Archive for: April 2008

Collected Comics Library Podcast #169

40,129Kb; 42m 32s

http://www.collectedcomicslibrary.com/

It’s that wonderful time of year again - Summer Blockbusters!

The 2008 season kicks off today with Iron Man - one of my favorite characters of all time. In fact if you take a listen you’ll find out how I first got acquainted with Tony Stark. Not only do I go over the publishing history of Iron Man and all the limited amount of his collected editions, but I also tell you how he has gotten screwed by Captain America throughout Marvel history.

Also on the show today, I go over some news regarding a new Marshal Law Omnibus from Top Shelf, a rundown of upcoming Marvel Essentials and DC Showcase Presents and Archives and I answer an e-mail from Denis from California.

All this, plus a rundown of The New Releases of the Week and my plans for the upcoming Motor City Comic Con (May 16-18).

Please visit my site sponsors: In-Stock Trades, Forbidden Planet International (UK), and Library Binding Company.

Chris

Links of Note:
Rob Helmerich’s List of Iron Man Collected Editions
Marvel.com: Required Reading Iron Man Collections
Discuss this topic on the CCL forum

 

 CCL Podcast #169 - Iron Man Collected Editions [42:32m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Patty and I went out Thursday and bought a new car: a Pontiac Vibe. We got a really good deal, although the service wasn’t all that spectacular: it took forever to actually purchase it and even when we thought we were ready to go, the dealer wanted to finalize a few things overnight, so we had to wait until today. So when we got there late this afternoon we expected to simply drive off with it. But not so fast. It seems there was a scratch that appeared by magic overnight that they wanted to take care of. Also, the car did not have an antenna and it only came with ¾ of a tank of gas. I have never, ever driven a new car off a lot without a full tank. Unbelievable. We are writing a letter to the manager and perhaps we’ll get some sort of compensation for our troubles – like 5 free oil changes. OH BOY!!!
OK now on to many links, some of them not so new, but none-the-less news-worthy :

• Villard Books, an imprint of Random House, will publish a graphic novel based on Platinum Studios’ Unique
• Francoise Mouly and Art Spiegelman’s Toon Books has released additional information, including format and plot summaries, for its fall releases, all of which will be released in October: Spiegelman’s Jack and the Box, Eleanor Davis’ Stinky and Jay Lynch and Dean Haspiel’s Mo and Jo: Fighting Together Forever.
• Walker Books is launching a series of eight graphic novels based on classic episodes of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone. The first two graphic novels (due in October) adapt two first season episodes, Walking Distance (from October 30th of 1959) and The After Hours (from June 10th of 1960). The 72-page, full color graphic novel adaptations are based on the original, unedited scripts and will retail for $9.99.
• In August Bluewater Productions will release the graphic novel collection of its Flying Saucers vs. The Earth comic book series, adapting the classic 1956 film Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, under its “Ray Harryhausen Presents” banner.
• Milton Griepp of ICV2.com reports that Comics and Graphic Novels sales up 10%
• TwoMorrows’ Batcave Companion has been delayed, by DC, until 2009
• Paul Levitz on Will Eisner and The Spirit Archives
• Entertainment Weekly has a neat article on the summer superhero movies and collected editions that are closely associated with them. I’m surprised that The Killing Joke didn’t make the list.
• Marvel has there own list of Iron Man books you should get.
• Review: Joe, FPI Blog, and my good friend, on Oliver Lambden and Laurence Powell’s excellent Tales From the Flat.
• Review: Richard, FPI Blog, on Gary Spencer Millidge’s Strangehaven
• Review: Kevin P. Johnson, I read Comic Books, on 300 HC by Frank Miller (Dark Horse)
• Review: Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter, on The Complete Peanuts, 1967-1968 (Fantagraphics)
• Review: Brian Hibbs, The Savage Critics, on Showcase Presents: Legion Of Super-Heroes Volume 1 (DC Comics)
• Reviews: Collected Editions Blog on Manhunter: Origins TPB (DC Comics) and Wonder Woman: Who is Wonder Woman? HC (DC Comics)

Collected Comics Library Podcast #168

67,086Kb; 71m 17s

http://www.collectedcomicslibrary.com/

The CCL continues its interviews with a conversation with Eric Bieze, Administrator of the Marvel Essentials and DC Showcases Yahoo! Group. Eric and I talk everything Black and White; what we like and don’t like, what’s coming out and what we would like to see.

Also on the show I go over collected edition news from the New York Comic-Con, and a cool upcoming DC Comics Superhero DVD from Filmation. Lastly, I go over the New Releases of the Week list.

Please visit my site sponsors: In-Stock Trades, Forbidden Planet International (UK), and Library Binding Company.

Chris

Links of Note:
The 10th Annual DC Archives Survey
Discuss this topic on the CCL forum

 

 CCL Podcast #168 - Eric Bieze, Admin, Essentials and Showcases Yahoo! Group [71:17m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Here is all the collected edition news that I could dig up from the New York Comic Con (courtesy of Newsarama and Comic Book Resources). If you know of any more, please send me the story with a source. And you can discuss all this on the Forum.

• DC Comics
  • Absolute Sandman Vol. 4 in November
  • James Jean’s covers for Fables will be collected in a coffee table book titled The Fables Cover Book.
  • Hardcover editions of Paul Pope’s Heavy Liquid and Y: the Last Man. The Y editions will collect two softcover books into a single, oversize volume
  • Possible Absolute Preacher
• Marvel Comics
  • Brian Hitch explained that 1987 at 16 years old, the first job he got was on a GI Joe title–”Why I got hired I have no idea. I assume they were drunk. That went into some Transformers stuff and then Death’s Head. Then I took over She-Hulk after John Byrne quit.” “That was the highlight, right?” Barber joked. “I think it’s available in trade paperback.” Hitch joked, “I encourage everyone to buy one and burn it.” - I found that funny (Chris)
• Dark Horse Comics
  • In second volume of the Hellboy Library edition, Mignola said that he wrote a text piece about not setting out to be a writer. In high school, he wrote a piece that was read aloud, which embarrassed him into not writing for a long time, “until John Byrne told me I was ready write Hellboy myself.”
  • Completing 2008’s round of major Hellboy releases is May’s Hellboy: The Companion, an exhaustively researched timeline and encyclopedic handbook to the characters and world of Hellboy, featuring new material by Mignola.
  • First project announced was “The Great Outdoor Fight,” by Chris Onstad, which, similar to “Perry Bible Fellowship,” is a collection of an online comic. Also Wondermark by David Malkie, Nothing Nice to Say, and the first six months of Dark Horse MySpace Presents.
  • Allie said the “Umbrella Academy” collection, including the FCBD comic and DHP strip, will ship in July. There will be extensive behind-the-scenes extras with the artists. An oversized hardcover will follow this fall, “similar to the ‘Hellboy Library Editions.’”
• Image Comics
  • Brandon Graham is writing the intro to the ‘Loaded Bible’ [Tim Seeley’s series for Image comics] trade.
• Top Cow
  • A hardcover edition of Freshman (first series) is coming, Philip Sablik announced, which launched Seth Green into a litany of reasons why people needed to buy it and get it on their bookshelves next to their other hardcovers.
  • Matt Hawkins said that Top Cow will be collecting “nearly all” of his original Lady Pendragon series, except for the final six issues, which he was unhappy with, and has essentially removed them from the larger story.
• BOOM! Studios
  • The biggest news for comic fans attending the panel was that BOOM! just landed a licensing deal that will allow them to publish a new Farscape comic book series based on the television show. The comic will be released as a series of four-issue mini-series, with each four issues collected into trade upon completion. No creators have been announced yet, but BOOM! is hoping to have a series started by the end of this year.
  • When asked about more Hero Squared, Waid said: “I have three plots in from J. Marc DeMatteis.” He said the series will be called Hero Squared: Love and Death. “Joe Abraham is going to start drawing it Monday,” he said. Mosher said the series will be six issues and will be collected in a trade paperback. Volume 2 of Hero Squared is in solicitations this month. “After we finish wrapping it up, there will be three trades plus Planetary Brigade,” he said.
• Devil’s Due Publishing
  • The Drafted Vol. 1 is a trade paperback that collects the series’ first story arc, where aliens arrive on Earth, Jerusalem is destroyed and the human race is urged to initiate a draft to have enough troops to fight an intergalactic war.
  • “We’re doing a 99 cent special [for the new series “RESTED”] so it’s cheap. I want you to order ten copies each. Then we’re doing a four issue miniseries that we’re collecting into a trade paperback.”
• Valiant
  • A whole lot on Harbringer and X-O Manowar: Birth
  • Both The Grackle and Armed & Dangerous are getting recolored for a possible collected edition

As promised, here is my breakdown of a few categories of the 2008 Eisner Awards as they pertain to my interests and this website and podcast (also, I can’t tell one Letterer from the next).

The results in all categories will be announced in a gala awards ceremony on the evening of Friday, July 25 at Comic-Con International.

Best Anthology

• Best American Comics 2007, edited by Anne Elizabeth Moore and Chris Ware (Houghton Mifflin)
• 5, by Gabriel Bá, Becky Cloonan, Fabio Moon, Vasilis Lolos, and Rafael Grampa (self-published)
• Mome, edited by Gary Groth and Eric Reynolds (Fantagraphics)
• Postcards: True Stories That Never Happened, edited by Jason Rodriguez (Villard)
• 24Seven, vol. 2, edited by Ivan Brandon (Image)

What should win: Postcards: True Stories That Never Happened. A wonderful representation of what happens when creative minds peak.

What will win: Best American Comics 2007. Everyone loves Chris Ware.

Best Graphic Album-New

• The Arrival, by Shaun Tan (Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic)
• Bookhunter, by Jason Shiga (Sparkplug Books)
• Essex County, vols. 1-2: Tales from the Farm/Ghost Stories, by Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)
• Exit Wounds, by Rutu Modan (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Percy Gloom, by Cathy Malkasian (Fantagraphics)

What should win: The Arrival. Monsters in NYC with no words. How cool is that?

What will win: Exit Wounds. Going strictly by Dick Hyacinth’s Top 10 list of 2007

Best Graphic Album-Reprint

• Agents of Atlas Hardcover, by Jeff Parker, Leonard Kirk, and Kris Justice (Marvel)
• Gødland Celestial Edition, by Joe Casey and Tom Scioli (Image)
• James Sturm’s America: God, Gold, and Golems, by James Sturm (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Mouse Guard: Fall 1152, by David Petersen (Archaia)
• Super Spy, by Matt Kindt (Top Shelf)

What should win: Agents of Atlas. A great revival story is collected with all the online pieces. Also includes the original #1’s of each character - all for $25. this was the CCL’s Book of the Year.

What will win: Mouse Guard: Fall 1152. Peterson is Hot Hot Hot and this is a great story. The RPG rights just sold this week, the film rights can’t be far behind.

Best Archival Collection/Project-Comic Strips

• (The Complete) Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, by Winsor McCay (Ulrich Merkl)
• Complete Terry and the Pirates, vol. 1, by Milton Caniff (IDW)
• Little Sammy Sneeze, by Winsor McCay (Sunday Press)
• Popeye, vol. 2: Well Blow Me Down, by E. C. Segar (Fantagraphics)
• Sundays with Walt and Skeezix, by Frank King (Sunday Press)

What should win: Complete Terry and the Pirates. Although this has been previouly released, we now have the HD version in 2008.

What will win: Sundays with Walt and Skeezix. Walt and his old pal got passed on last year by Peanuts. This is their year.

Best Archival Collection/Project-Comic Books

• Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus, vol. 1, by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko (Marvel)
• Apollo’s Song, by Osamu Tezuka (Vertical)
• The Completely MAD Don Martin, by Don Martin (Running Press)
• Daredevil Omnibus, by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson (Marvel)
• I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets! by Fletcher Hanks (Fantagraphics)

What should win: The Completely MAD Don Martin. But did anyone actually read it outside of the free “look at” copy at Borders?

What will win: I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets! Classic Golden Age icon Fletcher Hanks will get recognized. Just what this category is.

Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism

• Comic Art #9, edited by Todd Hignite (Buenaventura Press)
• Comic Foundry, edited by Tim Leong (Comic Foundry)
• The Comics Journal, edited by Gary Groth, Michael Dean, and Kristy Valenti (Fantagraphics)
• The Comics Reporter, produced by Tom Spurgeon and Jordan Raphael
• Newsarama, produced by Matt Brady and Michael Doran

What should win: The Comics Reporter. Everything, I mean everything, is done in digital these days, including making comics. Publishing comics on the other hand is done on paper and sadly this site (and others) will get passed over this year. It’s a real shame since everyone in the industry reads Tom’s blog on a daily basis.

What will win: The Comics Journal. It was passed up last year.

Best Comics-Related Book

• The Art of P. Craig Russell, edited by Joe Pruett (Desperado)
• The Artist Within, by Greg Preston (Dark Horse)
• Manga: The Complete Guide, by Jason Thompson (Del Rey Manga)
• Meanwhile . . . A Biography of Milton Caniff, by R. C. Harvey (Fantagraphics)
• Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean, by Douglas Wolk (Da Capo Press)
• Understanding Manga and Anime, by Robin Brenner (Libraries Unlimited/Greenwood Publishing)

What should win: Meanwhile . . . A Biography of Milton Caniff. Since Terry and the Pirates won’t win, neither can this excellent book.

What will win: Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean. A book that tells us how to read. I’ll never quite figure this one out.

Best Publication Design

• (The Complete) Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, designed by Ulrich Merkl (Ulrich Merkl)
• Complete Terry and the Pirates, designed by Dean Mullaney (IDW)
• Heroes, vol. 1, designed by John Roshell/Comicraft (WildStorm/DC)
• Little Sammy Sneeze, designed by Philippe Ghielmetti (Sunday Press)
• Process Recess 2, designed by James Jean and Chris Pitzer (AdHouse)
• Sundays with Walt and Skeezix, designed by Chris Ware (Sunday Press)

What should win: (The Complete) Dream of the Rarebit Fiend. Winsor McCay’s title made sence 100 years ago - and so did the strip itself.

What will win: Heroes, vol. 1. But not the Jim Lee cover, give me the Alex Ross one, please.

I sit down with John Mayo, once again, and discuss the sales estimates for the Top 100 graphic novels and collected editions for February 2008.

Email John at MayoReport@ComicBookPage.com with any questions or comment you have on the episode or post on the Comic Book Page Forum.

This podcast episode originated on the Comic Book Page website

 

 CCL on Comic Book Page: Mayo Report: 2008-02 Trades [52:41m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Collected Comics Library Podcast #167

49,943Kb; 53m 00s

http://www.collectedcomicslibrary.com/

The CCL continues its interviews with a conversation with Larry Young, Founder and Publisher of Ait/PlanetLar. Larry and I talk about a wide variety of subjects including what it takes to run an independant company and publishing a vast array of titles that include Astronauts in Trouble, The Homeless Channel, Holmes, and The Annotated Mantooth! by Matt Fraction.

Also on the show I go over a few new DC Comics solicits (Absolute Ronan, Gotham Central HC, and the Millennium and Invasion TPBs). two new Masterworks (GA Captain America Volume 2 and The Defenders Volume 1), and a bit on The Eisner Awards. Lastly, I go over a condensed New Releases of the Week list.

Please visit my site sponsors: In-Stock Trades, Forbidden Planet International (UK), and Library Binding Company.

Chris

Links of Note:
2008 New York Comic Con Podcast Arena
Discuss this topic on the CCL forum

 

 CCL Podcast #167 - Larry Young, AiT/PlanetLar, Publisher [53:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Here is the Press Release

DC Comics is producing a new hardcover edition of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen graphic novel. The 436-page hardcover edition will have a cover price of $39.99 and will be released in October, the same month that Titan Books will be publishing Watching the Watchmen, Dave Gibbons’ account of the creation of what is likely at this point, the most popular graphic novel of all time. The new hardcover edition will provide a deluxe presentation of the graphic novel classic at a lower price point than the $75, 464-page Absolute Edition.

Watchmen graphic novel have been building steadily since the film was announced. Watchmen was the bestselling non-manga graphic novel in American bookstores during the month of March  and sales should continue to grow as the premiere of the Watchmen movie gets closer.

Thanks to ICv2.com

Collected Comics Library Podcast #166

60,170Kb; 63m 54s

http://www.collectedcomicslibrary.com/
The CCL continues its interviews with a conversation with Joe Keatinge, PR and Marketing Coordinator with Image Comics. Joe and I talk about a wide range of books including, American Flagg, Walking Dead, Aqua Leung, Jack Kirby’s Silver Star and Captain Victory, The Next Issue Project and the upcoming Ted McKeever Library and plenty more!.

I also go over a few news items and a condensed New Releases of the Week list.

Please visit my site sponsors: In-Stock Trades, Forbidden Planet International (UK) and Library Binding Company.

Chris

Links of Note:
Scott Shaw!
Discuss this topic on the CCL forum

 

 CCL Podcast #166 - Joe Keatinge, Image Comics, PR and Marketing Coordinator [63:54m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Its springtime here in Michigan and with the blooming of flowers comes more sunshine, longer days, and a shorter time spent on the computer. I’ve been wanting to blog, I just have a hard time doing so. Yes, I know it only takes a few minutes a day, but I find myself reading other blogs, news items or just plain surfing. However, I have been getting all the little things around the CCL to keep it updated. I have also been busy scheduling interviews, which from all the feedback you are enjoying very much. With all this said, let’s get to a few of the items that have gone on around the net for the past few days:

• It’s being reported that Dave Gibbons will be publishing a new Hardcover retrospective titled Watching the Watchmen. This will go nicely next to my Absolute version.
• As you know, I freelance with TwoMorrows Publishing as their host for the TwoMorrows Tune-In Podcast One bit of info that was late to me after the latest episode with Danny Fingeroth, is that the Kirby Five-Oh! (the 50th issue of The Jack Kirby Collector) will be available in as a Limited Hardcover Edition. The hardcover version features all the original contents of the softcover version, but with a full-color wrapped hardcover, and an individually-numbered extra Kirby art plate not included in the softcover edition! This hardcover edition is ONLY AVAILABLE FROM TWOMORROWS, is not sold in stores, and we’ll set the number of copies printed based on pre-orders placed in the next 24 hours. So if you’re interested, go to this link right away to order your Hardcover copy for $34.95
• I e-mailed friend of the CCL, Joe Rybandt, Dynamite Publishing, about the status of the long overdue Dreadstar: The Beginning Hardcover. He wrote me back, Dreadstar is in process, though will most likely be resolicited. Film is being worked on now for final art files to print form.
• Dark Horse Comics in their latest solicitations has announced The Nemesis Archives Volume 1. Nemesis ran in the pages of Adventures into the Unknown starting with #154 to #170 (1965-1967) originally published by American Comics Group. The book touts that this will be a complete run of the character, although there is no mention if it will contain the two Nemesis crossovers from Forbidden World’s #136, where he meets the Magicman or Herbie #14 where Nemesis and Magicman meet The Fat Fury. You’ll recall that Dark Horse recently announced The Herbie Archives, too. It would be nice if Dark Horse would collect Magicman for an archival series, thus completing ACG’s “Superhero Trinity”. The Nemesis Archives Volume 1 will have an introduction by Scott Shaw!; 264 pages; $59.95 and be available September 24, 2008.
• Review: Tom Spurgeon The Comics Reporter, on Willie and Joe The WWII Years (Fantagraphics)
• Review: Brian Hibbs, The Savage Critics, Showcase Presents Legion of Superheroes Volume 1 (DC Comics)
• Review: Randy Lander, Comic Pants, on Aqua Leung Vol. 1 (Image Comics)
• Reviews: Collected Editions Blog, Green Arrow: The Road to Jericho TPB (DC Comics) and Ion Volume 2: The Dying Flame TPB (DC Comics)