NEWS
NPR's MONKEY SEE blog on WEDNESDAY COMICS
September 25, 2009
One of the year's most interesting comic book experiments comes to an end today. Turns out? It wasn't particularly experimental.
Flatly awesome and happy-making, yes. But a brave leap forward that stared the uncertain future -- with its looming spectre of digital distribution -- squarely in its downloadable face-app? No.
In fact, it was downright retro, an exercise in nostalgia suffused with a specific yearning for the bygone days of Dick Tracy, Prince Valiant and Terry And The Pirates, a time when tales of two-fisted, four-color adventure smelled like newsprint and came with ink that rubbed off on your fingers.
Over the course of its brief life, each new issue of this particular title got you a seat on the express train to the Sunday mornings of your childhood, when you used to read the funnies by spreading them across the floor of the living room like a gleefully garish throw rug.
That was DC's Wednesday Comics, a 12-issue weekly anthology. Each issue featured 15 different serialized, single-page comic chapters of tales revolving around classic DC characters - some (Superman! Batman! Wonder Woman!) who've achieved international renown, and others (The Metal Men! Adam Strange! Deadman!) who, though beloved by fans, have achieved only "Yyyyeah, who, now?" status in the popular imagination.
