Plus you can come se me at the Comic Book Podcasting Panel, Saturday at 1pm. Panel includes:

• Chris Marshall, Collected Comics Library
• Mike Pfeiffer, Most People Are DJs
• Zack Kruse, Distinguished Comic Book Podcast
• Stevie Disme, Comic Book Queers
• Derek Coward, Comic Book Noise
• Dan, Comic Related

The panel will be recorded and uploaded when it is ready next week!
Hope to see you down there!
Chris

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

Please visit my site sponsors: In-Stock Trades and Forbidden Planet International (UK)

106.2 Mb; 147m 36s

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

Please visit my site sponsors: In-Stock Trades and Forbidden Planet International (UK)

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!

Please visit my site sponsors: In-Stock Trades and Forbidden Planet International (UK)

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.

Please visit my site sponsors: In-Stock Trades and Forbidden Planet International (UK)

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

Please visit my site sponsors: In-Stock Trades and Forbidden Planet International (UK)

As most of you know, I’m a co-host on the Comic Book Page Podcast with John Mayo. Each month John and I discuss the Top 300 Graphic Novels and Collected Edition Sales Estimates as reported by Diamond Comics Distributors. One thing that has caught my attention over the years has bee the increasing number of comic book adaptations of original prose novels there have been – and how well they sell. This is really nothing new however, Tarzan and Conan novels have been adapted and there was even the great Classic Illustrated Series. More recently Roy Thomas and Marvel brought back that title and even expanded their line of comics with the Best Selling Author series which includes Stephen King’s The Stand. Boom Studios! is also in the mix with Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? the basis for Blade Runner. But there is one contemporary title title that we have yet to see: Harry Potter. As I explain in today’s podcast, now that Marvel is owned by Disney and the final Potter movie is set to be released (Part One this Christmas and Part Two next summer) it would be the perfect time to announce this monumental project at this years Comic Con. Do it now while Potter fever is still hot. At the biggest stage in the world declare to the biggest fanboy audience in the world it and introduce committed team of artists and writers, have J.K. Rowling oversee the entire creative process, make it at least a 100 issues series covering all seven books. It would be one of, if not, the biggest projects to come out of San Diego this year.

What are some of the best comic book adaptations?

Also on the show I catch up with the week’s news including the passing of Harvey Pekar with a book recommendation of Underground Classics The Transformation of Comics into Comix by James Danky and Denis Kitchen ($29.95, Abrams ComicArts), The Harvey Awards, what’s going on with Marvelman and the New Releases of the Week.

Chris

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Please visit my site sponsors: In-Stock Trades and Forbidden Planet International (UK)

Collected Comics Library Podcast #180

40,443Kb; 42m 52s

http://www.collectedcomicslibrary.com/

For the past few weeks you’ve listened to me go on and on about the Marvel Illustrated books: Who is the core audience? How well do they sell? Why publish them in the first place? Today we get right to the heart of the matter in an interview with comic Legend and Writer of the series, Roy Thomas. I had a wonderful time in talking with Roy and he is very candid and really opens up about the project.

As far as the rest of the show goes, I talk about the new Watchmen (no, not the trailer) Motion Comic on iTunes, what’s happening with the TwoMorrows Publishing, the Tune-In Podcast and San Diego, and my neighbors’ Steve podcast, Airspeed.

No, I have not seen The Dark Knight, yet.

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

Chris

Links of note:
SciFiDig Podcast
Watchmen Motion Comics
Airspeed Podcast
High flying with Steve Tupper (Airspeed)
Discuss this topic on the CCL forum

Today on the show, host Chris Marshall goes over all the TwoMorrows happenings at this years Con including all of the books that we will be debuting, table signings and panel discussions. Also included today are four interview segments! Starting off with Eric Nolen-Weathington and George Khoury on their new Modern Masters Volume 18: John Romita Jr.; Keith Dallas updates us the Flash Companion and the return of Barry Allen; Editor Joe Meno on Lego and Brick Journal Magazine; and finally Legend Roy Thomas on Alter Ego #79 featuring Superman’s 70th Anniversary Special.

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He may even read it on the next Tune-In!

TwoMorrows Tune-In Special Pre-Comic Con International 2008 Show

Collected Comics Library Podcast #179

30,827Kb; 32m 36s

http://www.collectedcomicslibrary.com/

Well, well, well the week is finally here. The week that The Dark Knight is out in theaters. The week were we finally get to see the greatest sequel to the greatest super-hero movie ever. The greatest performance of the Joker ever on screen and the theatrical origin of Harvey Dent into Two-Face. Today on the show we celebrate all of it with the collected editions of the two main villains of the film.

Also on the show I go over me new website redesign, me in the Detroit Free Press and a tease as to next weeks topic on Marvel Illustrated and my special guest Roy Thomas.

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

Chris
Links of note:
THE Comic Addiction
Discuss this topic on the CCL forum