhero comics, its a big thing to be a formative influence. The only other comic book to complete with that, historically for American kids, was probably Richie Rich... but Archie was a lot more successful.

Archie comics also had an "in" to female readers long before other types of comics became "cool" for girls to read. Archie spinoff magazines often featured the female cast members from the main magazine in their own solo titles. In fact, I think the biggest part of Archie's remaining sales may involve young girls. One of those spinoffs you may have heard of is Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, but that's just one of many.

So I'd say Green Lantern is lot more well-known than Archie here in Brazil.

I'm curious. Is Archie a purely American phenomenon? Are the comics published and widely read in any other country?

Alpha Flight no. 22 featured the first appearance of Pink Pearl, who would go on to become Byrne's precursor to Big Bertha in the Great Lakes Avengers!

plus Animal Man avenged his family in a pretty intense issue.

You would think that we'd at least see the front of the character so you could see the new iconic GL symbol on the cover.

For me, though, it's got to be Showcase. Hal Jordan beats Archie Andrews any day of the week -- presumably with a giant green boxing glove, because, well, that's our Hal.

Jack of Hearts showed up in Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #22, but really, screw that guy. The Jester of Smash Comics #22 fame is much cooler. And Gerber's Man-Thing #22 totally blew my mind.

Also, it is noted for being a deconstruction of the series' villians. Most of the characters had passed through a similar process on Castafiore Emerald, but this time it's Rastapopolous and Allan that are consistently ridiculed througout the book. Also, it marks a rare appearance of fantastic elements (UFOs) on Tintin's usually realistic environment. Even though the series was past its prime, it's still an excellent book.

It was serialized on the Tintin magazine and first published in album form on 1968.

Best,
Hunter (Pedro Bouça)

Invaders #22 is the first "Marvel" appearance of Asbestos Lady (really!) who was originally in the Atlas Captain America issue #63

Sensational She-Hulk #22 was the second part of teh Blonde Phantom story, and featured the "All-Winners Squad" alias the Invaders

Fables #22 is the one where we find out what Cinderella has really been up to... with Ichabod Crane...

New Avengers #22 was the Luke Cage Civil War issue...

Sandman #22 was the first proper issue of Season of Mists...

(Howard = Luke, Man-Thing = Chewie, Korrek the Barbarian = Han, Dakihm = Obi-Wan, Jennifer Kale = Leia)

"Star Waaugh! : May the Farce be With You".

Yeah... hardly list-worthy either, but it MIGHT have been the first Star Wars riff-comic ever made.

~P~
PTOR

This issue showcases, through a mixture of traditional comic storytelling as well as prose pages (and some interesting layouts by Jim Mooney) a wrap-up of all the loose ends of the series (in a truly bizarre tale) that explains why Steve is quitting the book (because he was directly involved in an "end of the cosmos" adventure with Man-Thing, Dakihm & crew and doesn't think he can take any more).

"Pop Goes The Cosmos" was Steve's swan song on the title and character (until he penned some follow up adventures in Marvel Fanfare & Marvel Comics Presents, many years later).

Maybe not as "list worthy" as those discussed above, but it's a damn good issue.

~P~
PTOR