If you're hanging around the blogoverse today, Collected Editions has an open thread today for your chatting enjoyment.
Stop by, pour yourself a cup of cheer, and tell us all about what you've unwrapped today, or earlier this month, or the latest comics and trades you bought yourself -- or anything at all! Tuesday Talkback -- talk it up, if you like.
X-Statix Omnibus, Sixth Gunn Vol.4, Revival Vol.1, Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files Vol.5 and X-Men: The Mutant Genesis 2.0.
ReplyDeleteFive Things I've Learned While Reviewing Trades This Year.
ReplyDelete1. 80s/Early 90s Marvel actually was that awesome. It's put into stark contrast when you go from Infinity Gauntlet to Heroes Reborn.
2. Crossovers have to be structured very, very carefully. I don't know how they expect you to read Fear Itself without at least three of the other tie-in titles. It ruined my enjoyment of Invincible Iron Man.
3. Lettering is key. I've never appreciated it before, but it's the link between the visual and written components of the comic. You don't realize it until you've seen great lettering by people like John Workman, Chris Eliopoulos and Tom Orzechowski.
4. Mephisto is my new favorite character in the Marvel Universe. I'll get into this more next year when I get to Journey Into Mystery, but seriously, out of anyone involved in One More Day, Mephisto was the most in-character.
5. Look beyond the Big 2. This year, I've brought the first Heavy Metal, Slave Labor Graphics and Gemstone reviews to the site. I'm not going to be one of those reviewers who says "mainstream comics suck, look beyond your preconceived notions, you sheep". I just did an entire month of Kitty Pryde reviews, and I know this is a DC-centric blog. But not only do these other companies offer great stories, but they also might need your financial support to keep the good stuff coming.
Finally got my Mighty Thor Omnibus by Walter Simonson. Hard to believe it is a third printing for such a hefty book, but I've wanted this book forever and I finally got it! And it just recently went out of print, so I lucked out there.
ReplyDeleteOther then that, we finally got past the first full year of DC's New 52 and for the most part, it's been pretty darn good. Can't wait for many of the volume 2's this upcoming year.
And we had a heck of a year for comic films that will mean a make it or break it in films within the next few years.
I would hope DC is aggressive with trades for Superman with the new movie coming in 2013, but it seems like the regular onslaught of comic book movies has slowed that marketing strategy down.
ReplyDelete@AngryLionheart1: With "Thor: The Dark World" coming up, there'll probably be more printings, or at least re-releases of the Visionaries.
ReplyDeleteOddly, the Omnibus is the only version listed in the Trade Chronology catalog they have at stores. The same goes for John Byrne's Fantastic Four and Michelinie and McFarlane's ASM, to name a few, so it looks like they're putting a lot of faith in that format.
If nothing else, I hope DC puts out a new version of "Panic In the Sky". I know there are a bunch of classic stories out-of-print, but that's the first that comes to mind.
Marvel most definitively has faith in their Omnibus books and for good reason. Michelinie and Layton's run on Iron Man has an Omnibus coming in April for Iron Man 3, so I have no doubt some type of Thor Omnibus will hit shelves for the film sequel.
ReplyDeleteMe, personally, Dan Jurgens enormous run on Thor for 79 issues and 3 annuals would qualify for two Omnibus books for the film release. Granted, Jurgens collection is no where as strong or legendary as Simonson's time as writer, but it does have it strengths. So take the high issue count and that most of Jurgens collections are out-of-print, then I think Jurgens could qualify for the Omnibus club.
And as a Superman supporter, I agree with what you say about re-releasing "Panic In the Sky". I own my copy, but more Superman material on the market for new readers can't hurt. Kurt Busiek's phenomenal "Superman: Secret Identity" is getting a re-release, so anything is possible. Can't wait a softcover release of "Superman: Kryptonite Nevermore".
You all might know Panic in the Sky is one of my favorite Superman stories, and also a great example of a in-title crossover -- all the Superman titles working as one, Superman in a great leadership role, lots of other DC characters all in character, and they even let someone else save the day. A great book all around -- I don't think they make 'em like that any more.
ReplyDeleteDoug, I think your point about lettering is really interesting. I was musing lately about when I first started reading comics and didn't differentiate between one artist and another, and how I can recognize some artists on sight now ... maybe lettering is the next frontier to start recognizing.
I've got to say, a lot of the indie books, especially from Image (inasmuch as Image is "indie") are starting to look really interesting to me. You can expect a review of something, sometime ...
Happy holidays and early happy new year, all!
I only got one comic book gift, but it was pretty sweet: the deluxe edition of Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow. I honestly don't know why I didn't buy it myself years ago, but as a Superman fan I'm sure glad to have it on my shelf.
ReplyDelete@CE: You should review Saga. Just don't do Prophet; I'm planning a review of that later after I re-read it about three or four more times to figure out what the hell is going on. Here I thought I couldn't find a book more confusing than Jonathan Hickman's SHIELD. Sure enough...
ReplyDeleteSome indy book suggestions:
ReplyDelete1) Irredeemable by Mark Waid (Boom!) - Basically a story about Superman going bad and hunting down and killing off his Justice League friends. Except it's not "Superman". But I found it more fun pretending that it was. :-) Anyway, a very entertaining series that just recently ended. Waid had freedom to do things here that he wouldn't have been able to do with the real Superman. On a side note, the sister series, Incorruptible, wasn't as much fun and I was kind of disappointed that it didn't really "matter" to the main Irredeemable storyline. Although that's a good thing if you want to read Irredeemable and skip Incorruptible.
Free digital preview of issue #1 here: http://www.comixology.com/Irredeemable-1-Preview/digital-comic/DIG000128
(Incidentally, Comixology has digital copies of the TPB collections as well as two "Omnibus" editions of this series! Something I'd like to see the Big 2 do digitally.)
2) Atomic Robo (Red 5). Just fun comics. Every volume is its own self-contained mini-series. There is a continuity in place, but each adventure could take place anywhere within the almost 100 years that Atomic Robo has been "alive", so you could pick up and read any volume without having read any of the others.
Free digital issues on their website: http://www.atomic-robo.com/free-comics/ (I recommend "Why Atomic Robo Hates Dr. Dinosaur" - it's what hooked me on the series). Also, Comixology has digital collected editions for this series too (although note that each Volume is its own series; that is, it's not all grouped together in one series on the Comixology site).
Both of these are also available in regular TPB, of course. I started off buying the first couple volumes of each in TPB and then switched over to digital when they went day-and-date.
3) Hero Squared (Boom!) - Honestly, I'm not going to say I recommend this one just yet, as I'm only a couple of pages into it. But it's written by J.M. DeMatteis and Keith Giffen of JLI fame, which was enough to get me to buy it. It starts off with the hero's world destroyed by an alien tyrant overlord, who gets mad at the hero for talking down to his henchman for using a word-of-the-day calendar to better himself:
"I always knew you were hard-hearted, Captain Valor -- but to call Sloat's self-improvement 'worthless'? That's just wrong". - Lord Calignous, after having just destroyed the parallel Earth.
Made me laugh, anyway. :-)
Regarding the mainstream stuff, I plan on finally reading my Flashpoint HC and all the TPB tie-ins...that I had gotten LAST Christmas! *sigh* Still so behind! All I wanted for Christmas was...more free time!
Those are all great choices, especially Atomic Robo (which I'm extremely far behind on).
ReplyDeleteWait, is there not a Flashpoint Omnibus? Of all the things you think they'd collect that way...
Some other great indie books to check out include "Think Tank" by Matt Hawkins, "Happy!" by Grant Morrison, and "The Strange Talent of Luthor Strode" by Justin Jordan.
ReplyDelete