MARVEL OFFERS CLASSICS FOR A BUCK

[MattBrady]

Marvel Comics already has a successful high-end Masterworks program and an affordable phonebook Essentials program for fans of their classic early stories. But now readers on a real tight budget can get in on the action too.

In July Marvel is offering six new dollar digests to the direct market with a suggesting retail price of $1.00. These b&w, newsprint 4-7/8 x 6-9/16 are not Marvel’s standard digest format. Each volume is 64 pages and according to the publisher contains approximately three classic Marvel Comics stories, some perhaps abridged to fit the format.

Offered to retailers as a “Previews Plus” item, the special digests all go on sale July 6th and are as follows

SPIDER-MAN: AMAZING FANTASY DOLLAR DIGEST
Collects AMAZING FANTASY #15, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1, #2

FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST FAMILY DOLLAR DIGEST
Collects FANTASTIC FOUR #1-#3

AVENGERS: ASSEMBLE DOLLAR DIGEST
Collects AVENGERS #1-#3

SPIDER-MAN: DOCTOR OCTOPUS DOLLAR DIGEST
Collects AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #3,#4,#5

HULK: HULK SMASH DOLLAR DIGEST
Collects HULK #1-#3

X-MEN: CHILDREN OF THE ATOM
Collects X-MEN #1-#3

[adamcasey]

I'd buy that for a dollar!

[Winteriscoming]

Thats pretty cool.

[Cousin Cory]

I'm pretty much a DC Zombie, but I've got to give Marvel credit when they do something right, and this is definitely doing something right. I'll pick them all up, for two reasons- one, there's no question that these are classic stories, and two, to support Marvel for making the effort to make comics affordable!

[KJ_81]

Looks good, definitely a good step, but why abridge them? That's the only negative I can see.

[BillReed]

Nice! I'll check out a few of these, most likely.

[Zhen Dil Oloth]

That is a pretty cool idea..

I would certainly buy this...... if I did not already have the Essentials that is.

[OMAR]

Well, at least they're still swinging.

[Endocrine]

and they're in black and white too...

It would be nice, in the same format, to reprint the newspaper strips of Spider-Man, Howard the Duck, Conan and Hulk that have been done! As long as Marvel is making these types of digests available, lets also see something few of us have seen!

[CousinWalter]

This sounds great and I'll definately be looking out for these but the one thing that bothers me, same as KJ_81, is that they could be abridged.

[Beetle Bomb]

I think I'll just save my pennies and buy the Essentials. You get a nice run and they're more sturdier to shelve. I'm all for getting newer readers to get to see classic stories, but ain't this coming somewhat on the heels of the announcement that Marvel was going to have a series coming up where they mixed scenes from the movies and scenes from the classic stories in order to integrate people that are new into the "mythos" by sorta retelling the origins? Not sure you'd want to send the originals out there to compete. I'd rather they scrap that idea and just do like they're doing here by putting the originals out really, really cheap for people to pick up and catch up on. Why rehash again what's good.

I was just thinking the other day about how I miss the DC Blue Ribbon Digests. They had a variety of stories, like the old "Year's Best Comic Stories", plus they had reprints of classic arcs as well as stuff like "PLOP!" and House of Mystery. They also had individual digest like Supes or Bats or Teen Titans with some old and new stories. They were color and were under $1.50 for the most part.

DC, if you're really paying attention, you're on a roll right now. Awesome time to bring those digests back.

[adamcasey]

Originally posted by CousinWalter
This sounds great and I'll definately be looking out for these but the one thing that bothers me, same as KJ_81, is that they could be abridged.

That first Spider-Man will probably be intact if it's just the origin story from Amazing Fantasy and not the bit about the light house keeper and what not.

22 pages x 3 issues = 66 pages, since these are only 64 (you'd figure they'd chip in for the extra pages), that's two pages that have to go.

It isn't uncommon for this to happen, when Marvel scaled back the number of pages of story per issue in the 70s, various reprints (Marvel Triple Action for instance) had to lose a few pages of the story.

Two pages probably won't be *that* bad, if there are ads in there, who knows how truncated the stories will be.

[SanityOrMadness]

Originally posted by adamcasey
That first Spider-Man will probably be intact if it's just the origin story from Amazing Fantasy and not the bit about the light house keeper and what not.

22 pages x 3 issues = 66 pages, since these are only 64 (you'd figure they'd chip in for the extra pages), that's two pages that have to go.

It isn't uncommon for this to happen, when Marvel scaled back the number of pages of story per issue in the 70s, various reprints (Marvel Triple Action for instance) had to lose a few pages of the story.

Two pages probably won't be *that* bad, if there are ads in there, who knows how truncated the stories will be.

But how long *were* these stories? Marvel issues have, over the years, gone as low as 16-pages-as-standard?

[Cray_ws]

The low price is the a step in the right direction, but these are reprints. If you think about it, these 'classics' are nothing more than early release Essentials bundled as story arcs.

If only these were new releases, people would be more inclinded to buy monthlies.

[paulski]

Reminds me of when I used to get B&W reprints of the early ASM and Fantastic Four issues. I thought they were just the coolest (nearly) 30 years ago.

This is certainly an interesting move by Marvel. My interest is in how long it will last. Not a slam or anything, but they have been known to knock these sorts of low-income producing projects on the head early on. I hope this one hangs around for a bit.

[adamcasey]

Originally posted by SanityOrMadness
But how long *were* these stories? Marvel issues have, over the years, gone as low as 16-pages-as-standard?

It was 22 pages up until 1970 when it dropped to 20. In 1975 it was reduced to 18. In 1980 it was raised to 23.

Since all of these titles are from the early 60s, it's safe to say only two pages or so should be missing.

[blind3rdeye]

About time!

I'll be grabbing all of these and reading them to my kids.

Go Marvel!

[Alfonso]

Originally posted by MattBrady
approximately three classic Marvel Comics stories, some perhaps abridged to fit the format.

"Abridged"? That doesn't sound appetizing.

SPIDER-MAN: AMAZING FANTASY DOLLAR DIGEST
Collects AMAZING FANTASY #15, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1, #2

FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST FAMILY DOLLAR DIGEST
Collects FANTASTIC FOUR #1-#3

AVENGERS: ASSEMBLE DOLLAR DIGEST
Collects AVENGERS #1-#3

SPIDER-MAN: DOCTOR OCTOPUS DOLLAR DIGEST
Collects AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #3,#4,#5

HULK: HULK SMASH DOLLAR DIGEST
Collects HULK #1-#3

X-MEN: CHILDREN OF THE ATOM
Collects X-MEN #1-#3 [/b]

Ok, it's fine that they're reprinting the classic material, but why the hell do these collections get such crappy names? "Spiderman: Doctor Octopus"? He was in one freaking issue out of three. Why not just call it what it is, "Amazing Spider-man #3-5 (the original volumes, not the crappy Howard Mackie relaunch)".

[campbell551]

What a great idea! This kind of stuff is what the industry needs. it's time to remind the people of the world that we have the best form of entertainment and what better way to do that than to introduce them to some great classic stories.
Kudo's Marvel on a job well done. And DC, let's see some action here.

[A Green Jedi]

Anyone remember Marvel Megazine? Spiderman Megazine?

Man were those good.

For like six issues before getting canned.

Too bad these aren't in color. I'd pay extra, just to have Marvel Megazine a going concern again...

[adamcasey]

Originally posted by Alfonso
"Abridged"? That doesn't sound appetizing.

Actually, the more I think about it, the abridging may also have to do with page size.

Since it's not standard digest format, and they crammed the pages with panels back then, there may be some missing panels and pages subsequently restructured.

I'm very interested to see what they look like.

[daryldens]

Cutting pages from stories is never a good idea, but it seems the publishers will never come to realize that.

Other than that, another great experiment from the Marvel Collected Editions Department. Maybe someday DC will wake up and see the money Marvel seems to be making off of the Essentials and the quick release of their current trades. I applaud DC's Batman Chronicles effort, but the books are just too small in page count to make any significant headway in getting their back catalog into print.

[elnino]

nice new sig, winteriscoming!

i bought not so long ago a B/W digest of the Avengers: Nights of Wundagore featuring the Scarlet Witch. didn't realize it was b/w because it was wrapped. this was from a "backpack marvels" line from 2001, i think.

would've preferred colored to b/w, but it's still a good read and a possible gift for the younger ones.

Originally posted by Winteriscoming
Thats pretty cool.

[Switch]

Sounds like the kind of deal you wouldn't mind dropping into the hands of kids. Or reading on the train here and there now and then. Hopefully the art and lines don't bleed to crazy.

[onslaughtall]

I'll pass..it isn't my thing..but hey, if it is for others, go for it!..