Yesterday, I used the term "super friends" in reference to the new JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA # 0 and it reminded me of this. Before the days of trade paperback reprints, comics fans in the seventies and early eighties often had to settle for digest sized reprints. These were small, compact, easy to carry and (especially nowadays!) virtually impossible to actually read! DC’s digest line was fairly successful, though and often reprinted some choice material that would not have otherwise seen the light of day again. This SUPER FRIENDS edition, edited by Julie Schwartz, reprinted three of the delightful (and a tad more mature than the TV series) SUPER FRIENDS issues by E. Nelson Bridwell, Ramona Fradon and Bob Smith. Also, though, you get the classic (if heavy-handed) Fox/Sekowsky JLA story, "Man, Thy Name is Brother" as well as a TEEN TITANS story written by Len Wein and Marv Wolfman and featuring the original, male character Starfire. All of this nifty goodness came wrapped in a splendid cover (seen here at nearly its original size!) credited to the great Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Bob Smith and Joe Orlando. And for less than a buck in 1980! Seems like only yesterday.
I still have the Super Friends digest along with several of the DC digests. I miss them because they were inexpensive considering how many stories they had in them.
ReplyDeleteHere's an information delivery
ReplyDeleteformat that we are not likely to
see again! Yes, the digests were
a great value for the amount of
stories you received. But even then, I wanted to see these stories printed larger, with better paper and coloring! (And now, we have the Archives...)
I have a complete set of the DC Digests, but seldom look at them.
Why? They're just plain hard to read with tired, middle-aged eyes!
Tiny print, yes, but you couldn't beat the value. I loved 'em.
ReplyDeleteone of my favorite digests ever. that cover is beautiful, like if you commissioned Norman Rockwell to do a Super Friends cover.
ReplyDelete