DC Hardcover Collected Editions Part 3

[TomSlick]

I'll never understand the lack of Absolute or Omnibus editions of Alan Moore's Swamp Thing. Wouldn't it sell? Aren't DC aware? Is there any series more deserving?

That art? Oversized? Oh man, count me in. Plus the stories are amazing.

[Captain Craig]

Depends on where they draw the line (I've seen Batman 103 and Detective 236 from October 1956 being designated as the start of the Silver Age for those titles). From my rough calculations, seems like it'd take a total of around 11 or 12 volumes to collect all the Golden Age issues including Detective and Batman as well as the issues of World's Finest, Star Spangled, All-Star, etc. that feature Batman during the Golden Age. Again, just a rough estimation based on the number of issues.

That would be a massive set of tomes on JUST Batman!
Would they double dip on those Worlds Finest for Superman volumes I wonder? Cause Supes probably would be the same omni count.
WW wouldn't be though, right? Probably get her GA material in 6-7 Omnis?

[Master Destructo]

That would be a massive set of tomes on JUST Batman!

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure there has yet to be a DC (or Marvel) Omnibus published or solicited that is numbered "Vol. 4." Getting a Batman GA Vol. 4 would be unprecedented and awesome, and I would be astounded if we ever actually get 12 volumes of Golden Age Batman. Having a line of Vol. 1, Vol. 2, etc. on my shelf looks cool, but it seems to cause problems for publishers in terms of sales. Each volume sells less than the previous one. Maybe DC could have come up with "thematic" titles for the Golden Age volumes rather than Vol. 1, 2, etc. Like Batman Golden Age Origins Omnibus and Batman Golden Age The War Years Omnibus. This is similar to what Marvel did with the Brubaker Captain America omnis. No Volume numbers, just thematic titles. When buying numbered Volumes, consumers are much less likely to buy a Volume 4 if they don't already own Volumes 1-3 (and god forbid one of those previous volumes is OOP). But if it just has an interesting title that makes no reference to a Volume, someone could buy it without that psychological deterrent.

[Robin Boy Wonder]

I think I'm going to cut myself off with the Golden Age stuff. Having 11 or 12 volumes of just GA Batman is ridiculous. I finished the first omnibus, the first 11 issues are great and after that the quality ranges from good to annoyingly repetitive. 2 Volumes of Batman, Superman, and 1 of Wonder Woman should be enough for me. I'm looking forward to more silver and bronze age stuff.

So they are reprinting green lantern silver age? That makes me regret buying the old volumes. I'll hold off buying the new green lantern silver age until they go past the 2 omnibus I already have which could be 1-2 years from now.

[Balakin]

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure there has yet to be a DC (or Marvel) Omnibus published or solicited that is numbered "Vol. 4." Getting a Batman GA Vol. 4 would be unprecedented and awesome, and I would be astounded if we ever actually get 12 volumes of Golden Age Batman. Having a line of Vol. 1, Vol. 2, etc. on my shelf looks cool, but it seems to cause problems for publishers in terms of sales. Each volume sells less than the previous one. Maybe DC could have come up with "thematic" titles for the Golden Age volumes rather than Vol. 1, 2, etc. Like Batman Golden Age Origins Omnibus and Batman Golden Age The War Years Omnibus. This is similar to what Marvel did with the Brubaker Captain America omnis. No Volume numbers, just thematic titles. When buying numbered Volumes, consumers are much less likely to buy a Volume 4 if they don't already own Volumes 1-3 (and god forbid one of those previous volumes is OOP). But if it just has an interesting title that makes no reference to a Volume, someone could buy it without that psychological deterrent.

I agree that's quite a good strategy. I like how the Marvel epic collections have their own titles but they have a numbering on the back, so you can put them in order but won't screw up any shelf uniformity.
I also like dating the volumes like some older strip collections do. So it's Rip Kirby 1967-1969 instead of volume 7. Skipping inbetween volumes is still a problem in this case but it causes much less ocd than numbered volumes.

[Balakin]

I think I'm going to cut myself off with the Golden Age stuff. Having 11 or 12 volumes of just GA Batman is ridiculous. I finished the first omnibus, the first 11 issues are great and after that the quality ranges from good to annoyingly repetitive. 2 Volumes of Batman, Superman, and 1 of Wonder Woman should be enough for me. I'm looking forward to more silver and bronze age stuff.

I'm only going for volumes ones and mostly for the tpb versions. I love omnibuses but with these books I'm mostly just sampling the material so the new ed thick paperbacks are perfect for it.

[AlecHolland]

Personally I would love to see a complete collection of Batman's chronology. I know it seems very unlikely but it would be just amazing.

[Robin Boy Wonder]

I'm only going for volumes ones and mostly for the tpb versions. I love omnibuses but with these books I'm mostly just sampling the material so the new ed thick paperbacks are perfect for it.

Yeah, collecting only the volumes one of everything seems very reasonable. It's cool having these as historical pieces. Maybe I'll change my mind after reading volume 2 but I seriously doubt it unless volume 2 is some sort of revelation. I'm expecting more Superhero beats gangster A, B, C, etc...

I'm excited to read the silver age stuff. I've read a bit of Flash and Green Lantern from the chronicles I own from years back. Hopefully, the silver age lives up to Marvel's silver age but I doubt that because the "Marvel Age" of comics is just too good.

[Captain Craig]

No numbered OMNI from either company has gone past a vol.3 as yet. As noted the Brubaker Caps are 5 in total but not numbered.
Uncanny X-Men and Fantastic Four are both at vol.3 and it seems a sure bet that both are at least strong candidates to get a vol.4 as the vol.3 in both series still sold really strong. I'd wager we get ASM vol.3 next year and that title would be a strong sure bet vol.4 contender.

After that, at Marvel, it's still a crap shoot on if we ever get an Invincible IM, Cap Am or Thor vol.3 Silver Age Omnis.
Still waiting on an Hulk vol.2 but that is surely a long, long shot.

I totally get that there are diminishing returns on numbered Omni lots, especially if one goes OOP, for retailers so perhaps in order to avoid that they should do like they've done with Master of Kung-Fu. Upfront wholly commit to stating how many are being done and then crank them out every 4-5 months.
I'd totally get all 12 Batman Golden Age Omnis if I knew with certainty what the endgame was.

[Robin Boy Wonder]

Personally I would love to see a complete collection of Batman's chronology. I know it seems very unlikely but it would be just amazing.

No numbered OMNI from either company has gone past a vol.3 as yet. As noted the Brubaker Caps are 5 in total but not numbered.
Uncanny X-Men and Fantastic Four are both at vol.3 and it seems a sure bet that both are at least strong candidates to get a vol.4 as the vol.3 in both series still sold really strong. I'd wager we get ASM vol.3 next year and that title would be a strong sure bet vol.4 contender.

After that, at Marvel, it's still a crap shoot on if we ever get an Invincible IM, Cap Am or Thor vol.3 Silver Age Omnis.
Still waiting on an Hulk vol.2 but that is surely a long, long shot.

I totally get that there are diminishing returns on numbered Omni lots, especially if one goes OOP, for retailers so perhaps in order to avoid that they should do like they've done with Master of Kung-Fu. Upfront wholly commit to stating how many are being done and then crank them out every 4-5 months.
I'd totally get all 12 Batman Golden Age Omnis if I knew with certainty what the endgame was.

I seriously doubt we'll get another silver age continuation of the Marvel stuff, aside from Spider-Man vol 3 and maybe a Fantastic Four Vol 4 to finish off the Lee/Kirby Line though that would be a smaller omnibus. The MM series was made to collect everything and there is always the problem of diminishing returns. I doubt they'll ever reprint the omnibus for the original Thor, Hulk, Iron Man, X-Men, etc... They now have the Epic Collection line which has already reprinted a lot of the OOP material. Those are going to have much broader appeal, are good quality, and you can get them at a steal of a price.

More evidence that we'll never see a Thor Vol 3 or a Hulk 2 or what have you is the fact that the epic collections are already collecting the stuff just past the first or second collected omnibus. In fact, a lot of the gap issues between the various omnibus are being printed in the epic collection.

The reality is that the definitive collected collection has already been in work for years and it's called digital. Omnibus allows comic publishers to provide reprinted MM material to a small but dedicated collector group. It also allows them to remaster content and then transfer it digitally.

On the point about Captain America Brubaker, yeah that is very rare in it being 5 volumes. I would also point out that if these were printed today that we'd most likely see a couple of volumes combined rather than spread out.

They handled Kung-Fu very well. They came in with a set plan and are delivering on it. I would probably say a lot of that has to do with it being such a niche title. They likely wanted people to be assured that they'd actually be getting an entire run rather than having to worry about having an incomplete set.

[beastmaster283]

Ignorant question: Are there no solicits coming out this week? Don't they come out every third Monday for DC? Obviously not this month since I've seen nothing.

[Raffi Ol D'Arcy]

Ignorant question: Are there no solicits coming out this week? Don't they come out every third Monday for DC? Obviously not this month since I've seen nothing.

If I'm not mistaken, they generally come out on a Tuesday. If not today, then I reckon they'll be out next Tuesday.

[ER Prest]

I'm okay with 1-3 omnibus books per character/title per "age" if you will, and maybe some deluxe editions of the seminal stories from those ages that weren't in the omnibuses.

But I really want a Byrne Superman/Man of Steel(and honestly, some Triangle Years) omnibus, and the Geoff Johns/Gates/Robinson/Rucka Superfam run in an omnibus too.

[Thor2014]

I'm only going for volumes ones and mostly for the tpb versions. I love omnibuses but with these books I'm mostly just sampling the material so the new ed thick paperbacks are perfect for it.

I'm also only going for the number ones, with a probable exception for Wonder Woman of course.

[Johnny Thunders!]

I would be happy with 3 per era too. Superman is odd, I don't see why they wouldn't make a Byrne omnibus. Marvel seems to reprint everything Byrne did. All Star Comics, SHAZAM, Sgt. Rock, Jonah Hex, LOSH, Plastic Man, DC Comics Presents, House of Mystery, and House of Secrets. Those are the books in my omnibus wish list.