General omnibus & hardcover discussion vol. II

[JJ87]

I'm currently hunting the Supreme collections that comprise all of The Original Writer's material.

I see there are a couple of volumes published by Checker press (who I'd never heard about before...).
Not sure if there were hardcover versions or TPB only.

Does anybody have any insight on those regarding quality, binding, single issues to round the run up, etcetera?

[MartinNL]

Martin: That Blueberry edition looks kinda big. What are the dimensions?

Yeah it's big! It's 34.8x24.9cm. It's the third volume of these editions, with I believe two more planned. It's completely b&w with 30 pages of extra's in colour.

And nice haul. Can't wait for the Dutch translation of the Sattouf book. Black Paths is pretty good too! And perhaps I should really get that Stray Bullets books too.

[LordJulius]

Can you get Stray Bullets in HC or is it OOP?

Like krylox already said, it's only available as a TPB. Was a bit worried at first since the Image Elephantmen TPBs are atrocious, but so far no problems.

Yeah it's big! It's 34.8x24.9cm. It's the third volume of these editions, with I believe two more planned. It's completely b&w with 30 pages of extra's in colour.

And nice haul. Can't wait for the Dutch translation of the Sattouf book. Black Paths is pretty good too! And perhaps I should really get that Stray Bullets books too.

That sounds interesting. But I don't think I'll upgrade from my German HC collection of Blueberry, even though it's a few centimeters smaller. However, I'm curious to see the art in B&W.

And yes, you should get Stray Bullets. Awesome, awesome book.

[The Cheat]

I'm currently hunting the Supreme collections that comprise all of The Original Writer's material.

I see there are a couple of volumes published by Checker press (who I'd never heard about before...).
Not sure if there were hardcover versions or TPB only.

Does anybody have any insight on those regarding quality, binding, single issues to round the run up, etcetera?

I've got both the Checkers TPBs, and they're... serviceable. Don't feel I lost much reading in that format, but I paid less than cover back when they were readily available, so may be more forgiving of any shortcomings. Think they contain everything.

The story is definitely highly recommended though, I remember thoroughly enjoying it.

[pud333]

Finished Glory. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I really enjoyed this book. Couldn't put it down. I ignored it for so long because I wasn't impressed with the art and the story seemed silly, but I picked it up based on my LCS owner's recommendation and I'm very glad I did! Strange, violent, funny, sort of perverted with some odd plot turns... kind of reminded me of a lot of anime I've seen. Definitely worth the time and money!

[pud333]

[JohnHorus]

Since I wasn't very impressed with the first limited edition of the first Usagi Yojimbo Saga, and money's a little tight at the moment, I'm considering switching to the TPB edition for the rest of the collection. Does anyone own the first Usagi Saga TPB? Is it a nice edition with good paper? Thanks in advance!

[awalk1227]

If I'm a complete noob to Valiant, and would preferably like to keep my collecting limited to their Deluxe Edition HCs, where's the best starting spot? Let's say I'm picking up 3-4 books. I've heard great things about them since the reboot, and now with this movie deal news I figure I'll take the plunge.

[GenericUserName12]

Since I wasn't very impressed with the first limited edition of the first Usagi Yojimbo Saga, and money's a little tight at the moment, I'm considering switching to the TPB edition for the rest of the collection. Does anyone own the first Usagi Saga TPB? Is it a nice edition with good paper? Thanks in advance!

The paper is the same size and thickness as the hardcover. I've only read it gently, but it doesn't feel like it's going to fall apart.

My tpb is signed and sketched in, so if you want to swap to keep all your books in one format, I'm your Huckleberry.

[Shinglepants]

If I'm a complete noob to Valiant, and would preferably like to keep my collecting limited to their Deluxe Edition HCs, where's the best starting spot? Let's say I'm picking up 3-4 books. I've heard great things about them since the reboot, and now with this movie deal news I figure I'll take the plunge.

I recently jumped on the bandwagon myself and bought the Bloodshot, Harbinger and X-O Manowar deluxe hardcovers. I was pretty impressed with all three to be honest. The writing was excellent and the art was decent enough. I'm going to check out the likes of Archer & Armstrong and Shadowman soon but the three that I bought seem like core books and I think the first few events revolve around them. Certainly, the first event, Harbinger Wars revolves around Harbinger and Bloodshot.

[Hellboydce]

If I'm a complete noob to Valiant, and would preferably like to keep my collecting limited to their Deluxe Edition HCs, where's the best starting spot? Let's say I'm picking up 3-4 books. I've heard great things about them since the reboot, and now with this movie deal news I figure I'll take the plunge.

I have found the new valiant stuff to be excellent, they have only released about 7 HC's so far so it is pretty easy to get up to date, the only one I didn't think a great deal was quantum and woody, which to be honest doesn't really cross over with the other titles, so if you miss that one it doesn't really matter.

Also have just finished The Shadow Year One HC from Dynamite which I found a very good read, and I wonder if the Green Hornet they did which I have only heard good things about had a HC release or only a tpb one?

[Captain Craig]

I recently jumped on the bandwagon myself and bought the Bloodshot, Harbinger and X-O Manowar deluxe hardcovers. I was pretty impressed with all three to be honest. The writing was excellent and the art was decent enough. I'm going to check out the likes of Archer & Armstrong and Shadowman soon but the three that I bought seem like core books and I think the first few events revolve around them. Certainly, the first event, Harbinger Wars revolves around Harbinger and Bloodshot.

This. If you need a solid foundation then any of these 3 are a great entry point, Harbinger, Bloodshot or X-O Manowar.
I'll add that the Deluxe OHC for XO has it's vol.2 forthcoming in the next month or two and that would get you up through the mid 20's of the titles run. It's currently on issue #33/34.
Valiant has also solicited a Deluxe OHC vol.2 for Harbinger at the end of summer.
Quantum & Woody doesn't touch any of the titles so that is a stand alone read. Your attitudes on dry, satirical, juvenile humor will determine your enjoyment of that series.
Shadowman is a mixed word of mouth book but it also doesn't touch any of the other core titles. It seems if you had no prior knowledge of the character then you likely thought the title satisfactory. If you were a long time Valiant fan you found it underwhelming.

[JohnHorus]

The paper is the same size and thickness as the hardcover. I've only read it gently, but it doesn't feel like it's going to fall apart.

My tpb is signed and sketched in, so if you want to swap to keep all your books in one format, I'm your Huckleberry.

It would be very tempting if we didn't have to spend lots of money shipping the books internationally.

BTW, it sounds like the TPB is pretty cool after all! Thanks for the description!

[TomSlick]

Finished Shadow Year One hardcover, which collects the 10-issue run.

First, I'm a big Matt Wagner fan. Love his writing, love his art (although he didn't do the art for this series).

That said, this storyline was bad. Real bad. Amateur bad.

No character development, no real origin tale. Just cheap one-dimensional characters and a really trite storyline. The most interesting thing about this book was the main villain who was barely in it. Just a bunch of damsel in distress scenes in which the Shadow shows up at the last second, saves the day, and laughs all the way to the end. There's never any sense of danger and, quite frankly, there was no reason to even like - or not like - any of the characters.

If it was a movie, I'd say it filled with actors going through the motions with a touch of cheap theatrics.

I had planned to get Wagner's Grendel-Shadow cross over, but I think I'm going to pass.

[awalk1227]

This. If you need a solid foundation then any of these 3 are a great entry point, Harbinger, Bloodshot or X-O Manowar.
I'll add that the Deluxe OHC for XO has it's vol.2 forthcoming in the next month or two and that would get you up through the mid 20's of the titles run. It's currently on issue #33/34.
Valiant has also solicited a Deluxe OHC vol.2 for Harbinger at the end of summer.
Quantum & Woody doesn't touch any of the titles so that is a stand alone read. Your attitudes on dry, satirical, juvenile humor will determine your enjoyment of that series.
Shadowman is a mixed word of mouth book but it also doesn't touch any of the other core titles. It seems if you had no prior knowledge of the character then you likely thought the title satisfactory. If you were a long time Valiant fan you found it underwhelming.

Thanks. Making a list then: I'll pick up Harbinger, Bloodshot, and X-O Manowar. How about the Harbinger Wars HC? I noticed that's out too. I may look into Quantum & Woody, but it appears an Archer & Armstrong HC came out at the end of the year last year. Thoughts on it? I like Fred Van Lente. Is the X-O Manowar HC vol. 1 headed out of print? I noticed it's not listed on IST but it is on Amazon.

Looks like X-O Manowar and Harbinger are getting vol. 2 of HCs this summer. Also the Armor Wars event HC comes out. If I exclude Shadowman and Q&W, I'm really only looking at about 5-6 books total. Thanks so much for the help!