Collected Editions of the Archie Series
 

I just found this out last night that IDW has put out collected editions of the Archie series. Just a bit of a heads up for people who wanted to read that series.

Unfortunately, they skipped over issues 32-37 for fear of offending radical Islamist groups.

That is oooold news, buddy.

How the heck can the Tai San and Katmandu issues (32-34) offend Islamists? Same with Stump'd Again.
Even issues 35-36 are important parts of the storyline.

I would buy hardcovers of this series in a second.

My guess is that they simply cut the whole arc for convenience, maybe with the hope they might be able to release it later as a "lost stories" collection with some strategic edits.

They exist, but they're fairly poor quality. The scans are messy and poorly sourced. And as noted above, there's been censorship, including outright skipping of some of the run's more important issues. (Seriously, you're going to skip the return of Shredder in #36, which was a big ****ing deal at the time? Not to mention it's the lead-in to FST?) Hopefully one of these ages someone will take another stab at giving them proper respect.

All the original negatives for these books were destroyed, so bad scans is probably the best there is ever going to be.

I will probably end up one day having my copies bound into custom hardcovers. If I can get over the fact that you permanently damage the books doing that.

Except there are higher quality scans out there, as a matter of fact here's a page actually missing from IDW's reprints.
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/GkibxIbVrh...K3yqWnwg=s1600

As a matter of fact, the IDW reprint actually replaces it with a page from a previous issue for no clear reason. They might as well just have downloaded scans from Pirate Bay, because clearly some rando online can do a better job. Not to mention how a lot of the problems with the scans could easily be fixed with Photoshop.

The Russian editions are surprisingly clear. Thanks to ARTEM and Arseniy for that care in the production process.

A real shame Archie was such a cheap company in regards to their archiving work. Surprising to me if none of the Mirage crew asked to have their pencils/inks returned after the printing process.

I use my own scans, not the files from IDW. Make them clear and remove/fix all original color mistakes takes some time, but I believe it's worth it.

https://www.idwpublishing.com/produc...e-spectacular/
This one was really badly scanned. You can see the edges of the original pages and sometimes the part of the page where its making a bulge in the middle of the book. They didnt take time to remove staples...

I remember Mirage Studios released that collection as part of the franchise's 25th Anniversary. Did IDW simply reprint the same edition or were new scans made?

One thing I've learnt from scanning my old magazines is that it's much easier to get the full page if staples are removed. :)