Books That Are Easy To Digest

No personal life ramblings, for today.  It's kind of hard to elaborate on a Saturday where I suspect I caught a splinter of a virus from my girlfriend, who caught it earlier this week.  Thankfully all it left me with was a bubbling stomach, and crazy sinus issues.  Nothing worse than that, as of yet!  And yesterday's choice of topic was rather calculated, because after this difficult week, if I was going to end another weekend of posting for this blog, I wanted to give it a proper high-note.  And what better way than to tackle a book format that SOLIDIFIED my love for comics in my early teens, despite the trends and fashions of books around that time frame.  What's even better is that these books you could LITERALLY fit into a large-ish pocket to read ANYWHERE!

DC Comics wasn't a "spring chicken" to the digest format game when they launched their "Best of Blue Ribbon" line in 1979, to offer up some store shelf competition to those Riverdale Teenagers.  The company not only had a rough digest program featuring "Tarzan" reprints in 1972, but they also produced black-and-white standard paperback collections of some of their superhero titles in 1977.  That called for VERY awkward formatting of stories; panels were clipped, so that you had 1-2 panels of a story per page.  (And the only book I own from this paperback line was a "World's Finest" collection.  I know two of the three stories featured in that were a tale of Bruce Wayne supposedly being the REAL "Superman" of the team, and a battle against the STELLAR villain, Moonman.)  But from 1979 to 1986, DC Comics ran WILD with the Archie Comics formula, producing two separate digest lines, and since they were SUPER cheap when I started visiting comic stores... and you all know well my love for large-page count comics... I knew I had to start collecting these books!  Some of them were pretty fun to read, some were... eh... there.  (Owning the VERY last issue of "Adventure Comics" is not exactly a great mark, considering the book ended on a bunch of very tepid reprints.)  But today I wanted to bring up a few digests that had left a definitive impression on me, even about 20 years removed from purchasing some of them!

Blue Ribbon Digest #11: I've talked about this particular story in one of my earlier blogs, in that this detailed one of the most famed crossovers of the Justice League of America with the Justice Society of America, in search of the Seven Soldiers of Victory, to save humanity.  I mean, that cover copy is near IMPOSSIBLE to resist!  I've often heard podcasters talk about team books being their comic "gateway", because instead of reading a book featuring one singular superhero, you can buy a book that features MANY heroes at once!  Well... Can you beat three comic issues that featured 33 TOTAL SUPERHEROES?!?  Sometimes the DC Digests operated in this rough "trade paperback" fashion, reprinting an entire story from multiple issues, and those were special occasions.  To round out the page count, they did also reprint the first appearance of the Tornado Tyrant, who would have ties to Red Tornado... who sacrifices his android body for this story.  (It's not a spoiler, because he DOES get rebuilt... and if memory serves me right, it's within a publishing year of this three-parter!)  So, not only do you get a prelude tale for our noble Mr. Roboto, you ALSO get a three-issue epic!  Totally worth every penny.

Blue Ribbon Digest #14: Batman books are sort of a "gimme" for any comic fan's reading options.  Granted, Superman was sort of THE headliner of the DC Digest line, but Batman was no slouch for the pocket book approach.  I believe this one earned many years of my favoritism, because not only did it give me some solid Batman adventures to read, but those very tales were dedicated to five of his noted villains, ALONG with a one-page origin story for his rogues following each story.  Some were, admittedly, weird choices.  (Those Riddler and Catwoman stories are kind of wet squibs.)  But I appreciated the unusual pick of a Joker story that WASN'T the standard Neal Adams/Marshall Rogers interpretation.  (It also had the cool gimmick of having Batman fighting off the effects of Joker's laughing gas.)  And it's not like we're cheated of Adams/Rogers material, because they're attached to the Two-Face and Penguin stories.  Also, for added fun in this collection, in the middle of the book, there is a double-page spread (Hello, Wendi!) featuring the then-total of Batman's rogues gallery, and back inside cover photo reference guide to their names.  This book was a GREAT mixed-bag offering of Batman's conflicts with his repeat offenders!

Blue Ribbon Digest #8: I may, or may not, be correct in my assumption that this issue was my first introduction to the Legion of Super-Heroes, but let's just ASSUME it was.  Let me recycle back to my comment about team books being generally more appealing to single-character stories, because you get to see more heroes in action.  That ALSO applies to teams you may not have heard about in the past!  This issue contains two key struggles against the group of assassins known as the "Dark Circle", along with my generally associated Legion main villain group, the "Fatal Five".  I also believe the book contains a BRIEF guide to some of the Legion members featured in some of the stories.  But I KNOW you also get stories featuring the stellar artwork of Curt Swan, and the beginning of the modern Legion popularity from stories written by Jim Shooter.  Considering there's at LEAST two two-part stories in this collection, we ALSO have another rough "trade paperback" collection of certain stories, which is never a bad thing!

Blue Ribbon Digest #34: This digest was posted by dear friend of the blog, Scott of Married With Clickers , as an evening reading choice of his in a Facebook comic group I'm a member of.  This was also the genesis of this particular entry, because this reminded me how much FUN I had reading this particular digest, and the DC digests in general!  And this book I KNOW was my first introduction to the team of Gold, Tin, Mercury, Lead, Iron, and Platinum, those shape-shifting creations of Doctor William Magnus.  Written by long-time "War Comic" maven of DC, Robert Kanigher, and featuring artwork by the always-exciting Ross Andru, this book is unique in that it only features TWO stories.  But they are VERY dense stories, featuring battles against the Fire Mantis... or I THINK that's what its name was... and that lovable living vat of toxic chemicals, Chemo.  This was the one and only digest dedicated to those beings of the element table, but it was an interesting choice from the usual DC hero listings.  Plus, you also got for free a factoid page about how the metals these "Men" were made of effect us in REAL LIFE!

Blue Ribbon Digest #13: This book is a TEENSY bit of a misdirection.  If you were like me, and saw this cover, your mind was BLOWN!  The DC heroes and villains... in a massive team battle... of BASEBALL?!?  WWWWHHHHOOOOAAAA!!!  And at the very least, the cover copy does not lie, because this particular baseball story IS featured in the digest!  (The villains are notorious cheats, of course, but as you can see, umpire Uncle Sam does not put up with their shenanigans.  This story also gave me first introductions to certain DC villains like Felix Faust, the Huntress, and Sportsmaster.)  But I remember thinking, "Gosh!  I wonder what other superhero sports stories will feature into this digest!".  The answer to that question is... no more super sports stories.  Sigh... I'm not going to slight the stories reprinted from the "Strange Sports Stories" comic series from the early Silver Age of comics, but when you buy a book based on that cover premise, you want EVERY tale to feature cape-and-cowl crowds playing the field!

Blue Ribbon Digest #32: As I mentioned earlier, Superman was the KING of the Digest line!  I believe I once heard he headlined NINE individual issues in the series run.  Many of them featured specific themes, such as adventures of the Daily Planet staff, Superman Vs. various aliens, Superman travels through time... and this collection, which featured Superman's more memorable fisticuffs.  What made this digest so memorable for me was that it featured all-out SLUG-FESTS for Superman and his villains.  I do enjoy stories where the Man of Steel has to use his cleverness and resources to solve a conflict, but sometimes you just want to see Kal-El unleash his strength against a foe that can stand level with him.  And this book presents you with battles against Luthor creation, the Galactic Golem, that undead resident of Slaughter Swamp, Solomon Grundy, the power-leech, Parasite, granulated copy of the Man of Steel, the Sand Superman... and Vartox.  Oh, dear Vartox... You of the excellent chest hair, and SLIGHTLY passing resemblance to Sean Connery from "Zardoz"... How ridiculously awesome you are as a character...

Blue Ribbon Digest #10: This was actually my most recent digest purchase, from about March or April of this year.  Of course, buying digests THESE days from ANY source is going to cost a LOT more than the dollar or so I used to pay for used digests when I was about 12 or 13 years old.  But this was not only a digest I never knew existed, it also bore the distinction that it featured a character I never even knew had even ONE digest dedicated to.  For those not in the know, this details a particular story arc... yes, ANOTHER rough "trade paperback" collection... featuring the heroism of Travis Morgan AKA Warlord, in the time-lost land of Skataris.  "Warlord" was an interesting book in that it combined elements of traditional sword-and-sorcery with some Science Fiction, and creator/writer/artist Mike Grell was also able to push the boundaries of standard code-approved books with this title, featuring many a scantily-clad female companion, along with brutal violence.  In this volume, Warlord comes into conflict with his regular nemesis, Deimos, and even battles against his own SON!  Excellence all around!

Blue Ribbon Digest #31:  Last, but not least, is a proper bookend to my digest discussion, and a follow-up to one of my absolute favorite digests of all time.  This volume was a reprint collection of four stories... two of which were sequential issue sequels... featuring the first introductions of new members to the esteemed Justice League.  Leading off was the story that established Dinah Drake/Black Canary to the group, after being transplanted to Earth One after another JLA/JSA crossover.  This issue also started laying the seeds of the relationship that she would share with one Oliver Queen/Green Arrow.  The two-parter of the digest begins with Ralph Dibny/Elongated Man seeing his election into the teams' membership, and after battling against "Stay-Puff Marshmallow Men" created by the sinister Professor Ivo, the team is saved by a living Red Tornado... after having been blown up REAL good for that "Seven Soldiers" storyline!  After Red Tornado manages to shake himself free of Ivo's scheme, and save the captured team, he is ALSO granted membership into the JLA.  If only an android could cry...  (That sounds awfully familiar, doesn't it?)  Finally, our last featured elected member is Zatanna, which was also her general reintroduction into comics after a mid-60's inter-comic crossover detailing her search for her missing father, the master magician Zatara.  If you don't recognize the mistress of backwards magic words from her appearance... don't feel TOO bad.  Remember that in the 70's and 80's, she was presented in two semi "heroic" costumes, before she was returned to her standard magician's outfit... and lovely fishnet stockings...  WHAT?!?  Anyways, one missed opportunity this book had was if they had waited to publish this volume a few more years, the last new entrant to the "classic" Justice League could have had his election story reprinted in this book... The fusion being of Ronnie Raymond and Professor Martin Stein that is BEST known as Firestorm the Nuclear Man!