DigestCast #9 – Super Jrs. Holiday Special

Just in time for Christmas, Shag and Rob are joined by fellow Network All-Stars Chris and Cindy Franklin to discuss, BEST OF DC BLUE RIBBON DIGEST #58: SUPER JRS. HOLIDAY SPECIAL, an all-new holiday adventure featuring pint-sized versions of Superman,  Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman, and The Flash! Also included are three Sugar & Spike tales, plus YOUR Listener Feedback!

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18 responses to “DigestCast #9 – Super Jrs. Holiday Special

  1. If you took a drink every time Chris mentioned Andy Mangels, you’d need to have your stomach pumped before Rob and Shag got to the listener feedback section.

  2. I just finished listening to the December edition of DigestCast and although I’m always happy to hear you guys talk about the Digests, this month I feel more relieved than happy.

    I love superhero stories, I love Christmas stories, I love Digest stories, I love stories that were supposed to be in the Treasuries but repurposed elsewhere, but man, I was very disappointed with the Super Jrs. story ‘The Isle Of Forgotten Toys’ so I’m relieved that most of you guys felt the same way.

    I agree that the art is great, although poorly reproduced at my beloved Digest size. The artist who did the Super Jrs. (Vince Squeglia) reminds me of Brad Gilchrist who did the Superkernel Comics that I used to get through school book orders. Brad Gilchrist went on to work on the Muppet comic strip.

    The three Sugar & Spike stories were all great and just reenforces how charming the idea and execution is!

    The Christmas message from Superman at the end of the show was fantastic! And how wonderful that Superman quotes Lincoln in his speech!

    I’d like to give a thanks to all of the other listeners who have commented on the shows. I LOVE hearing every one’s opinions and information about the Digests!

    I can’t wait to find out what the next Digest is!

  3. Wonderful episode, super friends! I’d never heard of this digest so your comments were quite interesting.

    I know DC is having good success with the kid friendly Superhero Girls line of products & I see Mera is the focus as the movie approaches. I’ve picked up some of the comics & watched one of the DVDs just to get a sense of the series & it’s tone. Very cute & a great way to introduce the DC heroes to a generation of girls. I don’t know if any of the F&W crew follows the Superhero girls but I’d be interested in your thoughts.

    Ps I loved that old Tom & Jerry. It was a favorite in my house. That one & the cartoon where they sing “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby.”

    1. My 9 year old daughter is big into DC Super Hero Girls and, along with Teen Titans Go!, it has served as her primary introduction to the DC universe. Overall, I think the property serves that role well, introducing a variety of characters (both male and female) from all over the DCU.

      My one minor complaint is the way they have reimagined some traditional villains as heroes. Case in point, my daughter’s favorite character in the series was originally Poison Ivy (understandably referred to just as Ivy in DCSHG). My daughter was pretty bummed to learn that Ivy is a super villain in the mainstream comic books, and that she bears little resemblance to the shy, sweet and sensitive young girl from DCSHG.

  4. One quick comment I forgot to add: Did that wallpaper really have to match up exactly? Would anyone really ever notice if it wasn’t “perfect?”

    As someone who has neither the skills nor patience for that kind of detail work I applaud you both! I think our family motto was “It’s good enough.”

  5. 1) Never heard of the Super-Jrs and shocked to hear there was a Supergirl version!
    Please, anyone out there, send me close ups of any Supergirl merchandise from this line!

    2) Loved the Giffen Sugar/Spike revamp. The art by Bilquis Evely was unreal. And it was a sort of fun romp through the DCU. The last story, involving Legion time travel hijinx, was the high point.

    3) Thanks Rob. Now I’ll have Jerry;s uncle warbling ‘Froggy went a-courtin’ ‘ stuck in my head. The ‘twang’ when he pulled out a Tom whisker was always palpable. You could tell it would sting!

  6. Rob, I thought of Jerry’s Uncle Pecos immediately when I re-read the Sugare and Spike tale! “Pecos Pest” is one of my absolute favorite Tom & Jerry shorts, and one that my whole family enjoyed and still references from time to time.

    Loved the Superman message at the end. Words to live by!!!

    Chris

  7. While not an expert on the Super Jrs. like Chris and Cindy, I was the proud owner of a Super Jrs. sleeping bag as a kid (see my comment for Super Mates 71). I had always assumed Super Jrs. was just a merchandising campaign, and had no idea that they ever made it into print. It’s so sad the concept never really took off. I’m not too proud to admit that I watched Muppet Babies back in the day, but I would have taken Super Jrs. over Muppet Babies any day of the week.

  8. My enjoyment of this episode and your great conversation(s) stands is in inverse proportion to the enjoyment I derived from the lead story in this digest – yes, I read it recently, as I stumbled onto a site that has tons of comics you can read online (don’t know how kosher it all is, but I was really curious about this one).
    I did manage to read the Super Jrs. story in one sitting, but it was truly arduous – that’s about 45 minutes of my life I’ll never get back. Seriously, I don’t think I would have liked this even back when I was in the first or second grade, and back then I was a kid who occasionally read and enjoyed Spidey Super Stories.
    The Sugar & Spike stories, on the other hand, were a delight. I’d never read any of those before and now I wouldn’t mind reading some more. “Cowboy Santa Claus” in particular is really well done and genuinely entertaining – love the Grampa who’s so old he once more understands babyspeak.

  9. Fab show everyone, the Super Jrs are cute but the story sounds not my bag. And ‘Jr’ is so weird to me, almost as weird as giving people a ‘III’ suffix… give the kids their own name, if you want a mini-me, have a creepy doll made!

    Shagg: ‘There’s nothing incredibly innovative or different that really differentiates [Sugar & Spike] from the other characters all that much’ Oh howay bonny lad, there’s the amazing charm, of the stories and art which you mentioned… take that away and you get Rugrats.

    According to the inter webs, in the early Eighties Nickelodeon had this thing called Video Comics in which strips were read on screen, and S&S strips were included … wonder how the baby jabber sounded.

    Oh, I’ve just found a short, but great, YouTube piece on the kids, mentioning that like James Robertson (and Neil Gaiman!) Sheldon Mayer had a contract stipulating that only he was allowed to write the kids.

  10. I also wanted to respond to the notion of a DC short about the War That Time Forgot just to point you to the New Frontier animated feature, which does have a WTTF sequence.

  11. I enjoyed the show as always.

    I don’t remember seeing any Super Jrs. stuff back in the late 70s or early 80s. What other types of stuff were there? My mother did buy me one of those Baby Batman’s that were advertised in the old comics, but I think she ordered it out of a Sears catalog.

    My did get the digest when it first came out. My thoughts on it were : How exactly did I get this? I would have been about 13 at the time, and I’m sure I would have thought I was too old for it. I wonder if my mother saw it and picked it up. If she had seen the Super Jrs. stuff when I was young, I’m sure she would have bought it. Even thought I’m 47, she still buys me “cute” super hero stuff (Dorbz, Mopeez, etc.)

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