Less Than 3 Weeks Until Wednesday Comics Begins!

On July 8, DC Comics will kick off its next adventure in the world of weekly comic books, with the 12-part Wednesday Comics series. As I wrote about the series back in March, it's quite the experiment for DC to be doing, given that it involves producing a comic book series in newspaper format! But the more previews I've seen of the material, the more interested I've become. It's clear that all of the strips are "out of continuity" (meaning that they're not tied to what's going on in the DC Universe at the moment, or vice versa) and in fact are more likely to be archetypal representations of the characters than anything that's currently being portrayed in the monthly series (for example: Bruce Wayne will be under the Batman cowl, rather than Dick Grayson).

I was a little disappointed when I found out that each issue will be $3.99 US, but considering the page dimensions (14" x 20") compared to a regular comic (7" x 10"), I guess it really does work out to the equivalent of 32 pages, with no ads... which is worth $3.99 if the stories are any good.

Today I finally took a good look at the list of features and creative teams involved, and I have to say that it's pretty darn impressive to anyone who's been following the comic world over the past decade or two. Here's what each issue will include, ranked from "best to worst" according to my own complex system of favouritism with regard to creators and characters:

• Metamorpho, by Neil Gaiman and Mike Allred
• Superman, by John Arcudi and Lee Bermejo
• Batman, by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Rizzo
• Sgt Rock, by Adam Kubert and Joe Kubert
• Hawkman, by Kyle Baker
• The Flash, by Karl Kerschl and Brenden Fletcher
• Green Lantern, by Kurt Busiek and Joe Quinones,
• Metal Men, by Dan Didio and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez
• The Demon and Catwoman, by Walter Simonson and Brian Stelfreeze
• Kamandi, by Dave Gibbons and Ryan Sook
• Adam Strange, by writer/artist Paul Pope
• Supergirl, by Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner
• Wonder Woman, by Ben Caldwell
• Deadman, by Dave Bullock and Vinton Heuck
  
• Teen Titans, by Eddie Berganza and Sean Galloway

Of course, one of the hoped-for delights from this series will be moving the strips up and down within that ordered list, once they start coming out and I begin to get a real feel for each.