2019 Update - Lots of Big Books

It's way past time for an update on my recent purchases as I've neglected posting about these items when they arrived. But I blame Brexit and Christmas.

When I say big books I mean BIG BOOKS. That "Ditko is Amazing" is HUGE!

The book is purely an indulgence on my part as I've all the stories in the Amazing Spider-man Omnibus #1 anyway but I just couldn't resist this.

The other Marvel books are two Fantastic Four Omnibus editions. Confusingly, each is a Number One! Of course they contain different stories.

I wanted the "Fantastic Four Omnibus" because its a decent reprint of FF issues 1-30. I'm now all ready for my long delayed re-reading of Marvel history from its early days.

"Fantastic Four by John Byrne Vol 1" reprints some of my favourite stories and after looking through the originals in early December, I just got the urge to splash out on this and have the comics with much improved reproduction.

The other books are both by Alan Moore.

"Absolute Swamp Thing Vol 1" has been on my wants list for ages and I'm so pleased DC have finally got round to publishing this. My previous reprints of these comics were from very old DC trades and left a great deal to be desired. So chuffed to get this and I will read this very soon together with my Swamp Thing Omnibus!

"The Tempest" is a large HC with the last League of Extraordinary Gentlemen story. This series has been a bit hit and miss but I got this for completeness. Hope it's good!

Joker The Bronze Age Omnibus

I've gotten out of the habit of posting recently mainly because I'm not buying many comics or collections or getting the time to read the stuff I already have, My reading time has been spent on RPG books and sometime the latest Robin Hobb trilogy which I'm halfway through,

I did buy this a few weeks ago when it first came out. Some of the stories I already had but there is a good amount of new Bronze Age Batman related material for me to get my teeth into when I eventually get the time to read these collections.

It's a nice looking book too which is well put together. I'm fine that it doesn't match the style of the other Omnibus editions as it's a character themed collection rather than a title. Just like the Diana Prince edition I got at the beginning of the year.

One last point, it seems strange NOT to have any omnibus editions on pre-order. I'm really running short of room and, to be honest with myself, I've probably got enough DC collections for me to have a good idea what DC was like in the silver and bronze age. I do have two more books due before the end of the year though. These are a bit different from anything I've bought before. More on them soon.

Batman Ego and Other Catwoman Tails

I've been wanting to read "Ego" by Darwyn Cooke for a bit and decided to give it a go as a change of pace from Bronze Age Conan stories.

Also "Ego" was good I preferred "Selena's Big Score" which was also included in the collection. That led me to continue reading Catwoman stories and I've now finished Vol 2 of Catwoman by Ed Brubaker.

Although Darwyn Cooke is no longer on art, these were still great stories and just proves what a fantastic writer Brubaker is.

Mister Miracle by Tom King

This run has been getting a lot of rave reviews recently and so I thought I'd give it a go after enjoying Tom King's vision run. I bought it a couple of months ago but thought I'd read it sooner rather than later as it is currently "flavour of the month" and it made a nice change from the Conan omnibus I am also currently reading.

I'm not sure that I totally got this to be honest. I was enjoying it but the ending seemed a bit anti-climatic so I'm wondering if I really understood what was going on.

Some nice art by Mitch Gerads and some neat observations on the trials of being a new parent.

Wonder Woman: Diana Prince Omnibus

This omnibus has just been published and it's a bit of a curiosity because it covers the time Wonder Woman was de-powered and fought crime as if she was a secret agent. These issues were originally published in the late 1960s and early 70s.

This will be interesting to read and it's nice to have some Bronze Age Wonder Woman to read.

The first of a few Omnibus editions I've on order for the first half of 2019!

The New Teen Titans Vol 7 and 8 "The Judas Contract"

I've finally got round to completing these trades and reading the famous "Judas Contract" arc in NTT.

I really enjoyed that story and I can see why it became so popular and famous back in the day (1985).

Perez leaves after issue 50 (in Vol 8) and I feel the series suffered somewhat as a result. No shame in that because he is almost impossible to replace. Vol 8 finished with a reprint of issue 58 and it was a nice conclusion for me to complete my collection. 

Three new DC Silver Age Omnibus Editions

Legion of Super-heroes Vol 2, Supergirl Vol 2 and The Flash Vol 3 all look fantastic on my bookshelf.

No issues with the condition of any of these after shipping by Amazon. 

New Trades from the Bargain Shelf at Forbidden Planet

I like visiting Forbidden Planet in Birmingham as at least that store has items on sale unlike Forbidden Planet Coventry or Nostalgia and Comics in Birmingham.

This time I picked Vols 6,7 & 8 of Superman Chronicles for £2.99 each (but with a buy 2 get 3rd free) and a nice Darwyn Cooke Spirit trade.

I wouldn't have normally gone for Golden Age Superman but this was an exceptional offer because for £6 I got reprints of Action 37 - 47, Superman 10 - 15 and World's Finest 2 - 4. Interesting from a comics history point of view and I'm really happy with them. I think these were on sale because DC are now releasing Golden Age Superman with a new trade dress.

JLA Bronze Age Omnibus Vol 2

My copy of JLA Bronze Age Omnibus Vol 2

I can't believe it's only been a year since I bought my first DC omnibus and it was Vol 1 of this series. I loved the format so much I've bought about 10 more since then. These form all of my pre-Crisis DC collection.

My newest arrival is Vol 2 and I'm delighted to get more cool JLA stories from the dawn of the Bronze Age.

Only problem was that my copy arrived with a small tear in the dust jacket. This is the first one of these weighty tomes that has actually arrived damaged in any way. Bit of a shame.

I tried to repair the damage as much as possible.

I know I could have returned but I can live with it and, whilst I would like a pristine copy, it's the stories I'm interested in.

I've 2 more Omnibus on pre-order. My biggest problem is where the hell am I going to store them!

All my Harley Quinn

The reason I've not posted much at all so far this year is that I've been waiting until I finished all my Harley Quinn books by Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner.

I've now finished all eight. Six deluxe editions reprinting the main series and 2 spin-offs.

Generally, the series was very good. Lighthearted stories, always well told with witty scripts and nice art. And some fantastic Amanda Conner covers too.

The stories were'nt particularly dramatic but the charming and interesting characters made the series enjoyable.

The two spin-offs were perhaps even more fun. The team do Power Girl so well and the interaction between her and Harley was very enjoyable. This concept was taken further with Harley's Little Black Book which was basically a team-up book. Except for the Green Lantern team-up this 40 page stories were especially fun.

I think is only half of the Palmiotti/ Conner output as the series then progressed to the New 52 but more importantly, DC stopped publishing the deluxe HCs - so I stopped buying. I have got some of this New 52 material in digital format but I haven't read any just yet. After 2 1/2 months of Harley craziness, it's time for something different.

Summary of 2017

I'm not going to crunch the numbers for this year as I usually do because I already know that I've bought far more than I've read. In fact I don't think I've read that much except whilst I was away in New Zealand for a month.

But I am going to talk about how 2017 has been different because it has in two main ways.

Firstly, I've bought a tonne of DC Omnibus editions. This Silver and Bronze Age material is all new and these collections are fantastic for me. I've also bought a few trades of older material but it's the Omnibus editions which I really like. However, they are big and I'm running out of space on my shelves for any more.

Secondly, and perhaps even more significantly, I've discovered digital comics. Firstly on kindle and then on comixology. These are brilliant because they are both cheap and they take up no space on the shelf (see above). I've bought loads in the various sales, some of which I already had but a similar amount of new stuff too. I plan to switch to digital for everything except the DC Omnibus editions.

One final point to note and it's important to me because its a bit of a milestone. I've now completed a run on Marvel Two-In-One. I'm chuffed to bits as it's only taken me since 1977 when I bought my first issue!

So what will 2018 bring I wonder? I need to really read more but gaming rulebooks have slowed down my pace on fiction. We shall see!

Final Purchases of 2017

It's New Years Eve and I thought I'd better blog about my final purchases this year before I do my annual summary early in Jan.

It's been a quiet few months in terms of print editions but I have bought some digital comics but I'll talk more about those in my annual summary.

The fact that these are both collections of DC material is typical for this year. The Omnibus line has been fantastic for me as they are lovely books and I am really keen to read this material for the first time. The only problem with these books is the space they take up on the shelf!

The Batgirl Omnibus features some Bronze Age Batman issues which is wonderful as the actual Batman Omnibus volumes are still reprinting Golden Age material and it will be years before they get this far and I need to double-dip.

New Teen Titans volume 8 will be the last one for me as I started collecting these to read the famous "Judas Contract" storyline and these collection featuring the issues immediately afterwaards appears to have a satisfactory conclusion.

DC Bronze Age Omnibus and Marvel Epic Thor

Some big collections have arrived through the post recently,

The Swamp Thing Omnibus has been on pre-order for over a year but due to DC re-solicitations and Amazon confusion I had to re-order it at a slightly higher price to make sure I got it.

This large volume covers all the issues up to the Alan Moore run which I will also buy in this format although I've got some of the original issues.

I've been coveting the Brave and The Bold Bronze Age Omnibus Vol 1 for some time but had been undecided about whether or not to buy it because I had a few issues already in other collections (particularly my Jim Aparo books) I own. However, this is a great format with oversized pages and covers before each issue (unlike the other ones I had) so I finally succumbed. It looks fab.

The Thor Epic collection is volume 3 which means when combined with my other Epics, Masterworks and original comics I currently have all the issues up to issue 267. Which is enough to be going on with.

I've a couple of other DC Bronze Age Omnibus editions on pre-order but things are generally looking pretty good in my collection right about now and I predict that 2018 will be a year I read more than I buy!!

Update on new purchases

 OK, I'll admit that it looks like I've been on a bit of a spending spree over the last month but some of these were long standing pre-orders. They are all newly published stuff too!

Catwoman by Jim Balent was only published this week.

 So was Dark Knight Volume III collection. Which looks very nice by-the-way and will definitely go to the top of my to-read pile.

 I couldn't resist this 2nd volume of the Flash Silver Age Omnibus and the New Teen Titans volume 7 collects "The Judas Contract" so it's where I'll probably finish collecting.

 I've always been curious about Planet of the Apes comics and I'd seen positive stuff about this recent collection so I went ahead and ordered it. Along with 40+ issues of the old Marvel weekly going cheap on ebay.

Speaking of going cheap, Amazon are currently running another mad sale on Marvel stuff so as well as getting a dozen or so Masterworks volumes I picked-up some "new to-me" stuff too.



  



All for crazy prices! I wish DC would do the same as I am seriously running out of space on my bookshelves!

So that's plenty to keep me going and together with reading RPG rulebooks etc I should have enough to last me for years!

DC Omnibus editions and Hardcovers

Firstly a couple of Omnibus editions. I do love these.

The Flash vol 1 was from ebay but is like new - so a good bargain.

I've binged a bit on the Legion of Super-heroes just recently and this omnibus will allow me to start from the beginning.

That will allow me to read stuff like this and hopefully enjoy it more as a result.

The final Hardcover is my last planned Harley Quinn collection. This is really a result of no-more-space on my shelves. 

Legion of Super-heroes collections

As I've said previously, I'm in a phase of being very curious and interested in silver and bronze age DC comics. I never bought any of these when I was growing up and my first "real" exposure to DC was when John Byrne left Marvel to join DC and reboot Superman.

So all this stuff is new to me.

One series that keeps coming up on the DC archives message boards is LOSH and there is a Silver Age Omnibus of their early adventures due to be released in August which is on my wishlist. In the discussions these two collections were recommended as the best stories and as it will take years for the omnibus series to reach these issues I decided to pick up the trades whilst they were still available and not out-of-print. 

"The Darkness Saga" Collects Legion of Super-Heroes #284-296 and Annual #1 and "The Curse" collects Collects Legion of Super-Heroes #297-313 and Annual #2 so these collect a considerable number of issues. 

My plan is to get the omnibus edition and the brand new collection (SUPERBOY AND THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES VOL. Collects issues #234-245.) which will give me plenty to read and hopefully an understanding of what made the Legion so popular with DC fans.

Three new DC Silver and Bronze Age Omnibus

These are all great books. Extremely interesting to me as I've no experience with any of this stuff.

My only criticism is that the JLA vol 1 doesn't match the new trade dress of more recent volumes. Still I got it for just over £50 which is quite a bit less than Amazon's or shop prices.

More hardcovers and trade paperback collections

It's been a busy time with purchases recently although fortunately I've not spent too much as all the books were bargains. These three purchases were via the Book Depository and were approx 1/3 less than Amazon prices even accounting for P&P.

Quite a range of titles here from Bronze Age Superman, to Batman from 2000s and very recent Marvel series. In fact, I'll read the Vision Vol 2 very soon as Vol 1 was so good.

New Teen Titans Vol 5

I've ticked off another NTT trade. Vol 5 this time.

This series is ticking along. It's OK but not exceptional other than for Perez art. I've already got Vol 6 so I'll continue but I am waiting to see why it's just so highly regarded.

More Silver Age DC Omnibus editions

I'm still keen on the DC omnibus editions and a couple have arrived this week.

The JLA is Vol 2 (I've not got Vol 1 yet as I've not seen it for a good price) and it's massive. It's 1056 pages and collects #31-#76 and Mystery In Space #75

World's Finest Vol 1. is a bit thinner at only 626 pages and collects Superman #75 and World's Finest #71- #116. It was only recently that I realised that this comic was the Superman-Batman team-up book. They first teamed-up in Superman #75 and that was so well received that DC decided to change the lead story in WF to be Superman and Batman each issue.

I'm loving finding out about all this early DC history.