The Press Release:
All-new Marvel digest collections increases exposure of Marvel’s favorite Super Heroes with new digest format within large chain retailers and in comic shop markets nationwide

Marvel Entertainment and Archie Comics, two of the leading pop culture and entertainment brands in the world, announced plans to create and distribute a new MARVEL COMICS DIGEST for “big box retailers,” newsstand, and comic shops, packaged and distributed by Archie. The digest format, long the specialty of Archie, will spotlight some of the best-loved Marvel Comics tales for new and young readers in a captivating way that will create new direct comic book market customers.

Archie Comics will publish six Marvel digests a year, with four hitting in 2017. The collections will feature various eras and stories including many of Marvel’s most recognizable heroes, with the Amazing Spider-Man and the Avengers hitting first. MARVEL COMICS DIGEST: Starring The Amazing Spider-Man, hits in June. Future MARVEL COMICS DIGEST will feature Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Black Widow, Spider-Man, Wolverine, and the X-Men!

“The Marvel brand, for decades, has been cultivating a popularity that has recently exploded worldwide,” said David Gabriel, SVP Sales & Marketing, Marvel Entertainment. “Working closely with Archie, Marvel is beyond excited to continue its reach and exposure level as we offer our retailer partners, local comic shops and large chain retailers, a new, fun, and easily digestible way to dive into the Marvel Comics Universe and produce life-long fans.”

“For years, Archie has made the digest format our bread and butter. We are supremely excited to spotlight iconic characters like Spider-Man and the Avengers through this major partnership with Marvel,” said Jon Goldwater, Publisher/CEO of Archie Comics. “These books will serve as a great introduction to the Marvel Universe for new readers and a very special, curated selection of stories for existing fans. It’s a win-win!”

About Marvel Entertainment: Marvel, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of more than 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media over seventy-five years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing and publishing.

About Archie Comics: Archie Comics is the leading mass market comic book publisher in the world and the home to a wide array of the most popular humor, action-adventure and superhero characters in entertainment, including Archie, Jughead, Betty and Veronica, Reggie, Kevin Keller, Josie and the Pussycats, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Afterlife With Archie, the Dark Circle Comics superhero characters (The Black Hood, The Fox, The Shield, Sam Hill and more), Li’l Jinx and many more. Archie Comics have sold over 2 billion comics worldwide and are published around the world in a number of languages. In addition to comics, the Archie Comics characters are spotlighted weekly on Tbe CW’s Riverdale TV series and have been featured in animation, television, film and music. Follow Archie Comics on your favorite social networks and the website linked below.

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PiercingMetal Thoughts: Growing up I loved the “Archie Comics” digests, and I probably still have a batch of them somewhere in my library of such things. As a collector, I found them a tad difficult to protect for posterity since they were smaller, but they did fit nicely in my bookcase alongside my Science-Fiction and Horror novels and I liked that aspect of them very much. After I press “publish” on this post, I’m going to see if I still have them. I remember that Marvel Comics did this a number of years ago with both their “Spider-Man” and “GI Joe” titles and served them up as smaller, several issues in each editions. Great stuff and I am glad to find it coming back. It’s going to be great to find these in the larger chain stores and I can see them doing nicely in some of the book stores as well that sell graphic novels. Not every shop sells comic books nowadays (well, unless they are a comic book shop that is) and these will be easier to locate and grab when you see it. What do you readers think about this initiative? Is it something that you will get behind or plan on purchasing for one of the readers in your circle of favorite people? Let me know down in the comments section below.

Official Website: http://www.marvel.com
Official Website: http://www.archiecomics.com