Digesting these giants.
So I finally got my mitts on those Walmart-exclusive DC Giants, which I’d talked about a few days back where I kept calling them “digests” for some reason. Thanks to Twitter pal Greg, who took pity upon my predicament and mailed me his set once he was done with them. And once I’m done with them, I’ll probably pass ’em along to nieces and nephews.
Anyway, first off, there are certainly not digest-sized, but the same dimensions as a standard comic book, if a bit thicker. Plus, I like the semi-retro “100-PAGE GIANT” banner across the cover. Slick covers, square binding, nice paper stock (more matte-feeling than the paper DC usually uses on their periodicals…it’s like the paper stock they used on this week’s Flash, if you picked that up). Each story is fronted by a page with the character logo and a brief text introduction, and followed by another page with text previewing the next chapter and reminding readers to be back in a month for the next exciting installment!
It’s a good mix of recent-ish stories (which you can see listed here). Each contains a new story, but the only one I’ve read so far is the Batman one, part one of a two-parter by Jimmy Palmiotti and Patch Zircher, which squeezes quite a bit into just 12 pages while still remaining a solidly entertaining an interesting story, setting up quite the mystery that, given the vagaries of distribution at my local Walmarts (i.e. none, apparently) I’ll have to wait and read the conclusion when it’s eventually reprinted in something for the direct comics market. At 100 pages for five bucks, it’s quite the deal…I know if I was a kid that happened across these in a department store, I’d be thrilled.
It’s a solid effort at outreach by DC, and I hope in continues. I know they have longterm plans for these (judging by the 12-part serial that’ll start in the third issue of the Batman giant), which with any luck won’t be undermined by display and supply issues. I suppose younger kids are less uptight about not getting every single part of a story (“said Mike, who is not a parent of small children”) but only getting a story piecemeal can be frustrating. And Walmart isn’t a comic shop…this is just one more item filling shelf space and I don’t imagine they’re particularly incentivized to upkeep this product line beyond the bare minimum of “put ’em out when we get ’em.” Worries about Walmart and other chain stores carrying new comic stock are mostly unfounded for that reason…they’re not mainline items, people working these stores aren’t going to focus their energies on a $5 comic when they could be selling a $50 video game. They’re not going to replace a good comic shop…or even my comic shop for that matter. But there’s always the chance they could make new fans of the actual experience of reading comics, not just watching the movies, which is the one thing this industry desperately needs.
Well, the superhero comics industry, anyway. Raina Telgemeier comics are doin’ just fine.
Giants have 80 pages. If it has 100 pages, it is a Super Spectacular.
I hope someone got fired for that blunder.
I wish they were available anywhere than Walmart.