DC Comics "Essentials"

This is grand news: DC Comics will finally doing big, thick, black-and-white reprints ala the Marvel Comics Essentials series.

Sure, the collector in me prefers the hardcover, full-color DC Archives reprints, but the reader in me is very excited about this announcement. It's a way to quickly, and inexpensively, make available lots of comics we might not see Archived for years. And, much as I like to think the opposite, I'm not gonna live forever.

Plus, the highlight of my childhood comics reading career was delving into those great Superman and Batman "From the 30s to the 70s" books, most of which were in black and white. I don't mind missing out on the color, or even reading the stuff on newsprint (which these new DC books will be on) if it gives me the chance to actually see the stuff.

The DC Showcase books start off with Silver Age reprints of Superman and the Green Lantern and who know what we'll see down the road. There's a lot of stuff I'd like to see that isn't a likely candidate for near-future Archiving: those crazy Batman in space stories, Captain Marvel comics from the mid to late 40s (the Archives are still doing the early issues), Brave and Bold comics from the 70s, reprints from DC's sci-fi, romance and humor lines...

Anyway, here's what DC officially has to say about the project.