Redartz: Everybody loves a bargain, and comics fans are no different! And extra pages and story? Always welcome, thanks. Thus we have an explanation for the popularity of the digest format. Back in the late 60's, Gold Key Comics started publishing collections of comics in a small size, 5 3/4" x 6 1/2" with a whopping 192 pages. "Walt Disney Comics Digest" and "Golden Comics Digest" hit the stands filled to brimming with stories and art. These were great for my parents: for the price of a couple of comic books, they could keep me occupied with a couple hours of reading. Just about every family trip included the gift of a couple of digests. That Disney digest with Bambi was a favorite, with a really cool ghost ship story featuring Donald and Uncle Scrooge...
The Golden Comics Digests had a wide range of features. I even recall Space Ghost making an appearance. Hanna Barbera characters were commonly seen, and Little Lulu was fun.
By 1973, Archie Comics had entered the digest business. And they took that ball and ran with it. All the way to the present; you can still find Archie digests each week at the supermarket checkout.
DC jumped on the digest bandwagon too. They had a one-shot Tarzan digest in 1972, and by decade's end they were putting out loads of digest collections. The annual "Year's Best Comic Stories" were a good for an overview of the year's action (or should that read Action ?). DC used the digest format to reprint many great Silver age superhero stories, and some fun non-heroic titles : Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Sugar and Spike, and Binky all had digests.
By the late 80's even Harvey Comics were releasing digests with their veterans Casper and Richie Rich (and, believe it or not, New Kids on the Block). Oddly, though, Marvel never did much with the digest format. Although, just this week, I saw news that Marvel is teaming with Archie Comics to start releasing digest collections such as Spider-Man and Avengers. These will be available on newsstands and store checkouts, just like the ubiquitous Archie digests. This sounds like an excellent idea to this reader, and a good way to get some lower cost stories out there for younger readers. There may be hope for comics yet!
And now, here are some more digest covers to pore over. Do you have any 'digestive' memories?
