hardcover
Vertigo plans deluxe Death, new Ronald Wimberly OGN in late 2012
Prince of Cats
DC Comics unveiled their plans for collections, trades and original graphic novels yesterday for late 2012, both for the DC line (which included the Amethyst news) and for Vertigo. In addition to collections of ongoing titles like The Unwritten and the upcoming Saucer Country, the Vertigo list included a few items of note:
- Fables: Werewolves of the Heartland, which was supposed to be out last fall but was delayed until September 2012, has now been pushed back to November 2012.
- Just in time for Halloween is a deluxe edition that collects the various Death miniseries that Neil Gaiman wrote during his epic run on Sandman. It includes both The High Cost of Living and The Time of Your Life, as well as the Death-centric stories from Sandman #8 and #20. It also includes a bunch of shorter stories, like the Death tale from the 9/11 book DC put out and the infamous public service announcement piece about the proper way to put on a condom, starring Death, John Constantine and a banana.
- And in September Vertigo will release an new original graphic novel by Ronald Wimberly, who drew Sentences: The Life of M.F. Grimm and some other books for Vertigo. I’m not sure exactly what the book is about, but Wimberly has a Tumblr set up where he is posting art, like the piece up top.
- January 31, 2012 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
Ryan Ottley’s cover process for the next Invincible hardcover
On his blog, the insanely talented Ryan Ottley shares his process for creating the cover to the Invincible Vol. 7: Ultimate Collection, which features the huge cast of characters from issues #71-84, a.k.a. the Viltrumite War storyline.
“I always have a hard time with these covers, they are always packed with everyone from the issues so it’s tough to get any kind of composition,” he said in the post. “Here I tried to organize things a little bit but with keeping the same idea of all the other covers.”
The hardcover collection is due Feb. 15, and you can catch up on previous volumes, as well as purchase Ottley’s latest sketchbook, in his new online store.
- January 19, 2012 @ 10:00 AM by JK Parkin
Oni Press to publish color hardcovers of Ted Naifeh’s Courtney Crumrin series
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Ted Naifeh’s Courtney Crumrin series, Oni Press will release color “special edition prestige hardcovers” of the series. Courtney Crumrin, Volume 1: The Night Things, Special Edition will hit store shelves in April 2012.
“Readers love Courtney Crumrin for how vividly Ted renders the magical world he has dreamed up,” said Oni Press editor Jill Beaton in a press release. “The original versions were wonderful, and Ted is one of those cartoonists who really understands how to use black ink on a white page. Despite the level of detail, he avoided over-rendering his drawings, meaning that the work is still open and has room to breathe. It also means there is space for color. Warren is highlighting what is already there, filling in an extra dimension that previously was left to the reader.”
Naifeh is remastering the material, working closely with colorist Warren Wucinich to create a spooky palette “that accentuates what everyone loved about the original black-and-white art while providing a completely different way of seeing Naifeh’s fully realized world,” the press release says.
In addition to the color treatment, Oni Press’ art director, Keith Wood, is pulling out all the stops to make the Courtney Crumrin, Volume 1: The Night Things, Special Edition special. “In talking with Ted about what we wanted to do with the hardcover,” Wood said, “he told me that it should look like a book you’d find on Uncle Aloysius’ bookshelf, something Courtney might stumble on when snooping around his office. It’s going to be a cool object as well as a good read.”
The book features a special silver ink, embossed cover and an old-fashioned ribbon bookmark placed in the sewn spine. The 136-page, 6” x 9”, graphic novel will retail for $19.99
“I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished with Courtney Crumrin,” said Naifeh. “It’s been ten wonderful, creative years, and I’m happy to have done it at Oni Press. The fans have shown us tremendous support, and I hope they will enjoy the chance to relive these adventures with a brand-new hue.”
Check out some of the colored artwork after the jump.
- December 20, 2011 @ 02:30 PM by JK Parkin
DC Comics reveals collection plans for first arcs of the New 52
DC Comics Presents #6
DC Comics announced 51 upcoming trade paperbacks and hardcovers yesterday, as they plan to start rolling out collected editions of their New 52 relaunch titles next year. They’ll publish 7-8 of them each month from May to November.
Yep, they only list 51 trade paperbacks — Wonder Woman is missing. And it looks like the DC Universe Presents trade will collect both the Deadman story that wraps in issue #5 and the Dan DiDio/Jerry Ordway Challengers of the Unknown tale that starts in issue #6.
Coming out first as hardcovers are the first New 52 story arcs for Justice League, Batman, Green Lantern, Detective Comics, Batwoman, Batman and Robin, Batgirl, Action Comics, Batman: The Dark Knight, Green Lantern Corps, Aquaman, Green Lantern: New Guardians, Flash and Superman. DC’s choices for the hardcover treatment line up almost perfectly with their top-selling titles for September; Teen Titans outsold Batwoman and Aquaman, but will go straight to trade paperback.
Check out the complete list after the jump.
- November 10, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by JK Parkin
Milk and Cheese deluxe hardcover loaded with extras
Milk and Cheese
The release of Dark Horse’s latest round of solicitations last week revealed that Evan Dorkin’s humor comic Milk and Cheese will get the deluxe hardcover treatment, collecting “every single stupid Milk and Cheese comic ever made from 1989 to 2010, along with a sh*t-ton of supplemental awesomeness.”
On his LiveJournal, Dorkin revealed details on what the “supplemental awesomeness” will entail:
- The book will feature over 80 pages of comics that have not been collected before.
- There will be a 24-pg color section featuring all the color M&C strips, a cover gallery, pin-ups, merchandise art, trading cards, etc.
- There will also be a 24-pg B&W supplemental section featuring pin-ups, t-shirt designs, and other art, etc.
- The book will include the rare 1997 M&C Special Edition 16-pg mini-comic featuring the expanded “Darth Vader Overdrive” strip and extras.
- The only M&C-related comic that will not be in the collection is the M&C/Pirate Corp$! strip from Munden’s Bar Annual #2.
- Some very swell folks gave us some very nice back cover quotes.
- The book should be hefty enough to hurt anyone hit over the head with it.
- The book should be pretty freaking awesome.
The hardcover is due Dec. 21, just in time for Christmas.
- July 11, 2011 @ 05:00 AM by JK Parkin
SDCC Wishlist | UDON brings Mega Man, Street Fighter, RandomVeus to San Diego
The good folks at UDON Entertainment will be at the San Diego Comic-Con later this month, and they were kind enough to send over details on the books they’ll be selling at their booth (#5037). Their list includes Street Fighter Legends and MegaMan hardcovers, as well as their first-ever original graphic novel, RandomVeus by Jeffrey “Chamba” Cruz. You can also find details on booth signings and their panel below ….
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Comic-Con International: San Diego 2011 marks the beginning of UDON’s second decade of operations, and one of its biggest San Diego outtings ever!
With three new books debuting at Comic-Con (including 2 con-exclusives!) and more than 16 creators in attendance signing and sketching every day, no comics, video game, or art fan is going to want to miss out on all the great stuff going down at UDON, booth #5037!
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Art Books and Graphic Novels Debuting at Comic-Con:
MegaMan Tribute
MEGA MAN TRIBUTE HC
Celebrating over 20 years of the ‘blue bomber!’
Hundreds of artists from around the world join forces to pay homage to one of the most iconic figures in gaming with Mega Man Tribute! This 300+ page, full-colour art book is the ultimate celebration of the blue bomber, featuring the characters of Mega Man classic, Mega Man X, Mega Man Zero, Mega Man ZX, and Mega Man Legends in every style you can imagine! Includes original pieces by comics superstars Hitoshi Ariga (Mega Man: Megamix), Sean “Cheeks” Galloway (Teen Titans: GO!), Sanford Greene (Dark Horse Presents), and many more!
Premiering at Comic-Con, this limited edition hardcover version features exclusive cover art by Mega Man manga artist Hitoshi Ariga (Megamix, Gigamix) that will not be available on the softcover! This HC is a convention/UDON exclusive! Limited to 500 copies. SRP $80.
- July 6, 2011 @ 05:00 PM by JK Parkin
Clowes’ The Death-Ray hardcover coming from Drawn & Quarterly next fall
The Death-Ray
I’ve been anticipating this since Daniel Clowes teased it at the Alternative Press Expo in October … Tom Spurgeon broke the news this morning that Drawn & Quarterly will release a hardcover version of Clowes’ The Death-Ray next fall.
Much like Pantheon did when they repackaged Clowes’ Ice Haven as a stand-alone hardcover, the book will repackage and re-release an issue of Clowes’ Eightball — issue #23, which came out in 2004 and starred the outcast-turned superhero. The Death-Ray has also been optioned for film by Jack Black’s Electric Dynamite Productions, with Chris Milk attached to direct
“The Death-Ray is one of the most perfect and fully realized comics of the past decade and it is nothing short of the highest honour to publish,” said Chris Oliveros, editor-in-chief and publisher of Drawn & Quarterly in the press release. “The story of the alienated Andy is drawn and written to perfection with Dan’s signature subtle humour, stylistic eloquence, and understated social commentary–showcasing all of the hallmarks of why Dan is one of the preeminent cartoonists of the comics medium.”
You can find the entire press release after the jump.
- December 1, 2010 @ 07:11 AM by JK Parkin
Youngest Eisner winner shares her thoughts on the winning story
“The Magician and the Snake,” by Katie Mignola and Mike Mignola, appeared in the Dark Horse Maverick: Happy Endings anthology back in 2003, and the daughter/father duo took home an Eisner award that year for it. Katie was seven when she wrote it, and now it’s seeing print again in The Amazing Screw-On Head and Other Curious Objects hardcover, which arrives in stores next week.
The young author shares her thoughts on the story on the Dark Horse blog:
The Amazing Screw-On Head and Other Curious Objects
I don’t remember much about how I came up with the story other than that I painted a picture of a snake yelling at a bunch of shapes. I didn’t put any more thought into it until my dad asked me what I did at school that day and I told him about the picture. I made up the entire story on the spot and my dad said that he would like to use it in a comic. Over the course of a few months my dad drew the story, changing small details as he went such as the monkey king, which wasn’t in my original story. There were a few things that I wouldn’t let him change such as the magician’s style (he wanted him to be a parlor magician and I wanted a classic stars and moons magician) and the death of the magician. My dad suggested that the magician turn the snake into a lion so that he could eat the shapes and save the magician but I, for some reason, said that the magician had to die at the end.
She goes on to say that she was excited to tell her friends about the win, but “none of them had any idea what an Eisner was so it didn’t really mean anything to them.”
- August 17, 2010 @ 01:33 PM by JK Parkin
SDCC Wishlist | UDON celebrates 10 years with three hardcovers
Vent
Last week I asked comic folks if they had anything cool they’d be bringing to Comic-Con next week, and boy did they respond. Here’s the first of many posts that I’ll put up between now and the show to spotlight some of the cool items you can buy on the floor … and, when applicable, where else you can buy them if you aren’t at the show.
UDON Entertainment is celebrating their 10th anniversary with three hardcover books that’ll premiere at the show. Regular softcover versions will be available in stores in August/September and are available to pre-order now on Amazon.
- July 15, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by JK Parkin
Amazon no longer selling many graphic novels following price-glitch frenzy
Amazon.com has removed the “buy” button from all of the graphic novels it lists that are distributed by Diamond Book Distributors, including books from Marvel, Dark Horse, Image, IDW and many other publishers. Calvin Reid at Publishers Weekly reports this is apparently in response to last weekend’s pricing glitch, in which a variety of high-end books were erroneously marked at much lower prices. While the books are not available directly from Amazon, they can still be purchased on the website from third-party sellers.
Reid reports:
A source knowledgeable about the situation told PW that Amazon has been forced to temporarily take down buy buttons for all titles supplied by Diamond in order to correct the problem. According to the source, Amazon has to do an audit to figure out which customers got books and at what prices. While the situation is temporary, the source said, “there is no timetable for when this will be completed.” The buttons were still off Thursday morning.
Here’s a quick recap for anyone who was under a rock — or who, like me, missed all the excitement because they were sick in bed this weekend. On Sunday, Amazon was offering big discounts on all sorts of high-priced comics collections — everything from Marvel’s Omnibus line to the Bone: One Volume to The Complete Invincible Library Vol. 1 hardcover. Most of them dropped from their usual prices — those Omnibus editions retail for about $100 — to $14.99, with some falling to a little more than $8 as the day went on.
Fans and retailers went on a buying spree, and social-media sites like Twitter and Facebook were ablaze as creators pushed their own books and fans bragged about their purchases. But while some of the orders were filled and shipped, many of them were canceled, with customers receiving $25 credits for their trouble.
- March 11, 2010 @ 07:48 AM by JK Parkin
Exclusive Preview: David Malki’s Wondermark, Volume 3
Wondermark Volume 3: Dapper Caps & Pedal-Copters HC
Courtesy of Dark Horse Comics, we’re pleased to present a preview of the third collection of David Malki’s comic strip Wondermark. The strip appears online as well as in the print edition of The Onion.
Here’s a little more info on the quirky, funny strip:
It’s Wondermark time again! Come along for the ride as Dark Horse returns to David Malki’s silly, bizarre, and hilarious world that’s not quite present day, not quite the Victorian era, and not like anything else you’ve seen before. (Unless you’ve read the previous Wondermark books, of course!) This newest volume of the Eisner-nominated series contains over one hundred comic strips originally published in The Onion and on wondermark.com, plus many pages of additional material by creator David Malki. More than just webcomic collections, the Wondermark books have been praised for their magnificent design and loads of extra content for casual readers and superfans alike.
Check out the preview, which includes two exclusive pages, after the jump.
- March 10, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by JK Parkin
Plugging the hole in forever
Final Crisis hardcover
The Final Crisis hardcover hits stores today, and if you’re like me, you aren’t planning to pick it up because you already own the single issues. However, if you’re curious about the introduction to the hardcover by Arthur magazine’s Jay Babcock, DC has reprinted it over at the Source.
- June 10, 2009 @ 01:08 PM by JK Parkin
Paul Pope covers Hexed hardcover
Hexed cover by Paul Pope
Over in the BOOM! Studios forum, BOOM!’s Chip Mosher posts Paul Pope’s cover to the upcoming hardcover collection of Hexed. The book is due in July.
- March 30, 2009 @ 10:53 AM by JK Parkin