Last summer (2009), DC Comics produced a twelve issue weekly comic called Wednesday Comics (the title was selected to celebrate the day of the week comic book stores have the new comics on sale). The weekly version of Wednesday Comics didn't look like your average comic, you had to fold it out like one of the large metropolitan newspapers and you got to experience each story in the dimensions the old Sunday newspaper comic strips used to appear (14"x 20"). In every issue of Wednesday Comics you got one page of fifteen different stories, so you'd get another page of that story every week.
The Wednesday Comics hardcover that came out a couple of weeks ago collects all of the fifteen stories and is HUGE - 200 pages, sized at 11"X 17", which while not as large as the original comics that folded out, is still definitely a REALLY BIG comic book (at 11"x 17" the pages are the size of the pages that most comic book artists do their original art on)! This is definitely a book you'll want to keep on display as a great showcase to share with others how amazing comics can look and read when creators think outside of the "normal" parameters of the average comic book.
The writers and artists who contributed stories for Wednesday Comics are a who's who of some of the very best comic creators, such as Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso on Batman, Dave Gibbons & Ryan Sook on Kamandi, John Arcudi & Lee Bermejo doing Superman, Dave Bullock on Deadman, Neil Gaiman & Mike Allred doing Metamorpho, Jimmy Palmiotti & Amanda Conner doing Supergirl, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez & Kevin Nowlan doing Metal Men, Walt Simonson & Brian Stelfreeze doing The Demon & Catwoman, Kyle Baker doing Hawkman, and Kurt Bsiek & Joe Quilihones doing Green Lantern.
My favorite of all the stories contained within Wednesday Comics, is Adam Kubert and Joe Kubert's SGT. Rock because it's always a treat to see Joe Kubert's powerful, expressive art, with my other favorites being Dave Bullock doing a great Darwyn Cooke / Jack Kirby mashup on Deadman, Gibbon's & Sook's Hal Forster (Prince Valiant) spin on Kamandi, Busiek & Quilihones' Green Lantern, which has a great 1950's sci-fi feel to it, and Gaiman & Allred totally playing with what they can do visually having a story appear in such a large format in their Metamorpho story. This Wednesday Comics production is the perfect example of the very finest in sequential art (superhero centric). It also would make a great Father's Day (next Sunday) gift!
2 comments:
Hey Ralph,
I'm 2 stories into the Wednesday Comics collection. Think Batman by Rizzo and Azzerello is always a treat and Gibbons and Sook finally figured out a way to make Kamandi entertaining (via inspiration from Rocketo). Looking forward to reading the whole Kubert Sgt. Rock story and Baker's take on Hawkman (a Kubert-Anderson fusion for the modern age).
Is DC talking about doing another one?
Thanks,
Wayne
Wayne, I haven't heard any talk about a follow up type project. I'd think that it would be determined by how well this collection does and being able to coordinate high caliber talent like this again.
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