Let’s first look at the series breakdowns:

• RORSCHACH (4 issues) – Writer: Brian Azzarello. Artist: Lee Bermejo

• MINUTEMEN (6 issues) – Writer/Artist: Darwyn Cooke

• COMEDIAN (6 issues) – Writer: Brian Azzarello. Artist: J.G. Jones

• DR. MANHATTAN (4 issues) – Writer: J. Michael Straczynski. Artist: Adam Hughes

• NITE OWL (4 issues) – Writer: J. Michael Straczynski. Artists: Andy and Joe Kubert

• OZYMANDIAS (6 issues) – Writer: Len Wein. Artist: Jae Lee

• SILK SPECTRE (4 issues) – Writer: Darwyn Cooke. Artist: Amanda Conner

• BEFORE WATCHMEN: EPILOGUE –  Featuring the work of various writers and artists

• CURSE OF THE CRIMSON CORSAIR (2 page back up in all 35 issues) – Writer: Len Wein. Artist: John Higgins.

Deluxe Hardcover
DC is all about the Deluxe Hardcover collected edition these days.  The upcoming Batman: The Black Glove will be 384 pages/$39.99. Under this plan we would have a 3 volume set to collect the entire series. What comics would be in which hardcover (or trade) remains to be seen. I doubt we will see the “DVD extras” that will be in the Absolute, but you will get your fair share. I think this format will be the first one we will see in 2013.

Trade Paperback
Without a doubt the most affordable route would be to buy Before Watchmen in softcover trades. DC could collect each series individually. Let’s assume that all comics will be 30 pages/$2.99. That means:

• Five 4-issue trades; 120 pages each
• Three 6-issue trades; 180 pages each
• One  Crimson Corsair/Epilogue; 100 pages (70 pages/30 pages)

Sounds great, but I doubt this will be the case. That’s just too many trades (9 total) and DC Comics is not going to charge $11.99 for a 4-issue book when you could get so much more money if you combine them. More likely is the possibility that DC will collect it like this:

• Three 10-issue trades (One 4-issue and One 6-issue); 300 pages; $29.99 each
• One 9-issue plus Crimson Corsair storyline (Two 4-issue, Crimson Corsair/Epilogue); 340 pages; $29.99

Why $29.99? Again recent DC history gives us this price point. Resurrection Man TPB is 336 pages/$29.99 so it seems like a good place to start. However, DC has also released new editions of Batman: Knightfall which is roughly 652 pages/$29.99. But that’s too much Watchmen for too small a price for brand new material.

Either way I am excited for Before Watchmen. Not all of the comics, but most.
And it has nothing to do with JMS.

I welcome your comments.

It’s Christmas in July! Not only is it the week of San Diego Comic Con 2011, but we also have the Captain America movie and a huge announcement from DC Comics i.e. all 52 #1 issues in one giant (Absolute) hardcover.
This is actually the third time that I’ve covered Cap. The first was CCL #76 and the second was CCL #225. Today, I pick up from June 2009 and go over all the collected editions that have been published – and a few that are upcoming.
It’s a long compehensive list, but worth listening to if you havn’t been collecting Captain America in a while or are new to him altogether.
Lastly, I go over some pre Comic Con news on The Walking Dead, Interview With The Vampire, Flashpoint and Legion Of The Super-Heroes Volume 13. Plus I answer an e-mail from a listener who thinks I talk too much Marvel. I guess this is a bad day to counter that.

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Every day when I look at my books, I’m reminded of the wonderful words and art that has been published throughout the years. But I’m also reminded of the packaging of these comics; hardcover, softcover, oversized, regular sized, digest, thick or thin, you name the format and it’s sitting before me. As a man on the go, I can’t always take my Omnibus with me and sometimes one trade paperback isn’t always enough to satisfy me if I’m held over at the airport, getting my car fixed or lounging in the backyard. I, like you, can read 128 pages at a good clip and being that the majority of the books I read are from DC and Marvel, I think it’s high time they offer us readers a new format, but one that’s been in circulation for sometime and one that I’m very fond of – the 6×9 inch softcover.

Dark Horse and IDW have been publishing these handy trades for a few years now. Not only do they have more pages then the standard, but for the amount of comics you get they usually come at the very affordable price of $24.99 and perhaps best of all they are heavy duty and can take a beating. I dive into this topic and tell you what comic runs would be a great trial for this format.

Also on the show today, a quick Motor City Comic Con wrap up , my adventure at the Thor movie and the return of Shipping and Product changes.

Cheers!

Chris

Links of note:
Collected Editions Blog – Trade Perspectives: DC August 2011 Solicitations: JLA and other concerns

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This week on the podcast I sit down with comic book historian and writer, Chris Irving for a candid discussion about all things comics. From Marvel and DC reprint projects to digital comics and movies we even touch on current happenings. I’ve known Chris for a few years now but never had the chance to talk to him at length. He is a wonderful and very knowledgeable person and I am so glad he took the time out of his very busy schedule with Hermes Press and Graphic NYC to join me.

Chris

Links of note:
Chip Kidd’s Glass Books via The Comic Archives

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This week on the podcast I continue my look at classic comic strips with Peter Maresca of Sunday Press Books. The aptly named company has been reprinting Platinum Age, turn-of-the century, newspaper strips for a few years now and has an excellent reputation of reproduction. Maresca comes on the show to talk about his love for this special time period of comics and the wonderful library he is amassing, including Little Nemo In Slumberland, Krazy Kat and Sammy Sneeze, just to name a few. We also talk about how helpful the late Bill Blackbeard was to Sunday Press Books.

I want to thank Peter for taking the time to come on the CCL Podcast!

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Today on the show I’m proud to have on a real icon of the comic strip medium, Brian Walker. Brian grew up with comics and even has it in his blood, as his father is Mort Walker, creator of several strips including Sam’s Strip, Beetle Bailey and Hi & Lois. He comes on today to talk not only shop but about his newly published The Comics: The Complete Collection (Abrams ComicArts) which is actually a combination of both of his The Comics Before 1945 and The Comics Since 1945. It is now available in a very nice oversized, affordable hardcover edition.

I’d like to thank Abrams ComicArts for supplying me a copy of the book.

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Today on the podcast, I celebrate the fact that the DC Archives are not dead, as we have evidence of Lois Lane Volume 1, which is due out in December. I go over a bit of the publishing history of Lois and her Silver Age comics that are reprinted in the Showcase Presents: Superman Family series of books.

Also on the show I talk a little bit about the Eisner’s and one category in particular: Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism. I try to answer the question: just what is Comic Book Journalism? I can be misunderstood, especially in this day and age of instant information and headline reporting.

Lastly, IDW officially solicited the log awaited Star Trek Movie Omnibus. Originally slated for November 2009, it was held back so it could contain the recently complete adaptation of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. It will collect all six Original Series movies as published by three different houses. Should be a good one!

Cheers!

Chris

Links of Note:
iFanboy – Missed Eisner Nominations
The Weekley Crisis - Eisner Award Nominations for 2011
Comic Books Circus eBay page

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I’ve been a Collected Editions buyer for nearly 15 years now, and in that time I’ve gotten used to the progression of the monthly periodical comic book into a nice reprint edition. From the start reprints were typically softcover trade paperbacks, but we did get the occasional hardcover: The Complete Frank Miller Batman (Longmeadow Press, 1989) comes to mind. More recently, however, the process of the superhero comic has been:

Monthly → Trade Paperback or Hardcover → Deluxe or Premiere Hardcover → Oversized Edition (i.e. Absolute, Omnibus or similar type).

Naturally every publisher is different, but that is the general rule of thumb. And with that the Oversized books are something special. Not only do they reprint the more popular series of days gone by (Crisis On Infinite Earths, Frank Miller Daredevil), but they are also given bonus material to entice us to toss out our old trades and upgrade to the new edition. After all, the latest is the greatest, or so they say.

But now it seems that other publishers have caught on and are creating a new breed of Absolute. Not the monthly comics, mind you, but rather two or more independent books (or graphic novels) that achieved high accolades on their own merit and have now been morphed into new and improved tomes that are very hard to pass up. Let’s take a look at a few:

• In doing my research for this post, the earliest 2-in-1 proto-type I could find was The Complete Maus HC by Art Spiegelman (Pantheon Books, 1997). The 296 page book combines both Volume I: My Father Bleeds History (1986) and Volume II: And Here My Troubles Began (1991). It reads beautifully and besides the chapter break, you would never know it was written in two parts. I beg you to buy this book.
• More recently, W.W. Norton published The Contract With God Trilogy HC by Will Eisner (November 2005) just 10 months after his death. Originally from 1978, A Contract With God went on to have two sequels: A Life Force and Dropsie Avenue, and all are collected here for the full reading experience. So successful was this collected edition that W.W. Norton followed it up with another compilation, Will Eisner’s New York HC (2006) that collects a quartet of his best works: New York, The Building, City People Notebook, and Invisible People. Besides the wonderful Spirit Archives (DC Comics), these are must haves for your book shelf.
• Just released is The Comics: The Complete Collection by Brian Walker (2011), who is the son of Mort Walker (Beetle Bailey) and is the current co-writer of Hi and Lois. This 672 page edition collects Walker’s previous two history books The Comics Before 1945 (2004) and The Comics Since 1945 (2006) into one. The bummer here is that there is no extra material to bring us up-to-date in 2011. None-the-less, it’s a great book to peruse now and then.
• Lastly, we just got word from IDW that they will be publishing Parker: The Martini Edition (2011). This will reportedly collect the first two Parker novels The Hunter (2009 and The Outfit (2010) as done by Darwyn Cooke. This oversized edition will have bonus material and a new exclusive short story.

Is this what it’s coming to? Double sized editions? Who knows for sure, but it seems to be a trend as of late. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to see new Complete Tin Tin oversized two volume hardcover slipcase set that collects all 24 original graphic novels just in time for the movie this Christmas. Talk about a reprint!

Of course the above are just a few of the Combined Collected Editions. Feel free to name the several that I missed in the comment section below.

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Wouldn’t you know that I go record my six year anniversary podcast and it turns out that I get a bad sore throat. Not to worry, it’s a quick show today as I go over some collected edition news from IDW, DC, Marvel, Fantagraphics, Flesk, Boom, and Dark Horse (and even more) that has caught my eye and is worth commenting on.

I want to thank everyone who has come by this blog and downloaded a podcast from the past six years. It truly means a lot to me and your support keeps me going from week to week.

If you are gong to C2E2, please let me know, I’d be happy to meet with you.

Chris

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Today’s special interview with John Romita Jr. is from November 23, 2008. Prior to that day, I was contacted by Joe Rybandt, of Dynamite Entertainment, to help out on a book that was being written by Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter, called The Romita Legacy. Joe was in a bind and knew that I had the equipment and could interview JR Jr. and give a written translation on short notice. I happily obliged and was even given a small piece of credit. Now I’m happy to present the interview in full.

John and I talk about vast array of topics including his early work at Marvel, working with his legendary father and his, then, upcoming movie, Kick-Ass. I’m releasing this interview to also help you better understand the creative process of writing a biography. It’s not your typical interview as it contains several pre-written questions that were supplied to me. I do add in a few of my own to make the conversation a bit more lively and interesting.

I would like to personally thank John, Tom and especially Joe for this job. I had a blast doing it.

If you haven’t done so already, please purchase a copy of the book. Thank you!
Romita Legacy HC
Romita Legacy HC Signed Edition
I’ll post a link to the Softcover version when it becomes available; expected March 1, 2011.

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