The All-New All-Different Howling Curmudgeons: Life in Austin

September 17, 2008

Life in Austin

by Greg

Three quick points, while I'm bugged out in Austin after losing power for 120 hours (so far) from Hurricane Ike.

Austin Books has about ten copies of the Eclipse reprint Original Zot!, which reprints at least a chunk of the color Zot! comics that preceded the black and white run recently collected in the omnibus. I didn't see any of the vol 1 Kitchen Sink collection, which definitely collects all of the color Zot!s. Probably they're happy to do mail order.
Dynamo 5 is the second best superhero comic being published. Betja I know who Vigil is under that mask.
I picked up Runaways v. 1 in the small "manga" size. I haven't started it yet, so I don't have any comment on it, but let me just say: There should absolutely be a line of Superman and Batman volumes in the format, probably bi-monthly or quarterly, in a animated-series, Adventures-style. I.e., with complete stories, all-ages, with clarity a story-telling priority (clarity both in writing and art). Probably also a DC Universe or JLA or Wonder Woman series as well. Probably several stories in a volume, one or two of them continued. Like Archie digests, but in the manga size. There are a lot more possible readers in the young adult market that DC isn't reaching than there are in the existing direct market. I would make this a major priority for DC, and sure as hockey sticks put it above wrangling celebrities or hot creators on the mainstream pamphlets.

Posted by Greg at September 17, 2008 5:56 PM

Comments

#1 ::: Michael Chary ::: September 18, 2008 4:48 PM ::: link

DC used to publish a lot of digest size comics in the 1980's. Adventures Comics and "Best of"'s and the like. A *lot* of LSH reprints. It's not what you are talking about now, but I always wondered why they stopped doing it.

#2 ::: Jonathan Miller ::: September 19, 2008 2:16 PM ::: link

I remember hearing someone--Paul Levitz?--say that the digests got cancelled because they didn't sell and DC was losing a ton of money on them. Not sure of the full story (maybe it has something to do with how much distribution was costing them?), but that's the reason I've heard that they were stopped.

By the way, Greg, I'm pretty sure DC has been reprinting their all-ages stuff in digest-sized collections, haven't they? Admittedly, these would still be $10 books, but it's at least a step.

#3 ::: Greg Morrow ::: September 19, 2008 2:37 PM ::: link

Good. I'm glad DC has some sense. I will emphasize again that this ought to be a huge priority for them; this is where the new readers are. This is where they can grow the audience. I'd also want to see a YA line as well.

#4 ::: Kevin J. Maroney ::: September 20, 2008 11:05 AM ::: link

Confirmed, Marvel and DC are both publishing a lot of all-ages books in digest/manga format. I myself have recently bought the first volumes of Mini Marvels and Tiny Titans. Marvel is also putting out the Marvel Adventures line, several series of new, younger-reader-friendlier stories about their main heroes (FF, Spider-Man, a version of the Avengers) in full-size pamphlet form and extensively reprinting them in digest/manga volumes. These series are written by newer, but talented, "real" Marvel writers like (in September) Jeff Parker, Jim Tobin, Fred van Lente, Chris Eiliopolous, Mark Sumerak, and, surprisingly, Peter David. I'd love to know how these are doing, but Marvel seems at least moderately dedicated to them. The volumes I've read have generally been pretty good.

#5 ::: Theron ::: September 20, 2008 12:11 PM ::: link

Dark Horse also publishes an all-ages digest series based on the Clone Wars franchise, which my 8 year old devours, and they've just started an Indiana Jones Adventures line.