DC's Golden Age Omnibuses (sp?)

[Air Wave]

Does anyone know what DC plans for future Golden Age Omnibuses? So far I've seen only Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and, interestingly, Green Arrow. Do you think we'll see the Flash, Green Lantern or Aquaman? Anything else? What would you like to see?

[Stingo]

Does anyone know what DC plans for future Golden Age Omnibuses? So far I've seen only Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and, interestingly, Green Arrow. Do you think we'll see the Flash, Green Lantern or Aquaman? Anything else? What would you like to see?

I think with the JSA set for a full-fledged return DC would be very shortsighted not to release more Golden Age omnibuses...My choices would be Hawkman, Flash, Green Lantern, with an eye to possibly also chronologically printing all of the many "Written Off" stories from these characters which never saw the light of day in the 1940s.

[Jody Garland]

There was a Aquaman GA Omni announced through the Marvel Masterworks forum a few years ago. (One of the posters has a verified source inside DC). However, after the failure of the GA omni, it fell through for the time being.

So far, the plan is to finish the Trinity, with Batman being finished within the next year and Superman following shortly, if the schedule keeps. Then those will move on to to the Silver Age. The hope is that they can then do some other GA omnis, though those require so much resources it it can be pretty tough. Flash, for instance, has around three omnis of material and only half of one already restored.

[Jim Kelly]

Just look at everything that's already been done in Archives (subtracting books that were done with scans rather than reconstructed art) and that's the books that are most likely to get Omnibus jobs. It's cheaper for DC, since most of the reconstruction work has already been done. I think with Batman and Superman there are some comics that they didn't get around to collecting (from the late 1940s/early 1950s), but maybe it's worth the cost to reconstruct the art for those missing comics in an Omnibus.

A hard problem for me being a completist. I want to fill out the stories that I didn't get in Archive--but since I have almost every Archive for DC's 1930s and 1940s comics, I don't want to overlap what I have by getting the Omnibuses.

Also, I think I like the original comics better than the modern reconstructions of them--and I think I would rather look at them on screen in scan form. Especially because I have so many comics now and storage is a big problem. It's easier to have these comics in digital form, rather than buying even more physical copies.

[Stingo]

Just look at everything that's already been done in Archives (subtracting books that were done with scans rather than reconstructed art) and that's the books that are most likely to get Omnibus jobs. It's cheaper for DC, since most of the reconstruction work has already been done. I think with Batman and Superman there are some comics that they didn't get around to collecting (from the late 1940s/early 1950s), but maybe it's worth the cost to reconstruct the art for those missing comics in an Omnibus.

A hard problem for me being a completist. I want to fill out the stories that I didn't get in Archive--but since I have almost every Archive for DC's 1930s and 1940s comics, I don't want to overlap what I have by getting the Omnibuses.

Also, I think I like the original comics better than the modern reconstructions of them--and I think I would rather look at them on screen in scan form. Especially because I have so many comics now and storage is a big problem. It's easier to have these comics in digital form, rather than buying even more physical copies.

Perhaps if DC doesn't see it as being a lucrative enough enterprise in releasing all of their legendary Golden Age material they might license the reprint rights to a publishing house that specializes in such things as new and deluxe releases for classic literature?

[Air Wave]

all of the many "Written Off" stories from these characters which never saw the light of day in the 1940s.

What are those?

[Air Wave]

after the failure of the GA omni

GA for Green Arrow or Golden Age? Was the Green Arrow omnibus considered a failure?

[Air Wave]

So far, the plan is to finish the Trinity

So they do plan on continuing with Wonder Woman?

[Jim Kelly]

all of the many "Written Off" stories from these characters which never saw the light of day in the 1940s.

What are those?

The written off stories were stories that DC had in inventory that were paid for but never published. The expense was written off as a tax deduction and the stories were supposed to be destroyed. Back in the late 1960s, as a production assistant, Marv Wolfman was supposed to destroy these pages--he secretly rescued some. However he had to slice them up into tiers (classic comics had three tiers of panels) and get them out that way. Putting those stories back together again has been an ongoing project. Roy Thomas has covered the subject and reprinted some of these tiers in ALTER EGO. "The Will of William Wilson"--a JSA story that was supposed to appear in ALL-STAR COMICS--has mostly been restored, but I don't know what else. I would imagine that the majority of the written off stories were destroyed--and others, like with the K-Metal story*, might never have got beyond the script stage. DC did publish a few stories with new art from old scripts back in the 1970s.

*Edit: Actually there were some completed pages for the K-Metal story.

[Air Wave]

The written off stories were stories that DC had in inventory that were paid for but never published. The expense was written off as a tax deduction and the stories were supposed to be destroyed. Back in the late 1960s, as a production assistant, Marv Wolfman was supposed to destroy these pages--he secretly rescued some. However he had to slice them up into tiers (classic comics had three tiers of panels) and get them out that way. Putting those stories back together again has been an ongoing project. Roy Thomas has covered the subject and reprinted some of these tiers in ALTER EGO. "The Will of William Wilson"--a JSA story that was supposed to appear in ALL-STAR COMICS--has mostly been restored, but I don't know what else. I would imagine that the majority of the written off stories were destroyed--and others, like with the K-Metal story*, might never have got beyond the script stage. DC did publish a few stories with new art from old scripts back in the 1970s.

*Edit: Actually there were some completed pages for the K-Metal story.

I had no idea. Never heard about these before.