A week has now passed and the hurricane has seemed to have calmed down. Are these people still going through with their threat to quit? That’s anyone’s guess and I really don’t care if they actually do it. But it is funny to me how some people jump the gun before they see the actual product. And really, they don’t have to buy them anyway. I truly don’t think that the original masterpiece by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons will be diminished in any way. On the business end of things you can debate whether or not it’s a money grab by DC or if DC should be giving a little more cash to the creators. Personally, I vote Yes on both points, but I’m just a small fanboy in a larger sea.

To me this is all just a natural progression of literature in the new media century. I think DC has done everything they can with the original material including reissuing it in numerous trades and hardcovers, a movie and even motion comic, so new additional material is all that’s left. No they don’t have to do it, but they are. Other properties like Batman, Bourne and Bond have gotten the rewrite and movie transfer over the years and no one seems to complain. All of those are evergreen properties and are handled, for the most part, with care. I’m sure Watchmen will be too, otherwise it’s all for nothing and some higher ups may be out of a job. Yes, a lot is riding on the critical success of Before Watchmen. We are going to see more and more of this as old ideas are rehashed and remolded for a new generation. My goodness, just look at what is being done with Sherlock Holmes!

I hope for the best for Moore and Gibbons and I hope they get their due, but now that we have the prequels coming, I have to imagine we’ll see a true sequel. It may take another 25 years, but it will happen.

Moore started on issue #20 and continued on with #21-58, 60-61, 63-64, Annual #2. DC Comics are four volumes in and it looks like it’ll go six total. So far it’s a journey into mystery, ecology, religion, magic and even superheroes. Here in Book 4, Moore has hit his stride. By now he has established an updated origin for Alec Holland and introduced all the key players including Abby, John Constantine, Arcane, Matt Cable, Deadman and The Phantom Stranger. We now enter Holland’s search for his true meaning in life and his place in “the green”. In these pages is the multi-part story called American Gothic where Swamp Thing must fight the battle of good vs. bad with many of his superheroes friends including Zatanna, Dr. Occult, Etrigan, Sargon, Dr. Fate The Spectre and others. But in-between comes the seminal Parliament Of Trees story from #47 where we meet other earth elementals including the original Swamp Thing Alex Olsen from House of Secrets #92. Holland ultimately leaves with more questions then answers but he does get an understanding of what he must do – it basically boils down to fighting evil.

As far as the book, itself, goes, it’s quiet special. It has a very nice Introduction by pop culture writer Charles Sharr Murray and a Forward by Neil Gaiman, who knows something about mystery and macabre. It also collects #39, which is the tie-in issue to Crisis On Infinite Earths. Why special? Because DC has yet to collect the crossovers in any sort of manner. Perhaps DC will publish a nice set of trade paperbacks complete with all 106 Crisis issues someday. The book also collects #50, an Anniversary double sized issue and the last comic in Book 4.

With Swamp Thing coming back to DC Universe proper, there is no better time then now get caught up with a classic character and one of the greatest comic book runs of all time.

Saga Of The Swamp Thing Book Four
Written by Alan Moore
Art by Stephen Bissette, John Totlebon, Stan Woch, Rick Veitch, Alfredo Alcala, Ron Randall and Tom Mandrake
224 pages, $24.99, DC Comics
Collects Swamp Thing #43-50 (Volume 2)

Recommended reading:
Roots Of The Swamp Thing

Last summer at Comic Con 2009 all the buzz was about Marvel obtaining the reprint rights to Marvelman. Immediately everyone seemed to say “Hooray!” Alan Moore and Neil Gaimen and everyone else have put aside their differences and we were going to have the most sought after comic finally in our hands! Then we were reminded that this was Mick Anglo’s Marvelman and not Miracleman. Our hopes were dashed but we seemed OK with it because perhaps it would pave the way to what we actually want. 18 months later (including Marvel December 2010 solicitations) was have a 6-issue Best Of periodical series called Marvelman Family’s Finest and a Marvelman Premiere Hardcover that reprints his adventures in chronological order. No new series and certainly no Miracleman, just a few reprints from a bygone era. Needless to say I’m a bit disappointed in Marvel’s efforts particularly the way Joe Quesada hyped up the announcement. I hoping that all will change come 2011. Today I take a look at the Hardcover and I have some mixed feelings about it. One one hand it is good to see this in print. But on the other hand it seems all that the Marvel did was slap a hardcover on what seems to be the same type of paper that is used in their Essential line of books. This is a pity because it could have easily been reprinted on higher quality paper – and for $39.99 it should have.  I’ll get into that and more on today’s podcast.

Other topics discussed today include:

• Upcoming newspaper collected editions
• More Smurfs
• Usagi Yojimbo Deluxe Fantagraphics in October
• DC Solicits and DC Comics Presents / Wildstorm is now doing it!
• Digital Update: Graphic.ly/Marvel and Who owns mobile?

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I tend to read the introduction (or forward or commentary) not only as the first thing but also as a follow up after the book is finished. For me, it make it more complete. Some introductions have stuck with me over time and it makes me want to read the book over and over again. People like Alan Moore can do this. He did so inside the pages of The Complete Frank Miller Batman. Moore is a master himself and him commenting on Frank Miller’s work elevates it. Not only is the story a masterpiece but somehow, but it somehow exemplifies it and makes it more important.

Speaking of Moore, I’m currently reading, for the first time ever, his run on Swamp Thing with DC’s Deluxe Editions. Volume Two has a wonderful intro by Neil Gaiman, who offers up not only his friendship with Moore but he’s one of the few people who can get inside and understand just what Moore is conveying to the reader. Gaiman had me primed and ready by the time I turned the page to Swamp Thing Annual #2 which featured Deadman, Phantom Stranger, The Spectre and Etrigan, The Demon – all of whom are favorites of mine. Also, I would have been completely lost if Gaiman was not there to explain Saga of Swamp Thing #32 which was an homage to Walt Kelly’s Pogo. Moore’s use language alone is baffling, unorthodox, and incomprehensible all the while being beautiful and full of meaning. I had no idea that after Moore was done writing the story he had a hard time going back and writing in plain old English!

You wouldn’t get that from reading the monthly periodical.

What are some of you favorite introductions?

I’m back once again with Chris Staros, Publisher of Top Shelf Productions. In the conversation we cover The Surrogates movie an its impact on an independent publisher, Alan Moore’s Dodgem Logic, Eddie Campbell’s The Playwright, Jess Fink’s We Can Fix It, Top Shelf’s foray into manga with AX, the Swedish Comics invasion and so much more!
Also for those of you who are into Digital Comics, Chris announces on the podcast that Top Shelf is working with iVerse and will debut two apps, Top Shelf Kids Club and Top Shelf All Up, at Comic Con 2010 in San Diego!!!
Please go out and support these great works of art, you won’t be disappointed and your life may just be better for it.
I want to thank Chris for taking time out of his busy schedule to come on the show.

Chris
PS There’s also my take on the DC Comics digital program.

Links Of Note:
Top Shelf Productions
Top Shelf 2.0
CCL #214, April 2009, Chris Staros

Collected Comics Library iPod App
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DGTL Comics
www.dgtlcomics.com
@dgtlcomics
dgtlcomics@gmail.com

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DC Comics is underway with their big summer event Blackest Night. Today on the show I look at two recent trade paperbacks that not only feature members of the Green Lantern Corp, but Corps members who are playing pivotal roles in said event. Including a few that are confirmed Black Lantern Corps members. One has to wonder if the stories that were chosen for Tales of the Green Lantern Corps: In Brightest Day (Volume 1, 2008) and Tales of the Green Lantern Corps (Volume 2, 2009) were done so by design or if it’s just coincidence. We also take a look at what Geoff Johns had to do with these books, and Alan Moore and the Green Lantern prophecies that he foretold, too.

Just a quick caveat before you listen to this podcast, this is a follow up to the Around Comics Blackest Night Podcast that is did earlier in the week (Monday July 29). You may want to listen to that round table discussion first.

As for news, there isn’t much to go on this week, just that’s no surprise. Comic Con 2009 starts today with Preview Night and I’ll be gathering and Twittering all the Collected Edition news and information I can find. Next week for CCL Podcast #230, I’ll go over it all in detail.

All this and the New Releases of the Week.

Chris

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Links of Note:
Todd Klein on Green Lantern Corps TP
Todd Klein on Green Lantern Corps TP 2

• Stumptown Trade Review has Annotations for Asterios Polyp, a book that I talked about on this week’s CCL podcast. The list is extremely helpful.
• Rich Johnston, Bleeding Cool, reports on the upcoming Alan Moore’s, 25,000 Years Of Erotic History (Abrams Books) in October and can be ordered in the UK and the USA now.
• From ComixTalk: After only 7 years, the 2nd Wandering Ones collection is now available from Keenspot. It includes Damon’s lesson, the Hawk Talon story, Jack and Wolfie’s trip to the Western Alliance and all the other horizontal “comic strip” format Wandering Ones not found in the first book. Also included is the Mad Scout storyline, now only available in print.
• For all of you Marvel The Twelve fanboys, Altus Press has published The Phantom Detective Companion. It includes nearly all of the Phantom Detective’s comic book appearances.
• ICv2 has a preview of You Shall Die by Your Own Evil Creation! by Fletcher Hanks (Fantagraphics Books).
• Calvin Reed, Publishers Weekly, reports that The Stand Graphic Novel (Marvel) Finally Comes to Bookstores.
• PR: Simon & Schuster Sign Deal With Boom!
• PR: The Rockpool Files from SLG in September.
• PR: Disney Pixar Exclusive Comic-Con ’09 Hardcovers Only At Boom!
• Review: Bill Reed, CBR, on Showcase Presents: Doom Patrol Volume 1 (DC Comics).
• Not comics, but very cool collected edition, nonetheless: Oxford University Press will release the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary: With Additional Material from A Thesaurus of Old English, a book that has taken almost 45 years to finish. It’s the world’s largest thesaurus — and includes almost the entire vocabulary of English. The project was begun in 1965. The final tome will contain over 230,000 categories with 800,000 meanings.

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This week on the show we talk about something from the What’s Old Is New Again category: X-O Manowar: Birth HC (Valiant). It’s akin to: What if Conan The Barbarian traveled to the near distant future only to find Iron Man’s armor? First released in 1995, X-O is a story about a man out of time and a man with the most powerful weapon in the universe. The initial series ran for 70 issues and Aric, our hero, actually did meet up with Tony Stark at one point. The hardcover itself is very nice that includes remastered artwork of issues 0 and 1-6, a complete cover gallery, script and pencil pages and a new story published just for this volume and it’s all done by Bob Layton, Jim Shooter, Barry Windsor-Smith and Joe Quesada.

As for the news this week, if you’ve come by the blog this week, then you’ve noticed that a few items popped up but for the most part many companies are keeping quiet until Heroes Con occurs this weekend. I also go over a couple of DC and Marvel solicits that caught my eye, including one Essential Sub-Mariner Volume 1.

All this and the New Releases of the Week.

Chris

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

• The Official America’s Best Comics website has merged with the Wildstorm site.
• The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen The Absolute Edition Slipcased Hardcover Volume 1, 2 and The Black Dossier.
• Absolute Promethea Vol. 1 Slipcased Hardcover collects Promethea #1-12, due in stores September 30, 2009.
• America’s Best Comics TPB A Who’s Who of fantastic comics creators comes together for this handsome volume collecting the America’s Best Comics Special, The Abc Sketchbook, And The Many Worlds Of Tesla Strong.
• Tom Strong
  • Books 1-6 In both Hardcover and Softcover. Collects the entire 36 issue run and Tom Strong’s Terrific Tales Volumes 1-2 collects the 12 issues series.
• Top 10
  • Top 10: Book One (issues 1-7), Top 10: Book Two (issues 8-12), Smax, which was set directly after the series’ conclusion (issues 1-5), Top 10: The Forty-Niners and Top 10: Beyond the Farthest Precinct (issues 1-5).

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Here at the Collected Comics Library, I tend to focus on the bigger companies. That’s no accident because they have such a huge share of the market, but I do my best to highlight some of the publishing efforts of the Independents. Today, is one of those days, as I sit down and talk with Chris Staros, Publisher of Top Shelf Productions. In the conversation we cover Alan Moore’s Lost Girls and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century, Jeff Lemire’s Essex Country Trilogy, The Surrogates, Marshal Law and so much more including a few upcoming books will sure find way onto your shelf like, Far Arden, Second Thoughts, and Moving Pictures. I want to thank Chris for taking time out of his busy schedule to come on the show.

Chris

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