General omnibus & hardcover discussion vol. II

[ER Prest]

i actually waited for that release myself but somehow it slipped through my fingers. i don't understand what happened, one day it was saying on Amazon it's not released yet, and then it just was unavailable. so i got the tpbs instead. i would look at the pics too but nobody seems to have it.

Looking at the amazon page and price history, part of me thinks it was never actually released

I could be completely wrong though

[TheTemp]

Totally disappointed that Valiant had absolutely no HC's in their solicitations..

[pud333]

Latest. Finally got around to picking up New Frontier.

[Captain Craig]

Totally disappointed that Valiant had absolutely no HC's in their solicitations..

Same here. I don't think they even had any soft cover TPB's solicited.
Still, the first half of '15 they've had solid offerings so perhaps the July solicits will have a HC offering of some type.

[Canucked]

Looking at the amazon page and price history, part of me thinks it was never actually released

I could be completely wrong though

You know, that should have been my first conclusion, seeing as how the last two Top Cow hardcovers I ordered were cancelled as well. I hope they go through with the Aphrodite IX Complete hardcover.

[Thesanmich]

Anyone know whats up with Locke and Key deluxe and Big Hard Sex Criminals? Are they still releasing in March?

[zaboraviti]

Looking at the amazon page and price history, part of me thinks it was never actually released

I could be completely wrong though

i have the suspicion as well, yeah. well, maybe some day it will happen.

[Canucked]

Anyone know whats up with Locke and Key deluxe and Big Hard Sex Criminals? Are they still releasing in March?

Both bumped to April on Amazon.ca. I can't wait!

[TomSlick]

Anyone know whats up with Locke and Key deluxe and Big Hard Sex Criminals? Are they still releasing in March?

I think they got bumped a week or two to early April. These are a couple of books I really want to read.

[MartinNL]

Got these books in the past 2 weeks. All euro stuff. Probably a new shipment of US comics next week again : )



Older stuff


New(er) stuff

[Endsville]

Alright, had a "skim" through the Complete Zap Comix, which I mentioned earlier today in the packaging thread. Best. Book. Set. Ever. Well, one of the best anyway. Who can say which is the true greatest anything? But amongst my own collection, it's easily the greatest thing here and possibly an object I would defend with my very life. Yet it's not actually the most expensive set of books I own, believe it or not. Nope, Taschen's first collection of Robert Crumb's sketchbooks (but the second set chronologically) has it beat on that score, a whopping $1000 compared to $500.

Of course, I didn't pay full price for either (especially not the former, my copy of which has a slightly dirty slipcase, which brought down the price to a more reasonable sum in addition to the seller foolishly starting the auction at a penny - in the end I paid less for it than this!) but it's interesting to note that with the cheaper set, Zap, you really feel that every penny was worth the great expense - or to put it another way, you actually get a clear sense that the reason it's priced so high is because everyone's heart and soul was put in to making as perfect a collector's set as humanely possible - whereas the sketchbooks, although very nice, aren't as deluxe a set (to be completely fair on this matter, however, one should acknowledge that they are sketchbooks, all black and white in this specific set no less, so one can't expect to find stunning richness of colour or gatefolds like in Zap), the shocking $1000 presumably Taschen's price for a single art print signed by Crumb that comes with the books. But note that even in regards to the addition of signatures, Fantagraphics still has them beat in price, the signed edition of this stunning set (which I sort of wish I'd splashed out the additional money for honestly) coming with five additional giclee prints on top of the seventeen you already get, signed by five different artists, Crumb included.

The comics speak for themselves, so I won't go into those except to say that they're classic material and all comics fans should read 'em once in their lifetime. The oral history book I can't say anything definite about without sitting down with the thing, although I do note that it seems to stride perfectly between lengthy interviews with the artists, as well as the history of the comic's creation itself, to glorious pages of unseen art and photographs of the gang involved. The review published on The Comics Journal website earlier this year did point out that, as a companion volume to the comics themselves, it of course can't cover everything, gliding over details that the author of the review would have liked to have read more about, and that sounds about right for these sorts of books. Not something I can personally say is a black mark upon the set though, and I think the author felt the same in her review.

All of this to say that, if you've been seriously eyeing the set, then for god's sake, go for it while you still can. The signed edition of 250 copies included, this first printing is limited to 3,000 comics, and I can't imagine any of those 3,000 people who happen to end up owning the thing feeling that they didn't get their money's worth. The way I understand it is that second and subsequent printings after that will not have the giclee prints and, I think, may be smaller in size. Perfectly fine for most people but if you're a massive fan of the artists involved in this set (you may tell that I'm a big Crumb fan, although I also bless this comic for introducing me to the delightfully sick, twisted work of S. Clay Wilson too) then you're gonna want this before it's gone and people inevitably start selling it at a much higher price.

[vark]

Endsville: Pictures, pictures, pictures! (I remember there are already some somewhere on the board but didn't know where at the time)

Martin NL: so you have settled for the regular edition of Gong Ho, I am currious to know what you will think of the story.

[Endsville]

There's really no point in me posting pictures, vark, when you can see an extensive slideshow preview of the set on Fantagraphics' site as well as a video flip-through of each book and the prints on their YouTube channel (both of which are something I'm rather appreciative of as it gives you a good sense of a book's quality before picking it up). For the record, though those previews are of great quality, this thing's even more immense and impressive in person.

[SmilingPirate]

Hello guys, I will be in Berlin in a middle of april, could you recommend me any comicbook stores?Thanks a lot!

[LordJulius]

Hello guys, I will be in Berlin in a middle of april, could you recommend me any comicbook stores?Thanks a lot!

"Black Dog" and "Grober Unfug" are two good stores I visited last year. While the former has a better online store than brick-and-mortar location, the latter is fun to visit and is amazingly tidy for a comic shop. They also have a 'virtual tour' of the store on their site:

http://www.groberunfug.de