I know DC and Marvel have tried to bring digests back, basically reprinting runs of comics aimed at kids and tweens. But I am talking about digests like the Archie comics...it's a format I loved as a kid and miss them something fierce.

DC always had the best, with their Blue Ribbon Digests and others, and of course there have always been the Archie Comics Digests, but I never really got into them. I also loved the Dennis the Menace Digests, and I recall quite a few from my childhood, but I had a good collection of Dennis the Menace Digests when I was a kid...not sure where they are now...hopefully in a box in my mom's house somewhere waiting for me to find them again in the future. Marvel also did a good run of Dennis the Menace digests for a bit as well as the Star Comics digests.

The new Marvel and DC digests just aren't the same. I miss the old digests...the size, the page count, the newspaper stock they used to print them on... a great value for what they cost! And not all of them were just reprint material either...or at least I read several Dennis the Menace comic books back in the day and I don't recall seeing any stories reprinted in the digests, so I assumed they were printing new material in them.

We need a true return to digests. Forget these massive hardcover reprints of old comics (and I am not talking about the Absolute Editions DC is doing) or the deluxe reprints of old EC and Disney material....let's see these in digest form. They were fun, they were cheap, and they were collectible.

I have quite a few of the ARCHIE Comic Digests. In fact, digests were the only format I was gonna read Archie in. I felt they gave me more bang for my buck when compared to the regular 22 page comic (was it 22 pgs?). Anyway, I started collecting them in my tweens right up to when I got interested in girls which was a few years later. Never knew the digest went out of style. I thought they were still reprinting Archie in that format.

The other digests I had were G.I. Joe when Marvel reprinted the Joes early issues.

No, I don't want them to return in that size because at my age now I can hardly read the words when printed that small. Yes, I'm selfish.

Oh man, I had 3 great GI Joe digest, around issue 32 when Billy almost killed CC. I read the hell out of those. 3 issues for 99 cents!

I used to buy digests all the time when I was a kid. I think they were pretty responsible for turning my comic hobby from passing fad to lifelong obsession.

I think archie still does have digests, though they are much slimmer than they used to be. Don't they still sell them in grocery store aisles?

I remember as a kid having all of these DC ones... Brave and the Bold, Justice Society of America, Shazam, Legion of Superheroes. It was a great way for me, as a kid, to fall in love with these characters, and they were so much more durable than a regular comic, so it was great for kids.

I'm surprised with the manga fad, that they haven't gone to making something like cheap, black and white digests.

Archie is still all over the place. I see it in a lot of big box and grocery stores. I wonder why it's been able to maintain it's market penetration, while other companies cannot. Is the demand for Archie that strong?

I have to admit that I've always liked Archie. I don't really read it, but the idea of the comic pleases me greatly. I mean "Betty or Veronica" is one of the greatest debates in history! Say it to any guy over the age of 23 and he's going to have a list of reasons as to whose better. That is powerful stuff.

BTW - Only people who kill baby seals would pick Betty. Veronica all day long.

I don't remember killing any baby seals...

I thought I heard a while back that the publishers of Archie have some kind of grandfathered deal to have their stuff in the grocery aisle... you know Marvel or DC would kill to get back there (and we'd probably see digests from them too).

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Perish the thought! They have to be in their four color glory! Just print it on newsprint....enough of comics on all this slick paper. Using some cheaper paper stock would be ideal. I'd much prefer to buy a comic collection in digest form than in big ass oversized trade paper back form.

I got a ton of those DC Blue Ribbons and Archie Double Digests

DC did a Sgt. Rock Digest recently (within a couple of years I think) but the thing was priced at $9.99 or some silly price. I've got a bunch of old 70's & 80's DC digests of Batman, Superboy & the Legion of Superheroes, Year's Best Comics, etc. They were fun when I was a kid, but with the art and lettering so small, they're pretty hard on my old eyes.

Found the link, and the Rock digest was $9.99 http://www.dccomics.com/graphic_novels/?gn=4171

At that price, they can keep their digests.

Well, that's why I say use cheaper paper. I have several comics from back in the day on cheaper paper before everything had to be on super slick paper and they still look just fine.

A digest should be no more than 2.99 for 128 pages. Ten bucks is ridiculous.

I remember before DC figured out how to do digests, they did some mass-market-sized paperbacks of reprinted stories. Problem was the mass-market size, so they hacked up the comic pages and put two or three panels on each of the paperback pages. One original comic page would be split into 2-4 paperback pages. It made pan-and-scan look like the National Preservation Archive!