Looking back at my collection over many years, I find that a lot of the stuff I re-read and enjoy the most are those in a magazine format:
SAVAGE TALES
SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN
DRACULA LIVES
UNKNOWN WORLDS OF SCIENCE FICTION
DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU
EPIC ILLUSTRATED
HOWARD THE DUCK magazine
RAMPAGING HULK/HULK magazine
TOMB OF DRACULA magazine
MARVEL PREVIEW/BIZARRE ADVENTURES
ECLIPSE magazine
HEAVY METAL
CREEPY
EERIE
VAMPIRELLA
1984/1994 magazine
HARD BOILED
CONAN THE SAVAGE
In just a slightly larger size than the 7" by 10" comic book format, much of the artwork really gains a great deal more in the slightly larger 8" x 11" format.
The larger 11" by 17" treasury-size format of LIMITED COLLECTORS' EDITION from DC in the early/mid 70's, and MARVEL TREASURY EDITION books is also nice, particularly reading the Barry Smith Conan material. But the treasury-size can be cumbersome to handle in its over-size, and for me the magazine-size is the perfect balance of art-size -vs.- manageability battle.
I also think that much of the material in magazine form represents some of the best and most labored-over work by many artists, where they gave greater sophistication and attention to detail than in their comics work (some examples being Wrightson's 1974-1978 work for Warren CREEPY and EERIE magazines, Starlin's "Metamorphosis Odyssey" in EPIC ILLUSTRATED 1-9, Tim Conrad's Almuric in EPIC 2-5, and Michael Golden/Bob McLeod's "Drake-ula" and "Duckworld" stories in HOWARD THE DUCK magazine 5 and 6, and Moench/Bolton's "Kull: Demon in A Silvered Glass" in BIZARRE ADVENTURES 26)
I also like the accompanying format and articles in many of these magazines, that aspire to a more sophisticated and literary feel.
I'd include in this category the graphic novels by Marvel, DC, First, Eclipse and others that are in the same size format, such as ELRIC by Thomas/Russell, DREADSTAR and THE PRICE by Starlin, NIGHT MUSIC by P.Craig Russell, RAVEN BANNER by Vess, and SILVERHEELS and FROM HELL by Scott Hampton, and ROBERT E. HOWARD'S WORMS OF THE EARTH (Bran Mak Morn) by Thomas and Conrad.
Magazine-size comics have largely gone the way of the brontosaurus since the late 1980's, but I still enjoy the occasional one that appears, and savor the ones from the years they were prevalent.
