Comic Book Resources

Is this the right place to state that I’ve always hated the term “Bronze Age”?

I don’t recall the term being used earlier than the late 90s, probably when people realized that the Golden Age of comics went (approximately and debateably) to the first appearance of Barry Allen, and the Silver Age went from then until the death of Gwen Stacy (again, approximately and debateably). Seemed like people were concerned that the “modern age” of comics was running waaaaaaaay too long, and they needed a name to fill the gap.

“Bronze Age” is awful. The term connotes a lessening of quality, the way bronze comes in third place after gold and silver in the Olympics. That may not be the intent, but that’s how it comes off. Maybe those who coined the term were playing off the period in world history, but the accompanying eras are the Stone and Iron Ages, not the Golden and Silver.

May I suggest the “Transitional Age”? The period from 1972 to 1986 was a period in which comics lost a bunch of readers and were trying to reassert their identities. We saw a weird mix of dark, horror, social commentary, and Silver-Age sci fi. We hadn’t yet moved into the “comics as literature” associated with Watchmen or TDKR, or “comics as mass marketing” associated with the 1989 Batman film or intercompany crossovers.

I’m open to a better name, but “Bronze” strikes me as “we couldn’t come up with anything better.” Unless we’re willing to call 1986 to 2004 the “Copper Age” just for consistency.

Adam

While I don’t like to steer discussion too much – this is actually the right place to state that you either love or hate digests.

We can discuss comic book terminology elsewhere. I once did a few tongue in cheek pieces on the end of the Silver Age. When I hit the Bronze Age – let’s discuss.

I’m pretty sure its in reference to Hesiod’s 5 ages of mankind: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ages_of_Man
I don’t think its a knock against those books, just a desire to separate comics based on similar themes and storytelling styles that happen shift with time. I tend to think your drawing a continuity from 86-2004 is mistaken, since I think the shift towards more “widescreen” style art, much less dialogue and narration, and a focus on writing towards an eventual collected edition takes place in the late 90s/early 2000s. Transitional age seems odd because the style and content were not really half-way in between silver age wackiness and 90s sturm and drung. Comics from the late 70s early 80s seem to have their own approach to long-term storytelling vs those of the 60s or 90s that doesn’t really seem like a real transition. Of course this discussion of comic ages has little to do with digest editions, which are of course, awesome. It would be cool to see that kind of thing now, except I’m not sure it makes sense business wise over just issuing a paperback/hardback collection.

Have to say i love “Digest-sized” comics.

When I was a kid they felt like a bargain, and a more handy size to their bigger siblings…

The Best of DC I remember well. But what about Archie? They seemed to have more digests than anyone!

My son currently really enjoys the Batman Strikes! digests… He thinks they’re his size, bigger ones are “Daddy’s comics”…

A “Best of (year)” digest would be a great idea for DC to bring back.

Bill –

Except, as someone pointed out in some post I was reading just a couple of days ago, very few stories these days are stand-alones.

They don’t have to be totally standalone to fit in. And anyway, this will just make sure the cream at the top is as creamy as possible.

Yeah, I’d be fine with a year-end digest, because it’s not as though I minded getting tossed into the middle of stories as a kid. I read All-Star Squadron #2 in isolation and knew I really wanted to get into that series, for instance.

I’ve always wondered how well the Archie digests sell as they are essentially the only comic book presence in mainstream retail, usually by the check out counter at Wal-Mart or other stores. If they don’t sell, I can’t imagine Archie would continue to make them. But if they do sell, why hasn’t DC or Marvel tried to get some of that action? I can’t help but think than an all ages digest starring Batman or Spider-Man could be like a license for DC or Marvel to print money.

Yeah, the Gold/Silver/Bronze thing is simply using an existing system. Using Stone-Bronze-etc. would do the reverse, implying old comics were crap, which isn’t true.

Also, did Gwen Stay’s death really change comics? While unexpected, I don’t see it as influential. Denny O’neal’s writing over at DC (starting with the de-cartoonization of Batman and Superman) seemed more influential to me.

About the digests: I loved those. It allowed me to catch up on a LOT of DC stuff I never got to see, mostly old Legion of Super Heroes stuff. Now THOSE were a good deal!

-”A “Best of (year)” digest would be a great idea for DC to bring back.”
That would require that DC *actually* put out something good these days.
ZING!

I find it hard to believe that a Private Life of Clark Kent story would ever be a ‘best of’ story. Heck, even Mr. and Mrs. Superman would be a better choice. Though credit to them for choosing a Deadman story from Adventure– that was one of the best things DC published in ’79. And the Superboy story “Shadow of Jor-El” is an unbelievably moving story– that made me cry when I was nine years old– so also well-deserved.

I used to love the Digests for the reprints. Adventure when it went digest connected me with the early Legion of Super Heroes and the ’60s revival of the Spectre. And one of my all-time favourite digests is one devoted to “imaginary stories”, which was my first exposure to Superman Red and Superman Blue and Elliot Maggin’s faintly-ridiculous-now-but-great-at-the-time Superman 2000. Great stuff.

The Marvel Adventures kids line is produced in digest form, I believe. Its at least the same size as the Archie ones I see in stores. I work for The Library Network and see them there (I sort books inter-library requests). I have not seen the Marvel Adventures digest in stores however, Marvel (and DC and its Johnny DC line) should make a push for getting these digest in the check out line like Archie. Runaways is also produced in this form. It would be a great chance to get younger readers into the comics we love.

PS: Working for The Library Network is the best job for a comic nerd ever. More and more libraries are carrying graphic novels, I get to read comics and get PAID for it. Oooh they got in a leather bound version of Kingdom Come. It was so beautiful, if I was to make something get “lost” in transit it was that but I love libraries. No way that was gunna happen. But so pretty my precious I want! heheh

I think Scalphunter is muttering to himself “It’s all political…” on that “Best of” cover.

I remember reading digests as a kid . I used to get them when I went shopping with my mom . It was my first exposure to The Legion , and others that I had never seen. The Marvel Adventures , Runaways , and Spider-Girl in digest size are sold in Chain Bookstores and are under $10 for 5 or 6 issues of stories. A great deal if you ask me

Great topic, Scott. I, too, loved these digests as an avid comics fan in the late ’70s/early ’80s (which, as far as I’m concerned, was the “golden age”, and that’s all I’ll say about that…). Like others here and elsewhere have mentioned, it was a ton of reading pleasure in a small and reasonbly priced package. So many of the DC digests in particular gave a younger generation of comics fans easy access to tons of delightfully ridiculous and just plain old fun silver age stories (Graeme, I agree with you on that “all imaginary stories” edition).
However, my personal favorites were Marvel’s pocketbook rerints of the early issues of Spiderman, Dr. Strange (thanks to which I truly began to appreciate Ditko’s art), Fantastic Four, Hulk, Conan (the entire Thomas/BWS run), etc. published in the late ’70s. I read and re-read my copies so much they almost fell apart.
The Fiction Illustrated series was a cool idea, even if the stories fell short. I found a rather reasonably-priced copy of Steranko’s “Chandler: Red Tide”. Like you noted with the Shlomo Raven book, the art is fantastic, but there’s nothing that makes the story stand out in the veritable sea of nostalgic private detective pot-boilers…

I’m glad to hear there are some ‘modern’ digest. I bought a small Fantastic Four book for my nephew a year ago, but I haven’t seen many more. If I see some of the Marvel Adventures stuff – I’ll pick them up for my kids when the are a bit older.

I’m not going to be discussing Archie here – as those are pretty widely known. I’m always more interested in the obscure or historically significant. Take those Gold Key digest – they feature some great stories with artwork by some of the all-time greats. I’d say I see 20 DC digests for every GK digest. I’ll tip my hat to anyone who has put together a full collection of GK digests.

Tomorrow, I’ll cover a few more books, including (note to Edo) a Marvel Pocket Book.

I was looking for stuff for my boys to read not too long ago and came across a bunch of DC digests. I really didn’t remember buying them. I must have purchased them at the time they came out, because I’m sure I’d have recalled getting them after the fact. Tons of good stuff, if a bit hard on my now 40 year old eyes. But my boys, aged 13 and 7 love them. One of them had the Kirby Green Arrow story with the mechanical octopus. It was the first comic book story Nathan read on his own.

I’ll dissent a little. I have several DC digests, and while I’ve always liked the “idea” of the format, and recognize the rather cool cache they carry, the pleasure of reading and appreciating them, that maybe ought to be there for all the reasons here discussed, has always been a bit of a struggle for me. A huge part of my enjoyment of comics is to do with the visuals, the presentation of excellent and exciting comic book artwork. The ultra-compact format of the digest has always challenged this enjoyment for me. The panels are too small and the smudginess, that I seem to be at ease with on the regular format comics printed on newsprint, becomes overly evident on the much smaller pages of the digest. I also have several of the Marvel pocketbooks, and I have always taken to them more approvingly. They seem to be easier to, ahem… digest.

I loved DC’s digests when I was a kid. The Blue Ribbon digests were great, and I remember a getting a few issues of Adventure Comics when it was in the digest format for a while. My first exposure to the Teen Titans, Legion, JSA, Green Arrow, and several others came via digest format. It was a great way to read a lot of cool old stuff before I knew that such things as back issues existed.

I really liked Harvey’s Richie Rich digests, too, and I have some vague recollection of having some Dennis the Menace digests that Marvel (I think) put out. Such a great format in terms of portability and bang for the buck.

I love digests. As a matter of fact, I used to buy a lot of those DC Blue Ribbon Digests and caught up on a lot of good comics. Sadly, they went away. Except for Archies, which is funny because the Archie Digests are the ONLY comic books that you can get in grocery stores any more.

There’s a mention of SHLOMO RAVEN and no Steranko’s RED TIDE? FYI, there were 3 in the Fiction Illustrated run. I forget the 3rd, but I own it.

I’ve got a bunch of the Marvel & DC digests too. A Dr. Strange that does the Ditko run, a few Spideys, and I toally remember a GL / GA * and Batman / Joker one.

What’s next? Big Little Books???

There were actually four in the Fiction Illustrated series, but only three were issued as digests: Schlomo Raven, Starfawn, and Chandler: Red Tide. Chandler was simultaneously issued as a large-format graphic novel. The fourth, Son of Sherlock Holmes, was issued only in the larger graphic-novel format.

There was a fifth planned, Dragonworld. This was eventually revamped into a prose novel by Preiss and Michael Reaves with illustrations.by Jospeh Zucker.

…sorry, can’t help myself sometimes. But Preiss’ Fiction Illustrated series and its companion Weird Heroes are special favorites of mine.

[...] either. I must be really missing something here. I mean, I know DC did digests back in the day, so calm down Scott. I just don’t get why they don’t jump on that train now. Is Archie really protective of [...]