Recently, a retailer texted me about just how successful DC’s Compact Comics line has been for their shop. In the first month of release, these digest-sized, $9.99 collections of classic comics had been putting up numbers for them. Even compared to the rest, All-Star Superman had been moving, as it managed to put up a big number for them in the first month alone. Or at least I thought it was a big number. It sounded good, but without frame of reference, I wasn’t totally sure. So I asked for a comparison. “How does that compare to the previous month of other formats the comic had been released in?” I wondered. Begrudgingly, they looked it up.

That previous edition barely sold more…if you looked at the past five years of sales instead of just the past month. So, in short, they sold about a half decade’s worth of that release in one month. Which is insane.

Now, that’s not every shop’s story. More than that, it’s important to note that the previous edition was the DC Black Label one which had a cover price of $29.99 instead of $9.99. That’s a major difference. But it does speak to the energy and enthusiasm surrounding these new editions. DC Compact Comics are hot, hot, hot! And it’s only going to grow, to some degree, as new editions featuring all kinds of other classic comics arrive. As the library of options expand, so too may the enthusiasm.

That success made me wonder — just like it did a great many people on Twitter — what comics could and/or should get the DC Compact Comics treatment? Or, even further than that, what comics from other publishers would fit this format well, if each house chose to create their own version? Those are good questions, both of which I’m going to attempt to answer today with a Compact Comics Wishlist. Now, because I am me, there are rules for this exercise. There’s a short path to the easiest answers. Just pick the top selling comics, historically! But I am not here for the easiest answers. I am here for the right ones, so I must follow those aforementioned rules, which are:

• My picks cannot include any comics already scheduled as part of the Compact Comics line for obvious reasons
• They also cannot include any that have been released as part of France’s Urban Comics Nomad line, as it’s the playbook for DC
• In fact, any title that has ever had a digest-sized edition in the U.S. is not an option here 7
• The goal is to aim for sales potential and fit for the format
• That said, I will lean towards my personal biases if I feel it’s warranted, but it will act more as a tiebreaker than anything else

That’s it! It’s a pretty light set of rules, but they’re important because they establish the foundation for my picks. I’ll only make picks for the five publishers I view as the top direct market houses, because otherwise this will get way too long, and each publisher will have an entry limit to ensure I don’t just pick everything. 8 So, without further ado, let’s get to my wishlist.

DC Comics

Beyond the fact they’re already doing it, the Compact Comics line makes sense for DC for two reasons. One is that it makes sense for every comic publisher, because great comics at a reasonable price aimed at readers of all varieties is a pretty good formula to connect with people. The other is they just have better options than most other direct market publishers, especially their peers at Marvel. That’s connected to why DC has always outdistanced Marvel in the book market. They have more finite, evergreen titles that are new reader friendly, many of which are condensible into this format. That helps!

Batman Universe

This isn’t just the first comic listed here. It was the first comic I picked when I conceived this article. It was an easy one too, even though that might surprise you. This six-issue miniseries from writer Brian Michael Bendis, artist Nick Derington, colorist Dave Stewart, and letterer Josh Reed 9 is the exact type of comic that would thrive as a Compact Comic. It’s a reasonable length for the format, it’s an easy story to jump into, it has a great energy to it, and Derington’s art is broadly appealing. This hasn’t been drafted yet into DC’s digest editions, either in America or France, but my take is they’re sleeping on it. Batman Universe is a perfect fit.

Superman: For All Seasons

Of all the DC comics that haven’t made its way into this format yet, Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s classic is probably the most obvious miss. It’s an iconic tale, one that had an outsized impact on writer/director James Gunn as he developed the upcoming film, and it’s the right mix of classic and fresh you’d want for these titles. Plus, it’s often been presented as a hardcover, so a value option would be a nice change of pace for the title.

Grant Morrison and Howard Porter’s JLA

Grant Morrison and Howard Porter’s run on JLA is on my very short list of the most underrated superhero titles of the past 30 years. That’s not to say people don’t love it. Some absolutely do. But maybe because it launched in one of the weirdest times in direct market history — 1997, so right after Marvel’s bankruptcy and in the midst of the final days of the distributor wars — or because Morrison’s library of works is so elite, it just never seems to get the shine it deserves from readers who weren’t in on it then. Maybe a Compact Comics release would help, because after rereading some of it recently, I can assure you that it feels as fresh as it ever did. 10 This is elite superhero comics, and a run that was well before its time. Its biggest challenge is its a multi-volume release, but for some, I don’t view that as an issue as much as an advantage. This is one of them.