Absolutes, Omnibuses, Oversize, Special Editions discussion thread

[Kevin.J]

I have got lots, some photos to follow tomorrow after work

[nickwire]

are we counting the hellboy library editions? and dont forget madman gargantua, 852 pages of awesome

[Balham's Finest]

Miraclemet, thanks v much for adding the Fear Agent collection! Great stuff.

 

Invisibles Omnibus and Absolute Dark Knight coming in the next little while...

[Balham's Finest]

The Invisibles Omnibus

 

Published: August 2012

 

Pages: 1536

 

Collects: The Invisibles volume 1 issues 1-25, Absolute Vertigo, The Invisibles volume 2 issues 1-22, Vertigo: Winter’s Edge 1, The Invisibles volume 3 issues 12-1

 

Extras: As you’d expect from a book this size, there’s a lot: Morrison’s original series proposal, including his own character sketches, sketches and research feature on the cover for issue 1, various Morrison essays from the letters columns (including the very first and very last issues – the latter as an afterword to the Omnibus), Sean Phillips cover prelims, Morrison’s notes on series 2 with Phil Jiminez character sketches, preliminary logo designs, Brian Bolland cover sketches and character designs, Morrison’s notes on series 3 with Philip Bond page layouts from the first issue of that series, Frank Quitely pencils.

 

On to the pictures (please excuse the slight damage to the dustcover…):

 

This thing is LARGE:

 

 

Book without dustjacket - actually, I should mention that the dustjacket has a really cool transparent silhouette of the team on the front. Hard to explain, and you can only see it if you catch the light right - I couldn't get it to show up in the picture:

 

 

The paper is nothing special – exactly what you’d get in a normal TPB. Nice colours anyway – this was always a colourful series!

 

There are some issues with the size of the book. If you’re reading holding the pages then it’s OK, but if you’re trying to get it to lie flat, then the first and last 250 pages or so are a problem. This is about the best I could do near the start and near the end getting it to lie still – otherwise it flips itself shut:

 

 

 

As you can imagine, gutter loss issues are present, even (slightly) in the middle pages:

 

 

Nice sewn binding (no ribbon though – boo):

 

 

Couple of shots of the extras:

 

 

 

Overall, a nice book to have (especially given that your only other choice is TPBs or floppies if you’re an Invisibles fan) – the extras are particularly good. But this could have been a lot better. Quality paper would have been nice, but I guess would have made it too thick. Reading experience is OK, but not great. An occupational hazard of Omnibuses...

 

[Ze-man]

Does this count?

 

Bought his years ago, and remains one of my favorite reads.

 

Quality made bound volume all around.

 

[Balham's Finest]

Looks cool - thanks for sharing! (thumbs u

 

I hadn't seen that before.

[Balham's Finest]

Absolute Dark Knight

 

Published: October 2006

 

Pages: 512

 

Collects: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns issues 1 to 4, Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again issues 1-3

 

Extras: Frank Miller’s original proposal and character sketches, cover reprints from the series and previous collections, sketch designs for statues, action figures, detailed -script notes, preparatory sketches, Miller’s pencils, Miller’s inks, roughs. There are pages and pages of these – the focus is very much on Miller’s art.

 

A word before we get to the pictures – this is probably the best put together Absolute that I’ve seen. Whoever designed it deserves serious kudos. So you’re going to see plenty of it.

 

Slipcase and spine – the one thing that drives me crazy is that the “A” of “Absolute” is half off the spine. There’s plenty of room, so it must be intentional, and it looks bad – especially on a shelf next to other Absolutes that don’t do the same thing…

 

 

 

Book next to slipcase, front and back. How cool does the colour reversal look!

 

 

 

Book without its dustcover, including the deliberately grainy-looking inside front and back covers. These look amazing in hand:

 

 

 

 

Central pages – and the ribbon is, of course, jet black. Look at the pop on the colours - awesome. The paper here is not as matte as the Watchmen volume, but not as glossy as the Sandman ones. Pretty much perfect.

 

 

Very nice sewn binding. No problem at all getting the book to lie flat, even near front and back (as you can see from the inside cover shots).

 

 

A couple of the extras:

 

 

 

For any fan of Miller’s Batman, this is a must buy. Definitely one of the best Absolutes out there.

 

[Balham's Finest]

INDEX OF TITLES ADDED TO FIRST POST

 

Thanks to those who have started to share their collections too - looking forward to seeing lots more!

 

So that the posts with pictures etc. are easy to locate among the discussion (which is also great), I've amended the first post in the thread to include a clickable index showing what's been listed so far - it will jump you right to the relevant post.

 

I'll keep it updated as regularly as possible, so it should be easy to identify what books are listed in the thread at any time and go look at them.

 

Adam

[Bill1]

This is a good idea! I will try to add a few over the next few days!

[Rob]

Thanks for this. I love collected editions, and listen faithfully to Chris Marshall's Collected Comics Library podcast. I have TPBs, HCs, and mainly Archive Editions, but have been wanting to start getting Absolutes. This thread is great!

[Balham's Finest]

Fingers crossed since it's still sealed, but I think I have finally - at the third attempt - received an undamaged Absolute Batman and Robin: Batman Reborn.

 

I'm planning to add it to the thread tonight along with one other (trying to decide which one - with all the picture taking and uploading I think two at a time is my limit!).

[Transplant]

If can find the time, I'll do posts on Absolute DC New Frontier and Parker: Martini Edition.

[Balham's Finest]

Cool, I'd be really keen to see the Martini Edition in particular. Been on my list for a while...

[Balham's Finest]

Absolute Batman and Robin: Batman Reborn

 

Published: January 2013

 

Pages: 488

 

Collects: Batman and Robin issues 1 to 16, Batman: The Return one-shot

 

Extras: Not a huge amount – in fact, nothing additional to what’s available in the 3 deluxe HCs: there’s a feature on the design process for each of the covers, including roughs etc., character design features, logo design features and biographies of the main characters.

 

This is a nice looking Absolute, but the lack of extras prevents it from being as good as it could have been. There’s no dustcover on the inside book, which makes it seem a little less special. Paper quality is very nice – similar to Absolute Dark Knight.

 

Big fans of the series will probably want this because the art (particularly Quitely and Irving) looks awesome in the larger format. Besides that, I don’t know that there’s much to recommend it to the casual fan over the deluxe HCs.

 

Front and spine of slipcase - I have no idea why the spine design is so different to the other Batman Absolutes:

 

 

 

Inner book alongside slipcase, front and back.

 

 

 

Again, this lies nice and flat thanks to decent binding. You can see there’s noticeable gutter loss near the front and back of the book though (obviously if you were holding the book in both hands instead of lying it on a table this wouldn’t be an issue):

 

 

 

Gutter loss is much less noticeable in the middle of the book – nice baby blue ribbon too! Binding also shown – it’s sewn:

 

 

 

 

Finally, some example extras (a cover study and part of Finch’s character design from the one-shot):

 

 

 

[dscott]

Some of mine, I have X-Force, Brubaker Captain America, The new Iron Man that comes out next week, Dracula 2, Avengers West Coast, Geoff Teen Titans, and X-Static on the way to the house right now.

 

Trying to pick up a Dracula 1 and some Daredevil omnibus but they are so hard to come by for a decent price.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Balham's Finest]

Wow

 

I see a lot of shrink wrap - are they ones you just haven't got round to reading, or do you buy some of them just to collect rather than to crack open and read?

 

Personally I go for the latter, but I can see the attraction of nice pristine copies!

[dscott]

They are just ones that I have not got around to reading. I have been buying them up over the last couple months. Not enough time in the day.

[Bill1]

Here are some of mine, but I don't have time yet to do such a nice display as you have been doing so far-- I will get to it soon though on some of them that aren't done yet! Thanks for the work you putting into this!

 

 

 

 

[dupont2005]

Okay I have one. Please excuse the poor lighting in my house, and the cellphone camera

 

The Hole Of Tank Girl

 

Published: September 2012

 

Pages: 384

 

I don't know exactly what all it collects, supposedly the entirety of the Hewlett and Martin works, with some previously unreleased material and a few extras. Here's some pics.

 

Nice slipcase

 

Here is a standard sized comic for scale

 

Please excuse the blur

 

Very thick book for 384 pages, thick glossy paper

 

Under the dust jacket

 

Hand signed by Alan Martin

 

Sewn binding

 

A little sample of the contents

 

And the back cover under the dist jacket

[Bill1]

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION (VOL. 1) BLUE LABEL EDITION

 

5 of 10 total, original art by eastman.