DC Hardcover Collected Editions Part 3

[Thesanmich]

Talking of that Orion book, the Amazon UK page for it indicates that it's not oversized like a Marvel omnibus, but rather just standard sized, but hardback.

Is that the case?

My Planetary and GL omnibus from DC are the same size as Marvel's, considering that the reading order is screwed and now it seems the size is small, I think I might cancel my order.....

Amazon tends to be wrong a lot when it comes to size measurements so I'd hold off on canceling your preorder.

[TomSlick]

Talking of that Orion book, the Amazon UK page for it indicates that it's not oversized like a Marvel omnibus, but rather just standard sized, but hardback.

Is that the case?

My Planetary and GL omnibus from DC are the same size as Marvel's, considering that the reading order is screwed and now it seems the size is small, I think I might cancel my order.....

You know, I've actually been wondering about the size, too, because DC does publish some regular size "omnibus" books (looking at you, Starman), but I will still get this one either way.

[canadianaidan64]

Dc haven't published a non-oversized omni in 5 years or so.

[Penultimate Warrior]

Talking of that Orion book, the Amazon UK page for it indicates that it's not oversized like a Marvel omnibus, but rather just standard sized, but hardback.

Is that the case?

My Planetary and GL omnibus from DC are the same size as Marvel's, considering that the reading order is screwed and now it seems the size is small, I think I might cancel my order.....

It "should" be oversize.

I don't think that it's a big deal by any means. Check out the last few comments on this page to assuage some of your fears.

http://marvelmasterworksfansite.yuku...OMNIBUS?page=4

[Johnatellodi]

I want the Snyder Batman run in hardcover so bad, but I'm afraid the basic hardcovers DC put out won't last over a decade. Anyone with expertise book binding knowledege have any input?

[Johnny Thunders!]

I think it's a big deal the issues are chopped up, sy what you will about the New God Omnis, but they are in order. I actually like the paper too.

[sho nuff]

Just a heads up for anyone interested, CGN has raised the price on absolute all star superman to $75. Them raising prices is usually a good indication that a book is going OOP. IST and amazon have copies still, so if its on your wishlist jump on it now while it's still affordable.

[ricardoramos]

Talking of that Orion book, the Amazon UK page for it indicates that it's not oversized like a Marvel omnibus, but rather just standard sized, but hardback.

Is that the case?

My Planetary and GL omnibus from DC are the same size as Marvel's, considering that the reading order is screwed and now it seems the size is small, I think I might cancel my order.....

about that:

A Few Notes about the upcoming ORION OMNIBUS

I received comp copies of the Orion Omnibus from DC Comics late yesterday afternoon. I believe it’s due out in a few weeks. The physical package is nicely done, but I have decided to express publicly, in a way I rarely do, that I am very disappointed in the book.


As some of you may remember, many of the issues of my run on the title consisted of a lead story and a short backup story. I got a lot of my friends, including Dave Gibbons, Frank Miller, Howard Chaykin, Jim Lee, Eddie Campbell and others to draw the back ups. I wrote most of the twelve stories. Generally, the backup stories were related in some way to the lead story. Sometimes, it was matter of atmosphere. Sometimes it was some sort of continuation of thematic material from the lead story. In the case of the Arthur Adams drawn story in Orion 10, there was a direct connection to the lead story, focusing on and specifically answering some of the questions I’d posed there.


My only connection to the Omnibus was early on. I learned of the upcoming collection like most other folks, by catching the announcement at last year’s San Diego ComicCon. I had some brief contact with DC afterwards about the Omnibus, and supplied a few high res scans for drawings as requested. I also drew a new cover for the volume. And that was it. I will say that in the case of other reprints elsewhere, I have generally been kept in the loop more, often to the extent of seeing pdfs of the entire volume and collaborating on the final form of the book before it heads off to press.


Nevertheless, I was thrilled Monday afternoon when I received a box of complimentary copies in the mail from DC. As I said above, it’s a very nice package.


However, I was dismayed when I began looking through the book and discovered that all of the backup stories for the issues, although included in the volume, have been separated from their lead stories and stripped of their context by putting them in the back of the Omnibus, in a separate section behind all the lead stories.


To say I was dismayed by this is probably too gentle a word, but what’s the point of going further? What’s done is done. It seems unlikely that there will be future collections of the same material. I feel it’s some of my best work, and I am very unhappy that the stories in this collection are never going to be read in the correct order by anyone except perhaps by extremely die hard fans of the work, or by people who simply go back and buy the original back issues.


The one bright note is that Dan Didio told me, after I spoke to him about the matter this afternoon, that if the book is reissued in paperback at some point down the road, he would do everything he could to see that all of the stories are printed in the correct order in that edition.


That would be nice.


Walter Simonson

March 10, 2015

[Penultimate Warrior]

about that: (Simonson's original post on the Orion Omnibus)

That was posted a couple of pages ago. Since then, it's become clear that there isn't anything out of order with the book. All of the main stories are presented chronologically. The 12 backup tales are in the back of the book. As someone stated on the Masterworks Board, "The New God backups, from looking through my bound copy, tends to jump around chronologically, which may be a factor in the thinking about separating the back-ups from the main story. They work together with the issue format, but I am guessing, given the DC preference towards having a 'main narrative', that particular editor felt that the backups would be best saved separately."

In fact, Simonson just posted the proper reading order of the backup stories:

An ORION Omnibus concordance:

ORION Issue Number and Story Title
Backups: Tales of the New Gods
(All backup stories by Simonson except for issues 8 and 15)

3 For Purple Mountain Majesties…
Nativity/Frank Miller

4 Above the Fruited Plain…
Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall Down / Dave Gibbons

6 The King is Dead…Long Live the King!
The Perfect Servant / Eric Larsen

7 Tough Love!
Death and His Brother / Howard Chaykin

8 The Righteous Treacheries of Desaad! Or Orion Rules!
Deadend / Jeph Loeb & Rob Liefeld

10 Sirius Business! Or Dog is God Spelled Backwards!
Light! / Art Adams

12 The Ordering of Apokolips
The Garden / Jim Lee

13 The Ordering of Earth!
The Arming of Apokolips / Simonson

14 The Ordering of the Cosmos!
Frankenstein’s Legacy / Simonson

15 At the Edge of the Abyss
Greater Than/Lesser Than / Kevin McCarthy & John Paul Leon

18 The Return of the Prodigal!
A Good Servant / Al Milgrom

19 Laugh and the World Laughs With You!
The Art of the Deal / Eddie Campbell

Sure, for the sake of convenience, it would have been better if those backups followed their corresponding main tales. But, apart from flipping to the back of the book for those backup stories, something which isn't truly necessary, this book sounds very nice.

[awalk1227]

That was posted a couple of pages ago. Since then, it's become clear that there isn't anything out of order with the book. All of the main stories are presented chronologically. The 12 backup tales are in the back of the book. As someone stated on the Masterworks Board, "The New God backups, from looking through my bound copy, tends to jump around chronologically, which may be a factor in the thinking about separating the back-ups from the main story. They work together with the issue format, but I am guessing, given the DC preference towards having a 'main narrative', that particular editor felt that the backups would be best saved separately."

In fact, Simonson just posted the proper reading order of the backup stories:

An ORION Omnibus concordance:

ORION Issue Number and Story Title
Backups: Tales of the New Gods
(All backup stories by Simonson except for issues 8 and 15)

3 For Purple Mountain Majesties…
Nativity/Frank Miller

4 Above the Fruited Plain…
Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall Down / Dave Gibbons

6 The King is Dead…Long Live the King!
The Perfect Servant / Eric Larsen

7 Tough Love!
Death and His Brother / Howard Chaykin

8 The Righteous Treacheries of Desaad! Or Orion Rules!
Deadend / Jeph Loeb & Rob Liefeld

10 Sirius Business! Or Dog is God Spelled Backwards!
Light! / Art Adams

12 The Ordering of Apokolips
The Garden / Jim Lee

13 The Ordering of Earth!
The Arming of Apokolips / Simonson

14 The Ordering of the Cosmos!
Frankenstein’s Legacy / Simonson

15 At the Edge of the Abyss
Greater Than/Lesser Than / Kevin McCarthy & John Paul Leon

18 The Return of the Prodigal!
A Good Servant / Al Milgrom

19 Laugh and the World Laughs With You!
The Art of the Deal / Eddie Campbell

Sure, for the sake of convenience, it would have been better if those backups followed their corresponding main tales. But, apart from flipping to the back of the book for those backup stories, something which isn't truly necessary, this book sounds very nice.

Wow, that's quite the stable of creators that worked with him on this run! I have a question - I read an article recently about what the 4th World is, who the New Gods are, etc. It was a great brief overview, but that's really all I know about that corner of the DC Universe. If I were to grab the Orion Omnibus, could I still enjoy it? Between the discount I'll get by buying it upon release, as well as all the extra stories by those huge names, I'm very tempted, but don't want to feel completely lost.

[Penultimate Warrior]

Wow, that's quite the stable of creators that worked with him on this run! I have a question - I read an article recently about what the 4th World is, who the New Gods are, etc. It was a great brief overview, but that's really all I know about that corner of the DC Universe. If I were to grab the Orion Omnibus, could I still enjoy it? Between the discount I'll get by buying it upon release, as well as all the extra stories by those huge names, I'm very tempted, but don't want to feel completely lost.

It is quite the impressive roster of creators!

While I'm more of a Marvel fan, I've read (and enjoyed) a ton of DC. However, my New Gods/4th World exposure is more limited. That being said, I read about three reviews of Simonson's ORION and they all underscore how fantastic this work is (the overall story telling, both writing and art). A couple reviewers in particular wrote how this ORION run is a tremendous work of modern myth making (Google for a few reviews and see what others think). That, plus the fact that I consider Walt's THOR run one of the greatest runs in comic book history, make this worth any hesitation I have regarding it.

Our admittedly rudimentary knowledge of the New Gods/4th World stuff shouldn't impede our enjoyment of it.

[dishpan]

Hey guys, would you recommend buying the Teen Titans Omnibus by Geoff Johns ? I haven't read anything from that run and I'm not a big fan of Johns, but I enjoyed his JSA Omnibus Vol 1 (Vol 2 is on the way) and most of his Flash (Wally West) run. His recent stuff does nothing for me though. Based on that, do you think I'd enjoy his Teen Titans run ?

Since you liked GJ's early stuff more than his recent stuff, and TT is older it may be more to your liking. If you care, I wrote a longer review for Amazon which spells out who would find it confusing and who would be fine. It depends a lot on what else you've read from that era of DC. Hope this helps

http://smile.amazon.com/review/R2Q5Y...SIN=1401236936

[dishpan]

How is the content, for it's era, of the Superman Golden Age Omnibus?
That's the book I'm leaning towards next. Supes in those early stories is largely taking on mob crime, right?

I knew I would like this book since I am a Superman fan but I did not expect to love it as much as I did. I picked it up having never read any of his first stories, just because it was listed on a number of "best of" collected editions reviews the year it released. I think it's really fun to read and see what Superman was like when he was originally conceived and how he was presented first by his actual creators. To answer your specific question yes he takes on some mob crime but there is more to it than that. I couldn't put it down and it made me wish DC would go back to that some more. The closest thing I enjoyed was the Action Comics #1 by Morrison and Morales. I can say you will not be disappointed with the preservation at least, regardless of how you feel about the content itself. Hope this helps.

[Captain Craig]

Thanks for the GA Superman feedback from those that answered.
I did place the order for it today. I'm still working on the GJ GL vol.1 and have Animal Man Omni now as well but I look forward to getting around to this one.

I'm going to have to spend some time car shopping(got in a wreck w/the snow&ice my way) and that will cut into reading time.

[Raffi Ol D'Arcy]

It is quite the impressive roster of creators!

While I'm more of a Marvel fan, I've read (and enjoyed) a ton of DC. However, my New Gods/4th World exposure is more limited. That being said, I read about three reviews of Simonson's ORION and they all underscore how fantastic this work is (the overall story telling, both writing and art). A couple reviewers in particular wrote how this ORION run is a tremendous work of modern myth making (Google for a few reviews and see what others think). That, plus the fact that I consider Walt's THOR run one of the greatest runs in comic book history, make this worth any hesitation I have regarding it.

Our admittedly rudimentary knowledge of the New Gods/4th World stuff shouldn't impede our enjoyment of it.

Thanks for your well thought out and informative posts regarding the Orion Simonson Omnibus and the chronogical order. Initially I wasn't that interested but now I'm thinking of picking it up at some point. I have no interest in a TPB, the Omnibus is the only way to go for me

It's cool that DC sent Mr. Simonson a copy or two. I've noticed they're pretty good at that as opposed to Marvel. IIRC, Roger Stern shared some early pics of the Death & Return of Superman Omnibus because he also received an early copy but mentioned not getting a copy of the Spidey Omnibus around the time of release.