Omnibus, Absolute, Deluxe, and HC Thread 19 19

[MisterX]

Anybody pick up the Marvel Classics Comics omnibus?

I'm kind of tempted, but at the same time, I can't imagine the adaptations are very good.

[Zonker]

Heads up-  target.com has a pretty decent selection of omnibus editions, and their standard prices seem generally comparable to what I see on Amazon (i.e. well discounted from list price to begin with).  And at the moment they are offering a buy one, get the second at half price sale, so I wound up getting the Morrison JLA Omnibus for ~ $70 and the first volume of the Sandman Omnibus for ~$60.

Check it out

[F For Fake]

On 5/2/2021 at 3:21 PM, Zonker said:

Heads up-  target.com has a pretty decent selection of omnibus editions, and their standard prices seem generally comparable to what I see on Amazon (i.e. well discounted from list price to begin with).  And at the moment they are offering a buy one, get the second at half price sale, so I wound up getting the Morrison JLA Omnibus for ~ $70 and the first volume of the Sandman Omnibus for ~$60.

Check it out

Was just popping in to make sure this info had gotten around! Some really good deals this round. I’m using this opportunity to get caught up on a bunch of Batman HC’s, Dawn Of X trades, and IDW Transformers HC’s. It’s been a while since we’ve seen the B2G1 sale, so I’m hopping on this one while I can!

[F For Fake]

On 5/2/2021 at 3:21 PM, Zonker said:

Heads up-  target.com has a pretty decent selection of omnibus editions, and their standard prices seem generally comparable to what I see on Amazon (i.e. well discounted from list price to begin with).  And at the moment they are offering a buy one, get the second at half price sale, so I wound up getting the Morrison JLA Omnibus for ~ $70 and the first volume of the Sandman Omnibus for ~$60.

Check it out

Oh and good call on the JLA Omni, as it’s sold out (finally) at IST, so prices will start creeping up soon. They also have the Justice League International V2 Omni cheaper than IST and Amazon at $64, and the Planetary and Aquaman By John’s Omnis on sale at about $44 before the discount. Hard to beat these sales any time, but especially when the original pre-sale price is better than the competition.

[Zonker]

On 5/4/2021 at 9:56 PM, F For Fake said:

Oh and good call on the JLA Omni, as it’s sold out (finally) at IST, so prices will start creeping up soon. They also have the Justice League International V2 Omni cheaper than IST and Amazon at $64, and the Planetary and Aquaman By John’s Omnis on sale at about $44 before the discount. Hard to beat these sales any time, but especially when the original pre-sale price is better than the competition.

This JLA Morrison volume is a beast at 1500+ pages!

I had understood this to be all of the JLA-related content by Grant Morrison, including his Earth-2 graphic novel, his JLA Classified Run, the DC 1 Million project, etc. and intentionally excluding Mark Waid's fill-in issues between Morrison's original JLA story arcs.  And I was fine with this: Even though I remember enjoying Waid's stories quite a bit, I understood the purpose of this particular Omnibus was to get Morrison's entire acid rock vision captured between 2 covers.  So I was a bit surprised to see a total of 7 non-Morrison stories included in this volume, all of them 1 Million crossovers.  I guess the thinking was these crossovers were still part of Morrison's architecture:

Green Lantern
Starman
Detective Comics
Adventures of Superman
Martian Manhunter
Resurrection Man
Superman: Man of Tomorrow

I had read most but not all of these crossovers the first time through, and there are a ton of other crossovers not included here (thankfully!).  Hopefully these particular crossovers were carefully chosen as the most important to the narrative.  I'll be interested to read these DC 1 Million installments straight through for the first time and see how the story hangs together now in one sitting.
 

[piper]

It’s been a quiet month for me.

[F For Fake]

5 hours ago, piper said:

It’s been a quiet month for me.

That can definitely be a good thing! The first few months of 2021 were expensive for me, I'm glad to have a reprieve. I've got the Alien omni coming next week (I think?) and then nothing else on the horizon for a while, and I'm glad! The Target sale surprised me, but it's a good opportunity to get caught up on some cheaper, non-priority stuff I'd been putting off. After that, I need a break! 

[piper]

54 minutes ago, F For Fake said:

That can definitely be a good thing! The first few months of 2021 were expensive for me, I'm glad to have a reprieve. I've got the Alien omni coming next week (I think?) and then nothing else on the horizon for a while, and I'm glad! The Target sale surprised me, but it's a good opportunity to get caught up on some cheaper, non-priority stuff I'd been putting off. After that, I need a break! 

My next Omnis are Man-Thing and Annihilation Conquest.

[F For Fake]

1 hour ago, piper said:

My next Omnis are Man-Thing and Annihilation Conquest.

Ooh, good call on Man-Thing, that’s one I regret selling. I’ll need to grab that one, thanks for the heads up!

[dupont2005]

When it came I immediately checked the corners and they all looked good and I was relieved. Wasn’t until I had come home from work and was about to tear the plastic off that I noticed the giant gash in the cover/spine 

[Dave2739]

On 4/24/2021 at 8:16 PM, F For Fake said:

Who's Who arrived yesterday, so now the Holy Text/Nerd Reference Library is complete. 3000 pages of minutaie and nostalgia. 

Also arrived today, the X of Swords HC, courtesy of an Amazon gift card my boss gave me this week. Can't read this one until I catch up with the Dawn of X trades, but looks like a nice book.

Got my Who's Who yesterday. It's actually my first DC omni. All the rest of mine are Marvels. Interesting to compare and contrast with the Marvel omnis, but my first impression is that the quality of my one DC is better than Marvel. Better binding, cover, page quality, colors. But none of the extras that Marvel usually includes like behind the scenes stuff, penciled art, house ads, etc.

[Poekaymon]

I'm told Immortal Hulk will end on #50.  I bought the first two 10-issue hardcovers, but I think I'd rather wait on the rest until they are all in a single book.  Do you guys think they will do a single omnibus for all 50 issues eventually?

[piper]

1 hour ago, Poekaymon said:

I'm told Immortal Hulk will end on #50.  I bought the first two 10-issue hardcovers, but I think I'd rather wait on the rest until they are all in a single book.  Do you guys think they will do a single omnibus for all 50 issues eventually?

I would buy it.

[theCapraAegagrus]

10 hours ago, Poekaymon said:

I'm told Immortal Hulk will end on #50.  I bought the first two 10-issue hardcovers, but I think I'd rather wait on the rest until they are all in a single book.  Do you guys think they will do a single omnibus for all 50 issues eventually?

Eventually? Yes. Soon? No.

[F For Fake]

On 5/9/2021 at 11:12 AM, Dave2739 said:

Got my Who's Who yesterday. It's actually my first DC omni. All the rest of mine are Marvels. Interesting to compare and contrast with the Marvel omnis, but my first impression is that the quality of my one DC is better than Marvel. Better binding, cover, page quality, colors. But none of the extras that Marvel usually includes like behind the scenes stuff, penciled art, house ads, etc.

That's great! The quality of the books can vary wildly, depending a lot on which printer the publisher used, and what options they go with as far as binding, paper etc. For a while there, DC seemed to have a lot of issues with gutter loss and glued binding, but anecdotally, it seems that has largely improved. Both companies are hit and miss with the paper quality, but it does seem like Marvel cuts corners on some volumes for sure. I agree, I'd love to see more of that material, particularly the old lettercols.

[F For Fake]

On 5/11/2021 at 6:51 AM, Angel of Death said:

Eventually? Yes. Soon? No.

Agreed. They just released the most recent HC a week or two ago, so it'll be a little while. But the material certainly seems popular enough to eventually get the omni treatment.

[F For Fake]

My haul from the Target sale showed up over the last couple of days. Really great opportunity to get caught up with a few different titles. I'm late to the IDW TF collections. I got most of their run in a humble bundle a few years ago, and really loved the stuff, particularly the Phase 2 books. Decided I'd like to have a physical copy and reread the whole thing. It'll take me a while to catch up, as a few volumes are OOP, but maybe I'll finish the set by the time I'm caught up with my other reading.

[theCapraAegagrus]

8 hours ago, F For Fake said:

My haul from the Target sale showed up over the last couple of days. Really great opportunity to get caught up with a few different titles. I'm late to the IDW TF collections. I got most of their run in a humble bundle a few years ago, and really loved the stuff, particularly the Phase 2 books. Decided I'd like to have a physical copy and reread the whole thing. It'll take me a while to catch up, as a few volumes are OOP, but maybe I'll finish the set by the time I'm caught up with my other reading.

Holy Moses, what a haul! The Killing Joke was my first-ever Absolute. It's what made me fall in love with the format.

As a kid, Transformers was my s^&* (the cartoons and action figures). I never really thought about reading the comics. What are they like?

[F For Fake]

5 hours ago, Angel of Death said:

Holy Moses, what a haul! The Killing Joke was my first-ever Absolute. It's what made me fall in love with the format.

As a kid, Transformers was my s^&* (the cartoons and action figures). I never really thought about reading the comics. What are they like?

Yeah, I may have overdone it! But it was just too good of a deal to pass up. The prices were comparable to IST and Amazon already, so B1G1 50% off was a great deal, plus free shipping and 5% off with red card. Thought I’d better take advantage of it.

The Killing Joke Absolute is really nice, but I’d been slow to pick it up because at this point it’s like “How many times am I going to buy this same story???” But Bolland’s work deserves the oversized treatment for sure. Plus it was only $26, which made it about $13 after discount. Hard to turn down at that price!

The IDW TF books are split into three “phases”. The Phase 1 stuff is...fine. Most of it takes place on earth, and a lot of it is written by Simon Furman, who was the longtime TF writer on the later Marvel stuff and the UK run. It’s fine. Enjoyable enough if you like the characters and universe, but sorta standard for a licensed toy title.

Phase 2 is where it takes off, for me. These stories take place on Cybertron and beyond. There were two main titles: Robots in Disguise takes place on Cybertron, and is largely about the political machinations of life after the Great War has ended. Lots of backstabbing and subterfuge. More than Meets the Eye is about Rodimus leading a crew to find the Last Knights of Cybertron, sort of like a humorous Star Trek crewed by robots. Both titles were so imaginative and massive in their world building and in depth characterization. I really love them. So much better  than a licensed comic based on a 40 year old toy line has any right to be.

So, I’d say start with those Phase 2 books from a quality of story perspective, but Phase 1 provides all of the background for how things got to that point.

 

[Dave2739]

I've done some purging and rearranging in my funny book room. Here's some updated pics of most of my hardcovers.