DC Comics confirmed today that its next weekly series will be Wednesday Comics, a title and format designed to evoke the Sunday comics section.

The 12-part series, which launches this summer, will be presented in a broadsheet format that unfolds from traditional comic-book size. According to blogger Matt Price, each issue will be 16 pages and contain 15 serialized stories.

The details were revealed in Memphis, Tenn., at the annual meeting of the direct-market trade organization ComicsPRO.

Although rumors have circulated for a while online about Wednesday Comics, thanks largely to Kyle Baker's Hawkman pages, today was the first official word from the publisher.

Other creators linked to specific characters are Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso on a Batman, Neil Gaiman and Michael Allred on Metamorpho, Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner on Supergirl, and Joe Kubert on Sgt. Rock. Additional names include John Arcudi, Lee Bermejo, Dave Bullock, Kurt Busiek, Dave Gibbons, Paul Pope, Ryan Sook and Walt Simonson.

Wednesday Comics also will include stories starring Catwoman, Deadman, Demon, The Flash, Kamandi, Metal Man, Supergirl and the Teen Titans, among others.

More DC Comics news from the ComicsPRO meeting:

• Bob Wayne, vice president of sales, announced the Watchmen collections have sold more than 1 million copies since the movie trailer debuted in July.

• The Grant Morrison/Jim Lee Wildcats will be released as a graphic novel, solicited only after it's complete.

• Vertigo will publish Sweet Tooth, a new monthly series by Jeff Lemire. Debuting in September, the comic centers on Gus, a boy born with deer-like antlers who is forced to leave his forest sanctuary and experience the outside world.

• Peter Hogan and Chris Sprouse will collaborate on Tom Strong and the Robots of Doom for Wildstorm.

• Flash Chronicles, reprinting the original adventures of Barry Allen, and the all-ages Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the Eighth Grade are among the collected editions planned for later this year.