Mania Grade: A+

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Info:

• Title: Wednesday Comics #1
• Writers: Brian Azzarello, Paul Pope, Neil Gaiman, Walter Simonson, Dave Bullock, Vinton Heuck, Dave Gibbons, John Arcudi, Ben Caldwell, Eddie Berganza, Jimmy Palmiotti, Kyle Baker, Adam Kubert , Karl Kerschl, Brenden Fletcher and Dan DiDio
• Artists: Eduardo Risso, Paul Pope, Michael Allred, Brian Stelfreeze, Dave Bullock, Ryan Sook, Lee Bermejo, Ben Caldwell, Joe Quiñones, Sean Galloway, Amanda Connor, Kyle Baker, Joe Kubert, Karl Kerschl, Ian Churchill and Jose Villarrubia
• Publisher: DC Comics
• Publication Date: July 8, 2009
• Price: $3.99
• Series:

WEDNESDAY COMICS #1 Review

Wednesday Comics #1 Review
© Mania

DC Comics brings us their latest and most artistically daring weekly comic to date in the form of Wednesday Comics. Harkening back to ye olden days before the Golden Age, Wednesday Comics features detective stories (Batman), science fiction (Strange Adventures), war stories (Sgt. Rock), adventure (Hawkman) and even a kids’ story (Supergirl). It’s the size of a newspaper, printed on newsprint and will be serialized over the next 12 weeks.

The Good

There is more creativity packed in these 16 pages than in the average double-sized book from DC, Marvel or any other company currently publishing comics. Each artist and writer takes a very unique approach to their story so you get a lot of different styles, which is really nice.

And the art in this book is… have you ever seen that episode of the Simpsons where Homer becomes a food critic and he asks Lisa to help him spell – and then he throws his head back and drools? Yeah. That’s how I feel about the art. The fact that it’s presented in an ENORMOUS format doesn’t hurt.

Seeing the Kuberts work together (on Sgt. Rock, no less) gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling inside, as does the fact then when possible, the creators for each character are listed. Also, it smells really nice. I’m not kidding: it smells like paper, the way paper should smell. The way comics should smell.

The Bad

Well, it’s $3.99 for only 16 pages. That’s kind of a major bummer right there. And, as with any anthology, there’s always something that someone isn’t going to like. I wasn’t a huge fan of every story in this book.

The Bottom Line

Cover art to Wednesday Comics #1

First of all, I have to give props to DC for taking on such an ambitious and daring project. This is a format that hasn’t really existed (or flourished) for years; maybe even decades.

People will criticize it for the high price and the fact that every story is very short (and in this issue, they’re all introduction stories), but that would be missing the point. This isn’t a comic book; it’s Wednesday Comics. This is an art book, for folks who appreciate the medium and its many different genres, styles and formats. This isn’t a book for the Dark Crisis on Infinite Secret World War Earth Attacks crowd; it’s not going to be for everybody and realistically speaking, it’s likely to be a failure.

It’s impossible to keep in mint condition, it’s pricey and it features weird characters like Kamandi, the Metal Men and Metamorpho. It’s not in continuity and it’s so damn different from everything else on the shelf! All of which are reasons why I loved it. Well, except for the price.

Time will tell if this format will stand the test of time. It’s going to be hard to say whether or not a 12-issue weekly anthology is a failure or a success until the very last issue is published, but I enjoyed the hell out of this first issue. I drooled over (almost) every page and have already re-read a couple of stories. I can’t wait to show this book to people.

I’m giving it an A+, for stretching the medium in different directions, for challenging fans to think outside the 22-page format and for helping us to remember our roots. Well done, DC. Well done indeed.