Absolutes, Omnibuses, Oversize, Special Editions discussion thread

[Bill1]

Spawn, Origins Collection Deluxe Edition One, signed and numbered

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MisterX]

I have all three volumes of the Tomb of Dracula, Golden Age Marvel Comics V1 (it was a gift), and Devil Dinosaur!

 

Awhile back I sold both the Alias Omnibus and the Eternals Omnibus for about $175 each. Kinda wish I had the Eternals still, but, I don't know, it was kind of a slog. (A pretty slog.)

 

Does anyone have the Captain Britain Omnibus? I was thinking of going after that one. Is it any good?

[miraclemet]

I have all three volumes of the Tomb of Dracula, Golden Age Marvel Comics V1 (it was a gift), and Devil Dinosaur!

 

Awhile back I sold both the Alias Omnibus and the Eternals Omnibus for about $175 each. Kinda wish I had the Eternals still, but, I don't know, it was kind of a slog. (A pretty slog.)

 

Does anyone have the Captain Britain Omnibus? I was thinking of going after that one. Is it any good?

 

I had the Captain Britain one and decided to sell it at some point last year. I started reading it, and it just didn't do it for me. I had hopes for the Moore stuff, but in the end it just didn't connect with me so I passed it on since it wasnt something I was into reading and didnt feel that Captain Brit was historical enough to warrant keeping an archive copy.

 

I kept my Alias Omnibus, that to me was a good read for sure.

[Reno McCoy]

I'll admit, with some of the prices these books are commanding, it's hard not to just sell sell sell. I've read the Brubaker Captain America and Daredevil books in floppy format, and I have yet to open the omnibus copies I have. The aspect of selling them for something I haven't read is surely tempting...

[Balham's Finest]

Some nice recent additions - I'll update the index once I'm back from holiday!

[Hammerhead]

I have never read any Spawn. Is Spawn worth reading? I always liked McFarlane's art but his writing in Spider-Man just wasn't good.

[Hammerhead]

Has anyone read/own the Marvel Atlantis Attacks omnibus? They are always cheap on ebay, but I remember reading a few of the stories in the back of the annuals in the old days but wasn't impressed. I was very young then 12, 13 maybe?

[dupont2005]

Mister X Archives

 

Published: December 2008

 

Pages: 384

 

Collects volume one plus a few bonus materials.

 

Dust jacket cover

 

With standard comic for scale

 

With dust jacket off, spine detail

 

Sewn binding

 

Some of the contents

 

Overall pretty typical quality for a hardcover trade. The sewn binding and dust jacket maybe a little nicer than average, but I wouldn't consider this some sort of premium collection. The reason I added it here is this

 

Even if you love Mister X, don't pay this for it. In fact, I'd suggest not paying the $55 it goes for on Amazon either. Luckily I got mine for $15 on Cyber Monday a while back. I'd say for about $35 it's a fair deal. Any more than $40 and you're going to think you over paid for this.

[dupont2005]

That about does it for my more expensive ones. If anyone is interested, I have some HC's that have low cover prices but for the cost are really nice that I could post

[Balham's Finest]

That about does it for my more expensive ones. If anyone is interested, I have some HC's that have low cover prices but for the cost are really nice that I could post

 

I think as long as they fall within the category of deluxe/special editions, then please go ahead.

 

Funny you should bring this up actually - I have a couple more Absolutes to go but was thinking of posting up the Incognito and Criminal Omnibus collections, as they're very nice.

[miraclemet]

That about does it for my more expensive ones. If anyone is interested, I have some HC's that have low cover prices but for the cost are really nice that I could post

 

I think as long as they fall within the category of deluxe/special editions, then please go ahead.

 

Funny you should bring this up actually - I have a couple more Absolutes to go but was thinking of posting up the Incognito and Criminal Omnibus collections, as they're very nice.

 

This is Bal's thread so he gets to make the rules, but I think any Collected Edition that feels like Shelf Porn is worth showing off. Anything that I think is a great presentation of material is worth showing off. I think Dark Horse's BPRD HCs, which arent oversized, but are great glossy thick books are worth peoples attention.

[Balham's Finest]

Also: the index in the first post is now fully updated.

[miraclemet]

The Green Lantern Omnibus Vol 1 & 2

 

Published: Vol 1: November '10 , Vol 2: November '11

 

Print Status: In Print

 

Retail Price: $75

 

Pages: 376 pages

 

Product Dimensions: 11 x 7 or so for both volumes.

 

Collects: Volume 1 has Showcase 22-24 & Green Lantern v2 1-21 and in Volume 2: Issues 22-45

 

Extras: Introduction by Gil Kane which was pulled from an earlier archive, so it doesn't even correctly place Green Lantern in his current (more central) context within the DC universe.

 

Front of the book:

Uninspired Front cover design.

 

 

Spine Design:

Forgot to snap a picture of this... will do so tonight. Safe to say it is as unimaginative as the rest of the volume. At least they kept them consistent across the two volumes.

 

 

Example internal page

Excessive amount of white space left in the production process. At least they included the page numbers and issue being reprinted on each page. Volume 1's paper quality is horrible. Very thin, and not able to stand up to reading. Just in flipping thru a few pages I created a few dings and light creases in the pages due to their thinness.

 

At least with volume 2 they improved the paper quality enough that I can read it without hurting the pages.

 

Binding:

Volume 1 glued binding was the worst I have ever seen in terms of overly and unnecessarily stiff.

Compare it to Volume 2 below. Where they went to the sewn/glued combo, which allows for less glue.

 

 

Readablity

This is again about binding. Volume 1 will not even come close to laying flat. I would have to break the bind completely and repeatedly if I wanted to have this book even come close to laying flat. The overuse of glue in the binding ruined the book.

Again compare it to the ability of Vol 2 (below) to at least mostly lay open for reading without snapping itself closed.

 

Extras:

Nothing except for pulling an old introduction by Gil Kane to reuse in this edition. No Letters pages, nothing, just an inline inclusion of the issues cover.

 

 

Summary: This is horrible for $75. It got marginally better in the 2nd volume, but was still not worth the price. If you have the DC Archives, you are better off quality-wise, even though the total cost is higher. The fact that there were no extras of any manner just points to the fact that DC's efforts was to release an "omnibus" to compete with Marvel while not trying to match their quality or content.

[Kevin.J]

Okay, I dont want to upset Adam too much but here is my Planetary #1, unfortunately still shrink wrapped so I cant show the insides.

 

 

[Balham's Finest]

Okay, I dont want to upset Adam too much but here is my Planetary #1, unfortunately still shrink wrapped so I cant show the insides.

 

 

WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME?

 

I'm crossing my fingers that I'll find one at LSCC...

[Balham's Finest]

I think any Collected Edition that feels like Shelf Porn is worth showing off. Anything that I think is a great presentation of material is worth showing off

 

I missed this yesterday, but just to say that I 100% agree. If it's worth seeing, let's see it. Doesn't have to be an Absolute or Omnibus, doesn't have to be oversized, doesn't have to be slipcased.

[bane]

I think any Collected Edition that feels like Shelf Porn is worth showing off. Anything that I think is a great presentation of material is worth showing off

 

I missed this yesterday, but just to say that I 100% agree. If it's worth seeing, let's see it. Doesn't have to be an Absolute or Omnibus, doesn't have to be oversized, doesn't have to be slipcased.

 

Will try and post some of my Batman related ones later.

[montrealfilmguy]

Absolute Kingdom Come

 

Published: July 2006

 

Pages: 340

 

Collects: Kingdom Come issues 1 to 4

 

Extras: A very comprehensive set: character key, “Secrets Revealed” essay by Mark Waid, “Icons of Virtue” essay by Alex Ross, 74 pages of character sketches and notes, detailed annotations to the series, art from the covers, previous collections, promos and trading cards, a couple of extra story pages featuring Orion, checklist of appearances of the Kingdom Come world in other DC books, toy designs, “family tree” genealogy chart, afterword by Ross’ father (the visual inspiration for the lead character, Norman McCay).

 

This is what you want from an Absolute: an amazing artist that's actually worth using the large format for, a great story, and loads and loads of extras. This is one of the best ones out there - Ross' art is the star but it's a quality book all round.

 

Front and spine of slipcase:

 

 

 

Nice leather bound and embossed inner book. No dust cover, but it looks awesome. The back is blank. Shown next to the back cover of the slipcase:

 

 

Again, the binding is great and it sits nice and flat. Shots of the inside cover, and some early and late pages. One shot of the sewn binding:

 

 

 

 

 

Please believe me when I say that the Absolute format was made for artists of the quality of Ross. The paper is maybe a tiny bit on the glossy side, but for an artist that paints as vividly as this, that’s probably for the best:

 

 

Some shots of the extras. Here we have a Superman character sketch page, a shot of the character key and a couple of pages of the annotations. I nearly forgot to mention the ribbon – it’s black:

 

 

 

 

Finally, no true fan of Kingdom Come should be without this baller rare item (it

doesn’t come with the Absolute, just thought I’d include it because it’s rare and cool – DC brought a lawsuit and had it recalled as it contains loads of rare Ross artwork and other content):

 

 

 

I came in the thread looking for this and finally found your post.

 

Thank you so much for that.Great review and great pics.

 

I'm really buying this this week and it wasn't really hard to convince me in the first place.

 

Is it nearly impossible to try that Comicology one ?

[Balham's Finest]

I came in the thread looking for this and finally found your post.

 

Thank you so much for that.Great review and great pics.

 

I'm really buying this this week and it wasn't really hard to convince me in the first place.

 

Is it nearly impossible to try that Comicology one ?

 

No worries - there's an index in the first post which should hopefully make things easier to find.

 

The Comicology one is pretty rare, although I see a few on Amazon marketplace now. This is what Wikipedia has to say about it:

 

In January 1999, Harbor Press published the first (special) issue of their comics magazine Comicology. The 272-page Comicology: Kingdom Come Companion, edited by Brian Lamken, focused heavily on Kingdom Come, featuring an A-Z of almost everything with extensive illustrations by Ross and various other commentary on the mini-series. It was the subject of a swift cease-and-desist notice from DC, objecting that the volume "constitute[d] an unauthorized derivative work that infringe[d] upon [DC's] copyrights, violates [their] trademark rights, and misappropriates [their] good will." Lamken acquiesced to the recall, despite protesting that DC had prior knowledge of the project. It is likely that the similarities between the material contained in the Revelations volume (available only with the purchase of the considerably-more-expensive Graphitti/DC two-volume set) contributed to the recall of the Comicology volume. The recall made the Companion arguably the most difficult Kingdom Come item to find.

 

[miraclemet]

Avengers/JLA Collection

 

Published: December 2004

 

Print Status: Out of Print

 

Retail Price: $75 (aftermarket $80-120)

 

Pages: 288 pages

 

Product Dimensions: 12.8 x 8.5

 

Collects: JLA/Avengers issues 1-4 & Compendium

 

Extras:Oh the extras. There is a Companion volume included in the slipcase with 60-70 pages of extras. Every thing from an oral history of the behind the scenes work that went to trying to create this cross-publisher event, to page sketches, to a page by page reference guide by Busiek & Perez where they point out every easter egg that they included, and where that egg came from.

 

Front of the book:

Perez creates an interesting cover, which is repeated (w/o color) for the compendium)

 

 

Slipcover Design:

There's a poster of this image, thats how freaking cool it is. Its a wrap-around image that goes front to back.

Here's the original image:

And here it is applied to the slipcase:

(note how one side of the slipcase calls it JLA/Avengers and the other calls it Avengers/JLA? Such attention to detail)

 

Example internal page

Full page bleeds for splashes, great use of the Absolute format (before it became known as "absolute) and giving as much real estate for Perez's hyper detailed work as possible.

 

 

Binding:

For such a small book (pagewise) they could have tried to skimp and gone with a glued bind, but nope, here we have a lovely sewn binding allowing for the book to lie flat with nearly no gutter loss (see the splash page above)

 

 

Extras:

There are so many extras here it amazes me. Nothing other than the Crisis on Infinite Earth's compares to the volume of extras.

First there is the dueling forwards by Julie Schwartz and Stan Lee offering their own perspectives on the story/project.

 

Here's a table of contents of the Compendium extras:

 

My favorite is the "Who, What, Where?" index by Busiek/Perez where they go page by page and point out the various easter eggs, and where they were drawing reference from. If you dont know Busiek is as much a comic reader (especially the Avengers) as he is a creator, so this kind of detail is enough to choke a horse, but makes the collection very re-readable if you are in a "research" mode.

 

Perez also includes some original art/layouts from various issues that allow you to see his process. Also 21 pages from the original pitch of the first attempt to get the book published back in 1983 are included.

 

Also included in the extras is a full on explination of the back and forth history of trying to get this concept published for 20 odd years thru multiple Editors, writers, and so forth. There's also a great history of previous Marvel/DC crossovers that preceded the climactic JLA/Avengers story. There's a history of the plot evolution from the original '83 concept to the 2000 concept, to where the book ended.

 

Summary: When I first saw this collection I was on vacation somewhere at a random used book store and passed on the book for fear of lugging it back home in my small suitcase (I think they had it for $35) not knowing a) its scarcity and b) its awesomeness. I spent probably the next two years kicking myself for not buying it, and scouring ebay for a copy. Finally came across one with a bit of damage to the slipcase (which I repaired) for $50, and couldnt be happier. This is one collection i think is still a valuable buy even with the price inflation due to it being OOP. If you can buy this for less than $125, and you love the format, DO IT! Im doubtful that we'll see a full on reprint of this again since it took moving heaven and earth to get the book produced the first time.