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!
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!
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!
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!
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!
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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!
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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?
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?
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.
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!
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*
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!
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!
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.
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!
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!).
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?
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!
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.
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'!
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.
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)
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.
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!
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.
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.
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...
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.
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!
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.
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 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! 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*
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.
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.
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.
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.
