General omnibus & hardcover discussion vol. II

[danmar85]

It's listed as being published by Image instead of Top Cow, so that's got my attention.

I just need to unload my top cow edition if this Image one is legit.

Let's hope, but I see the old printings listed differently depending on the site. *crosses fingers*

[MartinNL]

Great hauls, Martin and NP. Sadly, the second part of Stalag will only be out in April over here. I'm also still waiting for my copy of Hickman's FF 2. Ordered it from one of those US Marketplace sellers who are cheap but apparently have their books delivered by a geriatric turtle.

Here's my purchases from this past week:



"Spirit Vol.2" is absolutely gorgeous.

Read "Berlinoir" last night, which is an awesome book. Excellent moody art by Kleist ("Castro", "The Boxer"), in which he incorporates e.g. imagery from German expressionist movies like "Nosferatu" or Fritz Lang's "M". The story itself deals with vampires, but also reflects the political developments in and having to do with Berlin from the late 19th century up until today, i.e. from imperial Germany through the upheavals of the Weimar Republic and the "Third Reich" to the division during the Cold War and beyond. (Bit much history, I know. Can't help myself, I'm a bit of a history buff/geek).

That Berlinoir book sounds great. And I just looked up some interior shots and damn that looks amazing! Sounds like it covers quite some history there. Doesn't it want to cram too much in? Or does the story manage to keep it all together? How difficult is the German? I mean I had no problem reading The Boxer in German, so if the German used is like that I should be ok.

Also some interior shots of The Spirit here or in the IDW thread wouldn't be a luxury

[krylox]

Great hauls, Martin and NP. Sadly, the second part of Stalag will only be out in April over here. I'm also still waiting for my copy of Hickman's FF 2. Ordered it from one of those US Marketplace sellers who are cheap but apparently have their books delivered by a geriatric turtle.

Here's my purchases from this past week:



"Spirit Vol.2" is absolutely gorgeous.

Read "Berlinoir" last night, which is an awesome book. Excellent moody art by Kleist ("Castro", "The Boxer"), in which he incorporates e.g. imagery from German expressionist movies like "Nosferatu" or Fritz Lang's "M". The story itself deals with vampires, but also reflects the political developments in and having to do with Berlin from the late 19th century up until today, i.e. from imperial Germany through the upheavals of the Weimar Republic and the "Third Reich" to the division during the Cold War and beyond. (Bit much history, I know. Can't help myself, I'm a bit of a history buff/geek).

i admit i normally don't like historic comics. most of the time they have a rather didactic tone, if you know what i mean. but i'm really getting more and more interested in european and german comics, so your inspiring selection seems like a good start. will definitely sample "im land..", "gleisdreieck", "tagebuch" and "berlinoir" at my next comic shop visit.

[LordJulius]

That Berlinoir book sounds great. And I just looked up some interior shots and damn that looks amazing! Sounds like it covers quite some history there. Doesn't it want to cram too much in? Or does the story manage to keep it all together? How difficult is the German? I mean I had no problem reading The Boxer in German, so if the German used is like that I should be ok.

Also some interior shots of The Spirit here or in the IDW thread wouldn't be a luxury

If you were alright with The Boxer, you shouldn't have any problems with Berlinoir. It's actually not a history book or story based on history, but tells its vampire tale in a pretty straightforward way., just with many allusions to German/Berlin history, its cultural contributions etc. that you might pick up on or not. It's perfectly understandable and works as a fictional story without one knowing about the historical background however. And as you have noticed, the art alone is worth it.

As for The Spirit: here are first of all some examples of the many, unbelievable splash pages (some of which are almost 70 years old):

[LordJulius]

Here's a page which shows that Eisner wasn't only able to produce stunningly constructed splash pages, but also could create incredibly dynamic scenes. I compared this to Harvey Kurtzman in the MMW boards. Look at how much is going on here:



Kind of an easter egg were these two Spirit pages by Wally Wood:



As for the quality of the reproduction: I mentioned above that the originals used here are between 60 and 70 years old, so they have darkened quite a bit. All the more surprising then how many of them still look good, which is reflected in a very nuanced reproduction of most pages:

[LordJulius]

i admit i normally don't like historic comics. most of the time they have a rather didactic tone, if you know what i mean. but i'm really getting more and more interested in european and german comics, so your inspiring selection seems like a good start. will definitely sample "im land..", "gleisdreieck", "tagebuch" and "berlinoir" at my next comic shop visit.

Like I said in the reply to Martin's post, Berlinoir is not a history comic, but there are many allusions to Berlin history. I don't know how old you are, but seeing as you are from Berlin, you still might be able to cherish that book.

This goes even more so for Gleisdreieck, which was written by a German professor of history (now living in France) and a French-German artist. Both have lived/grew up in Berlin and the GN creates and amazingly realistic picture of Berlin in the 1980s, especially the leftist, terrorist and squatter scene(s), according to many reviewers who lived then and there (I myself only remember some aspects from the news since I was too young back then to have a comprehensive picture; plus I'm not from Berlin). Needless to say I enjoyed the hell out of it. There's also a few annotations at the end. Plus it has a "playlist" of a soundtrack at the beginning to accompany the book (and full of excellent choices).

Tagebuch 1914-1918 had been on my wish list for a while as well. I actually didn't realize that it's by the same artist who did Gleisdreieck. I only found out when I read the "other works by..." section at the end of Gleisdreieck. LOL.

"Im Land der..." has some beautiful art and got great reviews, but it's not a traditional comic as such. It's one art accompanied by text, so more of a picture book (here's an example: http://fm4.orf.at/v2static/storyimag...lderbuch-7.jpg). However, it was about 6€ on Amazon Warehouse Deals, so I thought "What the heck. why not?" Haven't read it yet, though.

EDIT:

Oh, and nothing didactic about Berlinoir or Gleisdreieck at all. The former tells a fictional story using the history of Berlin as a sort of canvas while the other wants to objectively show the Berlin of that time (I usually prefer non-didactic history comics as well, even if there are some excellent ones that do have a message).

[aaltomuoto]

My Haul for the weekend. Finally filled the last hole in my THB collection, now I can finally start reading the entire series

[silkcuts]

When will Image (or anyone for that matter) come to their senses publish Paul Pope's collected THB?

[aaltomuoto]

last I heard (and that was a few years ago) that should be happening at Firstsecond. He said he had already redrawn a lot of stuff especially for these collections but he wanted to finish Battling Boy first, so it might take a while before we see that.

That said, Pope has been promising THB collections since back when #5 was published so who knows when it will actually happen...

[lvizzz]

Here we go, I don't expect to get anything more, still waiting for Swamp Thing vol 3.

[lvizzz]

Some of them I've read already, Batman is still good, but not as good as first volumes with Court of Owls. Wake was kinda disappointing, I really like first half, but second is rubbish, didn't buy the whole story. Art is great thou.

Second Zenith is all right, but expected much more after Phase One. This one is signed by artist, so I have them both signed and will try to get all of them like that.

FP has sent me signed copy of Criminal vol 2 even I didn't order it but I'll take it, i think it's Sean Philips signature.

I don't uderstand why first volume of Erotic Comics is soooo pricey, does somebody can tell me? Been hunting it for very long time but haven't seen decent price. Second one is very graphic, lots of 'c'' thingies....

Tim Bradstreet art book is gorgeous, get it if you can! I bought this because my love for Punisher Max but what I didn't realize was the fact I've seen this guy's art many years ago in '90's when I was playing paper RPG's like Vampire.

Got my first Manara book, very happy with that, planning to get all of them.

Of course I forgot about one small book, Death Sentence. I got it from FP with limited mini print and this book is fucking awesome. Crazy, full of swearing and sex and stupid ideas. I mean, what've they done with royal family and queen.....

[Balakin]

Nice haul. You just reminded me that I should get PRJ sooner than later.
I don't get what's so good about signed books if you don't get it in person (and even then...I donno) but I think I have a signed version of the Black dossier hc.

[RedNave]

Nice haul. You just reminded me that I should get PRJ sooner than later.
I don't get what's so good about signed books if you don't get it in person (and even then...I donno) but I think I have a signed version of the Black dossier hc.

Well if you're ever brave the trek down from Dundee to Glasgow, you can easily find Mark Miller walking around the West End, if you have anything of his you want signed.

[lvizzz]

Yeah, he will be signing this weekend with Gibbons in FP store, don't know should I go, I don't have Kingsman comic.

[Roland1580]

Few packages from IST: