The newest development in the comic industry is a throwback to the glory days when super heroes struck all of their serious poses in the Sunday newspaper funny pages, alongside the likes of Dick Tracy and Prince Valiant.

It has been a long time since Superman patrolled the broadsheets, but DC Comics is turning back the clock with “Wednesday Comics.” The first issue of the 12-issue weekly anthology series hits comic book stores Wednesday.

“It’s either old-fashioned or it’s cutting edge, or it’s a little bit of both,” said Dan DiDio, executive editor of DC Comics.

The brainchild of DC art director Mark Chiarello, the series is designed to be a summer-friendly read for the beach, harkening back to the gold old days before every superhero was burdened with decades’ worth of continuity that often scares away casual fans.

Hard-core fans, however, may be wary of any change to the 6-1/2-inch-by-10-inch glossy comics they are used to, says Brian Cronin, a comic historian and author of “Was Superman a Spy? And Other Comic Book Legends … Revealed.”

“I certainly do hope it succeeds, but fans do seem to be wary of anything that’s different. And this is very different, isn’t it?” said Cronin.

To hedge his bets, DiDio put together an all-star squadron of the industry’s biggest creators for the series’ 15 full-page strips.

Among the highlights:

• Fresh off their award-winning run on Vertigo Comics’ “100 Bullets,” writer Brian Azarello and artist Eduardo Risso are reuniting for a creepy take on Batman.

• “Watchman” co-creator Dave Gibbons is bringing back one of DC’s most obscure ’70s characters, “Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth,” for a 21st century update.

• “Coraline” author Neil Gaiman, best known to comic fans for his critically acclaimed run on “Sandman” in the ’90s, returns to super hero comics on “Metamorpho” with indie artist Mike Allred.

• Painter Lee Bermejo polishes the Man of Steel to a shine in a hyperrealistic-looking Superman strip.

“So much of the talent grew up reading Sunday comics, so it was a labor of love for them,” said DiDio, who stepped from behind the editor’s desk to pen a “Metal Man” strip. “We tried to embrace everything we loved about [those comic strips].”

[Source] NYDaily