The Mighty Crusaders app for desktop and iOS has made its debut: http://redcirclecomics.com/

An awesome video trailer for the series can be seen here: http://www.buzzfeed.com/donnad/exclusiv ... iler-drops

Looks like it is going to be a lot of fun.

Wish them luck---they'll need it.

I was a big fan of !mpact Comics, DC's mid-90s reboot of the Red Circle characters. The Fly and The Comet were my favorites.

Cool image:

Hero designs:

Looks like they're going ofter the kids that are growing up on Ben 10 and the like. Smart move on their part.

It really is. And assuming they keep with the current Archie format of digests in checkout lines they could actually get some real traction here.

Looks a lot more contemporary and youthful than DC's reboot. Good luck, Archie.

What do you think of Archie serializing digitally before publishing in print?

I think it's worth trying, although I personally see digital as an end unto itself.

I think it is. The print versions seem like an afterthought, just another revenue stream.

I'm in love with the Archie model. 99 cents a week for a new installment, plus access to a ton of back issue thrown in. The installments are small, but breaking up a comic into pieces and charging a buck is less painful than dropping $4 on a print copy. I'll be buying the stuff I like in collection form once they are released anyway. I really hope this works out for them.

It would be hilarious if Archie ended up being the last major publisher standing.

That's possible. Archie's overhead is nowhere as high as Marvel's or DC's. They operate out of a small building in Mamaroneck, NY, not high priced offices in NYC.

I hear their page rates are low, too.

They may win by default, with the other guys being absorbed into larger corporations. I know that Dark Horse likes to tout themselves as the largest independently owned comic publisher, but I'm wondering if Archie outsells them some months.

Archie's sales are from my understanding pretty weak, but that is because few people are interested in what Archie is selling.

These super hero books could do a lot to expand their reach.

Really? Newsstand sales are bad, too? I see 'em everywhere. I'd expect them not to do well through Diamond, though.

They really don't do great. They do okay, but not great.

Especially since their line is very limited. Dark Horse could easily do better just based on the fact that it has a few dozen books going at once. Archie just has the Archie digest so far as I know and while it sells it does not sell incredibly well. I think one of the reasons stores keep buying them has something to do with how little shelf space they take up.

The newsstand circulation for their cartoony super hero books could be huge for them.

Found some sales figures from 2011. Regular comics were scary low

Life With Archie - 37,165 avg
Archie - 15,466 avg
Betty & Veronica - 10,918 avg
Kevin Keller - 9,731 avg
Jughead - 7,869 avg

With these numbers, I can see why they are banking so heavily on digital.

But the digests are much better:

Archie - 70,860 avg
Betty & Veronica - 67,719 avg
World of Archie - 57,850 avg
Archie & Friends - 57,188 avg
Jughead - 55,651 avg
Betty & Veronica Friends - 50,512 avg

Still, that's better than a lot of DC's post-reboot titles.

Digests are mostly reprint too, so they cost less all around.

That's solid, but I still think Dark Horse on the whole would blow that out of the water when you take their books together.

In case you missed it I edited my last post to add a few extra thoughts which you might wanna look over if you missed it. I will restate one important point though: These super hero comics could open up a lot for Archie. Especially the digest.