DigestCast #6 – Year’s Best Comic Stories 1985

In the sixth episode of DIGESTCAST, and Shag and Rob take a look at DC's final "classic" digest, BEST OF DC BLUE RIBBON DIGEST #71: YEAR'S BEST COMIC STORIES from 1985! Featuring Superman, Batman, Swamp Thing, Green Lantern, Blue Devil, Ambush Bug, Atari Force, Adam Strange, and The Omega Men in stories by Mike W. Barr, Steve Bissette, Keith Giffen, Paul Kupperberg, Doug Moench, Alan Moore, Kevin O'Neill, and more!

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40 responses to “DigestCast #6 – Year’s Best Comic Stories 1985

  1. My favorite digest was and is a mass-market paperback by Will Eisner, called: “Star Jaws”. It’s all one page gag cartoons in a general Science Fiction vein, but specifically lots of Star Wars and Jaws oriented stuff. My Grandmother bought it for me at a garage sale when I was probably 6 or 7, and I read the thing to bits. I absolutely love this fun little book of cartoons 🙂

  2. I was ten years old in the summer of 1979 and had heard about this thing called “comic book collecting”. I wanted to become a collector myself and start a run of a series from the first issue. That’s when I came across The Best of DC #1, and started buying DC digests from that point forward.

    What hooked me on comics in the first place, though, was the Justice League – Justice Society team-ups. So my all-time favorite digest would have to be DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #11, reprinting the classic 1972 JLA-JSA adventure where they rescued the Seven Soldiers of Victory. That tale included such classic scenes as the Golden Age Green Arrow being mistaken for Robin Hood, and GA’s sidekick being turned into a centaur.

    That story was originally published in Justice League of America #100-#102, starting in June 1972. Just one year earlier, in June 1971, DC published Green Lantern #85, which had a story where the Earth-1 Green Arrow’s sidekick was shooting heroin. So just one year after after the Earth-1 Speedy shot “horse”, the Earth-2 Speedy became a man-horse! Coincidence?

    1. That, too, is my favorite DC Digest. Most likely because it’s the first time I’d seen Zatanna (She’s my baby!) in her original top hat, tails and fishnets costume. I remember thinking when I saw her on the back cover, with what turned out to be shorter than usual hair, “Why is Lois Lane dressed like a magician? And why is she hanging with the Justice League?” 😀

  3. Ronal, that poor cuckolded space merman. Every time he appears, you can see on his face that he knows Lori has settled for him.

    “Mogo” is very much in tune with Moore’s Future Shocks from 2000 AD, like the Omega Men one later in the Digest. I’m not going to comment much on Geoff Johns’s use of Moore’s GL (and really every other Moore DCU story) concepts other than to say I’m not a fan.
    Future Shocks IST link: https://www.instocktrades.com/TP/2000-AD/COMPLETE-FUTURE-SHOCKS-TP-VOL-01/APR181719

    Blue Devil: If that idea of robbing a moving bank sounds familiar, it’s the same basic plot as Bank Shot, a Donald Westlake novel that was made into a movie starring George C. Scott.

    Can’t believe you guys didn’t catch that the Katana story is a Spirit tribute story, since the announcer is Bill Rensie, a pen name that Eisner used to use.

    1. I don’t know if you’ve ever read Superman’s Mermaid Sweetheart, but Lori actually dumped Superman for Ronal, after Superman had proposed marriage to her. Lori was paralyzed during the story and Superman scoured the galaxy for a doctor who could cure her. He found Ronal and brought him back to Earth, where he and Lori fell in love. Superman, for a panel, was all angry and distraught that Lori fell in love with someone else after he traversed the cosmos to save her.

  4. Here’s a coincidence: I moved to a new house about five days ago and during the moving process, I found this very digest in a box of miscellaneous crap from my childhood. I’m going to go read it and then listen to the podcast. Thanks

  5. Can I say that my favorite digest is Readers Digest? No? OK, good.

    I’ll got with the digest-sized issues of Adventure Comics as my favorite. If I have to pick just one, I’ll go with Adventure Comics #497. It’s got all kinds of great content–Challengers of the Unknown in Vegas, a reprint of the first appearance of Ultra Boy, part of that amazing Steve Skeates run on Aquaman, a reprint of the first appearance of Black Adam, a Legion of Super-heroes story featuring a robot Lex Luthor, plus a crazy Neal Adams Spectre story! This book has it all!!!

    And yes, Shag is right (I know he loves hearing that), the Mogo story was adapted as part of that Green Lantern anthology DVD.

    1. I love those Adventure Comics reprint digests! All the Captain Marvel stories are gold. But it’s the reprints of the Gray Morrow’s multi-part Zatanna adventure (As well as the gorgeous Dick Giordano drawn “Gorgonus” tale) and the two part Alex Toth/Denny O’Neil Black Canary story that I keep coming back to these particular books. What can I say but…fishnets. 🙂

  6. What a wild digest. Perhaps it should have been called ‘The Best of Giffen and Moore 1985’ with a smaller blurb ‘… and others!’

    I do love the GL Moore stuff, especially the one where Katma Tui meets the alien who has no sense of sight and how that effects its ability to wield to green energy as well as its mantra to charge the ring.

    I have to echo the decision to put Swamp Thing #34 in this. The digest format is horrible for this issue. And it is rather sexy for this as well. Although back then it was trumpeted that ‘DC isn’t just for kids anymore!’

    As Shag said, I bought as many of these digests as I could back in the day because they were perfect summer reading for the beach or even sitting in the back yard under the tree and enjoying the breeze. So I have great memories for many. While you might think my favorite digest would be the Supergirl one, the truth is I just got that digest within the last couple of years and had already read all the stories there. While I love that Supergirl got that treatment, it isn’t my fave.

    My top three digest:

    Third place: The Brave and Bold one which has Batman on the cover but doesn’t have Batman on the inside (Tomahawk is nodding and smiling somewhere). That digest exposed me to DC properties I didn’t know about – Silent Knight, Viking Prince, Cave Carson! There was no wikipedia back then so exposure to more ‘stuff’ was awesome. And the Kubert art on the Viking Prince sparkles.

    Second place: DC Blue Ribbon Special #3 – JSA: First things first. This is where I first was exposed to the Paskin/Simonson Dr. Fate story from 1st Issue Special. You know how much I love that. It also included the first appearance of Power Girl reprinted. It introduced me to Brainwave and Per Degaton (sort of). And the Golden Age reprint was so cool with the ‘Stream of Ruthlessness’.

    First place: DC Blue Ribbon Special #1 – Legion. I considered the Legion my first comic love and my first comic period. I have been a Legion fan as long as I can remember. So this digest which reprinted their first story, the first Universo story, the first Fatal Five story with the death of Ferro Lad, the first Substitute Legion story. I knew of these characters and had heard of these stories but this was the first time I could actually read them! This was like a primer on the Legion and for a fan like me it was a gold mine.

    Thanks again for another great show!

  7. It will be no surprise to anyone that my favorite digest is one of “The Transformers Comics Magazine” issues. In fact, having given up on getting Shag and Rob to ever cover one of these issues some time ago, I started work some time back writing what would have been the first episode of what I was calling “The Underground Digest Podcast,” specifically to parody Rob’s refusal to respect The Transformers’ place in comic book history. Maybe someday I’ll get around to finishing that….

    But as to a specific issue, I’m choosing issue #9, which reprints issues #17-18 of the original comic, the “Return to Cybertron” story that featured the first glimpses of modern-day Cybertron in the series (to say nothing of the introduction of several characters). An important moment in the days of 1980’s Transformers fiction.

  8. Another great episode – and even though I don’t have, nor ever had, this digest, I could ‘follow along’ to some extent because I have the DC Universe by Alan Moore book plugged by Shag (as well as the Swamp Thing tpbs). You can’t go wrong with so many Moore stories in a single book, and the others sound pretty good, too – I have a bit of soft spot for a lot of Giffen’s work as well.
    I’m also *really* looking forward to the next show, as that is one of the small number of the old DC digests that I have in my current collection – bought it about 10 years ago from a seller on Atomic Avenue for about $4. I have to remember to pull it out and re-read it.

    And here’s my entry for your contest, even though you’re discriminating against us European residents (although I have an address in the US you can send the prize to, just in case): I used to have many digests, and liked so many of them that it’s hard to choose, but if you put my feet to the fire, I think I’ll say Archie’s Superhero Comics Digest #2, published in 1979. I found it in a news and tobacco shop during a family trip to LA that summer, and immediately snapped it up because the cover intrigued me. I was fascinated by all of the Archie/Red Circle heroes, who up until that point were completely unknown to me. There was a mix of old reprint stories and new ones apparently done just for that digest, so there were classic stories featuring, for example, the Shield (by Simon and Kirby no less), the Web and the Fly, and new Black Hood stories with art by Gray Morrow, Neal Adams and Dick Giordano. The book also included a few humorous Superteen and Pureheart/Evilheart stories featuring the Archie gang, and few sorcery/horror stories, with art by Wally Wood and Jesse Santos. All in all, it was a great package, and I read that book many times over.

  9. Thanks for the shoutout regarding my love of this show. I loved this episode, of course and always find it interesting to hear what you guys think of the stories inside each digest.
    I listen to a lot of podcasts – and a bunch of the shows on this network – and although I’ve been on Film & Water twice, DigestCast is my favorite!

    Picking my favorite Digest is like picking my favorite child – even though I don’t have any kids – it’s still so tough – so I’ll cheat.

    Super Friends (Best of DC #3) SHOULD be my favorite! The cover is my favorite comic book cover of all time. It misses out because it also features stories from JLA and Teen Titans (which ARE great tales), but it should be all Super Friends. I wish it would have reprinted issues 7 – 9 which has the story of Zan and Jayna coming to Earth.

    The Sugar & Spike issues (Best of DC 29, 41, 47, 65 and 68) were great because at the time it was very rare for me to read or enjoy comics that were superhero related but the concept and execution of S&S is just fantastic!

    The Years Best Comics Stories, along with the Superman, Batman, and Team Best Stories are all great volumes and such a great thing to do to celebrate the writers and artists and to give DC fans an easy way to sample books that they might not know that they would be interested in. I NEVER would have read ‘The Mouse Of History’ any other way but it’s a strong story that I still remember to this day.

    All of the Secret Origins issues are cool with DC Special #5 being my most loved! DEADMAN! Wonder Girl, JLA, Zatanna and more!

    Both JSA issues!

    Superman Battles Weird Villains (Best Of DC #54) shows off the Man Of Steel’s best rogues in cool stories.

    …… and now for my real answers ……

    In the “I already have all these issues but I love the way they put ‘em together” category:
    Batman Family (Best Of DC #51)
    Batman Family is my all time favorite comic and this issue reprints the best storyline from that series. Plus it features Man-Bat as a private detective hero which is how I love him best.

    In the “These stories are all new to me and WOW now I love the character” category:
    The Flash And His Friends (DC Special #2)
    I’m sure I knew of The Flash from JLA and Challenge Of The Super Friends but these were the first stories that I read spotlighting him. And I absolutely LOVE stories where Jay, Barry, and Wally team-up together.

    THANK YOU for this great show and I can’t wait to hear the next episode in October.

    1. The Sugar & Spike paragraph is supposed to say:

      The Sugar & Spike issues (Best of DC 29, 41, 47, 65 and 68) were great because at the time it was very rare for me to read or enjoy comics that were NOT superhero related but the concept and execution of S&S is just fantastic!

  10. Listening now, and I have to comment on Rob’s compliment on Swan’s art. Swan considered Al Williamson one of his favorite inkers. He definitely brought out the fine line work that most inkers tended to lose. They got paired several times in the later days of Schwartz’s editorship.

    It’s a great story too. It proves there was still some good stuff in the Superman comics leading up to Byrne.

    More later!

  11. Some more comments:
    I’m a huge Marshall Rogers fan, but I’ll admit I liked Rogers’ 70s style better. Or maybe I just prefer Rogers inked by Terry Austin in his early, very chiseled style (I don’t want too chiseled, like Mike DeCarlo, though). Rogers artwork style evolved past his Detective style, and I kind of liked best it right when he left Batman the first go-around. Still great stuff, but just not my particular cup of tea.

    I will also admit I’ve never been too big a fan of Klaus Janson. I appreciate his artistic chops, but his style as both an inker and a penciler has never done much for me. Too gritty and…sandy. Everything looks like it’s covered in sand to me. I can’t explain it. Again, I respect his work, and appreciate his skills, but I don’t really LIKE it. Much like Tim Sale.

    I never had this digest. I had many of the “Year’s Best” compilations, but toward the end, I could never find the digests at my local drugstores. They had become nothing but Superman and Funny Stuff reprints at this point, and I didn’t give two craps about Funny Stuff at the time. I never understood why the abandoned the other heroes for Funny Stuff, other than the fact Archie was apparently moving lots of digests.

    Fun show as always gents! We still need to do that Batman Family Digest at some point…

    Chris

      1. I’ve learned to never argue taste. I appreciate their competency and craft, but they personally don’t work in a style I prefer.

        I know I’m far too easy-going about this.

        Chris

  12. DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #3 (Jul-Aug 1980, DC) was the one that got me completely hooked on the Justice Society, which I first became familiar with from late in their Adventure Comics run and the JLA/JSA team up involving the death of Mister Terrific. My love for the League magnified when I saw their golden age counterparts, and this digest was perfectly balanced between a modern day tale mashing classic members with their own version of the Teen Titans, to a well crafted tale in 5 Drowned Men from the 1940’s. Wish they could have continued this Multiverse, even though the Crisis was an awesome event series. Still, this digest taught me that there were thousands of tales yet to be read that were still new to me, although published in a bygone era.

  13. As others have said above, Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #1 – the one with Superman on the cover.

    I had bought some Archie digests before that, but this was the first time I was able to read “back issues” of Superman! Yes, I bought it new on the ‘stands’ and I lived no where near any kind of store that had back issues, and it was too expensive to order books mail order.

  14. Oh, and in answer to your question about Dark Shadows, it aired from 1966-1971. In fact it ended in April of that year, a few months before Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love first hit the stands in July of ’71. DS and DMOFL definitely tapped into the same…vein (pun), but by the time the comic got off the ground, the producers of DS had apparently run the show in TO the ground, by abandoning their most popular characters and storylines, and diverting much of their attention to producing two movies that came out toward the end of that run.

    But their was still enough gothic romance floating about in the zeitgeist for DC to tap into (or attempt to). During DS’s heyday in 68 and 69, the Comics Code Authority was finally starting to ease up, slowly. So DC was a bit behind the times, but not by much.

    As for the digest, I know DS had another round of syndication repeats in the early 80s, so there may be a connection, but I kind of tend to think they just wanted to secure the copyright again, personally.

    Chris

  15. As the sole member (getting the group together is REALLY easy) of the C.T.D.S.F.A.A.R. (The Committee to Defend Superman Four Against All Reason) I thought I should jump in and argue against Rob’s assertion that the Superman story in this book in Superman IV done right. The thing is he’s not wrong. It’s a tight, well told story with an amazing opening and a good message. I think it benefited from not having it’s budget slashed in half before production began but that is neither here nor there.

    While I don’t want to necessarily enter the contest because I have enough stuff in this house already I do want to talk about my favorite digest book, which is Best of DC #66. I have a vivid memory of someone lending me this book in science class when I was in the seventh grade and the two part DC Comics Presents story it reprinted sticks with me to this day. “To Live in Peace–Nevermore!’ from DC Comics Presents #13 and “Judge, Jury…And No Justice” from DC Comics Presents #14 make up a very emotional story that pits Superman against the man that secretly kept his identity secret for decades only to have Superman turn against him when the Legion declares Pete Ross’ son to be John Conner only in this case John Conner is going to ripped away from his mother to lead an army in space for the greater good of the universe. Pete then goes back in time and switches body with Superboy to get his revenge. It’s an amazing story and that digest was where I read it for the first time.

    Great show as always, fellas. Looking forward to the next one.

  16. At the risk of betraying my love of superheroes I’m gonna come out and say that I love any and all Archie Digests. Not only were they a great gateway for anyone and everyone to get into comic collecting but they really are a bridge between friends and family. Even the most skeptical towards geek culture of family members enjoyed these things (which could be traded at cottages and beaches for different stories) but my nieces and daughters love them too (full disclosure. If I win these are getting divide among them). To me they will always be representative of summer and nostalgia before I had a feverish need to collect every issue of Batman and the X-Men.

  17. I don’t have this digest, but I have most of the comics where the stories originated! DC was publishing some really great comics in 1984-85. They had to publish a separate digest for the best Super-hero Team stories, which explains the lack of Teen Titans, Legion, All-Star Squadron, Infinity, Inc., and Justice League stories. This digest represents some of the boldness of DC at the time. The stories of Alan Moore and Keith Giffen at the vanguard of that approach. Both creators found new ways to utilize the DC toybox of characters. Moore’s re-assessment of Swamp Thing, his expanding of the Green Lantern Corps beyond Earth-creature analogs, his stories for established characters explored their depth without denying previous stories. Giffen pushed at the boundaries of conventional panel-based storytelling, at least in the mainstream. His (and Fleming’s) version of Ambush Bug was a way to simultaneously embrace and tease DC and its characters.
    Many of the stories chosen reflect non-conventional super-hero stories: Superman struggles with an existential crisis (as a college student in 1984, I was not alone in thinking that nuclear war was imminent); Batman fights against the mundane; the Katana story explores the juxtaposition of words and pictures in a different, if not unique, way; the Hukka story deliberately uses text as a kind of “sound-track” rather than narration; the Swamp Thing, Ambush Bug, and Green Lantern Corps stories also try to go beyond the traditional use of images in most comics.
    One more point I want to make. Omega Men, starting with this issue, is a really, really good comic book! These are the ones written by Todd Klein. Atari Force was also a really, really good comic! JLGL (PBHN) did the first 6 or so issues. Several of my non-comics reading friends in college read my copies of Atari Force.

  18. Well, usually I’d thank you for the namecheck but… >sniff<

    Mind, Jimmy McGlinchey wasn’t told he couldn’t enter the contest. Get in there my son!

    If I WAS allowed to enter, my answer would be ‘Glx, shmzl, glaaah, dleek, globsh, fljx’

    Kidding, it’s DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #14, UFO Invaders. From the fantastic Joe Kubert ‘panic in the streets’ front cover to his gorgeous Adam Strange back cover, this has ‘winner’ printed all the way through it like a stick of Blackpool rock. Twelve short story stunners provide a snapshot of the state of the American mind in the Fifties and Sixties, as reflected in DC’s science fiction anthologies. Paranoia, wonderment, love, terror… all the emotions are right there on the page, courtesy of such fine craftsmen as Gardner Fox, Carmine Infantino, Murphy Anderson, Otto Binder, John Broome, Sid Greene and France Edward Herron. And all for 95c. Books like this are why aliens are visiting Earth.

  19. Oh, and I wonder how delighted Alan Moore was at Swamp Thing being cut and reshaped.

    I think you lads were a bit hard on the Marshall Rogers art (or was it just Shag?) in the GL Corps story, I’m pretty sure he was going for a more whimsical style to match the story.

    I wonder why the Ambush Bug story title was changed to nod towards the old Bits of Legionnaire Business lettercol department.

    That Blue Devil bottom is unique, and good on Keith Giffen for equal opportunity bootee.

  20. Naming my all time favorite digest is easy. It’s the digest that got me into the Legion. DC Special Blue Ribbon digest #1.

    I bought this brand new off the shelf from my local grocery store. I knew next to nothing about the Legion prior, and this was the perfect primer. It featured their first appearance, Universo, The Legion of Substitute Heroes, The Fatal Five and the death of Ferro Lad (SPOILERS!!!!!!!). And to top off all of that the back cover consisted of a text piece that contained a thumbnail sketch, civilian name, home planet and powers of each member.

    After reading that one digest I was familiar enough to pick up the monthly book with no problem and just keep going after that.

    LONG LIVE THE LEGION!!!!

  21. Even though I was a fairly regular digest buyer, I didn’t often pick up the Year’s Best compilations. Generally, everything in them I wanted to read, I bought new. Really, I only got the digests since it was the ONLY place to read some of DC’s classic material at the time. I never was that enamored with the format.

    I’m looking forward to the Dark Mansions of Forbidden Love edition. I don’t have the digest, but I do have the four issues of the original series.

    As for my favorite digest, I have about three candidates if we’re only counting DC, but I’ll reveal those when you guys get to them. One of them was the JLA/JSA team-up that reprinted Len Wein’s JLA 100-102, which a lot of the posters seem to like, but I seem to recall Rob and Shag didn’t care for it. We all like something different though. I will say none of my favorites will be an Archie, so that is why I’m not entering the contest. I already have the JLA digest you’re giving away.

      1. Thanks for that link. I’m going to give it a listen at work tomorrow.

        I only have one original issue, and that is after it was retitled Secrets of Sinister House. I have the Showcase that reprinted the entire series. I did enjoy the Showcase.

  22. I got a lot of the digests from my local mom and pop store, but the one I remember the most is “DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest Vol 1 14” (I had to search that) which was the one that had the old sci fi comics. The title was “UFO Invaders”.

    This digest expanded my horizons to see there was more than super heroes, Archie and Richie Rich. It was goofy fun, but as a kid I was totally immersed in the stories.

    I do have other favourites, but that one is the one that stands out the most for me

  23. While I was in the States in July I checked several grocery stores in the Saint Louis MO, Dayton OH and Louisville KY area to see if I could get one but did not see any. Bit of a bummer really

  24. So, I’m a HUGE fan of Superheros, but, even though I was born in 1975, I have ZERO memory of seeing ANY super-hero digests growing up. I remember seeing lots of Archie digests, but never giving them a second glance. Only one digest ever really connected with me on a ‘permanent attachment’ type way: Richie Rich Vacation Digest #8 (1982). I’m betting I got this as a gift, but can’t say for sure, because I only have strong memories about one story in it, and I’m not even sure of the name… something like ‘Land Boat’

    The conceit behind the story was that the ‘mad professor’ character had invented a substance that allowed objects to treat solid matter as water, and water as solid matter, and then had coated the bottom of a boat and two diving suits with the stuff, and loaned/given it to Richie Rich and one of his friends (or maybe the prof went along?). Anywho, they then spent the next ~7 pages zooming along in a ‘land boat’, including passing thru rocks like breaking thru a wave, and walking around on the solid lake in their ‘diving suits’, etc. oh, and i think they somehow foiled some bank robbers along the way, or something… but that idea of being able to swim thru solids and walk on liquid just… fascinated and intrigued me, and I’ve used it, or a variation on it in several Role-playing games in the intervening decades.

    oh, and yeah, I’m one of those people who doesn’t have this digest, but has the individuals, so I’m gonna finish this one slowly, as I work my way thru the stories, rereading them then listening, etc…

  25. Thanks to this podcast, I’m re-acquiring (most of) my old digests and racing to get the ones I missed. Especially ones I’m hoping y’all are planning to do. Matter of fact, as I’m attempting to figure out the future shows that y’all are planning, may I offer a possible suggestion…

    With Dark Mansion(s) being the Halloween “edition”, would y’all consider taking a wee bit more time to possibly quadruple up () and also cover the “House of Mystery” issue AND both of the “Ghosts” issues for the month of October? Truly it would be a All-Hallows Extravaganza!!!

    I realize this is not a reasonable request. I just left cebthis podcast and need more episodes.

    Matter of fact, if I’m just taking by a shot, how about nothing but M.A.S.H. cast and Digest Cast for a while (with an occasional episode of Pod Dylan). The rest of the shows are absolutely frickin’ awesome. But they’re my weapons of choice lately.

  26. I am super late to the party, but just getting up to the episode in my podcast queue.

    I never had any digest comics as a kid (at least, not any that I remember), so I mostly have a backward-looking perspective on these books. I am pretty sure the first digest I got was Free Comic Book Day 2014 Archie Digest which, as the name suggests, was free. I have managed to pick up a few others in the interim.

    My favorite digest is DC Special Series #18 – Sgt Rock’s Prize Battle Tales, cover dated November 1979. This digest is a wonderful cross section of the line, with stories featuring Rock, Enemy Ace, Unknown Solider, the Weird War, and several smaller backups (which were common across the line at the time). In addition to featuring many of the main War leads, it also has a great representation from the stable of War artists, including Joe Kubert, Russ Heath (who has recently passed away), Alex Toth, Jack Abel, Mort Drucker, Ross Andru, and Jack Sparling. Even in the smaller format the art looks incredible. It also has a wonderful new cover by Kubert showing Rock and Easy about to be overrun by a Panzerkampfwagen Tiger!

    Just great War comics stuff from top to bottom.

    Really enjoyed hearing about the different comics in this digest, hoping I can find a copy of it at some point!

  27. I was around when DC Digests would’ve been on the stands, but maybe they were never around where my parents shopped, or they just didn’t want to spend the dollar and whatever cents of their money for those comics.

    It wasn’t until I decided to defy the rules of what was popular in the 90’s, and start collecting comics that were of higher page counts with my allowance out of back issue bins.

    And one day, at the shop I used to frequent, D&B Comics, they set up a shelf of BOATLOADS of classic DC Blue Ribbon Digests! And the very first one I bought remains my favorite digest, and I still own my original copy: “DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest” #11, featuring the reprints of “Justice League of America” 100-102! An epic three-issue adventure, with three complete teams and all sorts of crazy settings, with that stunning Dick Dillin artwork? I think I only spent a dollar for that digest, but it still has provided me years of enjoyment revisiting it.

    … Actually, it may even still be my favorite way to read that “Seven Soldiers of Victory” story!

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