As a very special summer treat to its males-over-35 demographic majority, DC Comics has just released the first issue of Wednesday Comics, a weekly 12-issue miniseries not printed as a standard comic book. For the inflated price of $3.99 the reader receives a 16-page newspaper with 15 single-page chapters of ongoing super-hero serials composed in the style and quantity of extra-length Sunday adventure comic strips, just like our more literate grandparents used to read and wrap their fish. By contrast, the Sunday edition of this reporter’s local newspaper, The Indianapolis Star, costs $1.75 and provides several dozen pages of content, but only four pages of Sunday strips — all of which are shrunken to fit the space alloted, some of which have the first two panels excised, and none of which are serious strips. (The last elderly holdout, Prince Valiant, was dumped months ago to no noticeable reader reaction.)

In addition to the DC holy trinity of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, featured players include the Teen Titans, Supergirl, the Flash (the old Barry Allen version, of course), Catwoman, Green Lantern (soon to be a major motion picture!), Hawkman, and more. The lengthy list of contributors include fantasy novelist Neil Gaiman, Watchmen co-creator Dave Gibbons, animation director Dave Bullock (Justice League: the New Frontier, Spectacular Spider-Man), magazine cartoonist Kyle Baker, and one of DC’s least popular vice-presidents. The artists receive the benefit of full computer coloring — once unthinkable on mere newsprint — and the job requirement of drawing only one page per week, a leisurely pace more suited to today’s entitled and easily distracted professionals.

Wednesday Comics is now on sale at your local comic shop, if your town still has one open for business. (This is one newspaper you’re unlikely to find at ordinary newsstands, whose clerks will harrumph and bait-and-switch you with a two-decade-old Archie digest instead.) Share your thoughts, reviews, and nostalgic diatribes about comic strip extinction in our Comics forum today!

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