The Fox returns to comics!

The Fox is coming back!

Hot on the heels of the successful New Crusaders title, Archie's Red Circle imprint will be releasing an all new Fox comic later this year by Dean Haspiel and Mark Waid!

The Fox is my favorite of all the Mighty Crusaders characters, and his absence in The New Crusaders really had me bummed. I'm glad to know now that his lack of appearance there meant he was being primed for his own title! I am fortunate to own his action figure from the 80s toyline and I'm excited to be able to read some new adventures starring the character soon!

Official Press release:

Eisner Award winning writer Mark Waid (Daredevil, Thrillbent) and Emmy winning writer/artist Dean Haspiel (Billy Dogma, HBO’s Bored To Death) are teaming up to launch a brand new series – THE FOX. Taking place in the Red Circle universe, this exciting creative team will deliver an innovative, action-packed superhero story starring the fabled pulp hero.

This thrilling new addition is a shake up to the Red Circle lineup. The previously solicited New Crusaders: Dark Tomorrow will receive a new release date in early 2014. The critically acclaimed New Crusaders series received high praise and year-end “best of” acknowledgements, dubbed "one of the most enjoyable and surprising books on the stands" and response to THE FOX will no doubt echo that sentiment.

The first volume, New Crusaders: Rise of the Heroes, is now available for order in Previews. In addition, this summer’s forthcoming New Crusaders: Legacy TPB features both new and iconic stories including Alex Toth‘s run on The FOX, and contributions from comic book legends Steve Ditko, Carmine Infantino, and more.

For more information visit RedCircleComics.com

ABOUT RED CIRCLE COMICS:
Red Circle Comics is home to Archie Comics’ super hero properties, most notably The Shield, The Comet, The New Crusaders, and The Mighty Crusaders. Consisting of super heroes who emerged during the Golden Age of comics and remain relevant today, the Red Circle stable of characters have a storied history that continues to grow denser with the highly publicized New Crusaders launch.

ABOUT ARCHIE COMICS:
Archie Comics is one of the leading mass market comic book publishers in the world and the home to a wide array of the most popular humor, action-adventure and superhero characters in entertainment, including Archie, Jughead, Betty and Veronica, Reggie, Kevin Keller, Josie and the Pussycats, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, The New Crusaders, The Shield, Li’l Jinx and many more. Archie Comics have sold over 1.5 billion comics worldwide and are published around the world in a number of languages. In addition to comics, Archie characters have been featured prominently in animation, television, film and music in various popular incarnations.

via Comic Book Resources

Everything's Archie!

Archie Comics is spending the summer and fall of 2011 promoting it's Literacy Tour, and I am lucky enough to work somewhere where they made one of their stops!

The kids at the camp I work for loved the workshop they put on almost as much as I did, but no one dug the groovy '74 Ford Econoline as much as I!

Press Release:

Archie Comics’ Comic Book Fairs in Partnership with Fandom Advisory Network is taking a road trip across America! The Archie Comics Literacy Tour is a celebration of Archie’s storied 70 year history and a mission to promote literacy and learning through comic books. Starting at this years Comic Con in San Diego, Archie will drive across country and stop off at comic book stores, children’s bookstores, museums, and schools to run creative workshops and champion the legacy of Archie Comics through new titles and restorations of their older ones ( Archie: A Celebration of America’s Favorite Teenager). Comic Book Fairs, a division of Archie Comics, built on the mission to advocate comic books in education, will be working with schools and comic books stores to build strong connections within their community to establish Archie Comics as a learning tool for educators. We at Archie feel that comic books can be a great conduit to literacy and academic concepts, especially for reluctant readers.

The Literacy Tour will be a great trip not just for us, but for our fans past, present, and future.

Below are the places and dates you can find us this summer. Would love to see you there!
David Rojas
Director of Education
Archie Comics



Wed, August 3rd – San Jose, CA
Hicklebees Children’s Books
1378 Lincoln Avenue, San Jose, CA 95125
1pm-4pm

Saturday, August 6th – San Francisco, CA
Comixexperience
305 Divisadero Street, San Francisco, CA 94117
1pm-4pm

Sunday, August 7th- San Francisco, CA
National Cartoon Museum Archie Exhibit
655 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94105
11am-5pm

Wednesday, August 10th- Ashland, OR
Treehouse Children’s Books
15 North Main Street, Ashland, OR 97520-2725
1pm-4pm

Thursday, August 11th – Douglas County- OR
Douglas County Fair
2110 SW Frear Street, Roseburg, OR 97471
8am-4pm

Saturday, August 13th – Portland, OR
Bridge City Comics
3725 North Mississippi Avenue, Portland, OR 97227-1158
1pm-4pm

Wednesday, August 17th – Boise, ID
Captain Comics
710 South Vista Avenue, Boise, ID 83705-1713
1pm-4pm

Saturday, August 20th – Salt Lake City, UT
Night Flight Comics
210 East 400 South, Salt Lake City
1pm-4pm

Sunday, August 21st – Boulder, CO
Time Warp Comics
3105 28th Street, Boulder, CO 80301
1pm-4pm

Monday, August 22nd -Denver, CO
Denver Children’s Hospital
1830 Franklin Street, Denver, 80218, CO
1pm-4pm

Saturday, August 27th Ames, IA
Mayhem Comics
2532 Lincoln Way, Ames, IA 50014-7218
1pm-4pm

Tuesday, August 30th , Minneapolis MN
Wild Rumpus Children’s Bookstore
2720 W 43rd Street, Minneapolis, MN 55410
1pm-4pm

Wednesday, August 31st – St Paul, MN
Mickey’s Diner
1950 7th Street West, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55116
11am-3pm

Saturday, September 3rd , Chicago, IL
Magic Tree Bookstore
141 North Oak Park Avenue, Oak Park, IL 60301-1303
1pm-4pm

Thursday, September, 8th, Virginia, VA
Virginia Public Schools
34 Wine Street, Hampton, VA 23669-4046
8am-3pm

Friday- Sunday September 9th- 11th -  VA
Virginia Bay Days
34 Wine Street, Hampton, VA 23669-4046
9am-4pm

Wednesday-Friday, September 14th- 16th- Pittsburgh, PA
Pittsburgh Propel Charter Schools
340 Bilmar Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15205-4620
9am-4pm

Saturday, September 17th -PA
Mifflinburg Auto Show
10770 Old Turnpike Rd, Mifflinburg, 17844 PA
7am-8pm

Sunday, September 18th- Pittsburgh, PA
Toonseum
945 Liberty Avenue #1, Pittsburgh, PA 15222-3729
10am-3pm

Wednesday, September 21st – Baltimore, MD
City Springs School
100 South Caroline Street, Baltimore, MD 21231-1703
9am-3pm

Saturday, Sept 24th , Baltimore, MD
Geppi Museum
301 West Camden Street, Baltimore, MD 21201-2434

Wednesday, September 28th – RI
The Learning Community
21 Lincoln Avenue, Central Falls, RI 02863-2012
9am-3pm

Thursday, September 29th-  RI
Kingston Hill Academy
850 Stony Fort Rd, Saunderstown, RI 02874
9am-3pm

Saturday, October 1st – RI
Barrington Books
184 County Road, Barrington, RI 02806-4529
1pm-4pm

Friday – Saturday , October 7th -8th- D.C.
826
3233 14TH ST. NW, Washington, DC 20010
9am-4pm

Wednesday, October 12th -NYC
Amber Charter School
220 East 106th Street, New York
9am-3pm

Mighty Crusaders

Back in 1984 toy manufacturer Remco released a series of superhero action figures based on little known Archie Publishing superhero properties. Many of these superheroes were old forties 'also-rans,' making them pretty unique on the '84 scene and something my now 36 year old self would have been all over like four color ink on newsprint.

Alas I had no idea these guys existed back then, I only discovered the existence of these toys in the internet age. But thanks to the magic of the swap meet, I now own two of them!

First up is The Fox. Originally debuting in 1940 and probably my favorite of all the Mighty Crusader toys because of his Batman-esque vibe, news photographer Paul Patton used his alter ego to get sweet shots of crimes as they happened (sounds like a familiar friendly neighborhood wall crawler, doesn't it?)

His costume is pretty straightforward and simple and reminds me a bit of Wildcat.

Fox's chest symbol was the head of a fox in his original comic art, but it has been highly stylized/simplified for his action figure debut.

The second figure I found is the Buzzard. Buzzard reminds me a lot of Spider-man villain The Vulture, another balding old man with flight capabilities. The Buzzard (and Fox for that matter) originally came with a load of sweet accessories, but sadly both of the ones I found came with nothing. Not sure how difficult it would be to rectify that (probably not very) but they are still pretty cool as they are, so I'll probably not sweat it.

According to MightyCrusaders.net, Buzzard did not make his debut until 1985, so maybe he was created first for this toyline and later appeared in a comic book? I don't know, I'm no Mighty Crusaders expert.

Regardless, these are pretty fun little guys and of course I got them on the cheap - $3 for the pair!

Whenever I would see these toys online I assumed they were the size of original Masters of the Universe figures based on the similarity of their construction. But these guys are actually only about 4.5" tall, making them a little more fun in their cute, compact size. They do sport an action feature, a spring back fist for superhero punches! Aw yeah uppercut!