Taschen's Fantastic Four Marvel Comics Library is the one of the greatest SA Books ever created!!! 1 1

[Mmehdy]

If you check YouTube, a video which was just uploaded 4 days ago entitled "panellogy 481- The Fantastic Four, 1961-1963 by taschen  -earl gray is the poster of this new Taschen FF edition looks "fantastic"..LOL Hopefully someone on the boards can link the video, I do not believe the book is going to be released till Dec 28 and this is an advance review.

This entire Marvel Comics Library has consistently knocked the ball out of the park. I was lucky to be a 6 year old comic book collector who bought FF1 off the stands  and 9/10 missing only number 3 off the stands.

 These Taschen Marvel Comics Library editions try to bring the "feel" back of when you bought these off the newsstand both in paper feel and reproduction. As you are aware they are oversized to the max. but I would like to tell you an interesting story. About 15 years ago I was in the area of my old grade school in Belmont CA and I stopped on by. Not much had changed over the years, but one thing struck me like lighting and that was about the size of the school and yards compared to what I remember as a child. Everything now seemed super small, while in my memory everything was larger than life. Of course I am 3x bigger now. You can imagine the impact a 6 year old looking at the big comic book. Taschen has created this same exact  excitement today, even thou it is 60 years later. Buying this book is like getting a ticket to ride the next time machine. As a young and very active collector, these early FF issues really changed the way the previous DC collectors were. It felt as a kid that you were buying a movie not a comic book. One more point some comic book artist's scream for larger size, two those in which detail never noticed before shines like a light are both Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko......

 I bought mine already on Amazon, I hope you get yours..... Let me know your thoughts about the books so far....can they be improved any way?

Edited November 3, 2022 by Mmehdy

[Dave2739]

On 11/3/2022 at 6:43 PM, Mmehdy said:

If you check YouTube, a video which was just uploaded 4 days ago entitled "panellogy 481- The Fantastic Four, 1961-1963 by taschen  -earl gray is the poster of this new Taschen FF edition looks "fantastic"..LOL Hopefully someone on the boards can link the video, I do not believe the book is going to be released till Dec 28 and this is an advance review.

This entire Marvel Comics Library has consistently knocked the ball out of the park. I was lucky to be a 6 year old comic book collector who bought FF1 off the stands  and 9/10 missing only number 3 off the stands.

 These Taschen Marvel Comics Library editions try to bring the "feel" back of when you bought these off the newsstand both in paper feel and reproduction. As you are aware they are oversized to the max. but I would like to tell you an interesting story. About 15 years ago I was in the area of my old grade school in Belmont CA and I stopped on by. Not much had changed over the years, but one thing struck me like lighting and that was about the size of the school and yards compared to what I remember as a child. Everything now seemed super small, while in my memory everything was larger than life. Of course I am 3x bigger now. You can imagine the impact a 6 year old looking at the big comic book. Taschen has created this same exact  excitement today, even thou it is 60 years later. Buying this book is like getting a ticket to ride the next time machine. As a young and very active collector, these early FF issues really changed the way the previous DC collectors were. It felt as a kid that you were buying a movie not a comic book. One more point some comic book artist's scream for larger size, two those in which detail never noticed before shines like a light are both Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko......

 I bought mine already on Amazon, I hope you get yours..... Let me know your thoughts about the books so far....can they be improved any way?

Looking forward to this as well. As I've mentioned in other threads, the guy that owns the LCS that I've gone to for 40 years, also a buddy of mine, is the one that provided the books to be scanned for the first three of these big books so it's a bit of extra fun for me.

[Yale Stewart]

On 11/3/2022 at 6:10 PM, Dave2739 said:

Looking forward to this as well. As I've mentioned in other threads, the guy that owns the LCS that I've gone to for 40 years, also a buddy of mine, is the one that provided the books to be scanned for the first three of these big books so it's a bit of extra fun for me.

You can mention Shelton by name lol. I imagine most folks here know who you'd be talking about. That said, I'm not sure if he provided the entire group or just a significant portion of it. I'm pretty sure most of the Spidey stuff came from his collection, but it may've been more of a group effort outside of that. I'm not positive, as I haven't asked him about it, but that's the impression I got from press release stuff I've read.

As far as improvements to the books, I'm actually torn on the size of them. Part of me wishes they were a bit more wieldy, but once you see the Ditko pin-ups from Annual 1 at that size, man, I don't know. I'm a little curious why FF Annual 1 was omitted from Vol. 1, though, as it came out within the 1961-1963 timeframe the book is meant to cover. I hope that's not a sign of omissions to come, as I'm really hoping these are the most definitive and all-inclusive reprint collection of this material ever produced. My final issue would be how close they're playing it all to the vest. I wish we had a better idea of the overall shape of this project, like what titles will be included, how deep into the run they'll go, etc. Will they publish the Tales books as released, with A and B stories, or will they split them up by character the way the omnibuses did? These are questions I'd love to get answers to.

[Mmehdy]

On 11/3/2022 at 9:50 PM, Yale Stewart said:

You can mention Shelton by name lol. I imagine most folks here know who you'd be talking about. That said, I'm not sure if he provided the entire group or just a significant portion of it. I'm pretty sure most of the Spidey stuff came from his collection, but it may've been more of a group effort outside of that. I'm not positive, as I haven't asked him about it, but that's the impression I got from press release stuff I've read.

As far as improvements to the books, I'm actually torn on the size of them. Part of me wishes they were a bit more wieldy, but once you see the Ditko pin-ups from Annual 1 at that size, man, I don't know. I'm a little curious why FF Annual 1 was omitted from Vol. 1, though, as it came out within the 1961-1963 timeframe the book is meant to cover. I hope that's not a sign of omissions to come, as I'm really hoping these are the most definitive and all-inclusive reprint collection of this material ever produced. My final issue would be how close they're playing it all to the vest. I wish we had a better idea of the overall shape of this project, like what titles will be included, how deep into the run they'll go, etc. Will they publish the Tales books as released, with A and B stories, or will they split them up by character the way the omnibuses did? These are questions I'd love to get answers to.

If you look at the video FF Annual #1 is included along with FF 1-19  check out the video link 6 mins in the video or there abouts...you will see page 1/2 of the annunal #1 reproduced its a quick shot when he moves to the back of the book. I do not know how, but if anyone can they should link the video to this posting.

Edited November 4, 2022 by Mmehdy

[Dave2739]

On 11/4/2022 at 12:50 AM, Yale Stewart said:

You can mention Shelton by name lol. I imagine most folks here know who you'd be talking about. That said, I'm not sure if he provided the entire group or just a significant portion of it. I'm pretty sure most of the Spidey stuff came from his collection, but it may've been more of a group effort outside of that. I'm not positive, as I haven't asked him about it, but that's the impression I got from press release stuff I've read.

As far as improvements to the books, I'm actually torn on the size of them. Part of me wishes they were a bit more wieldy, but once you see the Ditko pin-ups from Annual 1 at that size, man, I don't know. I'm a little curious why FF Annual 1 was omitted from Vol. 1, though, as it came out within the 1961-1963 timeframe the book is meant to cover. I hope that's not a sign of omissions to come, as I'm really hoping these are the most definitive and all-inclusive reprint collection of this material ever produced. My final issue would be how close they're playing it all to the vest. I wish we had a better idea of the overall shape of this project, like what titles will be included, how deep into the run they'll go, etc. Will they publish the Tales books as released, with A and B stories, or will they split them up by character the way the omnibuses did? These are questions I'd love to get answers to.

Shelton said they're all his books, at least in the first three volumes. The original art and extras are not all his, but the issues, from what I understand, are his. And yeah, I hope they do the Tales books all together. Early Iron Man and Ant Man issues should have the weird back-ups and all, in my opinion.

[Yale Stewart]

On 11/4/2022 at 1:14 AM, Mmehdy said:

If you look at the video FF Annual #1 is included along with FF 1-19  check out the video link 6 mins in the video or there abouts...you will see page 1/2 of the annunal #1 reproduced its a quick shot when he moves to the back of the book. I do not know how, but if anyone can they should link the video to this posting.

Interesting, because on the Taschen site it lists the contents as issues 1-20, the way Avengers was. I'd certainly prefer it be 1-19 + Annual 1, the way ASM Vol. 1 was.

[Yale Stewart]

Here's a link to the video mentioned above: 

 

And here's a link to a much longer video featuring Tom Scioli of Cartoonist Kayfabe fame that's nearly twice as long. I'm not watching either, personally, because I just want my copy to arrive  (To be clear: Tom's an incredibly talented cartoonist and is known for more than just appearing on CK, but you get it)

 

Edited November 4, 2022 by Yale Stewart

[Mmehdy]

If anyone else gets their copy please chime in with your impressions, I think $200 version is gonna be in Late Nov and the special edition is in Dec.......especially if you get a review copy or if a firm date is established for the releases please give us a heads up.

Edited November 5, 2022 by Mmehdy

[Mmehdy]

On 11/4/2022 at 3:46 AM, Dave2739 said:

Shelton said they're all his books, at least in the first three volumes. The original art and extras are not all his, but the issues, from what I understand, are his. And yeah, I hope they do the Tales books all together. Early Iron Man and Ant Man issues should have the weird back-ups and all, in my opinion.

The next volume is going to be Cap I think 1-12 or 1-13  and I assume it GA material if anyone knows let me know about the exact contents coming please confirm that. I will second if Tashen is looking for especially the early Ant Man issues which I bought off the news stands, the early issues were quite popular when released among current collectors especially 35-43

Edited November 5, 2022 by Mmehdy

[Dave2739]

On 11/5/2022 at 12:52 PM, Mmehdy said:

The next volume is going to be Cap I think 1-12 or 1-13  and I assume it GA material if anyone knows let me know about the exact contents coming please confirm that. I will second if Tashen is looking for especially the early Ant Man issues which I bought off the news stands, the early issues were quite popular when released among current collectors especially 35-43

I also recall reading somewhere that GA Cap is going to be the fourth volume, but I can't find where I saw that. Does anyone have a link or more info?

[Yale Stewart]

They explicitly mention Captain America among the initial titles announced, but I don't recall the press release specifying whether it was GA or SA. I was hoping it was GA, as if it were SA I'd imagine it meant that they were splitting ToS into two separate volumes (one for Cap, one for Iron Man).

As for release date on FF, I actually messaged Taschen directly the other day and was told the standard edition is expected to ship out around Nov. 28th. I'm not sure regarding the limited edition, as they were only responding to info on my order, and I'm not flush enough to be committing $600 for a single book when that same amount can get me the entire year's worth of releases

[Mmehdy]

Amazon has finally posted a release date of November 26, 2022 for the regular edition. If anyone gets their copy early please chime in on your impressions. After Cap GA edition comes out the real mystery is what would be next… Hulk 1-6 which would mean probably a smaller price point would be my preference as a collector and I bought all those issues from my local drug store… but they might go for Thor because of the success of the movies…. Any suggestions? Guesses?

[Dave2739]

On 11/10/2022 at 12:06 PM, Mmehdy said:

Amazon has finally posted a release date of November 26, 2022 for the regular edition. If anyone gets their copy early please chime in on your impressions. After Cap GA edition comes out the real mystery is what would be next… Hulk 1-6 which would mean probably a smaller price point would be my preference as a collector and I bought all those issues from my local drug store… but they might go for Thor because of the success of the movies…. Any suggestions? Guesses?

My guess/prediction is that the fifth book will be Spidey Vol. 2, but I do think a Hulk 1-6 volume would be very cool.

[Yale Stewart]

I imagine if they do Hulk, they'll do 1-6 and then roll it into Astonish. I highly doubt they'd put out a 100 page book amidst a line of 700 pagers.

[Mmehdy]

On 11/10/2022 at 9:22 AM, Yale Stewart said:

I imagine if they do Hulk, they'll do 1-6 and then roll it into Astonish. I highly doubt they'd put out a 100 page book amidst a line of 700 pagers.

Yes you are right, its too bad those six issues were great reads.....any other guesses out there. I will give you my review as soon as I get the book which should be very fast after that date as I am a prime member, anyone else have it on pre-order....best price?

Edited November 10, 2022 by Mmehdy

[Yale Stewart]

On 11/10/2022 at 1:18 PM, Mmehdy said:

Yes you are right, its too bad those six issues were great reads.....any other guesses out there. I will give you my review as soon as I get the book which should be very fast after that date as I am a prime member, anyone else have it on pre-order....best price?

Too bad as in too bad that you'd have to get the Tales to Astonish content as well? Because I meant it'd be a combined book, like how AF15 is the first story in ASM Vol. 1. I figure Hulk Vol. 1 would be Hulk 1-6 and then the first 14 appearances in Tales or something. Or, Tales to Astonish Vol.1 simply contains the first 6 issues of Hulk. That's a tough one, because as mentioned before, I really hope the Tales books are presented completely, rather than being split up by character, but I'm not entirely sure how that would square with the first 6 Hulks.

Edited November 10, 2022 by Yale Stewart

[mrc]

On 11/10/2022 at 5:20 PM, Dave2739 said:

My guess/prediction is that the fifth book will be Spidey Vol. 2

I hope so. That would be hard for me to resist, even at the price..........

[Mmehdy]

There is a new 19 min review posted by Andrew Buckle on you tube entitled  “ fantastic four marvel comics library 3 Taschen marvel book review”. I like andrew’s reviews in general and fairly balanced and he has also reviewed 1 and 2 both of the taschen’s  first releases. I especially liked his review of Spider-Man voL 1

flat out the book looks fantastic! If someone can link this video to the thread it would be helpful. Again I will be posting my own review once I receive my copy from Amazon.

[mrc]

 

[WernerVonDoom]

Ugh, you guys are killing me. I ordered the FF.