In August, we wrote about how DC’s new line of $9.99 Compact Comics, collecting classic, evergreen stories in digest format, were just what comics needed to attract new readers.
Apparently, plenty of people agreed with us, because DC on Tuesday announced second — and in one case a third — printings of its 10 launch books, plus 15 more Compact Comics for 2025, including all-timers like Mark Waid and Alex Ross’ Kingdom Come, Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams III’s Batwoman: Elegy and Darwyn Cooke’s DC: The New Frontier.
“DC has one of the world’s largest comics libraries, and DC Compact Comics allow new or curious graphic novel readers to easily pick up a copy of one of DC’s most iconic stories in an approachable, value-priced format similar to mass paperbacks and manga,” Anne DePies, DC’s senior vice president and general manager, said in a statement. “By innovating DC’s storytelling across popular genres like mystery, science fiction, adventure, thriller, and more, we’re able to continuously deliver new products and expand distribution channels.”
DC launched the Compact Comics line earlier this year with perennial favorites like Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen, Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s All-Star Superman and Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee’s Batman: Hush. Watchmen went back for a third printing in September, while the rest will return to shops over the next two months.
Here’s the lineup for DC’s 2025 batch of Compact Comics, scheduled for release between May and November of next year:
- May 6, 2025: Kingdom Come by Mark Waid and Alex Ross
- May 27, 2025: Static: Season One by Vita Ayala, Reginald Hudlin, Nikolas Draper-Ivey and Denys Cowan
- June 3, 2025: DCeased by Tom Taylor, Trevor Hairsine and Stefano Gaudiano
- June 17, 2025: Batwoman: Elegy by Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams III
- June 24, 2025: Superman: Birthright by Mark Waid, Leinil Francis Yu and Gerry Alanguilan
- July 1, 2025: The Authority Book One by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch
- July 15, 2025: Superman/Batman: Book One by Jeph Loeb, Ed McGuinness and Michael Turner
- August 5, 2025: DC: The New Frontier by Darwyn Cooke
- August 19, 2025: Wonder Woman: Blood and Guts by Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang
- September 2, 2025: Death by Neil Gaiman (no artist credited)
- September 16, 2025: Harley Quinn: Wild at Heart by Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti
- October 7, 2025: Batman: The Long Halloween by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale
- October 21, 2025: Y: The Last Man Book One by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra and José Marzán Jr.
- November 4, 2025: V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd
- November 18, 2025: We3 by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely
Now, it’s not a perfect list. The Death solicit does not include which artists were involved (theoretically, if the book collects Death: The High Cost of Living and/or Death: The Time of Your Life, Chris Bachalo and Mark Buckingham should be credited). Then there’s the fact that Gaiman was recently accused of sexual assault, and Authority writer Ellis has yet to publicly meet the reparative requirements of his many accusers.
Still, next year’s Compact Comics line continues a commitment to publishing a depth and breadth of stories across DC’s line, from superheroes to mature-readers titles to even a showing by Milestone.
“The DC Compact Comics collection is now available at airports, libraries, select mass market and online retailers, plus bookstores, local comics shops, and more,” said DePies. “We want to make it as easy as possible for readers to discover more from DC’s extensive library of comics. DC Compact Comics are an affordable entry point to the DC Universe, and every title is a new-reader-friendly, self-contained graphic novel.”
Airports? Libraries? Self-contained? Sounds like DC’s playing all the right notes.
But what about the Marvelous competition?
Well, last month, just before New York Comic Con, Marvel announced its new Premier Collection, collecting chunks of story, also in digest format, but for $5 more than the DC Compact books and in some cases less complete. For example, Fantastic Four: Solve Everything collects “material from” Fantastic Four #570-588, which implies it will be missing bits of the Jonathan Hickman run. And Captain America: Winter Soldier collects Captain America (2004) #1-9 and #11-14 but not issue #10 of the series by Ed Brubaker. Those books — maligned on the CXF Twitter for their design — are scheduled to begin appearing on shelves in February.
Now, are they a step in the right direction away from $45 Epic Collections and $125 omnibi, in terms of attempting to attract readers who aren’t already sickos? Maybe. But one could also argue the flaws evident in the initial announcement are a testament to how unserious Marvel is about the endeavor, to the point where if they don’t sell the publisher will just shrug it off and say, “Oh well, we tried, back to doing what we always do.”
That said, I couldn’t help but chuckle looking back on the original Compact Comics essay, as I envisioned Marvel trying a similar concept:
“Now, imagine for a moment a world where Marvel copies DC’s Compact Comics concept. Call them Mighty Mini Marvels … digest-size, affordable compilations of … well, maybe not evergreen stories, because it doesn’t have a lot of those … but the classic stories that have served as the basis for many of its movies and TV shows. “The Dark Phoenix Saga.” “The Night Gwen Stacy Died.” “The Winter Soldier.” The original Beta Ray Bill story. “Born Again.” The first 12 issues of G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona’s Ms. Marvel. Whatever a good Iron Man story is. Something a normbo who wanders into Barnes & Noble after binging some Marvel content on Disney+ could pick up, take home, read at a good clip and return looking for another one.”
Sigh … you were so close.
Dan Grote is the editor-in-chief of ComicsXF, having won the site by ritual combat. By day, he’s a newspaper editor, and by night, he’s … also an editor. He co-hosts The ComicsXF Interview Podcast with Matt Lazorwitz. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, two kids and two miniature dachshunds, and his third, fictional son, Peter Winston Wisdom.
