Thun'da King of the Congo - 1973

New Addition! Another really cool find, from the same publisher as Untamed Love--more oversized goodness from Frank Frazetta!

Click the cover to learn more!

The Return of DC Treasury Comics?

I posted this exciting bit of news tonight over on The Aquaman Shrine (h/t Newsarama):

At a time when many newspapers are cutting back on their comics sections, DC Comics is looking to remind readers of the fun and excitement a full Sunday-sized comics section can offer.

Except they're going to do it on Wednesdays.

The publisher today officially announced Wednesday Comics, a new 12-part weekly series launching this summer that will be presented in a 14" x 20" broadsheet format and will have to be unfolded and opened to be read. The "Wednesday" part of the title refers to the fact new comic books go on sale at comic book stores nationwide every Wednesday.

"The concept is that we are trying to recapture the spirit, format, and sense of enjoyment that people had form reading the Sunday comics that arrive in newspapers every week," DC Sr VP and Executive Editor Dan DiDio explained to Newsarama. "So, for this 12 week period, we're creating 16 weekly strips that will be presented in newspaper format, which will feature some of our primary characters, as well as some of the premiere creators in the business."

DiDio credits DC Art Director Mark Chiarello's passion and persistence for the project seeing the light of day.

"Mark really championed and fought for this," DiDio said. "He has a real sense for putting together some of the more commercial projects we do, as well as some of the most eclectic and critically successful things we've done as well. He was instrumental in pairing Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee on Batman: Hush, he put together the teams on all the Batman: Black and White projects, and created the concept of the Solo series, which allowed some of comics best creators to come to a comic and do, literally whatever they wanted to do. Mark has an incredibly keen eye for story and art, and from the start was very passionate about this format--and how the stories would play out, and the art would be almost larger than life for the reader."

Characters coming up in the pages of Wednesday Comics include: Hawkman (already linked to creator Kyle Baker art for which can be seen [above]), Batman, Adam Strange, Metamorpho (linked to Neil Gaiman and Mike Allred), Catwoman, Demon, Deadman, Kamandi, Superman, Sgt. Rock, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Teen Titans, Supergirl, Flash and the Metal Men. Each story will have its own full-page installment each week for the 12 issues. The stories may be standalone stories with each installment, or a 12-part serial--the choice was left up to the creators.

DiDio listed off names of some of the other creators joining Baker, Gaiman and Allred on Wednesday Comics: Brian Azzarello, Paul Pope, Walt Simonson, Dave Bullock, Dave Gibbons, Ryan Sook, John Arcudi, Lee Bermejo, Joe Kubert, Ben Caldwell, Kurt Busiek, Eddie Berganza, Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner and Karl Kerschel. More will be announced at a later date, along with an official pairing of creators and characters.

"Mark had creators in mind that he wanted to work with, and he approached them and asked what they wanted to do and work on. We didn't want to have any redundancies, so we shot for the widest breadth of storytelling we could, and I think we got it," DiDio said.

Finally, DiDio stated that the stories in Wednesday Comics will not take place in current DC Comics' continuity, but rather will be accessible by any and all readers. "All the creators are working to make sure that these stories are being created from the standpoint that the readers is someone who has never seen or read anything with the character before," DiDio said, "And really capture both the essence of the character as well as the magic of comics."


I posted most of my thoughts over on the Shrine, but obviously it warrants attention here--after all, we are talking about the return of giant-size comics, and from DC no less!

Sure, they're not classic treasuries, per se--they're going to be 14x20", folded in half, like the classic Sunday Comics pages of old. But they're trying to capture that same spirit of excitement that made the original treasuries so compelling.

My #1 worry is the price-point: I know that people like Neil Gaiman, Kyle Baker, Joe Kubert, etc. don't come cheap (and there's no reason they should), but I can only hope DC has found a way to produce these books at a price that might attract the non-die-hard comics fan. Think more Archie digests ($3.29) than their recently-scrapped digest line ($9.99).

I've heard more than one recent story about how comics distributors (all one of them) have been incredibly unsupportive--if not downright hostile--towards any new book in the treasury format (Jeff Smith Rasl, Geoff Grogan's Look Out!! Monsters!), so I'm doubly-appreciative that DC is willing to buck this trend. I always figured if the format was ever going to come back in a big way, it would have to have the muscle of a DC or Marvel behind it.

Simply said, I cannot wait to get a look at these books.

And I thank DC for putting this together. Nice job, National Periodical Publications!

Untamed Love - 1973

New Addition! This is a really cool find...click the cover to learn more about this hard-to-find one-shot featuring the work of the one and only Frank Frazetta!

Screw Ball Comics #1 - 1985

New Addition! As I've said many time before, just when I think I've found every treasury-sized series there is to find...

Click the cover to learn more about this (unintended) one-shot from Fantagraphics!

Whither Disneyland Magazine?

Every so often, I get an email from a helpful reader of TreasuryComics.com, asking me if I've ever seen a particular, large-sized comic that might warrant inclusion on the site.

I love getting these emails, because they almost always end up with me discovering some book(s) I've never heard of. I like the idea of this site being as all-encompassing as humanly possible.

So, the other day I got an email from Mark Arnold, who is a fellow comics historian. He asked me about Disneyland Magazine--which drew a complete blank from me. What's Disneyland Magazine?

Turns out, DM was a treasury-sized (10x12.5"), saddle-stitched magazine, published by Fawcett, that ran for at least 206 issues (I haven't been able to find much info on the magazine, but I have seen pictures of issue #206, so we know it at least made it that far!).

Each issue was in full-color (as you can see from the scans above), was 20 pages in length with no ads, and featured most of the Disney stars in short stories, that are almost in what most of us would call comic book form, but not quite.

Intrigued, I bought one issue on eBay, which you see before you. But I'm not quite sold that this magazine belongs being classified as a "treasury comic." I know my ad hoc rules for what I consider a treasury comic are just that--ad hoc--but this magazine feels a little more like a kid's magazine, like Highlights or something, rather than a "comic book."

So I'm asking you, those who enjoy the site and take time to visit the What's New blog whenever I post something--what do you think? Would you consider this a treasury-sized comic book, the kind that belongs to be seen here?

Of course, I can't hope to get copies and/or scans of all 206 (and maybe more!) issues, but if the consensus is that Disneyland Magazine does belong here, I'd give it its own page and try and catalog as many of them as I could.

Let me know, treasury fans!

Huckleberry Hound Weekly - 1967

New Additions! Just when I think I've found every treasury-sized series there is to find...

Click the cover to learn more about this extraordinarily long-lived treasury-sized UK series!

Something Big - 1974

New Ad! This mini-ad ran on the occasional letters page of various DCs in 1973, promising "Something BIG."

DC had actually started publishing the treasuries in 1973, so this ad's a little behind the times, but what the heck--better this than just some dead space on a comics page!