 In 1988, "Direct Currents" became the title of a free monthly newsletter distributed by comic book stores, containing articles about DC Comics titles being released that month as well as a checklist of the month's new releases.It was a replacement for DC's previous newsletter, "DC Releases".Unlike "DC Releases", which was printed in black and white and magazine-sized, "Direct Currents" was printed in color and was the size of a regular comic book.