General omnibus & hardcover discussion vol. II

[Balakin]

At 14x10 1/4", that Crepax book is going to be huge. That's about 2 inches taller than an Absolute.

Speaking of tall books, these are my recent purchases. The Flash Gordon HC is a thing of beauty.




Decided to get the the last three classic Asterix books in TPB form, since the oversized HCs of those have been sold out for ages and go for ridiculous prices.

The "Asterix and friends" HC is a fun collection of short stories by artists like Manara, David Lloyd, Vance, Guarnido (Blacksad) or Rosinski (Thorgal).

holly cow that Flash Gordon book is huge! Is it your first try with the material? Kind of a pricey book. Just checked the prices and the different editions and these are from IDW but there are strip collections from Titan as well, only in landscape format but same author, Alex Raymond. Are they covering the same material or is there any difference?

Probably gonna end up buying some strip collections finally on payday (especially if I get my holiday pay), Prince Valiant and Popeye is on the top of my list but now that you reminded me that Flash Gordon exist I got tempted. I like pulp sci-fi, read some John Carter last year and absolutely enjoyed it so FG might be right up my alley.

[LordJulius]

holly cow that Flash Gordon book is huge! Is it your first try with the material? Kind of a pricey book. Just checked the prices and the different editions and these are from IDW but there are strip collections from Titan as well, only in landscape format but same author, Alex Raymond. Are they covering the same material or is there any difference?

Probably gonna end up buying some strip collections finally on payday (especially if I get my holiday pay), Prince Valiant and Popeye is on the top of my list but now that you reminded me that Flash Gordon exist I got tempted. I like pulp sci-fi, read some John Carter last year and absolutely enjoyed it so FG might be right up my alley.

They do collect the same strips, yeah, but the Titan ones do not include the Raymond "Jungle Jim" strips, which make up the top third of the Sunday page. I also think Titan and IDW use different sources or at least reproduced the pages differently (I saw a video comparison on youtube last year that explained it).

I had my eyes on these for quite a while, but as you mention they're kinda pricey. However, Amazon.it is selling this book for €30 atm. Couldn't say no, of course.

Flash Gordon is very pulpy indeed, and the artwork is breathtaking. When it comes to the actual stories I still prefer Prince Valiant and TatP, though. Both Foster and Caniff were better storytellers, imo (though FG is by no means bad).

The Popeye cartoons are btw not one-and-done strips a la Peanuts, but tell longer adventure stories as well. If vol. 1 is OOP, you can easily start with vol. 2. There's not too much Popeye in vol. 1 anyway since he was introduced as a side character in "Thimble Theater", which was the actual name of the cartoon.

[drd]

Those are great findings, Spawn 2 for 30 quid is pretty much free, I can't even imagine why somebody would sell their copy for that.

How do you search for books on eBay, would like to hear some tips.

Turns out there was a catch with this book.

Now its hard to tell how much of it was prior damage to the slipcase, due to poor packaging (tossed in an oversize envelope with no real padding) or a crappy courier (myHermes who have wrecked several large books on the way to me in the past). But when it arrive the top of the slipcase was broken on all three sides and just some of the sticky covering preventing it from rolling around loose in the envelope and the bottom of the slipcase was split down one side. On the upside the book itself is in pretty much perfect condition. None of this damage was visible from the pictures the seller posted on eBay and frankly for £30 it's not worth starting an argument with the seller. I'll do my best to superglue the slipcase back together and keep an eye out for another bargain in hopefully better condition.

In terms of how I find these things on eBay I have some searches that I "follow" (or whatever eBays terminology is to get it to show up in my feed on the front page). I tend to make the searches quite broad so that I can pick up anything that gets accidentally auctioned under the wrong sub catergory, which tends to be where a lot of the bargains are to be found. For example, for the Spawn Origins Deluxe books I just have a "Spawn origins" + Auctions only + All categories and a "Spawn Deluxe" + Auctions Only + All Categories. For absolute editions its a little bit more narrow in that I look at any auctions under the "Books" section with "Absolute" in the title. I'd say my feed is probably about 40-50% stuff thats nothing to do with what I'm looking for but it's worth it when those occasionaly gems crop up.

[Balakin]

They do collect the same strips, yeah, but the Titan ones do not include the Raymond "Jungle Jim" strips, which make up the top third of the Sunday page. I also think Titan and IDW use different sources or at least reproduced the pages differently (I saw a video comparison on youtube last year that explained it).

I had my eyes on these for quite a while, but as you mention they're kinda pricey. However, Amazon.it is selling this book for €30 atm. Couldn't say no, of course.

Flash Gordon is very pulpy indeed, and the artwork is breathtaking. When it comes to the actual stories I still prefer Prince Valiant and TatP, though. Both Foster and Caniff were better storytellers, imo (though FG is by no means bad).

The Popeye cartoons are btw not one-and-done strips a la Peanuts, but tell longer adventure stories as well. If vol. 1 is OOP, you can easily start with vol. 2. There's not too much Popeye in vol. 1 anyway since he was introduced as a side character in "Thimble Theater", which was the actual name of the cartoon.

yeah I found the same amazon.it deal but the Titan books seem like a better bang for my buck, although probably gonna stuck with Popeye and PV for now (well, depends on my paycheck, there is a Tarzan and a titan FG book for cheap, might go for them as well).
didn't even know Popeye was introduced as a side character, thanks I like to learn new things I can amuse my friends with (and they couldn't give a rats arse usually ).

[Balakin]

also, found this article about the different Flash Gordon editions:

http://www.comicbookdaily.com/collec...allery-hwI7/0/

bottom line is this:

Strip size is basically the same in both books. Reprint quality is roughly the same: LOAC close to production art and Titan close to final printed copy. Titan is cheaper and easier to handle but the LOAC has thicker paper stock and lays flat. In the end it comes down to whether or not you want to read Jungle Jim, which I enjoyed. Would I have enjoyed it as a separate volume: yes indeed.

the IDW book is bigger because they include the JJ strips but the panels themselves are the same size in both editions.

[ShooCat]

@Balakin - Too bad about Popeye Vol. 1 being OOP, as, like Gerald said, I would also recommend you to begin there, if only to see the progression of Popeye as a character and that of the strip itself. The 'beginnings' (actually pre-Popeye run, as Julius mentioned) are not particularly rough —I actually loved the Whiffle Hen storyline, silly as that may be, but things definitely start moving differently once the strip focuses on Popeye. No harm in beginning with Vol. 2, though.

As for Flash Gordon, I've been there - IDW's size was really tempting, but oddly enough I found the Jungle Jim topper distracting, and I ended up getting Titan's vol. 1. Also, unlike IDW's, which only covered Alex Raymond's seminal run, Titan's reprints are not stopping at him and aim at a comprehensive FG reprint project.

[MuckieMuck]

Would like to read some classic horror, I have Locke&Key, it's very good, and Uzumaki is fantastic, pure creepiness, reminds me Lovecraft a lot.

Still waiting for Hellblazer in HC.....

The Creepy and Eerie Archive books are really nice and I love the Black & White presentation, but I prefer the stories of the EC Archives more. One thing to keep in mind is that while Dark Horse has been re printing all the EC Archive books and the quality is great, the artwork has been touched up and doesn't maintain the original coloring. Not sure why Dark Horse decided this because the original artwork was excellent.

[MuckieMuck]

Those are great findings, Spawn 2 for 30 quid is pretty much free, I can't even imagine why somebody would sell their copy for that.

How do you search for books on eBay, would like to hear some tips.

I've bought a lot of books on ebay and its a roll of the dice. There really is no way to know if the books were taken care of by a collector or used as a tv dinner tray by a 4 year old eating spaghetti while taking a poop on the toilet. But I've gotten some really good deals too and most of the books are in good condition I've definitely over paid to get that Hardcover I need to complete the set.

[Hellboydce]

for Ivizzz as requested..

[Hellboydce]

cont...

[lvizzz]

Thank you sir. Looks great but this bidding....And it's limited, lucky you, would like to get my hands on it.

[Balakin]

Lot of talk around here about classic adventure strips but since I still didn't buy any of them I started to read the Doc Savage archives after Blake and Mortimer and so far it didn't disappoint.
70's Doug Moench stories, never read any of them but now I'm interested in his Masters of Kung fu series.
Obviously some of the stuff, characterization and plot elements is dated but there is a certain charm to it, Doc is a bad ass and the art is great (even though it's b&w with some greys) there are good ideas and some surprisingly well thought out (or even overly complicated) clues left behind for Doc and the gang.
If you like these kinda stuff get this book, show some support towards pulp books (maybe Dynamite finally releases a similar book for The Shadow)

[TheTemp]

My haul from the last couple weeks.. Not pictured is Fantastic Four by Jonathan Hickman Omnibus Volume 1, which I have to wait s month until I see my aunt, as she had to go pick it up at the only store that had it on the shelf!

[Captain Craig]

Unity Deluxe HC vol.1 - VALIANT

Did this actually come out last week?
Amazon & CheapGraphicNovels has it listed as "out of stock"
It's not listed on IST, duh, but usually when they expect more stock(especially for such a recent item) they leave the item on their site.

[TomSlick]

My usagi yojimbo slipcase arrived today. It's a little smaller than I thought. I guess I was expecting them to be more of the OHC fashion (although with soft covers). It looks nice, I think I'll open it up tonight and read a little bit.