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.

New Omnibus Purchases

It's well past time to catch-up on this blog with What I've been buying, reading and watching.

First up are two Marvel Omnibus volumes the second of which is very close to the perfect book for me.

The Savage Sword of Conan Omnibus Vol 1 is a companion to Conan the Barbarian Omnibus I bought early on this year. It's another big book, full of stories that I've never read and a real interesting purchase for me.

John Buscema's art also looks fantastic in black and white.

By the way, I've read about half of the CtB omni. It's good but a little bit "samey" when reading one issue right after another and so after 13-14 issues I felt I needed a little break before resuming.

The second omnibus is Amazing Spider-man volume 4. This is just perfect.

The issues reprinted include my first ever Spider-man purchased story and so many other Bronze-Age classics which captured my imagination and made me a Spidey fan for life.

So even though I've all the originals of these issues (except for #129 1st Punisher) I just felt I had to get this and I absolutely love going through it. I guess it will help keep my originals in better condition.

Conan the Barbarian Omnibus Vol 1

I finally received my DM edition of this omnibus. I was happy to pay a little more to Forbidden Planet to get this as the regular version (which I'd actually pre-ordered from Amazon but then cancelled when this arrived) had an absolutely dreadful cover. I mean rally bad.

I was happy with a cover which reprints the cover to issue 1

Back-in-the-day, I didn't read Conan as I was very much into Marvel superheroes, so I've only previously read a small amount of Conan in the Marvel Treasury edition. So this a good value purchase for me as well as being a lovely collection.

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!

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. 

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!

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!!

Atomic Robo Omnibus Vol 3

Just finished this latest omni - which collects vol 7,8 & 9 of the trades.

Actually vol 8 wasn't that great even though it had Doctor Dinosaur in it. It was a bit too long for what actually happened.

Vol 9 was a return to form and has left the reader with a cliff-hanger! How rude!

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. 

Atomic Robo Omnibus

I've recently finished the second Atomic Robo softcover Omnibus.

Very enjoyable comics. 

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.

Atomic Robo - Everything Explodes

Atomic Robo is just fun comics done extremely well.

I've read the three trades collected in this omnibus edition before but I wanted to read them again before continuing with the rest of the omnibus. They have been sitting on my shelf calling to me and I finally have caved in,

One point to note. It's a shame these are softcover omnibus editions because I would have paid more for hardback. However, the prices for shipping the hardback editions (of each trade) from the Kickstarter they ran were just too prohibitive. Bit  sad about that.

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.

Catching-up on what I've read

It's been a while since I blogged about what I've read and that's because for the most part I've been reading this monster-sized Omnibus. It's a 1200+ pages!

After buying a few Omnibus editions recently I thought I ought to read some of my older ones and I'd had this one on my shelf since March 2014

For the most part I enjoyed it and certainly in the first 2/3 of the book the rotating team and their refreshing agenda for fame and fortune made for interesting reading. Perhaps I got a little jaded towards the end and that's even with fitting in the following two collections to give me a little rest.

These were recent acquisitions and were great.

Although some of stories in the Bronze-Age Superman collection were  a bit silly, I think that is part of the charm of that period of DC. It's also only something I've recently begun to appreciate.

One thing I really liked about this edition was the reproduction. The colouring style meant you still felt like you were reading a 1970's comic but it was clear and neat. Difficult to describe but it felt just right.

The Vision story was very modern and very well done. I'll have to get part 2 very soon.

Double-dip on the X-Men

So in the last couple of weeks I've purchased these two collections. They reprint almost the same material - so why the double-dip?

The first one I bought was the Epic Collection which reprints GIANT-SIZE X-MEN (1975) 1, X-MEN (1963) 94-110, MARVEL TEAM-UP (1972) 53, 69-70, ANNUAL (1976) 1, IRON FIST (1975) 14-15, MATERIAL FROM FOOM (1973) 10. 

It's a nice collection which includes lots of issues but as it's reprinting some of my favourite comics I was looking at it a bit more critically than some of the other Epics I own and was disappointed in the small gutter on the spine edge which meant it wasn't quite as easy to read as it should have been.

Therefore, because I've been on the Masterworks site looking a discussions regarding Omnibus editions reminded me that I was previously coveting the UnCanny X-men omnibus edition.

This reprints slightly different material (X-Men(1963) 94-131, Giant-Size X-Men 1, Annual 3) plus letters pages and other extras.

The great thing about the Omnibus editions is the oversize format and the reproduction is brilliant. So this will be my copy and I'll persuade Luke to read the Epic. I do own some of the original comics (issue 111 upwards) but I'm still a happy customer!

Oh yes, my old 1st print masterworks will be put away too. These original editions are not as good as later formats with inferior colouring, binding etc.

Teen Titans Silver Age Omnibus Vol 1

This is the 2nd DC Omnibus in about a week to arrive!

I wanted this because it contains a great deal of Nick Cardy artwork. He's an artist I've admired for sometime but didn't have any of his stuff.

Plus, I've been enjoying the New Teen Titans collections so I was curious on their origins. I read the first story , The Brave & The Bold #54 (June-July 1964), and it was silly but fun. These won't be anything like modern stories or even from the 1990s but I think I'm going to enjoy them. And Cardy's art, especially the covers, looks great.

I bought the book on Amazon for £58.49. It was shrink-wrapped but the corners were knocked a little. It actually looks worse on the pic above that it is in real life.

I lovely Darwyn Cooke cover too.

JLA Bronze Age Omnibus Vol 1

This hefty book arrived on Friday.

It's a lovely book so well put together. The paper quality is excellent, the original covers are all included before each story. In fact it's just what I want from an Omnibus and is nearly as well put together as my Amazing Spider-man vol 1. No letters page though which means Spidey is still the best.