Almanac

• Ronald Searle (3 March 1920 – 30 December 2011) – Creator of creator of St Trinian’s School and the Molesworth series. His most recent collection was Les Très Riches Heures de Mrs Mole, 2011.

Announcements / PR

• Cartoon Art Museum presents Eric Shanower’s Road To Oz – I’m a big fan of Eric and Skottie Young’s Oz series.
• Batman: Death By Design GN – Chip Kidd and Dave Taylor! What’s not to love? This book is due May 2, 2012, $24.99.
• Batman: Earth One – I didn’t give Superman: Earth One a shot, but with Geoff Johns writting this one I may just pick it up.
• DC Comics In 2012 – Superman: Earth One – Volume Two – Speaking of Supes….I forgot that he once wore red short-shorts.
• Bill Griffith: Lost and Found – Comics 1969-2003 – Now in Stock – Bill Griffith is best known as the creator of the Zippy daily comic strip.
• Oni Press Cries “Play Ball” In April – From Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir. Looks to be a good book to empower girls.
• The Comic Bug Price Checks Amazon – How do you compete with Amazon? This LCS may have the answer.
• First Look: Out of the Shadows by Mort Meskin (Fantagraphics) – I agree with Steve Ditko: “Meskin was fabulous”.

Awards

• Nominations For Diamond Comic Distributors Gem Awards 2011 – Presented by Diamond based on sales impact and overall quality.
• Eisner Awards 2012 Now Open For Entries – Gotta love the Eisners! It is July yet?

Interviews

• Rian Hughes, Tales From Beyond Science HC (Image) – This volume collects the entire 8-ssue series, published inside several issues of 2000AD in the early 1990s.
• Max Allan Collins, Return to Perdition (DC/Vertigo) – To be honest, I never read the books or have seen the movie. I really have to remedy that in 2012.
• Michel Gagné, Young Romance: The Best of Simon and Kirby’s Romance Comics (Fantagraphics) – FYI, this book is not part of the Titan Simon & Kirby series, but it still looks to be good, I really like everything that Fantagraphics publishes these days.

News

• Alison Bechdel’s Are You My Mother gets 100K first printing – This is Bechdel’s followup to Fun Home.
• ‘Ashes’ Graphic Novel Funded on Kickstarter – Ashes by Alex de Campi and Jimmy Broxton, is a sequel to the Eisner-nominated Smoke, which was released by IDW in 2005.
• More Monsters! More Dames! – This is one cool artbook. I’m sorry I’m just hearing about this now. I want one of these!
• Nice art: The real cover to the Sammy The Mouse collection – Hmmm. This looks very interesting. Be sure to check out the video, too.

Reviews

• The Phantom The Complete Series: The Gold Key Years Vol. 1 HC (Hermes Press) – This reprints digitally remastered issues #1-8 of the Gold Key Phantom series from the 1960’s featuring stories written by Bill Harris and drawn by Bill Lignante.
• My Favorite Martian The Complete Series Volume One HC (Hermes Press) – Too bad Bill Bixby never Hulked out on Uncle Martin for all his buffoonery.
• Annotated ‘Sandman’ enhances Neil Gaiman series and The Annotated Sandman gives new insight into Gaiman series – You have the Absolutes, now get the rest of the story.
• Chase trade paperback (DC Comics) – I really liked this series when it was comiing out. I’m glad I get to revisit it in it’s entirety.
• Good Vs. Evil With A Twist In Fracture Volume One (Action Lab Entertainment) – Great new stuff from Dave Dwonch and friends.

Be sure to keep current with all the latest and best Comic Book Collected Edition news by subscribing to the Collected Comics Library’s RSS feed.

• Andrew Wahl, CBR on TwoMorrows Publishing Panel including the plans for American Comic Book Chronicles. FYI, I’ll be having John Morrow on the next TwoMorrows Tune-In Podcast to discuss this series more in-depth.
• Wildstorm (DC Comics) will be reprinting Absolute Planetary.
• Dark Horse will release two omnibus editions of the manga Chobits.
• Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, the fourth volume in the series will be published October 12.
• Kurt Busiek says that Astro City is going monthly…plus other cool stuff and some format surprises as well. Could format surprises mean Absolute Astro City? I think it might.
• Jeff Smith and all the news on the two new Bone projects; Bone: Tall Tales and Bone: Quest for the Spark.
• And found on Rich Johnston’s Bleeding Cool…
  • As well as Fighting American, Dynamite has the rights to other Jack Kirby characters, Silver Star, Captain Victory, the Topps titles and more, and are planning a Kirbyverse. These were just in the hands of Image Comics. I wonder what happended?
  • Literary scholar Leslie Klinger and Neil Gaiman are to create The Annotated Sandman, a thoroughly annotated version of the 75 issue comic book series, to be published by Vertigo in four volumes, but it may take some time. This will be a nice addition to the Absolute Volumes and Sandman: King of Dreams.
  • IDW will be publishing an art book/biography of Alex Toth by Dean Mullaney. Perfect guy for the job. I hope it’s a big, thick book.

• Rich Johnston, Bleeding Cool, found out that Panini and Marvel UK will be reprinting The Knights of Pendragon: Once and Future Volume 1 (1990) by Dan Abnett, John Tomlinson, and Gary Erskine. If fact, it’s already listed on Amazon.com and Amazon.uk
• Fantagraphics Books reannounced (from 2007) that they would finally begin publishing The Complete Pogo, a 12-volume series collecting the complete chronological run of daily and Sunday strips. Volume 1 was due in October 2007, but now has a release date of 2010. Here’s the original solicit via The Beat.
• Fantagraphics Books also announced The Complete Nancy by Ernie Bushmiller. This series will collect the newspaper comic strip starting from the mid-1920′s. You may remember that Drawn and Quarterly is reprinting Nancy by John Stanley which collects the comic books from the 1940′s.
• Here’s the Newsarama lowdown on the Graphic Novels and Novelists panel that was moderated by Tom Spurgeon. Man, now I really wish I was in San Diego.
• Allan Holtz, well-known in the comic strip fan community for his articles on comic strip history for magazines and books, and for his Stripper’s Guide website, announces that his Guide to U.S. Newspaper Comic Strips and Cartoon Panels is now under contract to be published by University of Michigan Press. The book is a compendium of the vital statistics about comic strip and panel series that have appeared in American newspapers. I’ve corresponded with Allan on a number of things and I’m very glad for him. It will be an excellent read.
• From the many Vertigo (DC Comics) panels: Karen Berger, Executive Editor, unveiled slides of Josh Dysart’s upcoming 160 page hardcover graphic novel, Greendale, which centers on Neil Young’s Greendale album. There will also be a Fables prose novel centering on Peter & Max with illustrations by Steve Leialoha.
• DC Comics announced a new T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents series that has been talked about since 2004 and Dark Horse announced new ongoing titles of Gold Key characters including Turok, Magnus: Robot Fighter, and Doctor Solar. I say this because a DC and Dark Horse has done a wonderful job collecting the classic series in both of their Archive series.
• BOOM! Studios announced The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck HC. Now that Boom has this license, perhaps we’ll finally see Complete Carl Barks Collection that was originally solicited by Gemstone.
• Also, speaking of BOOM! did anyone go to their booth and pick up Farscape Vol. 1 HC Scorpius Edition limited to 500 copies, signed by Farscape  creator Rockne S. O’Bannon and series writer Keith R.A. DeCandido? If so, let me know.
• Tim Burton announced The Art of Tim Burton Limited Hardcover, due out later this year, most likely in time for Halloween, it will have over 400 pages and contain over 1,000 illustrations.

• And the BIG Marvel News is: Marvel has purchased the rights to Marvelman. No word on an sort of reprint or collected edition project (at this time), Quesada said he’s excited to see the “continuing adventures” of Marvelman -CBR.
  
• Drawn & Quarterly has acquired world rights to the original graphic novel, Wilson, by award-winning cartoonist, Oscar-nominated screenwriter and New Yorker illustrator Daniel Clowes,  it will be published in 2010.
• Quirk Book’s bestselling transformation of Jane Austen’s classic novel Pride and Prejudice into, well, a zombie novel, Del Rey Books announced plans to turn Pride and Prejudice and Zombies into a graphic novel. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Graphic Novel will be published in 2010. OK, Whatever.
• More Digital Comics ahem… goodness: Universal Uclick and Stan Lee have partnered to debut his Stripperella in a direct-to-iPhone release. The mobile comic book is a four series comic written by Stan with art by Anthony Winn.
• Even Spider-Man is going Digital.
• Not from the Con, but cool news anyway: Altus Press has announced Ki-Gor: The Complete Series Volume 1. For the first time, the Ki-Gor series from the pages of Jungle Stories is collected, complete and in order! Volume 1 is introduced by Tom Johnson and includes the first six Ki-Gor stories.
• IDW has announced more Darwyn Cooke Parker GN’s. Said to be part of the The Man With The Getaway Face and huge chunks if not all of The Outfit and that will be out in 2010.
• Tom Spurgeon moderated the Comic Con panel: Comic Strip Reprints Revolution. Who knew? If you attended please let me know what went on. I’ll see if I can get Tom to throw us a few bones, too. And if you can, play along on Tom’s Blog, The Comics Reporter.
• Found on Twitter: @glspotlight via the DC Nation Panel Bob Wayne says that if Absolute Rebirth is successful, there may be an Absolute Sinestro Corps War. That’s how it should have been collected in the first place.
• Also from the DC Nation Panel: No plans for an Absolute Dark Victory. And the there is this (via CBR’s coverage) A fan wanted DC to stop leaving issues out of its trade paperbacks and hardcovers. Bob Wayne asked for applause to see who would prefer this and who would prefer issues left out “if it makes a stronger book with a beginning, middle, and end.” The former won out. “I will take that information and use it in whatever way I want,” Wayne said.
• Tyrese Gibson then unveiled a new piece of wraparound artwork for a Mayhem OGN (Image) book slated for later in the year.
• DC’s Wednesday Comics Panel: “What’s the strategy for reprinting?” Kurt Busiek: “It’s going to be collected as a series of billboards.” Mark Chiarello: “We’re going to be worried about finishing the last four issues before we think too much about that. But size matters. We’re looking at that now.” Hmmm…that’s exactly what I said.
• Comic-Con 2009 Podcast Panel .MP3 Audio Recorded by John Mayo. Bob Bretall was part of the Fourth Annual Podcasting Panel at Comic-Con International: San Diego 2009 along with representatives from a few other comic book podcasts.
• Vertigo Panel: Karen Berger: “There are no plans to collect the Vertigo V2K books, but there should”. When asked about Absolute Invisibles, Berger said, “they are sticking with current editions and that Vertigo tends more toward the Deluxe Editions like Y: The Last Man rather than Absolutes”. Really? Then why did you show a slide of the Absolute Death (due later this Fall), or for that matter, publish the Absolute Sandman Volume 1-4?
• Eisner Award Winners as they are related to Collected Editions:
  • Best Humor Publication – Herbie Archives, by Sean O’Shea aka Richard E. Hughes and Ogden Whitney (Dark Horse)
  • Best Anthology – Comic Book Tattoo: Narrative Art Inspired by the Lyrics and Music of Tori Amos, edited by Rantz Hoseley (Image)
  • Best Reality-Based Work – What It Is, by Lynda Barry (Drawn & Quarterly)
  • Best Graphic Album—New – Swallow Me Whole, by Nate Powell (Top Shelf)
  • Best Graphic Album—Reprint – Hellboy Library Edition, vols. 1 and 2, by Mike Mignola (Dark Horse)
  • Best Archival Collection/Project—Strips – Little Nemo in Slumberland, Many More Splendid Sundays, by Winsor McCay (Sunday Press Books)
  • Best Archival Collection/Project—Comic Books – Creepy Archives, by various (Dark Horse)
  • Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism – Comic Book Resources, produced by Jonah Weiland (www.comicbookresources.com)
  • Best Comics-Related Book – Kirby: King of Comics, by Mark Evanier (Abrams)
  • Best Publication Design – Hellboy Library Editions, designed by Cary Grazzini and Mike Mignola (Dark Horse)

• Rich Johnston,  Bleeding Cool, has the scoop on Boom! Studios and their Comic Con limited Hardcovers of The Muppet Show,  Incredibles: Family Matters and Cars: The Rookie ( numbered 1 to 250). They were only available on Preview Night and I’m guessing that they are all gone.
• Rich Johnston,  Bleeding Cool, also got wind that Cinebook recently bought the English-speaking licence to the Spirou & Fantasio line of Franco-Belgian bound comics and will be republishing the books starting with Volume 34: Adventure Down Under. It will be published in October 2009 in the UK and January next year in the US.  More translations are expected.
• My good friend Ron Richards, iFanboy, has started a new podcast with Russ Cundiff (Divide Pictures), C.B. Cebulski (Marvel Comics), Filip Sablik (Top Cow) called A Taste of Comics. Please check it out.
• Lastly, posted is the cover art to the Absolute Green Lantern: Rebirth. It’s due out April 2010 and is expected to be $75 US with 224 pages. It’s projected to collect Green Lantern: Rebirth #1-6 (2004-05) and also includes Green Lantern Secret Files and Origins 2005 and perhaps Green Lantern (2005 series) #1-6; but that seems to be a ot given the 224 page count. More information can be found on the GL: Rebirth page.
• Follow all that action with me on on Twitter @ChrisCCL and #comiccontrades

1) Follow me @ChrisCCL. I’ll be Twittering as much as I can with as much CE information as I can find; and when I do so I’ll be posting the news and a link (if one is available). Please DM me (or email) if you come across anything.

2) Or better yet, join in the conversation by using the #comiccontrades hash tag that I created. The Official Comic Con 2009 tag is #comiccon (fyi: there is also #sdcc, but I’m not using that one) and I simply extended it – so its very easy to remember. And with that in mind, it’s a great way to share with us what deals you got.

So I’ll see you on Twitter and don’t forget that on Wednesday July 29, CCL Podcast 230 will recap everything that went on in the world of Collected Editions at this year’s Comic Con!

• ICv2 Announces Graphic Novel Industry Summit at New York Comic Con. Full schedule included.
• IDW changes size with Dick Tracy Volume 7. I blogged (or mentioned it in the podcast) about this some weeks back. Still no word on if IDW with go back and reprint the first six volumes in this oversized format.
• Archie will be publishing a new trade paperback of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Volume One: Heroes In A Half Shell a 3-issue mini-series that adapted the first 5 episodes of the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TV series. Due out May 6th, 2009, it will be a part of the 25th Anniversary of the Turtles. On Sale at Comic Specialty Shops: May 13th, 2009, $11.95 by Michael Dooney.
• Mike Baehr, Fantagraphics, asks the question: What never-reprinted Fantagraphics series would you most like to see collected? Respond back at their blog.
• Speaking of Fantagraphics (and TMNT), they are going to publish Usagi Yojimbo: The Special Edition as part of it’s 25th Anniversary. It will debut at Comic-Con this summer as a complete, definitive two-volume slipcased hardcover Special Edition. It will also have extra material, some from the long-out-of-print hardcover editions and some brand new: a complete full-color gallery of the more than 50 Usagi covers from that period (never-before-collected); many preparatory sketches; two “non-canon” Usagi stories by Stan Sakai co-starring the TMNT (with whom Usagi also shared screen time in the TMNTs’ TV series); and a long career-spanning interview with Sakai. Fantagraphics calling is their biggest Special Edition re-issue yet. $95.00, 1200 pages.
• A.C. Nielsen’s BookScan service has provided ICv2 with a ranking of the top 20 graphic novels of 2008. Guess what #1 was.
• John Seavey, Fraggmented, makes a list of what Showcase Presents he would like to see. I think Warlord and Firestorm are safe bets.
• Warner Home Video has announced that it will release the Watchmen Motion Comic on Blu-ray and DVD on March 3rd, three days before the premiere of the film. And for more on this check out Wordballoon Host John Siuntres talks with Watchman Animator Jake Hughes.
• Bob Greenberger talks about his next project The Batman Vault, which is similar to the Marvel Comics and DC Comics Vault books. It’s due out by Christmas 2009.

• Dark Horse February 2009 Solicitations. I’ll have more on this next week and I’ll touch on it in the podcast, too.
• BookScan’s Top 20 Graphic Novels For October 2008. YAWN! It’s Watchmen.
• Amazon.com Top Ten Comics & Graphic Novels For 2008. and Publishers Weekly’s Best Books of the Year. Good Lord! Can’t we at least wait until December people!
• The ICv2 Graphic Novel Conference will be held at the Javits Center on the eve of the New York Comic Con–Thursday, February 5th.
• Todd Klein takes a look at the very important art comparison of the Trade Paperback and the new Deluxe Edition of World’s Finest Hardcover.
• As they did with the Infinite Crisis crossover trades, the Collected Editions Blog has a wrap-up of DC Comics One Year Later trade reviews.
• Review: Tom Spurgeon, Comics Reporter, didn’t like Prince Valiant: Far From Camelot as much as I did.
• Lastly: Please note that the James Robinson’s Complete WildC.A.T.S TPB (OCT080193), solicited in the October Previews, has been cancelled and will be resolicited at a future date.

To be honest after reading it to, my daughter Erin, it comes across as a pretty decent collection. First of all it was on the same spinner rack as DC’s Scooby-Doo and the Marvel Adventures digests. The price is fair at $9.99 and it’s an easy read. Disney has made another smart marketing decision catering to the “tween” crowd. As for the extras, it only includes a full gallery of Who’s Who at East High. As for the musical numbers, they are all cut short. I can see why, too. It would have made for dull reading when you can’t sing along. However, that is exactly what the book is missing. A few pages of all the lyrics from the songs would have been a nice bonus. HS3 Cine-Manga Digest is expected in December

OK, so not that scary, but it’s better than a bag full of rocks. Now on to a few links:

• Top 100 Graphic Novels Actual–September 2008 Yet again Watchmen is #1, but who is #2? 100 Bullets TPB Vol 12 Dirty (MR). Damn! That’s a surprise!
• It’s not often that I promote other podcasts, but I couldn’t pass up my good friend Bruce Rosenberger, Komics Kast, who reviews Volume One of the Complete Gasoline Alley Dailies (Walt and Skeezix), and Volume One of the Complete Dick Tracy.
• A call from Fantagraphics: Editor Craig Yoe is seeking material for The Great Anti-War Cartoons, a 120-page black & white hardcover they are publishing next year. Visit Craig’s site for more information and a preview slideshow.
• Alan Gardner, Daily Cartoonist, reports that Tom Richmond, a MAD magazine cartoonist, has announced on his blog that MAD magazine will issue a new collection of movie parodies entitled MAD About the Movies: Director’s Cut. This is their second collection – the first was released in 1998. This one, Tom says, is 400 pages, contains 60 movie parodies and only costs $10. It’s only available at Barnes and Noble.
• The Collected Editions Blog teases us with some of the trades and hardcovers for DC Comics Fall 2009.

• Search I’ve retooled this function so you can search every page on the CCL website. You can also search the entire WWW via Google, simple uncheck the box.
• New Sections On the Library page I separated the Marvel Omnibuses from the Masterworks into their own dropdown menu. I also added a dropdown for DC Comics Absolute (and Slipcase) editions. Both sections have their own .xls Checklists that you can download for free
• Two New Omnibuses I added detailed pages for the forthcoming Wolverine Omnibus and the Captain Britain by Alan Moore and Alan Davis Omnibus. More information, including cover art, will be posted for both books as Marvel makes it available.
• Softcover Masterworks I also added cover art (thanks to Marvel’s 70th Anniversary ad on CBR) for their upcoming Softcover Marvel Masterworks: Amazing Spider-Man Volume 1 (Regular and Variant covers).

There’s some backend coding that I did too, but it’s not very exciting. Just know that I strive to make this the best Collected Editions site on the net. Questions or comments are always welcome. Now on to a few links:

• Joe, FPI Blog Log, on the many upcoming events a number of UK libraries.
• The long rumored Stan’s Soapbox: The Collection from The Hero Initiative will be in stores November 19. It is a 144-page book collecting all Stan Lee’s “Soapboxes” from 1967-1980. Softcover $14.99; Hardcover $35.00 (100 copies), and a Signed Hardcover $99.00 (150 copies). I’m getting the regular hardcover. Order fast be fore they are gone.
• Van Jensen, Guest Contributor to CBR, has an interview with writer Daniel Wallace on DK Publishing’s The DC Comics Encyclopedia Updated and Expaned Edition.
• Image Comics will include Eddy Current in the next The Definitive Ted Mckeever Library, Vol. 2. Regular listeners to the CCL Podcast will remember that Joe Keatinge, Image Comics, PR and Marketing Coordinator, hinted at this in show #166. FYI, I plan on having Joe back on in the near future.
• Hermes Press will reprint the classic Irwin Allen TV show comic book adaptations of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Time Tunnel and The Fantasy World of Irwin Allen all in 2009.
• Newsarama’s 4-Page Exclusive Preview – Brian Azzarello’s ‘Joker’ OGN.
• DC rush solicits “The Spirit Special” #1 scheduled to arrive in stores on November 19. It will collect four classic stories by Will Eisner: 1947′s “Sign of the Octopus,” 1949′s “Black Alley,” and “Sand Saref” and “Bring in Sand Saref,” both from 1950.all for $2.99.
• Papercutz is continuing is Classic Illustrated Deluxe series in December with a graphic novel adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein by French artist Marion Mousse. With its ample 144-page length, this full color volume, which will be available in both trade paperback ($13.95) and hardcover ($17.95) editions, may be the most complete graphic novel adaptation of Frankenstein yet produced.
• Fantagraphics has reprinted Popeye’s “Plunder Island” full-color comic book as a teaser to next year’s Volume Four of our Complete Popeye comic strip. It’s available only in the DVD package.