DC Compact Comics

The first 10 DC Compact collection releases

DC Compact Comics is a line of full-color paperbacks from DC Comics. Announced in November 2023, ahead of a June 2024 launch, they were described as "perfect for readers of prose and manga looking to pick up a new-reader-friendly storyline in a self-contained full color graphic novel". ^[1]

At 8.5in x 5.5in, they are smaller than the traditional 10.2in x 6.6in of a collected trade paperback comic.

The initial 10 titles released in 2024 were: Batman: The Court of Owls, Watchmen, All-Star Superman, Far Sector, Batman: Hush, Wonder Woman: Earth One, Harley Quinn & The Gotham City Sirens, Joker, American Vampire Book One, and Catwoman: Trail of the Catwoman - with a further 15 books announced for 2025. ^[2]

One of those 15, Death, a spin-off from the Sandman series, was cancelled following sexual assault allegations against writer, Neil Gaiman. ^[3]

As well as being dedicated to a specific character or series, each release is also designated by genre via a tag in the top right of the cover. These genres include Science Fiction, Thriller, Horror, Fantasy, Adventure, and Mystery.

Reception

The announcement was largely greeted positively in the comics community with SKTCHD's David Harper saying the line was, "...honestly the best thing to come from one of the Big Two in I don’t even know how long.". ^[4] Gordon Jackson at Gizmodo noted that "DC’s Compact Comics Line Is the Smartest Thing It’s Done in Years." ^[5] In Comicsbeat, Joe Grunenwald stressed that: "the size, price and content are all suitable for mass market." ^[6]

Sales

Four of 2024's overall top-10 bestselling graphic novels came from DC's Compact Comic line. Batman: The Court Of Owls ranked fourth, with All-Star Superman fifth, Batman: Hush sixth, and Watchmen seventh. ^[7] By January 2025, up to seven months after release, all four books remained in the monthly top-ten graphic novel chart. ^[8]

Impact

The line launched five months ahead of the DC Finest series, which was aimed at a similar market to the Marvel Epic Collection .

In late 2024, at the New York Comic Con, Marvel Comics announced the Premier Collection : a similar line of digest-sized 9in x 6in releases "featuring Marvel’s most celebrated and prestigious storylines and creators from its entire comic book legacy". ^[9]

List of volumes

American Vampire

Title	Years covered	Issues collected	Writers	Artists	Genre	Pages	Pub. date	ISBN
Book One	2010–2011	American Vampire #1–11	Scott Snyder, Stephen King	Rafael Albuquerque	Horror	320	1 Oct 2024	978-1779527349

The Authority

Title	Years covered	Issues collected	Writers	Artists	Genre	Pages	Pub. date	ISBN
Book One	1999–2000, 2017	The Authority (vol. 1) #1–12 Planetary/The Authority: Ruling the World #1 "Requiem" from WildStorm: A Celebration of 25 Years	Warren Ellis	Bryan Hitch	Adventure	360	1 Jul 2025	978-1799501992

Batman

Title	Years covered	Issues collected	Writers	Artists	Genre	Pages	Pub. date	ISBN
The Court of Owls Saga	2011–2012	Batman (vol. 2) #1–11	Scott Snyder	Greg Capullo	Thriller	304	4 Jun 2024	978-1779527271
Hush	2002–2003	Batman #608–619	Jeph Loeb	Jim Lee	Mystery	312	6 Aug 2024	978-1779527264
The Long Halloween	1996–1997	Batman: The Long Halloween #1–13	Jeph Loeb	Tim Sale	Mystery	TBC	7 Oct 2025	978-1799502883

Batwoman

Title	Years covered	Issues collected	Writers	Artists	Genre	Pages	Pub. date	ISBN
Elegy	2009–2010	Detective Comics #854–860	Greg Rucka	J. H. Williams III	Adventure	240	17 Jun 2025	978-1799501824

Catwoman

Title	Years covered	Issues collected	Writers	Artists	Genre	Pages	Pub. date	ISBN
Trail Of The Catwoman	2001–2002	Catwoman: Selina's Big Score Catwoman (vol. 3) #1–9 "Trail of the Catwoman" from Detective Comics #759–762	Darwyn Cooke, Ed Brubaker	Darwyn Cooke	Adventure	336	1 Oct 2024	978-1779527288

DC: The New Frontier

Title	Years covered	Issues collected	Writers	Artists	Genre	Pages	Pub. date	ISBN
DC: The New Frontier	2004–2005	TBC	Darwyn Cooke	TBC	Science Fiction	TBC	5 Aug 2025	978-1799502340

DCeased

Title	Years covered	Issues collected	Writers	Artists	Genre	Pages	Pub. date	ISBN
DCeased	2019	DCeased #1–6	Tom Taylor	Trevor Hairsine	Horror	216	3 Jun 2025	978-1799501633

Harley Quinn

Title	Years covered	Issues collected	Writers	Artists	Genre	Pages	Pub. date	ISBN
Harley Quinn and the Gotham City Sirens	2009–2010	Gotham City Sirens #1–13	Paul Dini, Guillem March	Guillem March	Adventure	320	3 Sep 2024	978-1779527301
Wild at Heart	TBC	TBC	Amanda Conner	Jimmy Palmiotti	Adventure	TBC	16 Sep 2025	978-1799503033

Joker

Title	Years covered	Issues collected	Writers	Artists	Genre	Pages	Pub. date	ISBN
Joker	2008	Joker	Brian Azzarello	Lee Bermejo	Thriller	136	3 Sep 2024	978-1779527318

Static

Title	Years covered	Issues collected	Writers	Artists	Genre	Pages	Pub. date	ISBN
Season One	2021–2022	Static: Season One #1–6	Vita Ayala, Reginald Hudlin		Adventure	184	27 May 2025	978-1799501541

Superman

Title	Years covered	Issues collected	Writers	Artists	Genre	Pages	Pub. date	ISBN
All-Star Superman	2005–2008	All-Star Superman #1–12	Grant Morrison	Frank Quitely	Fantasy	296	2 Jul 2024	978-1779527257
Birthright	2003–2004	Superman: Birthright #1–12	Mark Waid	Leinil Francis Yu, Gerry Alanguilan	Adventure	312	24 Jun 2025	978-1799501916

Superman/Batman

Title	Years covered	Issues collected	Writers	Artists	Genre	Pages	Pub. date	ISBN
Book One	2003–2004	Superman/Batman (vol. 1) #1–13 "When Clark Met Bruce" from Superman/Batman Secret Files & Origins 2003	Jeph Loeb	Ed McGuinness, Michael Turner	Adventure	304	15 Jul 2025	978-1799502135

Wonder Woman

Title	Years covered	Issues collected	Writers	Artists	Genre	Pages	Pub. date	ISBN
Earth One	2016–2021	Wonder Woman: Earth One Vol. 1–3	Grant Morrison	Yanick Paquette	Fantasy	376	6 Aug 2024	978-1779527332
Blood and Guts	2011–2012	TBC	Brian Azzarello	Cliff Chiang, Tony Akins	Adventure	TBC	19 Aug 2025	978-1799502494

Y: The Last Man

Title	Years covered	Issues collected	Writers	Artists	Genre	Pages	Pub. date	ISBN
Book One	2002–TBC	TBC	Brian K Vaughan	Pia Guerra, José Marzán	Science Fiction	TBC	21 Oct 2025	978-1799502890

Miniseries

This section includes books that have self-contained miniseries and are unlikely to have a sequel

Title	Years covered	Issues collected	Writers	Artists	Genre	Pages	Pub. date	ISBN
Far Sector	2019–2021	Far Sector #1–12	N. K. Jemisin	Jamal Campbell	Science Fiction	296	2 Jul 2024	978-1779527295
Kingdom Come	1996	Kingdom Come #1–4	Mark Waid	Alex Ross	Fantasy	208	6 May 2025	978-1799501299
V For Vendetta	1982–1989	TBC	Alan Moore	David Lloyd	Thriller	TBC	4 Nov 2025	978-1799503132
Watchmen	1986–1987	Watchmen #1–12	Alan Moore	Dave Gibbons	Thriller	416	4 Jun 2024	978-1779527325
We3	2004	We3 #1–3	Grant Morrison	Frank Quitely	Science Fiction	TBC	18 Nov 2025	978-1799503255

Upcoming releases

Title	Pub. date	ISBN
Kingdom Come	6 May 2025	978-1799501299
Static: Season One	27 May 2025	978-1799501541
DCeased	3 Jun 2025	978-1799501633
Batwoman: Elegy	17 Jun 2025	978-1799501824
Superman: Birthright	24 Jun 2025	978-1799501916
The Authority: Book One	1 Jul 2025	978-1799501992
Superman/Batman: Book One	15 Jul 2025	978-1799502135
DC: The New Frontier	5 Aug 2025	978-1799502340
Wonder Woman: Blood and Guts	19 Aug 2025	978-1799502494
Harley Quinn: Wild at Heart	16 Sep 2025	978-1799503033
Batman: The Long Halloween	7 Oct 2025	978-1799502883
Y: The Last Man Book 1	21 Oct 2025	978-1799502890
V For Vendetta	4 Nov 2025	978-1799503132
We3	18 Nov 2025	978-1799503255

Cancelled

Title	ISBN
Death	978-1799502647

See also

• DC Finest
• DC Omnibus
• Marvel Premier Collection
• Marvel Omnibus
• Marvel Epic Collection
• Marvel Complete Collections

References

1. "DC Announces 'DC Compact Comics'". DC. Retrieved 2024-09-25.
2. David Brooke (12 November 2024). "New 'DC Compact Comics' coming in 2025 with 2nd printings on the way too". AIPT comics. Archived from the original on 12 November 2024. Retrieved 12 November 2024.
3. Johnston, Rich (5 February 2025). "DC Comics Has Pulled Neil Gaiman's Death Compact Edition For Now". Bleeding Cool. Archived from the original on 5 February 2025. Retrieved 6 February 2025.
4. Says, Linus (2023-11-03). "Comics Disassembled: Nine Things of Note from the Past Week in Comics, Led by DC Going Compact". SKTCHD. Retrieved 2024-09-25.
5. Jackson, Gordon (2024-08-16). "DC's Compact Comics Line Is the Smartest Thing It's Done in Years". Gizmodo. Retrieved 2024-09-25.
6. Grunenwald, Joe (2023-11-02). "Syndicated Comics". The Beat. Retrieved 2024-09-25.
7. "TOP 20 GRAPHIC NOVELS - FULL YEAR 2024". ICv2. 23 January 2025. Archived from the original on 24 January 2025. Retrieved 24 January 2025.
8. "TOP 20 GRAPHIC NOVELS - JANUARY 2025". ICv2. 7 February 2025. Archived from the original on 10 February 2025. Retrieved 10 February 2025.
9. Nico Marjolin (17 October 2024). "Marvel Comics Unveils All-New 'Marvel Premier Collection'". Penguin Random House. Archived from the original on 23 October 2024. Retrieved 23 October 2024.