DigestComics

DC Digest Ad - 1972

2009-03-13T00:03:00.000-04:00

My pal (and DigestFan) Craig Wichman sent me this awesome, rarely-seen DC ad promoting their first two digest efforts--Laurel & Hardy and Tarzan, both scheduled for 1972.

I say "scheduled", because the Laurel & Hardy book was never published. Its hard to imagine a reason why some modest little book such as this would get pulled from the schedule--especially after an ad had been put together. For pete's sake, why?

This is the kind of comicus obscurus I love finding out about, but I think its a safe bet not one single person working at DC at the time remembers why the book was pulled.

Soon after, DC amended the ad to be Tarzan only, leaving it to be the only digest book the company produced for years.

Thanks Craig!

DC Paperbacks Ad - 1977

2008-06-03T08:09:00.002-04:00

The last of our new updates comes from DigestFan and all around good egg Craig Wichman--this ad for the line of paperbacks from Tempo Books featuring classic DC stories that were all published around 1977.

I remember seeing this ad in almost every DC book for what seemed like a year, but it was probably only a month or two.

I eventually got the JLA one and a few others, though that Super Friends puzzle has yet to be added to the collection. I need to correct that sometime.

Thanks Craig!

The Amazing Spider-Man Pocket Book #3 - 1979

2008-06-01T08:24:00.001-04:00

The third titanic volume of classic Spider-Man adventures, featuring an often-re-used--but still awesome--cover by Jazzy John Romita!

Stories include:
"The Grotesque Adventure of Green Goblin", "Kraven, the Hunter", "Duel with Daredevil", "The Return of the Green Goblin", "The End of Spider-Man", "Spidey Strikes Back", and "The Coming of the Scorpion", all by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

These books were printed on high-quality paper, so they hold up extremely well, considering paperbacks are never really meant to be permanent editions.

160 pages.

The Amazing Spider-Man Pocket Book #2 - 1978

2008-05-30T09:52:00.000-04:00

The second edition, reprinting--in sequence--the next six issues of The Amazing Spider-Man. The comics industry's first trade paperbacks!

Stories include:
"The Return of the Vulture", "The Living Brain", "Spider-Man Tackles The Human Torch", "The Man Called Electro", "The Enforcers", "Turning Point", "Unmasked by Dr. Octopus!", and "The Menace of Mysterio!", all by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

160 pages, with a front cover by Jazzy John Romita!

The Amazing Spider-Man Pocket Book #1 - 1977

2008-05-29T00:16:00.000-04:00

The first of Marvel's cool paperback line, printed by the fine folks at Pocket Books.

As I said many months ago when talking about a Hulk Pocket Book, these editions were the only comics that ever showed up at the book fairs they had at my elementary school every so often. I assume the page count and the Pocket Books logo gave these an air of respectability that a 40 cent floppy didn't have.

This book reprints the first six, groundbreaking issues of The Amazing Spider-Man, by (of course) Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, plus Amazing Fantasy #15.

160 whopping pages!

Tarzan of the Apes Story Digest Magazine - June 1970

2008-05-28T09:25:00.001-04:00

Like I said yesterday, these Gold Key digests always had such beautifully painted covers, and this edition is no exception.

Most of the other Gold Key stars got lumped in to the Golden Comics Digest umbrella title, but of course Tarzan was a big enough star to earn his own digest title!

But this was not a series of reprints--no, this is a prose story book, featuring spot illustrations by the legendary Dan Spiegle.

Golden Comics Digest #31 - Aug. 1973

2008-05-27T08:35:00.000-04:00

These Gold Key digests always had such beautifully painted covers, and this edition is no exception.

Stories include:
Turok in "The World Below", "The Terrible Ones", "The Mystery of the Mountain", "The Missing Hunters", and "The Deadly Jungle."

There are other features reprinted, like Young Earth in "The Armored Ones" and "The Ice Age", and Indian Chief in "The Exile" and "Invaders from the North."

132 pages!

The Flintstones - 1972

2008-05-26T00:20:00.000-04:00

This book is the one I most excited about finding, and the main reason I put together a week of new posts.

This humble, no-frills edition of Flintstones comics came from Charlton Comics, part of a line of digests published in 1972.

But these editions were not sold on newsstands; no, they were done as educational books, and list "Xerox Education Publications" as a co-conspirator.

Even though these books are nothing special, they are nearly impossible to find, and expensive when you do (unless the particular eBay seller doesn't really know what it is they're selling).

This copy is the only one I've ever seen, so when I saw it for sale I made damn sure I got my hands on it.

It's hard even finding a list of what digests there are. Luckily, DigestFan Craig Wichman put me in touch with Michael Ambrose, Charlton Comics expert and publisher of the Charlton fanzine Charlton Spotlight, who was able to give me the lowdown on these odd little books:

"I don't have the definitive picture on the digest books Charlton put out, just a list of what I've acquired and what I've seen.

They seem like really odd birds. All are 5.25 inches by 8 inches, softbound, color covers, black and white interiors. Most of them collect Hanna-Barbera material, though there are some exceptions. I've no idea what the "Xerox Education Publishers Book Club" was, though I suspect it was another in the long line of promotional deals that Charlton made in its long history.

Nor do I have any dope on Pendulum Press, though I suspect another promo connection there. Charlton had a paperback book division in the late 50s and early 60s (Monarch Books, lots of soft porno sleaze and militaria) and there may have been a later connection with various paperback publishers, including Pendulum.

I don't know how any of these were distributed, either. Lots of territory to be discovered here!

Here's the list:

Charlton Digest Books

Format: 5.25" x 8", 64 pp unless noted
Publisher: Xerox Education Pubs, Book Club Ed. unless noted

Barney & Betty - 1974
CB Jokes - 1977
Dino - 1974
Doctor Graves' Magic Book - 1977
Doctor Graves’ Haunted Puzzlers - 1978
Flintstones - 1972
The Jetsons - 1973
Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm - 1973
Road Runner - 1971, Pendulum Press
Space: 1999 - [nd; late '70s] Charlton Press, Inc. on spine, 46 pp, Gray Morrow spots w/ text, 5 stories
Yogi Bear - 1972

You'll note the few exceptions to the Xerox Book Club H-B material, the Road Runner book and the Space: 1999 book. As I say, there may be others. Maybe your blog readers can contribute to the hunt."

I hope so, Mike! Part of the reason I think these are so hard to find (besides being fairly dull, presentation-wise) is their maddeningly generic titles.

Right this second, someone on eBay might be selling the Charlton Yogi Bear digest, but do you want to wade through a couple hundred auction listings to see? No, I thought not.

But I intend to keep looking, because I'm that obsessive. And who knows? Maybe I'll discover something that will add to the diverse and peculiar history of Charlton Comics...

Comic Shop News #1069

2007-12-12T18:03:00.001-05:00

...I'm glad to see I'm not the only one lamenting the end of DC's digest line!

Archie's Pals 'n Gals #116 - Dec. 2007

2007-12-06T00:41:00.000-05:00

I had decided awhile back to check in on the current crop of Archie digests, but had yet to get around to picking one up.

Then a few weeks ago, I had to take my Dad to get some surgery (minor, thankfully) and I was waiting around while it was being done. I knew I had an hour or so, so I went to the nearest supermarket to run a few errands, and while I was waiting in line, I saw this and I grabbed it.

So there I sat, in the waiting room, listening to the audiobook of Alan Weisman's World Without Us on my iPod, while reading an Archie digest. Yes, I am a renaissance man.

You do get quite a value for your money with these--over 190 pages of material from various eras of Archie comics, starring(in order) Nancy, Archie, Reggie, Sabrina, Big Moose, Lil' Jinx, Jughead, Coach Kleats, Little Sabrina, Little Archie, Ethel, Josie and the Pussycats, plus lots of fun, old-school puzzle and game pages. They could've published this same collection in 1997, 1987, or 1977; and that's part of Archie Comics' enduring charm.

There's a one-page sequence, the only one of its kind in the book, featuring Archie and Jughead but rendered in full Photoshop coloring. Nice try, but when you've got such a cartoony set of characters, trying to put them inside a more realistically-colored world just doesn't work. Flat color is just fine, boys!

...and that wraps up our first Digest Comics update(Archie always seems like a good one to go out on). But I'm sure we'll be back before you know it!

Disney Adventures - November 2007

2007-12-05T00:07:00.001-05:00

This is the final issue of Disney Adventures...*sniff* I even bought this at an old-fashioned, tobacco-aromaed newsstand, to make the whole experience just a little more perfect.

Inside is the usual fun grab-bag of features, like:
a collage of all the previous DA covers
kids writing in to say what hero they'd like to be the sidekick for(one young girl picked Jessica Alba as the Invisible Woman...hey, that was my idea!)
"Dizzy Adventures" by the great Matt Feazell
an article on Ratatouille(Matt Feazell and Patton Oswalt in the same issue? tre cool!)
a cutely clever puzzle sequence starring a werewolf
"Wulf and Merl" by Drew Weing
"How to Draw Chef Skinner"
"The Replacements" by Todd Clark and Min Ku
"Jet Pack Pets" by Michael Stewart and Scott Koblish
"Kid Gravity" by Landry Walker and Eric Jones
"The Great Mouse Detective" by Elizabeth Watasin
an absoslutely gorgeous one-page feature on The Scarecrow(meeting the Headless Horseman, no less), painted by Bret Blevins
"Fozzie Bear" by Roger Landridge
"Duck Tales" by Walker and Jones
"Gorilla Gorilla" by Art Baltazar
and "Disney's Tall Tails" by Glenn McCoy

...I feel a little ashamed that I overlooked this magazine for so long, considering the amount of really fun material that's in it, especially the Comic Zone stuff, which probably introduced more kids to comics in a single issue than a year of DC and Marvels.

Nice job, Disney Adventures!

Magnus The Robot Fighter Golden Comics Digest

2007-12-04T00:03:00.001-05:00

Digest Fan Neal Snow was so bothered at the idea that Gold Key never did a Magnus, Robot Fighter digest collection that he went ahead and made one up for himself! Love that good old-fashioned "can do" spirit!

Beautiful job, Neal, now get going on the other hundred or so pages!

Golden Comics Digest #34 - Jan. 1974

2007-12-03T00:07:00.002-05:00

Another guest submission, this time from DigestFan Neal Snow:
"Lotsa reading fun for a measly 50 cents. Looney Tunes favorites like Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Tweety, Elmer Fudd, Speedy Gonzales, Sylvester, Daffy Duck and the Roadrunner are featured, and I have no clue which Gold Key artists are responsible, but it's a solid package.

Sad that these kind of comics, especially in this format, are not published anymore."

Amen to that, Neal, and as anyone can see from the scan you sent, this copy was obviously read, re-read, and re-read some more, just like good comics are supposed to be!

The House of Mystery #1 - 1973

2007-12-02T00:04:00.001-05:00

There was definitely a movement happening in the early 1970s, where we saw mainstream comics publishers try their hands at paperback editions featuring prose stories and spot illustrations--y'know, just like real books!

Marvel did a book called Haunt of Horror(they also did a b/w magazine with that title), and DC did this, a paperback edition of the House Of Mystery. I had never seen this volume before, but when I saw this awesomely creepy Berni Wrightson cover, I couldn't say no(well, I could have, I guess--I just didn't want to!).

The book features eight prose stories, all by Jack Oleck, about twenty-thirty pages each:
"Chamber of Horrors", "Nightmare", "Collector's Item", "Born Loser", "Tomorrow, The World", "The Haunting", "You Only Die Once", and "Act of Grace."

Each story also features a sweet full-page illustration by Wrightson, and as you can see he was in his element here, doing some of his best work(and that's saying something!):
...there's also a nice opening page piece featuring Cain, the only reference to the comic's host in the entire book.

I don't know if these stories were ever adapted into comics(before or after), but it does make for a nice spooky collection of tales.

DC did do a second volume, but I think that was it. I don't remember ever seeing an ad for these in the comics themselves, which seems odd to me.

Zombies Calling - SLG

2007-12-01T00:06:00.001-05:00

I saw this in Previews a month or two back, and the cover was so cool that I ordered it on a whim. Plus its hard to go wrong with zombies!

This is a digest-sized, 116-page book that obviously owes more to the style of manga than a classic "digest" comic, but I enjoyed it throughly, and I thought why not occasionally talk about something current?

It's the story of a college student named Joss and her two friends who know zombie movies by heart, yet are still a little shocked when real zombies show up on their college campus!

The story moves at a nice clip, the characterizations are sharp, and I especially liked the art(by Faith Erin Hicks, who also wrote it)--kind of like a cross between the loosey-goosey linework of Paul Pope over the thick, big-eyed stylization of Chynna Clugston, which was appealing to the eye. There's a lot going on in this book, but it never seemed crowded or hard to read, and Hicks has a nice sense of design(as the cover indicates).

There's also some character sketches and some bio material, making for a very nice package. And for $9.95, it's a good value, too(especially when you think about how a 22-page floppy book that takes two minutes to read costs a third of this!).

I really think this format is going to be the future of comics--more value, no ads, and hopefully more of a singular voice. And you know, we're not talking about some esoteric, navel-gazing self-involved comics-as-therapy book here, this is a good old-fashioned zombie story! It's commerical as hell, and I hope we see more from Ms.Hicks in the future.

Chiller Pocket Book #17 - 1981

2007-11-30T00:07:00.001-05:00

Are you as intrigued as I am wondering how the story inside manages to feature the Man-Thing, a jumbo jet, and a flying pirate ship?

Stories include:
"Whatever Happened to Captain Fate?" by Chris Claremont, Don Perlin, and Bob Wiacek (Man-Thing #7)
"Night of the Death Stalkers" by Marv Wolfman, Gene Colan, and Tom Palmer (Tomb of Dracula #7)

...there are also ads for some fun-looking other titles, like Superhero Fun and Games, Western Gunfighters, Captain Britian, and Spider-Man Summer Special.

These three issues were a delight to read, and were very cheap to buy; I think I'll definitely search some more out before long.

Chiller Pocket Book #10 - 1980

2007-11-29T00:05:00.002-05:00

More Marvel horror! Dracula lost his cover-headliner status to future movie star, The Man-Thing!

The cover is by John Romita, and the inside stories include:
"A Question of Survival!" by Steve Gerber, Val Mayerik, and Sal Trapani (Fear #18)
"Dracula" by Gerry Conway and Gene Colan (Tomb of Dracula #1)

...interesting how the Dracula stories lapped themselves and started over with TOD #1, like syndicated re-runs of long-running TV shows do.

Chiller Pocket Book #6 - 1980

2007-11-28T00:01:00.002-05:00

This was one of three super-fun digest-sized comics published by Marvel Comics Limited, presumably their UK branch, that I picked up a few weeks ago. I enjoy searching out many of these foreign compilations of DC and Marvel books; frequently their line-ups of material were way cooler than their American counterparts.

This particular series features Marvel's horror characters, and reprints two stories per issue:
"The Return to Transylvania" by Marv Wolfman, Gene Colan, and Tom Palmer (Tomb of Dracula #68)
"The Salvation Run!" by Tony Isabella, Frank Robbins(yay!), and Vince Colletta (Ghost Rider #18).

...even though these digests are in black and white, the printing sometimes is even worse than what you got with Flexographic, if you can conceive of such a thing. In some panels, lines entirely disappear!

The Incredible Hulk Pocket Book #2 - 1979

2007-11-27T00:05:00.001-05:00

...and we're back!

A while back, Digest Fan(nope, still haven't thought of anything better) Chris Franklin asked if I would be covering any of the DC or Marvels that were later repurposed into paperback books --both companies did an extensive number of them, and they were pretty much digest-sized, and...

I initally said no, since there were a lot of them and I felt like I had to draw the line somewhere. But as the weeks wore on, I heard this Hulk Pocket Book cry out to me from my bookshelf, asking "Why not Hulk get talked about on puny comic blog? Why you hate Hulk? Should Hulk smash stupid computer?"

I couldn't refute that logic, so here we go...

I bought this at a book sale at my elementary school when I was in fourth or fifth grade; looking back its sort of amazing they sold comics at all--maybe the "Pocket Books" logo gave it an aura of respectabillity that a normal comic book wouldn't have.

This one-hundred fifty-page + book reprints a series of Hulk adventures from Tales To Astonish and boy are they fun! I remember reading these(in class!) and literally hanging on every word, wondering where the story was going next.

Stories include:
"The Missile and the Monster" by Stan Lee, John Buscema, and John Tartaglione
"The Birth of the Hulk-Killer!" by Lee, Buscema, and Mick Demeo
"The Humanoid and the Hero!" by Lee, Buscema, and Mick Demeo
"Boomerang and the Brute!" by Lee and Gil Kane(I loved Kane's brutish take on the green goliath!)
"Then, There Shall Come A Stranger!" by Lee and Kane
"The Abomination!" by Lee and Kane
"Whosover Harms the Hulk!" by Lee and Kane
"Turning Point" by Lee, Marie Severin, and Frank Giacoia
"He Who Strikes The Silver Surfer!" by Lee, Severin, and Giacoia
"To The Beckoning Stars!" by Lee, Severin, and Herb Trimpe
"A World He Never Made!" by Lee, Severin, and Trimpe
"What Have I Created?" by Lee, Severin, and Trimpe
"The Legions of the Living Lightning" by Lee, Severin, and Trimpe
"The Puppet and the Power!" by Lee, Severin, and Trimpe
"When The Monster Wakes!" by Lee, Severin, and Tartaglione

...it ends with the Hulk buried in rubble. Is this the end of the Hulk??*

*No, but at that age it seemed like it.

Archie Comics Digest #23 - April 1977

2007-10-25T00:13:00.000-04:00

How could I wrap up this first era(or "Season One", if I want to be horribly trendy) of Digest Comics without talking about Archie Comics, the single largest publisher of digest comics ever, and the only one still going at it? Go into any supermarket and head for the registers and odds are you'll find some Archie digests.

In fact, I remember last year, a friend's mother had passed away, and Trace and I were heading out to get a basket of flowers sent. I wanted to include something for their young daughter, who was a huge Archie fan(like her father), so as we drove I said I wanted to stop somewhere and pick some up. We came across an Acme, I went in, and about three minutes later, I walked out with three or four Archie digests in hand. That's how comics should be--you know where they are, you know what you're getting, and then you get them. Period. Thanks, Archie.

Anwyay, I wanted to profile one Archie look on our last day, and I got this one from ebay because A)the price was right, and B)I just love this cover--pretty inventive and dynamic, no? I love that even the Comics Code stamp is in on the action.

The stories included star Archie, Betty and Veronica, Little Archie, Li'l Jinx, Jughead, Pureheart the Powerful, plus the usual puzzle and game pages. Some of this stuff is clearly from 40s and 50s Archie comics, which are really beautiful too look at. Plus we get to see a story set in Ancient Egypt, and features Veronica dressed in a skimpy belly-dancer outfit. Hubba. Hubba.

...and that's it! We've exhausted every single digest I own, and then some. I thank all you digest fans for reading what I was doing, and letting me know how much you enjoyed it. As much as I want this digest to just stand as valuable resource for information on the format, knowing people were reading it every day and enjoying means a lot to me.

And this blog isn't going away or anything--it'll stay here in perpetuity for anyone who wants to refer to it. Plus, like I said earlier, if anyone wants to send a guest review or two(or three, or four...)I'd be thrilled to post 'em. And if I ever add any new ones to my collection I will most certainly put them up here(I'll mention it on my other blogs when I do).

See you at the newsstand!

Archie's Superhero Comics Digest Magazine #2

2007-10-24T00:03:00.000-04:00

I never got a chance to pick up this book for myself, but luckily Digest Fan Neal Patterson came to the rescue and provides us with our first Guest Review:

It's listed as Number 2, but I never found a Number 1 or any after it. Basically, Archie Comics reprinted several stories from their old horror and superhero books from the late 50s to the late 60s. The book was a pretty mixed bag:
Black Hood--Untitled story and art by Gray Morrow
The Shield--"The Menace of the Micro-Men", no credits, but clearly Joe Simon and Jack Kirby
The Fly--"The Lady and the Monster" No credits, could be Bob White on the art
Horror Story--"The Ultimate Power" art by Wally Wood
The Jaguar--"The Death Ray from Space" No credits, maybe story by Robert Bernstein and Art by John Rosenberger
The Hangman--"The Nine Lives of FalseFace" No credits
SuperTeen (Betty as a superhero)--"SuperTeen Strikes Again" No credits, maybe story by Frank Doyle and Art by Bob White
Black Hood--"The Black Hood Hits a Sour Note" story by Marvin Channing, art by Al Williamson
Steel Sterling--"The Awesome Bravo" No credits, maybe story by Abner Sundell and art by Charles Biro
The Web--"Uglyman's Ugliest Plot" No credits, maybe story by Jerry Siegel and art by Paul Reinman
Pureheart the Powerful (Archie as a superhero)--"Tarantula's Trap" No credits, maybe story by Frank Doyle and art by Bob White
Horror Story--"Time Twist" Story by Tom DeFalco, art by Chic Stone
The Fox--"The Gasser Attacks" No credits. Pretty strong Batman knock-off, right down to the Batmobile-inspired Fox Car
Black Hood --"Life's Not a Comic Book!" Plot by Gray Morrow, story and art by Neal Adams and Dick Giordano
The Shield--"The Ultrasonic Spies" No credits, but clearly Joe Simon and Jack Kirby
Horror Story--"The Beast in the Forest", story by Tom DeFalco, art by Jesse Santos
Chilling Adventures in Sorcery short story--"A Real Hot Talent" No credits
The Fly--"The Fly Meets The Cat Girl" No credits, could be Bob White on the art
Black Hood--"It's Murder to Beat the Odds", story by Marvin Channing, art by Al Williamson

What struck me as a 14-year-old buying this digest was the high caliber of artists involved, even if the stories were a little lame. Anyway, it was worth the 95 cents for that much content.

Wow, you're not kidding, Neal--Gray Morrow, Neal Adams, Wally Wood, Dick Giordano, Al Williamson, and Simon and Kirby? I gotta get me this book!

Thanks Neal!

Mystery Comics Digest #6 - Aug. 1972

2007-10-23T00:09:00.002-04:00

Hmm, while this is a nicely painted cover, it doesn't really look like anything I'd associate with The Twilight Zone. But what the heck--Rod Serling was probably a little busy doing Night Gallery and smoking two cartons a day to oversee some silly comic book.

All these stories are uncredited, unfortunately(though a few have to have been drawn by Dan Spiegle):
"The Shield of Medusa", "Luck in the Twilight Zone", "The Legacy of Hans Burkel", "The Shadow of Fate", "Wings of Death", "No Place to Hyde", "Lost Acre", "Journey Into Jeopardy", "Voyage Into the Twilight Zone", "The Vial of Evil", "The Fortune Hunters", "Doomed to Battle", "Birds of a Feather", "Do Not Touch the Exhibit", "The Doom Days", "The Sinister Satano", "Night Train to Eternity"(oh man, have I been there!), "The Ray of Phobos", and "The Street Where Evil Dwealt."

I know some of you out there are a lot more familiar with the Gold Key digests(Craig, I'm looking in your directon), so if any of you ever want to write up a review of a digest I never got to, please feel free! We'll have our first guest review here tomorrow!

Golden Comics Digest #9 - March 1970

2007-10-22T00:04:00.001-04:00

Ah, Tarzan--another staple of the comics industry of olden days. There was a time he had more titles going than Batman or Spider-Man...how times change.

Anyway, this tale features the King of the Jungle plus other similar-themed characters, like Korak, Son of Tarzan(nice to see Dad help his son get work) and The Brothers of the Spear.

The main story is an adaptation of the ERB book Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar by Russ Manning, plus:
Tarzan in "The City Under the Sands"(by Dan Spiegle!), "The Guilt of Belazi"
Brothers of the Spear in "Battle in the Boma", and "Tembo! Tembo!"
Korak in "Perilous Passage", and "The Pit"

...over one-hundred and sixty pages of jungle adventure!

Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery #1 - June 1970

2007-10-21T00:22:00.001-04:00

Gold Key did pretty well with the digests; they had a number of titles in this format that ran for many years. I can't hope to talk about only but the smallest fraction of their output as we wind up the initial run of Digest Comics--maybe over time we'll get to more of them.

Anyway, this is Boris Karloff's very own comic digest, probably another thing that Bela Lugosi was jealous about(although Bela was dead by now, so...), featuring eleven stories all by Dick Wood and Luis Dominguez. They're mostly text stories with Big Little Book-style, intermittent single-page illustrations.

The stories include:
"Terror of the Black Pearl", "Restless Hands", "The Strange Fate of E.Neadle", "Cry Wolf", "Voyage of No Return", "The Well of Fear", "Vengeance of the Castle Creature", "The Iron Mask", "The Quill Pen", "Old Jeb's Bitter Secret", and "Escape Into Fear."

The cover is nice and spooky, too!

Casper Digest Magazine #4 - April 1987

2007-10-20T00:06:00.001-04:00

I have a hard time following all the various business manifestations of Harvey Comics--after going on for decades, they closed down, got bought out I think, came back, went away again...reams of legal paperwork, I'm sure.

Anyway, this series started in 1987 and I think was part of the first "comeback" for Harvey and its stable of superstars(Richie Rich I think remains, by sales and number of titles, the single most popular comics star, ever).

There's no table of contents for this issue, and the GCDB offers no info, so I can only guess this series was made up of reprints--they would've been crazy not to, considering the sheer volume of material they had in their archives.

The stories star all the chracters from the Casper family, like Wendy the Good Witch, Spooky, The Ghostly Trio, and of course the dead-child star himself.

This series lasted eighteen issues(hey, longer than Spidey!), and even though Casper never returned to comics full-time, he did eventually become a movie star, so I don't think he'll be gone forever.

Dennis The Menace Pocket Full of Fun #23 - Jan. 1975

2007-10-19T00:01:00.001-04:00

Aside from Archie Andrews, I guess you'd have to say Dennis the Menace was the digest format's biggest, longst-running star--Dennis the Menace Pocket Full of Fun was a completely separate digest-sized series that ran for fifty issues, each of them two-hundred pages thick! That's a lot of trouble for Mr. Wilson!

This particular issue features twenty different Dennis stories, all drawn by Hank Ketcham ghost artists who could ape his style perfectly. So while(like I said back when talking about the Marvel Dennis the Menace digest series)I still don't find the strip funny, the artwork is top-notch and a joy to look at.

Interesting note--this issue has one of those Statement of Ownership thingies. This digest series was selling over 140,000 copies each issue--take that, X-Men!

Comic Zone - Fall 2007

2007-10-18T00:03:00.002-04:00

I'm coming a little late to this; since the news about Disney cancelling its Disney Adventures/Comic Zone digest magazine broke a few months ago.

But it's damn shame, since I think its a troubling sign about comics in general--even the mighty Disney couldn't find a way to make this magazine profitable enough to continue. We should think of this the next time some small publisher runs out of money and cancels a high-quality book. If Disney can't make a buck in comics...

This issue features a ton of material, some of it really fun:
Ratatouille--"Introducing Remy!"
Pirates of the Caribbean--"Breakout"
six pages of Jack Kirby(!)'s adaptation of The Black Hole
The Replacements--"Now You See It!"
Cars--"A Classic Makeover!"
The Jungle Book--"The Bamboo Bandit"
Jet-Pack Pets--"Picnic Panic"
Wulf and Murl--"The Ballad of Wulf and Merl"
Disney's Tall Tails--"A Day At The Races"(this is really unusual; it features art by Glenn McCoy and stars Mickey and Goofy, except they are very stylized and don't look like the usual, corporate-approved versions you'd expect Disney to demand)
Kid Gravity--"Eye Spy"
Gorilla Gorilla by Art Baltazar, which is a really cute feature
"The Last Laugh" by Matt Feazell

..you know, you have to give Disney credit. They could've filled this magazine with bland, corporate-driven material. And while some of it is a little, any book that has work by Jack Kirby and Matt Feazell is pretty darn cool!

I did occasionally buy this magazine for Trace's niece or nephew; now that I know its going away I feel like I should've done that more.

The X-Files Comics Digest #1 - Dec. 1995

2007-10-17T00:10:00.002-04:00

Other companies have tried to go the modern-digest route; Topps Comics gave its licensed The X-Files comic the digest treatment in 1995.

The cover is by Miran Kim, and the inside stories include:
"Big Foot, Warm Heart" by Stefan Petrucha and Charles Adlard.

...then the rest of the book is filled with adaptations of Ray Bradbury stories. A nice fit, I would say:
"The Visitor", adapted by P.Craig Russell and Michael Lark (originally from Ray Bradbury Comics Special Edition #1)
"The Foghorn" by Wayne D. Barlow (from Ray Bradbury Comics #3)
"Trapdoor" by Ross MacDonald (from Ray Bradbury Comics #5)

...the X-Files story isn't bad, and the first and last Bradbury adaptations are a lot of fun. Apparently, that didn't make a difference, since The X-Files Comics Digest only lasted three issues. In 1995 The X-Files was like the hottest show on television, so its surprising to me that the show's rabid fanbase alone couldn't keep the book afloat.

Fiction Illustrated #3 - 1976

2007-10-16T00:11:00.002-04:00

Of the three issues in this series, #3 is by far the most known, since it features "Red Tide", a book-length detective tale written and drawn by none other than Jim Steranko!

The story is told entirely in book form, with single illustrations alongside prose. It's a lot of fun to read and Steranko's well-known love of the genre shines through.

This series was a neat little experiment; obviously it didn't go over too well(is it a book? a comic?) since it never went past this third volume. And I was never even able to find any info on the first issue!

Fiction Illustrated #2 - 1976

2007-10-15T00:01:00.001-04:00

This is the second volume of a very obscure series of digests, published by Pyramid Books featuring one, one-hundred and twenty page story. Each book in the series presented a different genre--this second volume features Starfawn, a sci-fi tale, as it says on the cover, "in the Star Trek tradition." It's a mix of standard comic book storytelling mixed with book-style prose.

Starfawn was written and edited by Byron Preiss, with art by Steven Fabian, and coloring by the legendary Marie Severin!

Transformers Comics Magazine #1 - Oct. 1986

2007-10-14T01:35:00.002-04:00

Remember what I said yesterday about never being all that excited about G.I. Joe? Well, multiply that x100 and you have my indifference towards The Transformers.

I think of The Transformers the same way I think of Bon Jovi--I didn't like them when they first came out and were massively popular, I didn't like them when no one cared about them, and I don't like them now that they're popular again.

I was never a big robot guy, but I loved C3PO and R2D2, because they had humor and pathos and even warmth--the Transformers always seemed like loud, violent, ugly boxes. When they picked Michael Bay to direct the movie I thought "well, of course."

But obviously I'm in the minority, since they've managed to enrapture now two generations, and in 1986 they were big enough to earn a second title, something only Spider-Man and G.I. Joe were able to do. So props to them.

This series lasted ten issues, and featured work by the likes of Bill Mantlo, Bob Budiansky, Ralph Macchio, Ian Akin, Brian Garvey, and others.

Sorry to end the Marvel run of digests on such a downer note, but...come back tomorrow and there'll be some fun and unusual stuff!

G.I. Joe Comics Magazine #4 - June 1987

2007-10-13T00:09:00.002-04:00

During the brief run of Spider-Man Comics Magazine, Marvel decided to give thier two biggest licensed properties a shot at digest stardom, as well--G.I.Joe, and Transformers.

As a kid, I was pretty indifferent to G.I. Joe as a cartoon, toy, and comic--I've read here and there that it had its moments, and I think its whole setting of cartoonish good guys vs. bad guys probably fit in pretty well with the rest of the Marvel line. But, frankly, I wasn't so interested in finding out that I was willing to go out and get more than one issue(it ran for thirteen) of the digest series to see what it was all about. So this will have to do!

This series reprinted the earlier, smash-hit G.I.Joe book, and this issue features the stories:
"The Diplomat" by Steven Grant, Mike Vosburg, and Chic Stone
"A Nice Little Town Like Ours"by Larry Hama, Vosburg and Stone
"The Pipeline Ploy!" by Hama, Vosburg, and John D'Augustino

...like the other Marvel digest series, this was subject to the dreaded Flexographic printing process, but this issue at least doesn't look too bad. Garish, but no giant blobs of colored mush on people's faces, either. An unusual touch was the inside covers were full-color, something you hardly--if ever--saw before.

Spider-Man Comics Magazine #13 - Jan. 1989

2007-10-12T00:44:00.001-04:00

This has to be the oddest announcement of a title's cancellation. As you can see, the cover asks "Is this the end of Spider-Man Comics Magazine?"

Well, nowhere on the inside does it say whether it was or not(it was), so what's the with coyness? What a way to leave a reader hanging!

The final collection of Lee/Romita ASM tales are:
"Beware...The Black Widow!", "Unmasked At Last!", and "The Reprehensible Riddle of the Sorcerer", which was the debut of Ross Andru as the new Spidey artist!

Also included is the Black Widow entry from the Handbook, courtesy Frank Miller.

...and that was it. No announcement, no goodbye, nothin'. Marvel tried the digest experiment with Spidey and a few licensed properties(which we'll talk about tomorrow), and then they, like DC, packed it in.

Spider-Man Comics Magazine #12 - Nov. 1988

2007-10-11T00:13:00.001-04:00

Quite possibly Flexographic's worst issue--the coloring is all over the place, as if someone kept bumping the machine. Oy. Since this is a special issue, the horrible printing hurts even worse.

This time Marvel chose to reprint the extra-long story from The Spectacular Spider-Man #2, their brief attempt at a Spidey magazine, instead of consecutive ASM issues. Why, who knows, but it was a nice treat since so few people ever saw the original from 1968.

...there's also Green Goblin's listing from The Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe. Too bad they couldn't find room for the original cover, which was a painting based on Romita's cover.

Spider-Man Comics Magazine #11 - Sept. 1988

2007-10-10T00:13:00.002-04:00

Never, but never, have Flexographic try to print a story featuring lots of snowflakes.

The Lee/Romita issues of Amazing Spider-Man included are: "The Schemer!"(featuring one of Romita's best splash pages, where the bad guy incorporates the story title into his speech), "The Kingpin Strikes Back!", and "The Secret of the Schemer"

...the little bonus this issue is the Kingpin listing from The Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe, featuring David Mazzucchelli's imposing take.

Spider-Man Comics Magazine #10 - July 1988

2007-10-09T00:10:00.001-04:00

Flexographic was having a bad day this went to press. Nothing like big pink splotches on Spidey!

The Lee/Romita issues of Amazing Spider-Man included are:"On The Trail of the Chameleon", "The Coming of the Kangaroo!", and "Then Came Electro!"

...and instead of reprinting one of the original ASM covers they occasionally did, Marvel reprints the cover of Marvel Tales #63, which first reprinted the Electro story. Sure, the MT cover by Romita was a new one, but now Marvel is reprinting reprint titles?

Spider-Man Comics Magazine #9 - May 1988

2007-10-08T00:05:00.002-04:00

What's with that Attention: Retailers blurb? I've seen it before and never understood why it needed to printed right on the comic. Can't they send a separate single piece of paper or something? Hey, Marvel, leave me out of the business--I just want to read my Lee/Romita Spider-Mans in peace!

The Lee/Romita issues of Amazing Spider-Man included are: "In The Blaze of Battle!", "The Night of the Prowler!", and "To Prowl No More!"(gee, that was fast)

I always thought the Prowler was a neat villain--not a bad gimmick and a really cool costume. Too bad he never quite made it to the Hall of Fame of Spidey villains.

Spider-Man Comics Magazine #8 - March 1988

2007-10-07T08:47:00.001-04:00

More classic Spidey adventures. Flexographic was little more on their game this issue.

The Lee/Romita issues of Amazing Spider-Man included are: "If This Be Bedlam!", "Death Without Warning!". and "The Lizard Lives!"

The Daily Bugle is back for this issue, and an ad for the Rocky & Bullwinkle comic Marvel was starting up. Man, anyone remember that?

Spider-Man Comics Magazine #7 - Jan. 1988

2007-10-06T00:06:00.002-04:00

More classic Spidey adventures. Somehow the colors are even brighter this issue, requiring sunglasses to read it. Is there something higher than 100% red?

The Lee/Romita issues of ASM included are: "The Speedster and the Spider", "Rocked by The Shocker"(which I believe was a Scorpions album title), and "The Web Closes"

Am I the only one who thinks Arnold Schwarzenegger should play Man Mountain Marko in Spider-Man 4?

Spider-Man Comics Magazine #6 - Nov. 1987

2007-10-05T00:05:00.001-04:00

More classic Spidey adventures. I'd say on the Flexographic scale, this issue's an 5--I gave a copy of this to my nephew when he was in his Spidey phase, and when I saw him next he complained, "Uncle Bob, I couldn't read it!"

The Lee/Romita issues of Amazing Spider-Man included are: "Crisis on the Campus", "Mission: Crush the Kingpin", and "Spider-Man Wanted."

...love that cover, though. Kingpin has never looked so massive.

Spider-Man Comics Magazine #5 - Sept. 1987

2007-10-04T00:03:00.002-04:00

More classic Spidey adventures. I'd say on the Flexographic scale, this issue's an 8. Keep reaching for the stars!

The Lee/Romita issues of Amazing Spider-Man included are: "The Impossible Escape"(a classic among classics), "The Madness of Mysterio", and "To Squash a Spider!"

...after getting rid of the Daily Bugle feature last issue, Marvel now eliminates the table of contents page, too. I guess they needed space for more Transformers ads!

Spider-Man Comics Magazine #4 - July 1987

2007-10-03T00:18:00.001-04:00

More classic Spidey adventures. I'd say on the Flexographic scale, 1 being unreadable and 10 being acceptable(which was the best they could achieve), I give this issue a 6.

The Lee/Romita issues of Amazing Spider-Man included are: "Make Way For Medusa", "Wings in the Night", and "The Vulture's Prey."

...it seems the Daily Bugles are gone for good, replaced by ads. *sigh*

Spider-Man Comics Magazine #3 - May 1987

2007-10-02T00:03:00.002-04:00

Ok, after one good issue with Flexographic printing, this issue is a classic example of everything that was wrong with the process: splotchy colors, dropped lines, and, as always, the eye-gouging colors. Unfortunately, Marvel would stick with Flexographic printing for the remainder of the series, dooming an entire readership to a future of corrective-lense wearing.

The Lee/Romita issues of Amazing Spider-Man included are: "The Brand of the Brainwasher", "O, Bitter Victory", and "What A Tangled Web We Weave"

...there's not even that Daily Bugle page included, instead we get a Kingpin-up(ha!) that's just a shot of him lifted from a cover. I'm losing faith here, Marvel!

Spider-Man Comics Magazine #2 - March 1987

2007-10-01T00:03:00.002-04:00

Marvel must have gotten a look at the first issue of SMCM, and was as unhappy with the printing as the readers must have been. So with this issue they went the with the dreaded Flexographic printing process--Good Lord! *Choke!*

Actually, other than the garish colors, the effect isn't too bad--there aren't too many weird glitches and the lines now are much sharper and clearer than the first issue.

The Lee/Romita issues of Amazing Spider-Man included are: "The Tentacles and the Trap", "Doc Ock Wins", and "Disaster"

...after a shaky first issue, Spider-Man Comics Magazine is on track!

Spider-Man Comics Magazine #1 - Jan. 1987

2007-09-30T08:40:00.001-04:00

Right after DC had given up on the digests, Marvel decided to give it a go. Since Dennis the Menace wasn't quite able to jumpstart a line of digests, Marvel wisely went to their biggest star--Spider-Man!

This first volume reprints three classic Lee/Romita issues of Amazing Spider-Man:
"In the Clutches of the Kingpin" (ASM #51), "To Die A Hero" (ASM #52), and "Enter: Dr.Octopus" (ASM #53)

...I wondered why Marvel was running these sequential stories when they were already doing it in Marvel Tales, then Digest Fan(still gotta work on that) Chris Franklin pointed out this was when MT made the switchover from reprinting the Lee/Romita stories to issues of Marvel Team-Up, so presumably Marvel thought they could just continue them here.

Fine idea, the only problem being the printing in these books is atrocious--the printing is so light in some place its impossible to read the words, and a lot of the coloring is faint and blotched out. And unfortunately, things would only get worse.

This issue also comes with a cute Daily Bugle page, giving you brief rundowns of what's going on in all the Spidey titles.

A shaky start.

Star Comics Magazine #1 - Dec. 1985

2007-09-29T00:09:00.001-04:00

Another odd little diversion in Marvel's publishing history was Star Comics--a briefly-running line of kids comics featuring licensed characters like Heathcliff, The Muppet Babies, Ewoks, and some "original" characters(I put that in quotes because--c'mon, Marvel--"Royal Roy", a comic about a rich kid, drawn by Warren Kremer, no less? How'd that not generate a lawsuit?)

While I thought Marvel should've been commended for trying a new line like Star, as it is in many cases like this, the execution was perplexing--the titles were mediocre at best, and were the kinds of little kids comics that might've been popular twenty years earlier. But by 1985, they seemed woefully oldhat, even by little kid standards.

But Marvel did try, and as you can see they even put together a Star anthology title, Star Comics Magazine, which lasted a whopping thirteen issues--tied with Spider-Man Comics Magazine(showing up here tomorrow) for the title of Marvel's longest-running digest book. So it worked for a little while!

Stories include:
Heathcliff in "The Cat-Napping Caper" by Joe Edwards and Warren Kremer
Ewoks in "The Rainbow Bridge" by Dave Manak, Kremer, and Marie Severin (these stories are canon, right Mr. Lucas?)
Top Dog in "The Dog-Gone Beginning" by Lennie Herman and Kremer
The Muppet Babies in "The Haunted Nursery" by Stan Kaye and Severin

...points to Marvel for trying!

Dennis The Menace #3 - August 1982

2007-09-28T00:29:00.001-04:00

The third and final Dennis digest--hey, I just noticed--Marvel Digest Group? What's that about?

Stories include:
"The Case of the Soggie Doggies", "Rough & Tough", "The Day The Sun Went Out", "Ruff's Family Tree", "Short and Sweet", "Movie Mischief", "Ring Around A Margaret", "Ruff the Beachcomber", "Dog Days", "The Quitter Sitter", and "A Ruff Life."

Was Marvel maybe thinking of a whole digest line? If so, grabbing the rights to a comic strip that was past its prime seemed like an odd way to go--Garfield Comics Digest woulda been a smash at the time--so this title remains an obscure blip in Marvel's publishing history.

Ketcham's art, however, remains cool--even if this stuff is ghosted from his style(thanks for the tip Craig!).

Dennis the Menace #2 - June 1982

2007-09-27T00:06:00.002-04:00

One thing you could say about these Dennis digests--they had really handsome covers. I love the white background strong central image. Nicely drawn and composed.

Stories include:
"High Steaks", "Unfinished Business", "Not Quite Suitable", "Strictly Against The Birds", "The Guessing Game", "On Your Market", "All Boxed In", "Butterfly Business", "The Texas Stranger", "Surprise", "For Goodness Sake", "The Big Flap", "Dennis Mows 'Em Down", and "Energy Crisis."

There's also some puzzle pages on the inside covers, something Marvel never did much of. Maybe these were reprints or material prepared by others for another purpose?

Dennis the Menace #1 - April 1982

2007-09-26T00:10:00.001-04:00

Marvel's first real foray into digests didn't star Spider-Man, Hulk, the X-Men, or any other staple of the House of Ideas, but Dennis the Menace!

Dennis had just received his own monthly title from Marvel a few month earlier, and I guess the initial sales were strong enough for them to give the little tyke a second title. Unfortunately, neither Dennis title lasted too long--the monthly regular book ended with #13, and this digest only ran three issues.

As a kid, I never gave a second thought to Dennis the Menace as a comic strip--I didn't think it was funny and the art did nothing for me. But as I've gotten older, I've come to really appreciate Hank Ketchum's beautiful linework and sense of design. And while I still don't think Dennis is funny, looking at the strips themselves is a joy to behold.

These Dennis stories though are not strip reprints--they're long-form comic book stories that are(as far as I know) original, either done by Ketchum or(more likely) a stable of assistants and ghost artists. The stories included are: "Tag-Along Trouble", "Dennis the Golfer", "The Kitty Catchers", "All Gummed Up", "The Amazement Park", "The Compact Car Caper", "Always a Lady", "Cake Walk", "The Dog Snatchers", "A Case of School-itis", "Dennis the Salesman", and "Dennis Vs. The Zoo."

This first issue even has a one-page Margaret strip and a "How to Draw Dennis' Dad" feature page, making for a fun package.

Update: As DigestFan Craig Wichman pointed out in the comments section, what the heck is a DC plug doing on the UPC code of a Marvel comic? I can't believe I missed that!

Die Fantastischen Vier #13 - Marvel

2007-09-25T00:42:00.001-04:00

I thought since we ended our loooong run of DC digests with a foreign-market edition(well, almost), I could make a nice smooth transition to Marvel digests(as few of them as there are) by talking about one of their foreign editions. How'd I do?

This book is a whopping 164 pages thick, with only a handful of ads, reprinting a whole series of issues from John Byrne's delightful run on The Fantastic Four(around #s 242-247).

I like the old school FF on the logo("Dr. Reed Richards, Susan Richards, Ben, das Ding, Johnny, die Fackel") and the mis-colored Daredevil so he looks a lot like Captain America.

Byrne's clean, simple artwork reproduces down just wonderfully, and the story moves along at such a clip I wish Marvel, like I wish DC had yesterday, had reprinted Byrne's FF run as a digest comic in America.

Strangely, on the inside back cover, there's an ad for Epic Illustrated, of all things, and on the back for Masters of the Universe Comic-Magazin, headlined with the phrase "Bei der Macht von CASTLE GRAYKSULL"...some things are just universal, I guess.

Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #47 Unused Cover - 1984

2007-09-24T00:16:00.002-04:00

We were just a few hours away to switching from DC to Marvel digests; but this last minute, call-from-the-governor-style stay of execution is courtesy Alex Johnson, previously exclusively a contributor of material to TreasuryComics.com in the form of swell Sheldon Mayer Rudolph original art.

But Alex found this open auction of an original Sheldon Mayer piece that was originally meant to be the back cover for Best of DC #47 , but was not used for some reason.

Alex is superb at finding this neat stuff; and he offered to look for more if I wanted to see it. Absolutely, sir!

As usual with a Sheldon Mayer piece, its beautifully composed with great lights and darks and smooth-as-silk linework. Nice find, Alex and nice work, Mr.Mayer.

Ok, tomorrow--Marvel digests, no foolin'!

Batman Pocket NR.1 - 1979

2007-09-23T00:05:00.001-04:00

You find the oddest things on ebay!

This is a digest-sized collection of Batman tales from Brave and the Bold(plus two Robin solo stories), completely in Dutch! As you can see, they left off all the cover copy, so this cover, with the Teen Titans beating the crap out of Batman as Robin eggs them on, is even weirder than it was originally.

The stories reprinted are:
"Look Homeward, Runaway" by Bob Haney and Jim Aparo(Bats and the Titans, B&B #149)
"Today, Gotham, Tomorrow the World!" by Bob Haney and Jim Aparo(Batman and Superman, B&B #150)
"Disco of Death" by Bob Haney and Jim Aparo(Batman and Flash, B&B #151)
...plus the two Robin solo stories, by Bob Rozakis and Juan Ortiz and Rozakis and Kurt Schaffenberger, that I couldn't quite find the sources for. If only I'd spoke Dutch...

The paper stock is much nicer than the regular digests at the time(it's closer to the bright white Mando stock DC would eventually move onto in a few years), and it makes for a really handsome collection. I wish DC had done a Brave and the Bold digest collection of some of this material for those of us who can't read Dutch!

This is, for all intents and purposes, the last DC digest to be indexed for the blog. There are a few more volumes of the aforementioned Cartoon Network titles I didn't get to, but I don't really see the point of hunting them down. And now that DC has retired the format(again!), I think we can safely say there won't be any new DC digests...for a long time, at least.

I had thought about wrapping it all up with yesterday's Tarzan, since it was DC's first ever digest and that would've been nice, in a complete-the-circle kind of way. But I decided to not be so melodramatic and go out silly with this.

Starting tomorrow we'll talk about Marvel's brief foray into digests, and hopefully I've still got a few surprises left before I pack up and turn off the lights at Digest Comics.

Metaphorically.

Tarzan Digest #1 - 1972

2007-09-22T00:06:00.002-04:00

I probably should've started this blog here, since its DC's first-ever digest, released in 1972 collecting a whole bunch of Russ Manning Tarzan Sunday strips that DC didn't have anything to do with!

Clocking in at a whopping 164 pages, it must not have set the world on fire, since they never did another Tarzan collection, or any other digest, until 1979. This single release remains an odd little curio in DC's publishing history.

There are only three stories in this thick book, but they're all pretty long. They include:
"Tarzan and the Rite of the Great Apes"
"Tarzan and the Ant-Men"
"Tarzan and the Attack of the Beast-Men"

...plus little featurettes like "Tarzan's Jungle Lore", "Tarzan's Illustrated Ape-English Dictionary"(!) and two full-page ads for DC's current Tarzan titles, Tarzan the Ape Man and Korak, Son of Tarzan.

The spiffy cover, repeated on the back as well, is by Joe Kubert. (cue Tarzan yell)

Tarzan Digest Ad - 1972

2007-09-21T00:06:00.002-04:00

This sweet ad for DC's sole 1972 Tarzan Digest is courtesy Craig Wichman, who holds the distinction of contributing material to all three of my blogs, a Blogging Hat Trick, if you will.

Craig is a member of F.O.A.M.(Friend of AquaMan), a BWFF(Black and White Friend Forever), and...whatever designation is appropriate for here, I've yet to come up with something(sorry, Craig).

Anyway, it's a way cool ad, and probably the only one DC ever ran for the book...they generally advertised the digests much less than they did the treasuries.

Daffy Duck #1 - 2005

2007-09-20T00:12:00.002-04:00

Not to be outdone, Daffy Duck got his own digest volume. And like Bugs', just this one issue. I've always loved Daffy Duck--I just wanted to say that.

Stories include:
"The Trouble with Mars", "A Pizza On My Mind", "Wise Quacker", "The Devilish Desperado", "Speed Trap", "One for the Books", "Be My Pest", "Stiff Upper Beak", "All's Weight That Ends Weight", "The Midnight Ride of Duck Revere", "A Vase in the Crowd", and "So You Want A Million Bucks, Eh?"

...and that's it for the modern-day digests DC tried their hand at during 2004-2006. Like I said when we started these, I bought every one that came out either for myself or to give away.

I wanted this digest format to work out so bad that I bought books I would normally not get, and I'm frustrated at the weird choices DC made on how to market these--limited distribution, erratic publishing schedule, and high price-point. Now that the newest collections are standard TPB size, I guess we officially say the digest format at DC is done and gone.

But who knows? Maybe some future comics superstar who grew up on the digests will come along and demand his or her books be put in a digest, like Alex Ross did for the treasury-sized comic. I won't hold my breath, though.

Tomorrow we go back to the past and talk about DC's very first digest!

Bugs Bunny #1 - 2005

2007-09-19T00:16:00.002-04:00

There was time when Bugs Bunny was a staple of comic book publishing, appearing as regularly as Mickey Mouse, Tarzan, or Superman.

Sadly, that time is long past and even though Bugs still does appear in the monthly DC Looney Tunes title, that book is done by official decree from the higher-ups at Warner Bros. and all the enthusiasm that comes from being forced to do something. DC once admitted to Kyle Baker, who expressed interest in doing some Bugs material, that the book doesn't make a dime and they only do it because they have to.

That led Baker to muse(in an interview with The Comics Journal about five-six years ago) that if you're an up-and-coming creative, you'd give your right arm to create a character a tenth as popular and enduring as Bugs Bunny. He said his kids love Bugs Bunny, and that any company that can't make money from Bugs "should get out of the business." Well said, Mr. B.

Anyway, on that sad note, Bugs and the other Looney Tunes star in:
"Working Out the Bugs", "Hari-ed By The Mob", "Hat Trick", "Precious Cargo", "Bad Hare Day", "Rocky Road", "The Old Brawl Game", "Twuce or Consequences", "X Marks the Bugs", "Femme Fatale", "Ten Pin Alley", and "Rabbit Recovery."

This was the only volume published, sadly.

Cartoon Network Block Party! #1 - 2005

2007-09-18T00:14:00.001-04:00

I'm not sure what the difference was supposed to be between this anthology book and the earlier Cartoon Cartoons, since it contains pretty all much all the same features as that book.

Stories include:
Dexter's Labratory in "Beast Master" and "Dee-Dee Fo-Fum"
Ed, Edd, and Eddy in "Eds on Wheels" and "Luck of the Ed"
Courage the Cowardly Dog in "Vegan Invasion!" and "Small Problem"
Johnny Bravo in "To Sea or Not To Sea" and "Twinkle Toes"
Grim & Evil in "Central Junction: Where's Your Function?"
Kids Next Door in "Operation A.I.R.P.L.A.N.E.", "Operation G.R.A.N.D.A.D.", and "Operation S.O.D.A."

This title lasted four issues, again published at an erratic rate. The last one came out in 2006, so I assume if they ever did another one it would be in the standard TPB format DC is now using for Cartoon Network collections.

Secret of the Swamp Thing - 2005

2007-09-17T00:10:00.001-04:00

Like the Sgt.Rock collection, this was another digest release that seemed to slip out DC's back-door, onto the loading truck, and crawled its way onto the shelves of a few comic book stores, unbeknownst the the store owners themselves.

It was listed on DC's website for months, and never came out, to the point where I had just forgotten about it. Then I saw one copy sitting on a shelf in a comic store I don't normally go to, so I grabbed it.

It's a damn shame this wasn't promoted more, since this obviously collects the classic tales by Len Wein and Berni Wrightson, from Swamp Thing #'s 1-10, although oddly all the story titles have been removed from the splash pages. I guess this is to make it more like one long story, but who buying this book hasn't read the original comics a hundred times already?

I would've loved to have seen a whole line like this--a color, afforadble line of manga-ish collections of some of DC's best material. Howabout digest-sized versions of The Dark Knight Returns, JLA/Avengers, Kyle Baker's Plastic Man, or Batman: Year One? Man, those woulda been sweeeet...

Sgt. Rock's Combat Tales #1 - 2005

2007-09-16T00:09:00.002-04:00

Now this was a perplexing release. Back in September 2005, DC solicited this digest-sized collection of Sgt.Rock tales, and I got so excited that this might be the beginning of a whole other line of digest titles, reprinting the metric ton of classic material they have in their archives.

September came and went, no Sgt. Rock. October, November, December...nothing. I asked the swell folks at my local store if they'd heard anything, and they hadn't. This book was in some sort of limbo, a Phantom Zone if you will.

I had all but forgotten about it then, while I was in another comic store up in North Jersey, there it was! I snapped it up, but thought this was a funny way to run a railroad. I mean...how hard could this book have been to put out on time? It's reprints of Sgt.Rock comics, not Watchmen.

Anyway, once I got the book the questions continued. The stories included are:
"The Rock" by Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert
"The D.I. and the Sand Fleas!" by Kanigher and Kubert
"The Rock and the Wall!" by Kanigher and Kubert
"Laughter on Snakehead Hill!" by Kanigher and Irv Novick
"Gun Jockey!" by Kanigher and Novick
"Calling Easy Co.!" by Kanigher and Kubert
"The Hard Way" by Kanigher and Jerry Grandinetti
"Silent Fish" by Kanigher and Russ Heath
"No Shot From Easy" by Kanigher and Grandinetti
"3 Stripes Hill!" by Kanigher and Kubert

DC put a "1" on the spine of the book, indicating this was to be the first of (hopefully) more volumes. Obviously this didn't sell well enough to continue(gee, I wonder why), but the choice of material seemed odd to me.

Unless they were planning on reprinting Rock stories in order ala the Archives series, why go for this early material when Kanigher and Kubert were just finding their creative footing on the character? Why not go through the back issues and pick the cream of the crop? Hit the ground running, and maybe you'd have stirred up enough interest in future volumes? As it stands, this is not a bad book, but hardly the home run it could've been.

Easy Company deserves better.

Scooby-Doo #1 - 2003

2007-09-15T00:16:00.001-04:00

DC's biggest Cartoon Network comic star, beloved icon to several generations, it's Scooby-Doo! Scooby is such a star that his book is still being published, even though most of the other CN books have long since ended. They just celebrated their 100th issue, leaving big-time heroes like Aquaman, Hawkman, and the Atom in the dust.

Stories in this first volume include:
"Scooby in the Booby Hatch" by Terrance Griep, Ned Sonntag, and Gary Fields
"Scooby Snooze" by Chris Duffy and Ivan Brunetti
"The Roswell Riddle" by Griep and the legendary Ernie Colon!
"Stubble Trouble" by Duffy and Tim Harkins
"The Truth" by Griep, our pal Joe Staton, and Andrew Pepoy
"Wax Attacks" by Barbara Slate and Bob Smith
"The Old Ways" by Griep and Colon
"How I Spent My Winter Break" by Sam Henderson and Harkins
"Legend of the Silver Scream" by Dan Slott, Staton, and Pepoy

...to further show what an enduring star Scooby is, this digest title lasted six issues, longer than any other. More than Superman, Batman, or the Justice League! Zoinks!

Powerpuff Girls #1 - 2003

2007-09-14T00:01:00.001-04:00

Between this and a lot of the other shows on Cartoon Network, I feel like kids nowadays really get some high-quality shows to watch. Sure, there was The Super Friends and Scooby-Doo when I was a kid, but we also had the Happy Days cartoon and Rubik The Amazing Cube. Yeeesh.

Anyway, like the Cartoon Cartoons book, this collection is from the regular CN title, and features lot of fun stories. Also like the Cartoon Cartoons book, it only lasted two issues, sadly:
"Squirrely Burly" by Jenifer Moore, Sean Carolan, and Phil Moy
"Buttercup's Boyfriend" by Abby Denson, Dan Fraga, and Mike DeCarlo
"Power Play" by Moore, Carolan, and Moy
"Video Maim" by Denson, Stephanie Gladden, and DeCarlo
"Holy Molar" by Moore, Carolan, and Moy

...I remember being at a con and seeing PPG penciler Moy at a table. I dig his work so I approached him preparing to ask for an Aquaman sketch, figuring it'd be really cool to have one in his style.

I introduced myself and told him I "love the Powderpuff Girls", making a slip of the tongue. To which he snapped back "that's the Powerpuff Girls."

I didn't ask him for a sketch.

Cartoon Cartoons #1 - 2004

2007-09-13T00:03:00.001-04:00

A gen-u-ine anthology series! A lost art in comics nowadays.

Cartoon Cartoons stars Dexter's Labratory, Johnny Bravo, Ed, Ed, and Eddy, A Sheep in the Big City, Courage the Cowardly Dog, and Cow and Chicken. Shouldn't the CW get them all together and do a new version of the Laff-A-Lympics?

Anyway, stories include:
Dexter in "Comic Relief" and "Meanwhile"(the first is really fun, where Dexter enters a comic book world and all of a sudden looks like he was drawn by Jack Kirby!)
E3 in "Last Nail in the Edhouse" and "Half-Baked"
Johnny Bravo in "Johnny On The Spot", "See No Johnny", "Johnny in Paradise", and "Johnny Big-Foot"
Courage in "The Gods Must Be Nosy"
Cow and Chicken in "Who Are Baboon?" and "Chicken and the Beanstalk"
Sheep in "Sheep in the Big City"

This was another title I bought to give out to the kids I know. Definitely a fun book, a real shame it only lasted two measly issues!

The Batman Strikes! #2 - 2005

2007-09-12T00:04:00.001-04:00

The title that replaced Batman Adventures across the board, Batman Strikes!

I watched a few episodes of the show but it left me sort of cold, but it seems to be quite popular. From what I've heard they're going to work Aquaman and other DCU heroes into the new season, so maybe I will tune in again.

Anyway, even though the show didn't do much for me, I liked the comic; it had the same basic fresh-yet-classic approach to the Batman the previous tie-in book had.

Stories in this issue include:
"The Cat's Prize" by Bill Matheny, Christopher Jones, and Terry Beatty
"Ice Storm" by Matheny, Jones, and Beatty
"Firefall" by Matheny, Jones, and Beatty
"Sanity Plea"(guess which villain this story centers on?) by Matheny, Jones, and Beatty
"Illumination" by Matthew Manning, Wes Craig, and Beatty

...I had all the issues of this series but gave them away to Trace's nephew since he digs Batman. I had forgotten that when it came time to index this series, so I rebought one of the issues to post it. See how hard I work for you digest fans?

Teen Titans Go! #5 - 2006

2007-09-11T00:05:00.001-04:00

Teen Titans Go! managed to last longer than any other DC superhero digest, longer than Superman, Batman, or the JLU. Props to the Titans.

Stories include:
"Garsaurus Rex!" by J.Torres, Todd Nauck, and Larry Stucker
"The Book" by Torres and Sean Galloway
"Knockoff!" by Torres, Mike Norton, and Stucker
"Power Failure!" by Torres, Nauck, and Stucker
"Secret Santa" by Torres, Nauck, and Stucker

These DC digests seemed to be published...erratically, at best. There'd be none for months and then three or four titles in one week. Like I said earlier, I admire DC for trying them again, and especially for aiming them at younger readers, but I think they shot themselves in the foot by the odd publishing schedule, price point, and relatively limited availability to the target audience.

Obviously, all that and more took its toll, since it seems this digest format is all but officially dead. DC is currently soliciting a sixth TTG! collection, but it is not a digest, its a standard-size trade paperback.

*sigh*

Teen Titans Go! #4 - 2006

2007-09-10T00:03:00.001-04:00

The cover is by Sean Galloway, and looks like a cell from the show. Interesting effect, even if the coloring is a little dark and muddy. C'mon, give us some bright reds and yellows!

Stories include:
"Beauty and the Wildebeest" by J.Torres, Mike Norton, and Larry Stucker
"Anger Management" by Torres, Norton, and Stucker
"When Chibis Attack!" by Torres, Todd Nauck, and Stucker
"Song of the Dead" by Torres, Nauck, and Stucker
"Secret Moves" by Torres, Nauck, and Stucker

..."When Chibis Attack!" is especially cute, since we get to meet alternate, lil' kid versions of the Titans, called the Tween Titans.

Trust me, it reads funny.

Teen Titans Go! #3 - 2005

2007-09-09T00:03:00.002-04:00

Say it with me--Teen Titans! Teen Titans! Teen Teen Teen Titans!

Stories include:
"Countdown" by J.Torres, Todd Nauck, Larry Stucker
"Magic and Misdirection" by Torres, Nauck, and Stucker
"What Time Is It, Mr.Wolf?" by Torres, Nauck, and Stucker
"If You Can't Beat 'Em..." by Torres, Nauck, and Stucker
"Pop Quiz" by Torres, Nauck, and Stucker

The "Beat 'Em" story brings Speedy into the TTG! universe, but I best most of Roy's other behavior won't be included in a Cartoon Network title...that boy ain't right.

Teen Titans Go! #2 - 2004

2007-09-08T00:02:00.002-04:00

More Teen Titans fun!

Stories include:
"Storm" by J.Torres, Todd Nauck, and Larry Strucker
"How You Play the Game" by Torres, Nauck, and Strucker
"Naked City" by Adam Beecher, Erik Vedder, and M3TH(?)
"War Machine" by Torres, Nauck, and Strucker
"Finding Nero" by Torres, Nauck, and Strucker, introducing Aqualad into the TTG! universe

These stories also add Thunder and Lightning and Starfire's sister Blackfire to the world, in their usual fast-paced, loony style.

Teen Titans Go! #1 - 2004

2007-09-07T00:05:00.002-04:00

I have to admit I'm a little confused as some of the very negative reactions I've seen to the Teen Titans Go! cartoon--from the little I've seen of it, it looks to me like a solid, well-done show, keeping the basic elements of the characters but putting them in a context and a language more attractive to a new generation. But a lot of fanboys like me seem to hate it. Curious.

The comic has the same tone and energy that the show does, and even though it doesn't really appeal to me all that much, I can understandy kids and teens really took to it. Stories for this first volume include:
"Demo" by J.Torres, Todd Nauck, and Larry Stucker
"The Beast Boy Who Cried Wolf" by Torres, Nauck, and Stucker
"Lame-O" by Torres, Tim Smith, and Stucker
"My Crummy Valentine" by Torres, John McCrea, and John Hodgkins
"Monster Zit" by Torres, Smith, and Stucker

...the comic has these occasional "joke" asides during the action, that remind me of Sergio Aragones' Mad Marginals:
...adorable!

I also enjoy how they work in other elements from the Teen Titans universe--Deathstroke, The Fearsome Five, even Trigon! A fun show and a fun comic.

Superman Adventures #4 - 2006

2007-09-06T00:13:00.001-04:00

The final Superman Adventures digest...*sniff*

Stories include:
"Never Play With Toyman's Toys" by Mark Millar, Aluir Amancio, and Terry Austin (to me, this Toyman was the coolest, creepiest version of the character, in any medium)
"This Is A Job For Superman" by Millar, Amancio, and Austin
"Clark Kent, Public Enemy" by Millar, Amancio, and Austin
"If I Ruled The World" by Millar, Amancio, and Austin
"Reunion" by Evan Dorkin, Sarah Dyer, Bret Blevins, and Austin, guest-starring Supergirl, who Dorkin and Dyer seemed to have a real affinity for

Fun stories all. I wish DC had continued the Superman Adventures digest and reprinted the entire regular comic's run. Give any of these to a kid for the first time, and they'd come away being a Superman fan!

Superman Adventures #3 - 2006

2007-09-05T00:02:00.001-04:00

After an almost two-year hiatus, the Superman Adventures digests returned for two more issues. Only Brainiac could figure out such an odd publishing schedule...

Stories include:
"Family Reunion" Parts 1 and 2 by Mark Millar, Amancio, and Terry Austin
"Sullivan's Girlfriend, Lois Lane" by David Michelinie, Neil Vokes, and Ron Boyd
"Clark Kent is Superman--And I Can Prove It!" by Millar, Vokes, and Austin
"Sanctuary" by Millar, Mike Manley, and Austin

This issue features guest appearances by Batman and Dr. Fate, another thing the Superman animated show did well--incorporating other members of the DCU. Who else is ready for Dr.Fate: The Animated Series?

Superman Adventures #2 - 2004

2007-09-04T00:08:00.002-04:00

More adventuresome fun with the Man of Steel!

Stories include:
"(Almost) the World's Finest Team" by Mark Millar, Mike Manley, and Terry Austin
"Yesterday's Man of Tomorrow" by Millar, Aluir Amancio, and Austin, featuring probably the best of the animated show's reimagined villains, Mr. Mxyptlk, and a sweet tribute to Joe Shuster
"How Much Can One Man Hate?" by Millar, Amancio, and Austin, a really fine Luthor story
"Jimmy Olsen Vs. Darkseid" by Millar, Manley, and Austin
"Bride of Bizarro" by Millar, Amancio, and Austin, guest-starring everyone's favorite inappropriate character for a kid's cartoon, Lobo!

Again, solid stories, solid art. Another fine collection.

Superman Adventures #1 - 2004

2007-09-03T00:03:00.002-04:00

I found myself enjoying Superman Adventures--the cartoon and the comic--just as much as Batman Adventures, even though I've always been a much bigger Batman fan. I thought Timm and Co.'s take on the Man of Steel was nearly flawless, and I think the show was underappreciated. The comic was, to my mind, equally consistent, something these digest collections make clear.

Stories include:
"Clark Kent, You're A Nobody!" by Mark Millar, Aluir Amancio, and Terry Austin
"The Bodyguard of Steel" by Millar, Amancio, and Austin
"War Games" Parts 1 and 2 by Millar, Amancio, and Austin
"Power Corrupts, Super Power Corrupts Absolutely" by Millar, Amancio, and Austin

Supes takes on soem of his biggest, baddest villains, like Luthor, Brainiac, and Parasite, all streamlined and reinvigorated and distilled to their baddest essences. Perfectly fun Superman adventures!

Justice League Unlimited #3 - 2006

2007-09-02T00:08:00.002-04:00

The final JLU digest(there was no official announcement, but I'll get into why I think so in a later post), featuring another nice cover by Ben Caldwell. Nice job getting Zatanna in there!

Stories include:
"Postcard From The Edge" by Adam Beechen, Carlos Barberi, and Walden Wong (starring Aquaman!)
"Old School" by Beechen, Barberi, and Wong
"Nuts and Bolts" by Beechen, Barberi, and Wong
"Everybody Limbo!" by Beechen, Barberi, and Wong (featuring Deadman taking over Wonder Woman's body, a priceless set-up if there ever was one)
"Urban Legend" by Beechen, Barberi, and Wong

...again, more heroes from the far-flung corners of the DCU get a chance to shine, like Stargirl, the aforementioned Deadman, The Demon, Dr.Occult(!) and even Vibe(!!).

Its also nice that every story is by the same creative team, giving the book a nice consistent feel. Ah, it almost takes you back to the days of Gerry Conway and Dick Dillin on the original JLA book...

Justice League Unlimited #2 - 2006

2007-09-01T00:01:00.001-04:00

More JLU, and it's a nice bonus to see Aquaman featured so prominently on the cover by Ben Caldwell!

Stories include:
"In the Dimming Light" by Adam Beecher, Carlos Barberi, and Walden Wong
"Orphans" by Beecher and Ethan Beavers
"The Island" by Beechen, Barberi, and Wong
"Castle Perilous" by Beechen, Barberi, and Wong
"Madness, Madness...They Call It Madness!" by Beechen, Barberi, and Wong

...even more members of the DCU get some playing time in these stories, like Red Tornado, Fire, Orion, The Shining Knight, Vixen, Starman, and two Ditko characters, The Question and The Creeper!

Justice League Unlimited #1 - 2005

2007-08-31T00:19:00.001-04:00

As everyone knows, Justice League was supplanted by the amazingly-expansive, DC Fanboy Dream Show Justice League Unlimited, so the comic quickly followed suit.

While I was sad that my hero Aquaman would probably be showing up even less now that he had so many more heroes to compete with, the overgrown fanboy in me was tickled that I'd get to see characters like The Shining Knight, Zatanna, and B'Wana Beast(B'Wana Beast!) on a TV show. I think Timm and Co. have single-handedly kept a stable of third or fourth-tier DC heroes viable for a whole 'nother generation.

Anyway, JLU the comic kept up the fine tradition of solid, fun stories, perfect for kids of all ages:
"Divide & Conquer" by Aam Beechen, Carlo Barberi, and Walden Wong
"Poker Face" by Beechen and Ethen Beevers
"Small Time" by Beechen, Barberi, and Wong
"Local Hero" by Beechen, Barberi, and Wong
"Monitor Duty" by Beechen, Barberi, and Wong

...these stories featured the main JLU members, plus appearances by heroes like Captain Atom, Zatanna, The Huntress, Firestorm, The Atom, Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, even Adam Strange! Whoo-hoo!

Justice League Advenutres #2 - 2004

2007-08-30T07:06:00.001-04:00

More fun with the JLA! And with everybody's favorite Multiverse-rememberer, Psycho Pirate!

Stories include:
the great "Local Hero" by Dan Slott, Min Ku, and Mark Propst
"An Angry Tide"(featuring guess who!) by Matthew Manning, John Delaney, and John K.Snyder
"Hide and Seek" by Scott McCloud, Delaney, and Snyder
"What's In A Hero?" by Michael Bernard, Delaney, and Rick Burchett
"Emotional Baggage" by Jason Hall, Burchett, and Snyder

...another fine collection. Scott "Zot!" McCloud in particular seemed to have an excellent grasp of these characters, keeping them in character yet coming from unusual story angles. He wrote some excellent stories for Superman Adventures which we'll get to shortly!

Justice League Adventures #1 - 2004

2007-08-29T00:25:00.002-04:00

Another fine DC/Cartoon Network title, Justice League Adventures was, to me, a better, more consistent JLA book than the regular title has been for a long time.

I'm not sure why these digest collections hop around the original series to pull stories from, but what the hey:
"The Star Lost" by Fabian Nicieza, John Delaney, and Radny Elliott
the really fun "Wolf's Clothing" by Dan Slott, Min Ku, and Dan Davis, featuring approximately ten thousand DCU villains
"Must There Be A Martian Manhunter?" by Josh Siegal, Chris Jones, and Christian Alamy
"The Moment" by Slott, Ku, and Davis
"Cold War" by Christopher Sequeira, Ku, and Mark Propst

...like I said, a really solid collection of JLA tales, featuring sharp characterization, action, and a really good sense of humor.

Batman Adventures #2 - 2004

2007-08-28T00:03:00.001-04:00

The second and last volume of the fine Batman Adventures series(it was replaced by a series of Batman Strikes! digests), featuring some more excellent Tales of the Bat:
"Shot to the Heart" by Dan Slott, Ty Templeton, and Terry Beatty
"Liar, Liar" by Templeton, Rick Burchett, and Beatty
"Playing with Matches" by Slott, Burchett, and Beatty
"Two Minute Warning" by Templeton, Burchett, and Beatty
"A Bat In The House" by Slott, Burchett, and Beatty
"The First Time" by Templeton, Burchett, and Beatty
"Masquerade" by Slott, Burchett, and Beatty
"Face to Face" by Templeton, Burchett, and Beatty
the uber-fun "Deathtrap A-Go-Go!" by Gabe Soria and Dean Haspiel
"The Couch" by Vito Delsante and Haspiel

...while I know these stories are intended for young kids, I think the overall quality of these tales belies the conventional wisdom that you can't write short superhero stories anymore. Every mainstream superhero book seems to feature six-issue-long story arcs, while some of these tales are barely eight pages long.

Batman Adventures #1 - 2004

2007-08-27T04:39:00.001-04:00

Starting in 2002, DC returned to the world of digest comics--sort of.

They released a whole line of reprint, almost-digest sized(5x7 1/2") books featuring their Cartoon Network "All Ages" material. To say I was thrilled was an understatement, and I quickly made an effort to grab every issue of every title DC put out in this format.

This is one of the later series, Batman Adventures, featuring a typically beautiful cover by Bruce Timm. It reprints issues of Batman: Gotham Adventures and Batman Adventures, featuring these stories:
"Second Timers" by Scott Peterson, Tim Levins, and Terry Beatty
"No Asylum" by Ty Templeton, Rick Burchett, and Beatty
"Free Man" by Templeton, Burchett, and Beatty
"Fowl Play" by Dan Slott, Templeton, and Beatty
"Breathing Room" by Slott, Templeton, and Beatty
"Need To Know" by Slott, Templeton, and Beatty

...as anyone who watched Batman: The Animated Series or read the tie-in comic knows, BTAS presented some of the best Batman tales around. Free from crippling continuity and the dependence on endless storylines, these Batman stories were short, direct, full of adventure and fun. A great collection of tales.

My only quibble with this new line of digests was how it was conceived--first off, each of these books retailed for $6.95, which seems like a high cover price when you're trying to market to younger readers(and their parent's wallets). While the thick covers and high-quality paper stock are nice, it might've been worth the effort to cut corners here and there and get the price down.

Also, this new digest line consisted of Justice League Adventures, Powerpuff Girls, Scooby-Doo, Superman Adventures, and Cartoon Cartoons. Worthy titles all, but once again they were only sold at comic stores, virtually guaranteeing books like Powerpuff Girls and Scooby-Doo would sit unsold. I know that getting new books into places like bookstores and supermarkets is difficult and expensive, but if you're going to do a line of books for younger readers, you have to go to them.

I have seen some of these digests at Target and major book chains, which is a good start. But I wonder what kind of success DC might've had with these if they had managed to knock the price down by a buck or two and gotten them next to the Archies in the supermarket check-out lines.

Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #71 - April 1986

2007-08-25T00:05:00.001-04:00

It's been a long time coming, but here we are--the final issue of DC's longest-running digest title, The Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #71, featuring one last Year's Best collection.

The irreverent cover(with Ambush Bug, you could expect nothing less) is of course by Keith Giffen and Karl Kesel, suggesting an alternate way maybe one could put these Year's Best collections together.

DC's best of 1985 included:
"The Day The Earth Died" by our pal Paul Kupperberg, Ed Hannigan, Curt Swan, and Al Williamson (from Superman #408)
"Mogo Doesn't Socialize", a goofy one-off by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons starring The Green Lantern Corps (from Green Lantern #188)
"Trick Trap" by Gary Cohn, our pal Dan Mishkin, Giffen, and Gary Martin (Blue Devil #8)
"Brief Lives" by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill (Omega Men #26)
the classic "Modern Spring" by Moore, Steve Bisette, and John Totleben (Swamp Thing #34)
"The Silent Treatment" by Mike W Barr and Jerome K Moore (Batman and the Outsiders #21)
"Bits of (Ambush) Bugginess" by Giffen, Robert Loren Fleming, and Bob Oksner (Action Comics #565)
"The Ghost of Krypton Past" by Cary Bates and Klaus Janson (from DC Comics Presents #82, starring Supes and Adam Strange, featuring a superb art job by Janson)
"Forever Blowing Bubbles" by Mike Baron and the late, great Marshall Rogers (Green Lantern #187)
"Just As Night Follows Day..." by Doug Moench, Gene Colan, and Alfredo Alcala (from Batman #383, featuring something you didn't--don't--see much: a whimiscal Batman story)
"Hukka Vs. The Bob!" by Giffen, Loren Fleming, and Kesel (from Atari Force #20)

...the inside cover features a brief editorial by Randall, who mentions "[this] is the last issue for now. We may be publishing digests again later on, but for now, we'll say good-bye to you with the best stories we could find from 1985."

Sadly, of course, publishing-digests-again-wise, that didn't happen. Other than Archie Comics, this was the last series from any major comics publisher in the digest format. The victim of a changing comics marketplace, the ever-increasingly-aging fanbase wanted higher and higher quality collected editions, not cheap digests you could stuff in your back pocket.

So, does this mean this is the end of the DigestComics blog? No, not just yet...like I've said before, I have no desire to collect, read, and catalog the approximatelty fifteen million Archie and Harvey digests published over the last few decades(as fine as they are), but we will be spending some time with some other publishers who tried their hands at digests here and there, and even take a look at DC's quasi-attempt at digests over the last few years.

We'll be taking our first day off tomorrow, then return on Monday with a new digest! As they used to say in comics, It's A Date!

Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #70 - March 1986

2007-08-24T00:14:00.001-04:00

Ah, the final Binky collection. Binky, we hardly knew ye.

I love this cover, commissioned for the digest. It reminds me of those "hippy" covers comics had in the late 60s and early 70s, where mostly middle-aged comic guys attempted to portray what they thought hippies looked like. Clearly, any band dressed like Culture Club who showed up at an actual punk club would've been murdered, right there on stage.

But let's not quibble, let's get to the Binky! Stories include:
Binky in "The Earth People", "Easy Bread", "The Unbelievers" and "A Natural Born Foul-Up"
Scooter in "The Ghost is Clear", "Not A Very Safe Place To Be", "A Hairy Tale", "Present For A Sassy Kid", "Vote For Miss Noble", and "The Plenty Potent Potion"
Debbi in "Scrambled Brains" and "Love Those Bad Kids"

...one odd thing is, even though there's a Digest Forum column, Nick Cuti is no longer listed as editor, having been replaced by Barbara Randall.

Frequently in comics you'd see a new editor take over a book for its final two or three issues, with the idea I guess the senior editor would be moved onto more important work and a new editor could get some experience guiding a cancelled title into the great beyond.

*sigh* Be here tomorrow for the big conclusion!

Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #69 - Feb. 1986

2007-08-23T00:09:00.002-04:00

Well, they did Year's Best Superman and Year's Best Batman, why not Year's Best Team Stories?

The cover is by our pal Joe Staton, and does indeed feature some great stories:
"We Are Gathered Here Today..." by Marv Wolfman, George Perez, Mike DeCarlo, and Dick Giordano, from Tales of the New Teen Titans #50, the Donna Troy wedding issue.

Even though I was fourteen when I read that issue and hardly interested in weddings, I remembered really liking this issue, because they took the gamble of doing a straight wedding story, and not, you know, have the Fearsome Five break in at the last second.

The other stories are "A Thorn Grows in Paradise" by Roy Thomas, Don Newton, and Joe Rubinstein (from Infinity Inc. #13)
"Triangle?" by Paul Levitz, Mindy Newell, Dan Jurgens, and Karl Kesel
...and the underrated classic "Who's Afraid of the Big Red 'S'?" by Mike W. Barr and Jim Aparo (from Batman and the Outsiders #19--it's a nice, heartwarming Christmas story, plus you get to see Superman and Geo-Force beat the crap out of each other for five pages! One of my all-time favorites.)

One of my favorite single digest collections--each story is solid, and some are even classics; amazing that DC published them all in the space of a single year!

Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #68 - Jan. 1986

2007-08-22T00:14:00.001-04:00

Sadly, this is the last Sugar & Spike digest collection. Never again would Shelly Mayer's wonderful little creation get as much regular exposure as they did in the digests. So let's just enjoy what we've got, eh?

Stories include:
"Halloween Cats"
"The Day The Trees Got Sloppy"
"Halloween Goblin"
"Space Sprout"
"Uncle Charlie's Talking Pumpkin"
"Sugar and Spike Get Up in the World"
"Space Sprout Returns"
"The 4000-Year-Old Baby"
"The Shiny Round Roller"
"Halloween Magic"
"Who's Who"

...for some reason, other than a single Millennium Edition reprint in 2000, and they're charming cameo in Crisis on Infinite Earths, Sugar and Spike have pretty much vanished from the pages of DC Comics. They didn't even rate a lisiting in the catch-all Who's Who series(oh, how the last story's title in this book is ironic!) despite many readers writing into complain and demand their inclusion.

Sugar & Spike remain two of DC's most original creations, and so it was nice for them to have a few last shots at the spotlight in Best of DC Digest.

Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #67 - Dec. 1985

2007-08-21T00:00:00.001-04:00

We've arrived at the last Legion digest collection!

The cover is by Karl Kesel, obviously focused on Starfinger, a very familiar-looking Legion villain. I wonder if he and Black Manta ever compared notes?

Stories include:
"Starfinger!" by Edmond Hamilton, John Forte, and Sheldon Moldoff
"The True Identity of Starfinger" by Hamilton, Forte, and Moldoff
"The Insect Queen of Smallville" by Otto Binder and George Papp
"The Weddings That Wrecked The Legion!" by Hamilton, Forte, and Moldoff
"The Menace of the Sinister Super-Babies!" by Jerry Siegel(oh, Jerry...) and Forte
"The Sacrifice of Kid Psycho!" by Binder and Papp
"Hunters of the Super-Beasts" by Hamilton, Forte, and Moldoff

Editor Nick Cuti was so committed to the Digest Forum and presenting other readers' thoughts that he ran a long letter by one fan in the empty space after each story, which was only about a 1/4 page in size, so that the letter and its answer is spread out over seven pages. It makes for awkward reading, but I think it shows the lengths Nick would go to to fit as much in an issue as possible.

Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #66 - Nov. 1985

2007-08-20T00:19:00.002-04:00

Superman team-up action! 100 pages of costumed excitement!

The incredibly overstuffed cover is by Dennis Jensen, and features the following tales of Supes pretending he needs the help of other DCU heroes:
Superman and the The Metal Men in "Sun-Stroke!" by Len Wein and Jose Luis Garcia Lopez
Superman, Batman, and the JLA in "The Prisoner of the Kryptonite Asteroid!", a two-part tale by Bob Haney, Kurt Schaffenberger, and Murphy Anderson
Superman and the Legion in "To Live in Peace--Nevermore!" by Paul Levitz, Dick Dillin, and Dick Giordano
Superman and...Superboy?!? in "Judge, Jury, and No Justice!" by Levitz, Dillin, and Giordano

...plus a letters page asking why DC doesn't reprint more Golden Age tales, and a refreshingly honest answer from editor Nick Cuti:"The casual reader and the fan still outnumber the fan-collector and they would not appreciate the simple storylines and crude art(by today's standards) of the Golden Age classics."

Wow, how times have changed. $50 Archive editions, anyone?

Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #65 - Oct. 1985

2007-08-19T08:40:00.001-04:00

More Sugar and Spike! It's interesting to look over these books, after hearing about how editor Nick Cuti kept running mostly as an excuse to talk to Sheldon Mayer and commission a new cover from him. I find that really funny and charming--screw the superhero zombies, we're running more S&S!

Stories(all by Mayer, of course) include:
"Bernie the Brain"
"Mystery Toy"
"The Rise of Sugar & Spike"
"The Adventure of the Wet Stuff...The Shiny Thing...and the Sweet-Mush"
"Impossible Adventure"
"The New Hat"
"Adventure with the Wooden Pussy-Cat"
"Sugar's Greatest Discovery"
"Who Stole Our Ocean?"(sounds like an Aquaman story)
"Growing Pains"
"Sugar Becomes an Indian Chief"
...plus a letters page, an innovation from Mr.Cuti and something I wish had appeared more.

The only negative thing about this book is that it was printed with the Flexographic process, the evil evil evil coloring system DC had a brief, torrid affair with. The results aren't as bad here as other places, but it still hurts the eyes a bit.

Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #64 - Sept. 1985

2007-08-18T00:01:00.001-04:00

Ah, the Legion is back. Let me contain my excitement.

Ok, done.

Behind the vary busy cover by Paris Cullins and Bob Smith are the following Legion adventures:
"Superboy and the 5 Legion Traitors!" by Jerry Siegel, Curt Swan, and George Klein
"The Secret of the Mystery Legionnaire" by Siegel and Jim Mooney
"The Trimuph of the Legion of Super-Villains" by Siegel and Mooney
"The Super-Moby Dick of Space!" by Edmond Hamilton and John Forte
"The War Between Krypton and Earth!" by Hamilton and Forte
"The Unknown Legionnaire!" by Hamilton, Forte, and Sheldon Moldoff
a fun feature about the various Legion HQs, written by Nick Cuti and E.Nelson Bridwell, with art by James Sherman, Jack Abel, Jim Janes(?), Frank Chiaramonte, Keith Giffen, and Larry Mahlstedt

...plus the usual text-piece on the Legion by Paul Levitz, whose enthusiasm for these characters is evident. Maybe that's why his Legion tales were so good!

Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #63 - Aug. 1985

2007-08-17T00:06:00.001-04:00

More Plop!

I guess we have to thank Mr.Cuti for this second volume, since I got the sense from our interview that the first one--or pretty much any of the non-superhero collections--didn't sell too well. That's a crying shame, since as we'll see these Plop! collections featured some outstanding work, behind the front cover by Wally Wood and inside front cover by Basil Wolverton:
an intro starring Cain and Abel by Sergio Aragones
"Love Is A Dandy!" by Steve Skeates, Steve Ditko, and Wally Wood
"The Aladdin Frame-Up" by Skeates and Aragones
"A Tale Before Sunrise" by Skeates and Vicent Alcazar, aka the Final Batman Story
"A Likely Story" by Skeates and Aragones
"The Collector" by Coram Nobis and Wood
"The Demand" by Aragones
"A Perfectly Crazy Crime" by Skeates and Aragones
"The Message" by Sheldon Mayer and Alfredo Alcala
"The Locked Door of Harkness House!" by Maxene Fabe and Dave Manak
"The Man Who Came to Dinner" by George Kashdan and Nick Cardy
"We're Always Working For Your Wowweee!" by Skeates and Manak
"All Wet!" by Skeates and Lee Marrs
"Once Upon A Swine..." by Victor Schwartzmann, Fabe, and Aaragones
"Vampire At The Circus" by Dave Edwing and Manak
"Bug In The Works" by Skeates and Manak
"The Escape!" by Aaragones
"The Spell!" (uncredited)
"Cain's Game Room" by Edwing and Manak
"The Temple of Ikka-Ka-Ka!" by Skeates and Aragones
"A Rejection From Cain" by Michael Pellowski and Alcala
"Molded in Evil" by Ed Noonchester, Kashdan, and Berni Wrightson

...wow, that's a lot of material crammed into one book! Props to DC, Nick Cuti, and all the fine creative madmen behind the all-too-short-lived Plop!

Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #62 - July 1985

2007-08-16T00:06:00.001-04:00

DC did a Year's Best for Superman, so why not Batman? Heck, you could argue there was more reason to do this, since the Bat-titles were done by very different creative teams, allowing for a greater variety of stories, wherein Superman and Action Comics always sorta seemed like the same book.

Behind the cover by Joe Brozowski and Larry Mahlstedt were these Batman stories considered the best of 1984:
"...The Player on The Other Side!" by Mike W.Barr(a vastly underrated writer, IMO), Michael Golden, and Mike DeCarlo, from Batman Special #1
"Down Below" by Doug Moench, Gene Colan, and Bob Smith, from Detective Comics #537
"What Price, The Prize?" by Moench, Don Newton(talk about underrated!), and Alfredo Alcala
"Boxing" by Moench, Newton, and Smith

...plus a fun pin-up of Bats and some of his friends and foes:
Ooh, I know, I know--clockwise from right: Catman, The Spook, Clayface II, The Cavalier, Tweeldedum and Tweedledee, The Gentleman Ghost, Mad Hatter, Killer Croc, Signalman, Mr.Freeze, Commissioner Gordon, The Joker, The Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, um, that pirate guy whose name escapes me at the moment(anyone?), The Penguin, Matches Malone?, Two-Face, Black Spider, The Riddler, Batgirl, and Alfred!

*Whew* I'm exhausted. This digest thing can be hard sometimes...

Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #61 - June 1985

2007-08-15T00:04:00.002-04:00

It's that time of year again, time for another Year's Best collection! This time the members of the DCU decided to hold the awards ceremony in outer space, as you can see by this Pat Broderick cover.

This year, as in previous years, collects some absolutely fantastic stories:
the modern classic "The Anatomy Lesson" by Alan Moore, Steve Bissette, and John Totleben (Swamp Thing #21)
"If Superman Didn't Exist..." by Marv Wolfman and Gil Kane (Action Comics #554)
"Killers Also Smile" by Bob Kanigher and Adrian Gonzalez (Sgt.Rock #391)
"Guess What's Coming To Dinner?" by Paul Levitz, Keith Giffen, George Tuska, and Larry Mahlstedt (Legion of Super-Heroes #308)
"Final Duties", a Tale of the Green Lantern Corps by Len Wein and Kane (Green Lantern #177)
"Viva Nebiros!" by Dan Mishkin, Gary Cohn, Paris Cullins, and Gary Martin (Blue Devil #5)
"Who Is Donna Troy?" by Wolfman, George Perez, and Romeo Tanghal (New Teen Titans #38)
"Babe's Story" by Gerry Conway, Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, and Ricardo Villagran (Atari Force #8)

...the only thing taking away from these stories--some of them bona-fide classics--is that DC was in the middle of its (thankfully)brief love affair with the Flexographic printing process. You remember Flexograpghic printing, right? Garish colors, giant weird blobs of color where they don't belong, mis-registered printing. Flexographic was bad enough on regular-sized comics, but on a digest-sized book it's even worse. Luckily, DC would soon see that it was hopeless, and went back to their regular way of coloring their books.

One other nice thing in this book is from editor Nicola Cuti--he writes an editorial on the inside back cover, called Digest Forum, where he actually asks to start a dialogue between the book and its readers. He asks what do the readers want to see, and to send letters, which was really cool, since for so long most comic reprint titles seemed to be produced by magic; the readers never getting a sense who was putting these things together.

This request would soon result in something a digest book never had before--a letter's page.

Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #60 - May 1985

2007-08-14T00:03:00.001-04:00

I don't know whose idea it was to do a Plop! collection, but bless their little hearts for doing so! Plop! was a great book that died all too quickly, so it was so cool for DC to dig some of the best material up and put it between two covers, all for a measly $1.50!

Front cover by Wally Wood, inside front by Basil Wolverton(!), and opening page by Sergio Aragones! And that's just the first three pages! There's also:
"The Poster Plague!" by Steve Skeates and Aragones
"The Gourmet" by Skeates and Berni Wrightson
"Depressed Elephant" by Skeates and Aragones
"Wednesday's Child" by Marv Wolfman and Wally Wood
"The Showdown Sonata" by Lee Marrs
"The Last Laugh" by Skeates and Frank Robbins
"The Lawn That Devoured Cleveland" by David Michelinie and Aragones
"Super Plops!" by Murphy Anderson and starring various members of the DCU
"The Killer Kind!" by Jack Oleck and David Manak
"The Uninvited Guest" by Skeates, John Jacobson, and Bill Draut
"The Secret Origin of Grooble Man" by Skeates, Jacobson, and Aragones
"Old Butterfly Story" by Skeates and Robbins
a one-page Cain pin-up by Michael Kaluta
"Trick or Treat" by ? and Sid Greene
"A Fate Worse Than Death" by Aragones
"The Ultimate Weapon" by Skeates and Frank Thorne
"The Ultimate Freedom" by Coram Nobis(surely someone's pseudonym) and Aragones
"Switch Ending" by Oleck and Manak
"Moment of Decision" by Arnold Drake and Draut
"What Are Little Ghouls Made Of?" by E.Nelson Bridwell and Aragones
"The King of the Ring" by Wood

...what a line-up of talent they had for Plop!, it's a crime it didn't last longer. Good to know it wasn't forgotten by the folks at DC, and this is a really funny(and beautifully drawn) collection. One of DC's best digest collections.

Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #59 - April 1985

2007-08-13T00:07:00.001-04:00

A genuinely spooky cover, courtesy Klaus Janson. I'm not sure what "Sagas" means, since one of these stories is only nine pages long, but:

"The Second Coming of Superman" by Cary Bates, Curt Swan, and Vince Colletta (a sixty-three--well, that's a saga--page story from Superman Spectacular #5)
"The One Minute of Doom!" by Edmond Hamilton and John Forte
"Let My People Grow!" by Len Wein, Swan, and Frank Chiaramonte

...plus a Superman vs. Brainiac pin-up by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, that on the table of contents is listed as "from the 1982 DC Comics Style Guide." Editor Nick Cuti was being charmingly honest with that credit. Did most readers know what a "style guide" even was?

Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #58 - March 1985

2007-08-12T00:07:00.002-04:00

One of the strangest, if not the strangest, digests DC ever published--the Super Jrs. Holiday Special, an all-new sixty-five page story aimed directly at young kids!

It's a fanciful Xmas tale that features five little kids who get transformed into pint-size versions of Superman, Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman, and...Flash(you all know what I'm thinking).

There's no writing credit, but the art is by Vince Squeglia, someone I've never heard of before and as far as I know this is his only comic-book credit.

The story is wonderfully told and Squeglia's art is beautiful, and the whole piece has a definite Sheldon Mayer-esque feeling to it. It's a really great kids comic, and again all credit to DC for commissioning it. I'm betting this didn't sell very well, because A)you never saw Squeglia's art in another DC comic, and B)this is one of the hardest digests to find--if not the hardest--on ebay, since I bet not many copies gor saved over the years.

There's also three Sugar & Spike tales thrown in: "Spike's Big Problem", "Cowboy Santa Claus", and "A New Adventure With the Genius", making for an excellent kids and/or Christmas comic.

I would love to know the origins of this book's creation, whether it made especially for the digest or for something else(an abandoned children's book, possibly?). It's a wonderful anomaly.

Update: Since writing the above, I did a little research and found an entry for this book in Scott Shaw!'s Oddball Comics column. Apparently, the Super Jrs. was a merchandising concept used overseas, and this story was originally done for a Mexican comic, and then translated into English for this American digest version.

And of course, now we know from our interview with Nick Cuti that importing this story was his idea. It may not have sold well at the time, but speaking for this longtime comics reader, I'm really glad he did it!

Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #57 - Feb. 1985

2007-08-11T00:09:00.002-04:00

The Legion is back, and with a really weird and creepy cover by Pat Broderick. There was something about the way Broderick drew evil women's faces--they looked positively satanic. I mean, look at the women's faces--they look like they're about to eat the Legionnaires, but not before tearing them apart. *shudder*

Unfortunately, none of the stories here are quite that gripping, since they're all culled from the Legion's mid-60s run in Adventure Comics:
"The Legion of Super-Outlaws" by Ed Hamilton and John Forte
"Lex Luthor Meets the Legion" by Jerry Siegel and Forte
"The Revolt of the Girl Legionnaires" by Siegel and Forte
"The Lone Wolf Legionnaire" by Hamilton and Forte
"The Lad Who Wrecked the Legion" by Siegel and Jim Mooney
"The Bizarro-Legion" by Siegel and Mooney

...there's also a three-page "Powers of the Legion" sequence of panels each demonstrating the Legionnaire's individual powers. Drawn by Curt Swan, there's a great shot of Matter-Eater Lad knawing on a fence. You'd think that was the most interesting and/or bizarre one, but you'd be wrong:

Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #56 - Jan. 1985

2007-08-10T00:07:00.002-04:00

More aliens! Man, does Supes look pissed on this cover(courtesy Pat Broderick)!

Stories include:
"The Island That Invaded The Earth!" by Len Wein, Curt Swan, and Murphy Anderson
"The Electronic Ghost of Metropolis" by Denny O'Neil, Swan, and Anderson
"The Menace Called 'It'!" by Leo Dorfman, Swan, and George Klein
"The Skyscraper That Screamed For Its Life" by Eliott S. Maggin, Swan, and Anderson
"Danger--Monster At Work!" by Wein, Swan, and Anderson
"Fury of the Energy-Eater" by Wein, Swan, and Anderson

This story features a particularly effective opening, when the bad guy in question(aka known as The Galactic Golem), walking a lonely road, comes across a "Metropolis: Home of Superman" billboard. In his rage, he smashes the sign to bits. He turns, and sees a little dog. He leans over the dog, gently pets its head, and walks off.

The entire two-page sequence is almost wordless, and its very moody and powerful. I'm not known for being a big Curt Swan fan, but this is one of the best Superman story openers I've ever read. If this were done nowadays, the bad guy would slaughter the dog, just so we get hit over the head of how evil he is.

Not a bad collection...hey, isn't Supes an alien?

Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #55 - Dec. 1984

2007-08-09T00:05:00.002-04:00

This is the final Funny Stuff collection, hold back your tears. Sorry, I shouldn't be so snarky--there should be more comics like this for little kids, and as I've said repeatedly, points to DC for trying.

Stories include:
Peter Porkchops in "Prehistoric Daze"
Bo Bunny in "See Ya Later, Alligator" and "Topsy-Turvy"
Stanely Scarecrow in "Timberrr!"
Peter Panda in "A Visit to Mirrorland"(sounds like a Flash story)
Three Mousketeers in "Upsa-Daisy", "Bugle Blues", "Rufus Rat", and "Fatsy's Dilemma"
Nutsy Squirrel in "For Goodness...Snakes", "Paint We Got Fun", and "One for the Books"
Fraidy Cat in "Give Him The Air"
Dizzy Dog in "Crazy---Like A Fox"
Dodo and Frog in "The Artist"
Doodles Duck in "Music! Music!", "A Toothy Problem", and "Revenge Is Sweet"(featuring the Doodles Duck Revenge-Squad)
Raccoon Kids in "Watermelon Woes"
Blabber Mouse in "Walkie-Talkie"

The front cover is by Chuck Fiala and the back by Jim Engel, who drew in The Monster(as in "Stanley and...") even though he doesn't appear in the book. Oh, well, thanks for the laughs, Funny Stuff!

Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #54 - Nov. 1984

2007-08-08T00:05:00.002-04:00

Ah, DC found a way to squeeze a few more Superman-themed collections in before Best of DC went belly up. It features a particularly brutal cover, too--Bizarro really looks like he's got Superman good, and with all the bad guys cheering it reminds me of that opening scene in Justice. The cover is Ed Hannigan and Klaus Janson, and it's partly due to Janson's rough edge that I think this cover has that feel. Ouch!

Stories include:
"Mxyzptlk Spelled Backward is T-R-O-U-B-L-E" by Martin Pasko, Curt Swan, and Frank Chiaramonte
"The Sixty Deaths of Solomon Grundy" by Steve Englehart and Murphy Anderson (guest-starring Swamp Thing, who when you come to think of it is a great sparring partner for Grundy!)
"Gorilla Grodd's Grandstand Play" by Eliott S. Maggin, Swan, and Anderson
"Target of the Toymen" by Cary Bates, Swan, and Anderson
"The Man With the Kryptonite Heart" by Pasko, Swan, and Tex Blaisdell
"Happy New Year...Rest in Peace" by Pasko, Swan, and Chiaramonte

...the Toyman story is notable because it includes an appearance by a Toyman that looks just like the one that appeared on Challenge of the Super-Friends, a version I thought only ever existed on the cartoon.

Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #53 - Oct. 1984

2007-08-07T00:18:00.001-04:00

More Binky!

A couple of comments on this nice cover by Stan Goldberg--first, the two girls in bikins are reminders that, while this material is meant for kids, this Archie-style produces some of the most beautiful Good Girl Art I've seen. I mean, wow.

Secondly--the girl walking into the water behind Binky. With her flailing arms, it sorta looks me to like she's a blind girl that isn't sure where she's heading. I can see tomorrow's Daily Planet headline: Senseless Tragedy Mars Youth Group's Day at Beach.

Luckily, nothing so dramatic happens in any of these stories, which include:
Binky in "Real Swinging Advice"(!), "Chivalry Anyone?", "The Exterminator" and "Nobody Nose"
Debbi in "Muffins Keep 'Em Moving", "Spots and Flowers", "Dress Dilemma", "Debbi Meets the Hawk", and "Speak Louder, Please"
Scooter in "Malibu the Matchmaker", "With This Cruise, You Blow A Fuse", and "No Place For A Hero"
Li'l Leroy in "Sleep Tight"
Mona in "Equal Rights"
Malibu in "Seace is Believing"
Sylvester in "It's Magic"

Groovy.

Digest Comics Interview with Nick Cuti - 2007

2007-08-06T00:01:00.003-04:00

We interrupt our daily profiling of Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest to present our very first interview at Digest Comics! I've been doing them for a while over at The Aquaman Shrine and Treasury Comics.com, and getting to talk to people whose work I really admire is one of the greatest thrills of doing these blogs(if not my life).

As I began to talk about the later issues of Best of DC Digest, I realized that it would be really interesting to hear from the then-editor, writer/editor Nick Cuti. Since the digests were all reprints(most of the time), who better to get a behind the scenes glimpse on how they were put together than the editor?

I couldn't figure out how to contact Nick until I realized I could go through our pal Joe Staton, who had done an interview with me for TreasuryComics.com. One email to Joe and about an hour later, I was in contact with Nick! Thankfully, Nick did not laugh at my suggestion at an interview or say something like "You want to talk about what?"

Digest Comics: How did you end up as editor of the digests?

Nick Cuti: I started my career at DC Comics as Joe Orlando's assistant. Joe was in charge of Special Projects, which ment merchandising. I helped to design a Supeman peanut butter tub, a Batman coloring book and a Wonder Woman school portfolio holder. It was fun, but I wanted to get into real comics and so I transferred over to Dick Giordano's division as assistant to Len Wein.

Although Len was great to work for, I wasn't doing any editing on my own. Dick was sympathetic and so he put me in charge of the digests. They weren't doing well, it seemed only Archie and Harvey had any success with digests, so Dick figured I would either turn them into money makers or run them into the ground. I loved the digests and had a ball working on them but I did run them into the ground.

All my decisions about the contents were made from the heart, what I would buy if I saw them on the shelf, but I was obviously out of touch with the fans.

DC: How were the contents decided? Was it decided from high up "do three Supermans, two Batmans..." etc.?

NC: They had a schedule but between the "Superman" and "Batman" required series, I was given flexibility. For example I came up with the idea of publishing a "Kryptonite" issue which would reprint all of the stories about the different forms of Kryptonite and what effects they had on Superman. I even did a single page which listed the different Kryptonites and their effects, as a sort of reference book.

DC: How much say did you have on what stories to reprint in an individual issue?

NC: Dick and Len were very good about backing me up on my special issues but they were also very supportive about which stories I chose for the regular issues.

DC: Publishing Funny Stuff and Sugar and Spike was definitely unusual by the 1980s. Was this an attempt to see if a younger audience was still there for this kind of material?

NC: As I mentioned only Archie and Harvey seemed to have success with the digest sized comics so I thought I would look into the DC humor books and that's when I discovered Sugar and Spike. I thought they were terriffic. I called Shelly Mayer, their writer/artist/creator, and he did a new cover for each issue. I couldn't wait for them to pop up on the schedule so I could put together another issue and chat with Shelly. I loved his stories about the old days of comics. He was a very witty and likeable person, reminding me of my old friend, Joe Gill.

DC: Were the more unusual digest-headliner choices (Super Jrs, Plop!) because people on DC were fans of the material?

NC: I have to take the blame for those as well. I was never a big super hero fan and so I was always trying to find a new direction for the digests. I believed superheroes should be in full sized comics where their action could be fully exploited and the off beat stuff could be in the digests. Mad put out pocket-sized versions of their early stories so I thought Plop! would be a natural.

When I ran accross a pamphlet with the Super Jrs. I figured they might work as a Christmas special. I was certain I was on the right track but sales figures don't lie and they kept dropping.

DC: Speaking as a kid growing up reading a lot of reprint books, they frequently seemed just thrown together, with no editorial "voice". When you took over the digests, you started up regular editorials and even a letters page. What inspired you to try this? Did you receive the kind of feedback that you were looking for?

NC: I was seriously trying to turn the digests into a viable media and so I hoped for reader support but it never came. We received only a few letters and...oh, those sales figures.

DC: DC did a lot of superhero, horror, war, and funny animal themed digests, but never really any sci-fi ones. As a big sci-fi fan, did you ever want to do an all-space-hero collection(Adam Strange, Space Ranger, Atomic Knights)?

NC: I am a huge sci-fi fan, especially concerning Space Opera but even I wasn't naive enough to think that a sci-fi digest would succeed when all the other genres had flopped. That's why I eventually did my own space opera, Captain Cosmos, the Last STARveyer. It's not exactly successful but I put it out as an act of love for the genre.

I think I did approach Len and Dick about the possibility of sci-fi digest...once. Their laughter could be heard throughout the offices.

DC: The Manga format, which is hugely popular now, is very similar in size and style to the digests. Any chance we'll ever seen an E-Man digest? Those stories are charming and timeless, perfect for a big collection!

NC: Hey, flattery will get you anywhere. I never even considered such a thing but now that you mention it I think it's a fine idea. If you can find a publisher who agreees with you, I'm sure Joe and I would be happy to give it a try. Thanks for bringing it up, Rob!

I was thrilled to get to talk to Nick about the digests. I loved them as a kid, love them now(as if you couldn't tell), and Nick was extremely friendly and generous with his time, answering my geeky questions. Thanks Nick!

Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #52 - Sept. 1984

2007-08-05T00:09:00.002-04:00

Another Year's Best collection! The celebratory cover is by Paris Cullins and Dick Giordano, and I notice that this year's "winners" are seated at the main table, with the rest of the DCU stuck by the bathroom and kitchen entrances, apparently.

DC's best of 1983 included:
"Siege" by Marv Wolfman, Keith Pollard, and Romeo Tanghal (New Teen Titans #35)
"The Death of Blackhawk Island" by Mark Evanier and Dan Spiegle (Blackhawk #258)
"The Birthright" by Dan Mishkin, Gary Cohn, and Ernie Colon (Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld #1)
"Violet's Story" by Paul Levitz, Keith Giffen, and Kurt Schaffenberger (Legion of Super-Heroes #305)
"The Dummy" by Bob Kanigher and Frank Redondo (Sgt. Rock #376)
"Stopover in a Place of Secret Truths" by Martin Pasko, Steve Bissette, and John Totleben (Swamp Thing #16)
"Look to the Mountaintop" by Doug Moench, Gene Colan, and Bob Smith (Detective Comics #533)

...as usual, DC's Year's Best collection featured some superb stories:New Teen Titans of course was almost always excellent, a sample from Evanier and Spiegle's vastly-underrated Blackhawk run(there's a book that deserves a trade collection, schnell!), the quiet classic "Violet's Story", Bissette and Totleben completely reimagining the look of Swamp Thing, and the solid team of Moench and Colan on Batman.

My only complaint is the back cover, where amid all the heroes sitting down to a nice meal(leaving B'Wana Beast, Nightmaster, and The Global Guardians to fight crime, I guess) we have this little insulting piece of detail:

...Swamp Thing has to serve drinks?? Is this anyway to treat a member of the DCU who has his own title and starred in his own movie?!?

One thing we can guarantee--by next year's Year's Best collection, Swampy was being written by Alan Moore, so he started commanding a lot more respect.