What have you added to your collection recently? Showing 3,351-3,400 of 8,181

[Jesse]

It's phenomenal. Solid edition too. (If you got the Deluxe)

[XenofoneX]

Nickviola wrote: "FYI re: AKIRA 35th anniversary boxset...

Available for order on barbers and noble and if you use the 20% “letsread” discount today and the baseline 42% off, it comes to $103.50 total including tax..."

I ordered through Amazon.ca, and it's on it's way, apparently. Kodansha are unpredictable when it comes to reprints, so the '35th Anniversay' Boxed Set suggests a one time only deal. $104 USD is a damn good price... I paid about 30$ more, CAD, but that includes tax & shipping.

I also picked up two ltd. ed. prints from Black Dragon Press, both by Nicolas Delort, who's currently No.1 of my Top 10 Illustrator list. (view spoiler)[He works with arguably the most difficult real world medium - scratchboard - and manages to do what many of the other master illustrators - even Durieux - do mostly or completely in ones & zeros. The end result is most important, and digital has it's owns challenges, but Delort's work for 'Black Dragon Press' is incredible; scratchboard is a dry medium, like 2-D sculpting, and correcting mistakes is near impossible, though digital cleanup allows for perfection in reproduced prints.

The Top Illustrators for Movie, Concert & Art Prints:
01a. Nicolas Delort - 'Nosferatu the Vampire', Dir. by Werner Herzog - I'd already owned an 11x14 art print by Delort from VACVVM, but it was the first full-sized Delort movie poster print I'd seen, and was blown by it... I'm also a Herzog fan, so I was sad to find it was sold out.
- Fortunately, Black Dragon recently put out his brilliant 'Fitzcarraldo' film poster (2nd Pic below), which is the quintessential Herzog masterpiece, and Nicolas Delort at his absolute peak.
-I was also fortunate that among the few Delort prints available, there was a stunning homage to my favorite Swiss Symbolist painting/painter, Arnold Bocklin's 'Isle of the Dead (Der Toten Insel)' (though the description referenced classical music inspired by Bocklin, it never mentioned him or the painting, which is odd...)

01b. Aaron Horkey : 'True Grit', 'There Will be Blood', 'Pan's Labyrinth', 'Jurassic Park', 'The Lord of the Rings Trilogy(x3)', 'Fantastic Planet',
01c. James Jean: Fables - Covers by James Jean, Kindling Portfolio, Process Recess, 'Mother!'-[JJ did 2 Official Studio Film Posters (Bardem in flames, JLaw in rainforest), used for Press Junkets, Multi-Platform Advertising](All 3 tied for 01.)

02a. Laurent Durieux: 'Pulp Fiction', 'Rear Window', 'The Birds', 'Vertigo', 'The Master', 'Jaws', 'Forbidden Planet', 'The Mummy'
02b. Ken Taylor: 'Alien', '20 000 Leagues Under the Sea', 'Beetljuice', 'Metropolis', 'Drive', 'Poltergeist', 'The Birds', 'Hellboy II', 'Cronos',

03. Joao Ruas: 'Magnolia'

04. Vania Zouravliov: 'The Devil's Backbone', 'Dracula'

05a. Martin Ansin: 'The Mummy', 'The Bride of Frankenstein', 'A Wretched Hive - Star Wars', 'Batman (1966)', 'Ghost in the Shell', 'Brazil', 'Metropolis', 'The Wolf Man', 'The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus'
05b. Tomer Hanuka: '300', 'The Warriors', 'Psycho', 'Mud', 'Melancholia', 'Rambo - First Blood',

06a. Killian Eng: 'Jodorowsky's Dune', 'The Black Hole', 'The Terminator',
06b. Kevin Tong: 'Gravity', 'Psycho',

07a. Phantom City Creative: 'The Skeleton Dance', 'Hannibal (TV)', 'Godzilla',
07b. Olly Moss: 'The Original Star Wars Trilogy', 'Howl's Moving Castle', 'The Evil Dead'

08a. Tyler Stout: 'Akira', 'The Orig. Star Wars Trilogy (x3)', 'Attack the Block', 'Drive', 'Ingourious Basterds', 'Kill Bill'
08b. Jason Edmiston: 'Go Ape! (Planet of the Apes Fest)', 'Evil Dead II', 'ANightmare on Elm Street III', Visceral: The Art of Jason Edmiston

09a. Richey Beckett: 'Army of Darkness', 'The Wicker Man'
09b. Jeff Proctor: 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre', 'Hobo with a Shotgun', 'Zombie', 'Dawn of the Dead'

10a. Mike Sutfin: Embers - Vol. 1, 'Creepshow',
10b. Francesco Francavilla: 'Clash of the Titans', 'The Black Cauldron'
ALSO:
Florian Bertmer: 'The Vault of Horror', 'Night of the Living Dead',
(hide spoiler)]

Nicolas Delort: Homage to Bocklin's 'Isle of the Dead (Die Toteninsel)'[1st Image] & Werner Herzog's 1982 allegorical, surrealist masterpiece, 'Fitzcarraldo'[2nd Image]:(view spoiler)[



Then I ordered my second portfolio from VACVVM, this time an amazing 8-print boxed-set all by Mike Sutfin, 'Embers - Vol. 1'.



(hide spoiler)]

[Saugata]

Blindzider wrote: "@jesse I've never read secret identity before and wanted to give it a try. Far as I know it's the same edition it has always been."
I hope you like it. It is more of a clark kent than a Superman story.

[Relstuart, Mod+]

Eisnein,

Have you seen Ise Ananphada's art work? Not sure who to compare her too. I have her Princess Bride print and it is probably my favorite print of 2017.
Do you have an Expresso Beans profile?

BZ, looking forward to your thoughts on Secret Identity. :)

In my last few orders I ordered the Grayson Omnibus, Bloodshot OHC 2, Green Valley OHC, Superman America Alien standard size HC, and the Justice League Darkseid War omnibus. Still need to grab Absolute Authority, Absolute World's Greatest, and a few other things.

I read a couple of the new DC Rebirth OHCs but then paused when I realized I didn't have any idea what was going on in the Superman volume to read the Darkseid War book to see if that would help.

[Donovan]

Rel, there are a few prerequisite Supes books to read ahead of time. Another is Final Days of Superman and Rebirth. Which is why I️ haven’t bothered. Really not impressed with Rebirth. My favorite title Batman has gone to hell IMO so I’m literally not reading any new DC but going back in time for great Bat books and reading mostly Image stuff.

[Relstuart, Mod+]

Mad Tom wrote: "Rel, there are a few prerequisite Supes books to read ahead of time. Another is Final Days of Superman and Rebirth. Which is why I️ haven’t bothered. Really not impressed with Rebirth. My favorite ..."

I picked up the Lois and Clark TPB since someone here said that was a must read to figure out what was going on with Superman. It's in the too read stack. I love that DC is printing their series in oversize format. The Metal stuff sounds like it could be an interesting event that they are going through right now.

For the Rebirth books I have picked up the Nightwing book, Superman Rebirth, Action Comics, the Flash, Justice League, and King's Batman
I'll be adding the Detective Comics OHC and Wonder Woman probably. Open to feedback from folks on if other books are worth picking up. I'd love to see Marvel follow suit with the OHCs for most of their major books.

For single issues Batman Beyond is the only book I am subscribed too. I haven't actually been reading it. If we don't get an oversized printing I'll custom bind it eventually.

[Donovan]

I️ really dig All Star Batman. Flash was just ok. Looking forward to Metal. Really anything Snyder Batman I’m in for.

[XenofoneX]

Relstuart wrote: "Eisnein,

Have you seen Ise Ananphada's art work? Not sure who to compare her too. I have her Princess Bride print and it is probably my favorite print of 2017.
Do you have an Expresso Beans prof..."

I haven't that I recall, but I'll be checking it out shortly; that's high praise. I was just kind of noticing that the Mondo & Co. stable is probably 98% male, which simply is what it is; so I'll be interested to see if her work is strong enough to make her a favorite...

And yes, I do technically have one... I've used EB for research a bit; but I kind of forgot about it, and never really got around to exploring the forum. Thanks for reminding me about it.

[Rob]

Looks like IST will have the Akira boxset next week.

[Nickviola]

Yep, IST just emailed me back to say the same thing. My order from B&N for $103 is arriving Friday, I'll update to how the shipping was when I see it! So excited!!

[Ryan]

Now I'm really excited about this. Been wanting to read Akira for a long while now.

[Erik, Moderator]

Thoughts on the Secret Empire HC? I’ve stopped buying single issues for event books to hold out for collections. Now the HC is available . . . I’m interested, but haven’t heard much about this story.

[guanaeps]

Dan wrote: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xivCz...

11 Minute unveiling of the Akira boxset, which has convinced me to purchase it."

Great video! I read somewhere that the translation was a little different in this boxset––apparently all the sound effects are still in Japanese, among other things––so I paused the video and compared the pages to the soft covers I own, and there were some interesting differences. Mostly minor things, like I said all the sound effects are in Japanese, and I noticed tiny dialogue differences as well.

https://imgur.com/a/N2zBx

Here's some pictures to compare the two, the first pic is a screenshot of the video opened to a page, and then the other two images are scans or digitals from the original DarkHorse release of the same page/sequence.

Super excited for it!

[Blindzider, Moderator]

I'm curious about secret empire as well but I won't buy that until I read it for free somehow.

[Nickviola]

I’ve heard the artist changes really hurt the book and that the story was average. But I haven’t been reading any marvel books in single issues lately so that’s just word of mouth.

[Relstuart, Mod+]

I have all the single issues of Secret Empire for a custom bind but haven't read them. The reviews generally haven't been strong. Outside of Secret Wars I'm not sure we've had a big event at Marvel that has gotten a decent amount of praise in a few years now. I still need to read Civil War II as well.

[Nickviola]

Yeah, Marvel is really trying to push me away. They get negative press from the old fans for their current diversity, but thats not the problem at all. Its inconsistent art, stories that are regularly interupted for whatever stupid crossover or event happens, and generally just telling very bland stories.

Its obvious why Hawkeye, Loki, and Ms. Marvel caught on (in the zeitgeist at least - i dont know sales numbers), its because they were willing to experiment with their story telling and narratives.

The only two series of the last 2 years that I would even want in an omni are The Ultimates and Silver Surfer.

[Relstuart, Mod+]

There are some frustrating things with Marvel. Silver Surfer was nominated for an Eisner a year or so ago and no collected edition of the nominated material seems like a poor choice.

The comic medium has always had some zany things going on (Thor frog anyone?) but somehow the manner and number of odd things being done has stuck a discordant note with many Marvel readers.

As a result in the dip in quality from the major brands and their characters I've started following some writers more than I have before (Brubaker, Lemire, Remender and Hickman to a lesser degree). Perhaps that is a good thing. :)

[Bruno]

Nickviola wrote: "Yeah, Marvel is really trying to push me away. They get negative press from the old fans for their current diversity, but thats not the problem at all. Its inconsistent art, stories that are regula..."

Take that on the positive side... more "time" to check what Dark Horse, Image, IDW, ... are putting out, and breaking a bit with the "heroe" genre that has been around for 50 plus years...

[Nickviola]

Exact same writers for me. Honestly, its why I have been getting all the Valiant Deluxe's - they all take part in an interconnected world with consequences and while the binding is tight, the books all look uniform, they are put in in a good period of time, and they essentially hardcover everything once an appropriate length of material is available. Beyond that, across the board the art and writing for me are consistently better than Marvel. For example, I love the X-Men, but I hung on with ANXM for too long, tried the blue and gold which were poor, and then the other books were even worse so I finally had to say - if I love the characters, it doesnt mean I have to read their stories if they are bad especially if there are no consequences in this world (live, die, be in multiple books at the same time doing different things with different personalities).

[Bruno]

I have to admit i do hate the "not stay dead" approach of Marvel/DC... removes all the importance of any character dying in a certain run. We know he will be back at some point... no action has consequences.

[Ooh_jim]

I thought Spencer's Steve & Sam runs started out fairly well; and Hydra-cap was an interesting premise, if poorly executed (and poorly timed), but Secret Empire wasn't very good.

I'm going to agree with Nickviola that Ultimates & Silver Surfer have been the two strongest runs recently. I'd probably go in for a collection of the recent Moon Knight stuff too; anything from Ellis' run onwards, really.

[Nickviola]

AKIRA 35th Anniversary Boxset arrived from Barnes & Noble today! I am sure IST will have a great deal and ship well on Tuesday when its released, but I got it for 50% off and arrived in 4 days through B&N. I put up pictures of the packaging and the product. Arrived looking great!!

It is super heavy and a really thick box, likely genuinely takes a bit of effort to pick up the whole thing. And the top closes with a little magnet so it stays shut and takes a little tiny effort to open and then opens wide. There is a little white cushion inside that supports the books. Overall, arrived looking great, pretty perfect despite just the air bags for support.... pics below...

https://www.goodreads.com/photo/group...
https://www.goodreads.com/photo/group...
https://www.goodreads.com/photo/group...
https://www.goodreads.com/photo/group...

[Nickviola]

Also... put up a new picture of the complete collection after a little reorganization... sorry I can never get the imbedded photo thing to work...

https://www.goodreads.com/photo/group...

[Blindzider, Moderator]

Wow! That is really nice and makes me want one. Looks like it was meant to be on that shelf.

[Reece]

Nickviola wrote: "Also... put up a new picture of the complete collection after a little reorganization... sorry I can never get the imbedded photo thing to work...

https://www.goodreads.com/photo/group......"

Shelves are looking good! What's the artist edition next to your Little Nemo?

I also got my Akira box set delivered today, mine from Amazon. It's an amazing piece of quality craftsmanship and I'm glad I picked it up, despite the price. Just had to endure a few eye rolls from my wife.

[Nickviola]

Yeah... I got the eye rolls too...

The AE is the last Kirby FF World’s Greatest. It’s epic!

[Donovan]

Nice collection!

[The Lion's Share]

Nickviola wrote: "Also... put up a new picture of the complete collection after a little reorganization... sorry I can never get the imbedded photo thing to work...

https://www.goodreads.com/photo/group......"

Nice collection, looks like you're missing the 5th BPRD deluxe the 1943 one?

[Paul]

Awesome Nick!

[Tony]

Nickviola wrote: "I’m guessing the Akira 35th boxset is delayed? It seems to be off IST altogether and Amazon lists it as out of stock.

Can anyone confirm that? Or give update?"

Mine just arrived but I'm in the UK

[Ooh_jim]

My Simonson's Thor omni arrived the other day. Looks g forward to checking that one out after seeing Ragnarock.

I've also just won a copy of Kirby & Lee's F4 vol 1 for £20 on eBay. The back cover's pretty smashed up, but I'm not interested in the run enough to go for a copy at full price.

[Nickviola]

I love the original FF, it’s campy at times but by volume 2 it gets nasty with galactic and silver surfer.

[Blindzider, Moderator]

Just out of curiosity is it the first printing with the different spine lettering or the later design?

[Ooh_jim]

It's the later printing. Not a fan of that original design on the spine.

[The Lion's Share]

You guys twisted my arm. I just bought the akira box set. You guys are killing my bank account.

[Ozan]

Eagerly waiting for Tuesday to get the Akira Box set from IST. :D I won't get it from Amazon after all the horror stories, even if it will cost me more, i will have to pay a great deal of customs tax for it... But so be it cause i want my Akira box set without a flaw.

[Nickviola]

Sorry, Cheese! It’s worth it at least!

[Nickviola]

Mad Tom wrote: "Nice collection!"

Thanks!!

[Nickviola]

Cheese wrote: "Nice collection, looks like you’re missing the 5th BPRD deluxe the 1943 one."

Thanks! I think I have the one you mean - it’s just up against the Hellboy LE as a bookend.

[Nickviola]

Paul wrote: "Awesome Nick!"

Thanks, Paul!!

[Karsten]

Nickviola wrote: "Exact same writers for me. Honestly, its why I have been getting all the Valiant Deluxe's - they all take part in an interconnected world with consequences and while the binding is tight, the books..."

This. I'm a DC boy to be honest, Supe and especially Batman were my heroes back in the day, which is around 1983. However I grew fond of the Marvel heroes as well, but nowadays whenever I look at the modern issues of either of them it just feels empty.
Most of them pop up in numbers whenever a given character is prominent in the MCU or DCU, like if they are riding the films as vehicles and no longer the characters from the comics.

Valiant does everything right so far, enjoyable stories with consequences. And as you said, Bruno, time to enjoy Dark Horse, IDW, Image and their storylines (almost) free from marketing strings.

On the topic of the thread. Got me The Stand Omnibus and my god, it is gorgeous. I read the novel in the 90s and the comic stays true to the story, but the books (it goes with a companion) itself are absolutely stunning. Best Marvel omnibus I'm currently owning.

[Tony]

Picked up the Akira boxset today (my neighbours love me). It's a beaut https://www.instagram.com/p/BbKDLk2Bg...

[Blindzider, Moderator]

Nice video! Thanks for sharing but you aren't helping me try to avoid it. :P

[Bruno]

Blindzider wrote: "Nice video! Thanks for sharing but you aren't helping me try to avoid it. :P"

And i think is cheaper to get the box than the 6 TPBs ;)

[Tony]

Bear in mind these are new translations in hardcover and remastered with the original removed sound effects back in, quite different from the existing editions.

[gxvault]

Hey guys, is the akira boxset colour or BW!?

[Nickviola]

Covers are color, inside is original black and white. English text. Japanese sound effects. 1 bonus book (Akira Club) included with some color work.

[The Lion's Share]

Nickviola wrote: "Covers are color, inside is original black and white. English text. Japanese sound effects. 1 bonus book (Akira Club) included with some color work."

Japanese sound effects? wha??

[Relstuart, Mod+]

Coming today on IST:


Abe Sapien Dark & Terrible HC Vol 1 (standard size?)
Akira 35Th Anniversary HC Box Set
Batman & Robin Omnibus by Tomasi & Gleason
Batman Hush 15th Anniversary DLX
Batman Knightfall Omnibus HC Vol 02
Doctor Who 12Th Complete Ed Year One HC
Drukija Contessa Of Blood Ltd Ed HC
Elenora Mandragora Daughter Of Merlin HC
Fantagraphics Studio Ed HC Jaime Hernandez
Fiction House From Pulps To Panels HC
Justice League Magazine Official Coll Ed HC
Legend Scarlet Blades HC
Mike Mignola Hellboy Artist Ed HC (New Ptg)
Marvel Masterworks Incredible Hulk HC Vol 11
Paper Girls OHC Vol 01
Pre Code Classics Unknown World Strange Stories HC
Silver Age Classics Out Of This World HC Vol 01
Titans The Lazarus Contract HC
Trillium OHC by Lemire
The Rook Archives HC Vol 3