I’ve now got over 1000 books sorted into place and 2927 books in the offline database. I may actually do an update of the text list soon, though I’d rather just try and get to the point where I can transfer the offline information into the dynamic database online.

Here are the new books as of last update:

Invaders Now!
The Marvel Art of Mike Deodato
Warriors Three: Dog Day Afternoon
X-Men: Lifedeath
Spider-Man: The Death of Jean DeWolff
X-Men Vs. Avengers / Fantastic Four
Red Hulk: Scorched Earth
Spider-Man: New York Stories
Spider-Man: The Extremists
X-Men First Class: Class Portraits
Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes
Marvel Adventures Spider-Man Vol. 15: Peter Parker vs. The X-Men
Marvel Adventures Spider-Man: Amazing
Marvel Adventures Spider-Man: Spectacular
Marvel Adventures Spider-Man: Sensational
Marvel Adventures Thor featuring Captain America, Dr. Strange & Ant-Man
Marvel Adventures Thor and The Avengers
Marvel Adventures Spider-Man and The Avengers
Marvel Adventures Black Widow and The Avengers
Marvel Adventures Avengers: Iron Man
Marvel Adventures Avengers: Thor
Marvel Adventures Iron Man / Spider-Man
Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four: Spaced Crusaders
Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four: Doomed If You Don’t
Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four: Four-Three-Two-One?
Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four Vol. 1
Franklin Richards: Not-So-Secret Invasion

There is definitely a lot of Marvel Adventures and All Ages stuff on the list now. Unlike the Ultimate universe, there isn’t really an all encompassing continuity, though, so I still think it makes the most sense to just place them by date along the main list. Any thoughts?

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I just found this while doing a little Spidey research. Matt Kuhns over at Modern Ideas created cool little visual timeline for the various Spider-Man publications over the ages.

Kuhns posted “Spider-Man’s Tangled Publication-History Web” along with a bunch of fun (very nerdy) commentary, way back in October 2010. Not sure why it took me so long to see it, but it’s a nice little chart.

Exactly what I hope for from the internet! Check it out!

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With the help of the list Marc sent me, I’ve been moving his placements into order and putting in the remaining Marvel books. I found a couple more on his list and then even more upcoming books on Amazon.

Star Comics: All-Star Collection Vol. 1
Star Comics: All-Star Collection Vol. 2
Star Comics: All-Star Collection Vol. 3
Thing Classic Vol. 1
Power Pack Classic Vol. 3
Thunderbolts Classic Vol. 1
New Mutants Classic Vol. 6
Fantastic Four: Extended Family
Thor: The Lost Gods
Taskmaster: Unthinkable
The Legacy of Captain America
Captain America Vs. The Red Skull
Captain America: American Nightmare
Captain America: Man Out Of Time
Captain America by Dan Jurgens Vol. 1
Fantastic Four by Waid and Wieringo Ultimate Collection Book 1
Fantastic Four by Waid and Wieringo Ultimate Collection Book 2
Excalibur Visionaries: Alan Davis Vol. 3
Age of Heroes
Klaws of the Panther
Spider-Man / Fantastic Four
Young Allies Vol. 1
Hawkeye & Mockingbird / Black Widow: Widow’s Kiss
Amazing Marvel Universe
Marvel Universe
The Marvel Comics Guide to New York City

I won’t be adding these to the previous text list or bothering with links right now. The dynamic list is so close to going up that it just makes more sense to concentrate any time I have on getting it online.

Comment!

Four Color Process has posted a fantastic essay/manifesto titled In Defense of Dots: The Lost Art of Comic Books which contains the images I used to make the above animated gif.

It’s a great article and should be of interest to many of you collectors. There is definitely an aesthetic draw to printing, paper stock, even manufacturing errors.

As an artist that’s done his own printmaking and matrix creation, selections in those factors can do a LOT to increase the aesthetic appeal of a piece. As a reviewer of collected editions, it’s often hard to make a call on a particular volume.

It’s amazing, but understandable, how divided the comics community is on the subject of how to treat reprints. There are so many factors that come into play.

The artist’s original desires, historical value, the original presentation. The fact that some artists worked assuming said original presentation but that they may have changed it if they could have.

Even aging artists’ questionable aesthetic sensibility concerning their past material (Neal Adams, etc.)

I find these images to be very illustrative of the challenges inherent in approaching this media. They’re from Fantastic Four 49 and the Omnibus Vol. 2 reprint, I think. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong.

Jack Kirby, along with an unknown original colorist (possibly Kirby himself or cover artist Joe Sinnot), created the first image as they created most of their work.

Quickly, powerfully, and with the intention of reaching as many young readers as possible.

Their long term archival intentions were probably negligible.

But I think it would be wrong to suggest that Kirby, at least, didn’t think about the printing when he worked on the original art.

His bold lines were obviously designed to make the action as clear as possible in a media that often gave way to smudged and muddy pages.

It’s too bad that our historical colorist isn’t clearly credited. I’d love to know more about how they thought.

Personally, I think he may have used the colors the way some use watercolors (or how I used to use certain inks in the printmaking labs.) Knowing that they would bleed, the colors seem arranged to flow into each other, using the white space as a mingling area.

That first image features aesthetically pleasing gradients between green and yellow on the hands to the right of the panel, for example. The color shift in the white also feels like that area is more a part of the figure.

These subtleties are completely lost in the reproduction.

Of course, the reproduction is clearer, perhaps easier to read.

There’s no “right” answer here. It’s art and will always be subjective.

In an ideal world, every page would consist of smart paper, where at a touch we could flip between pencils, inked linework, original colors and restored colors.

Perhaps that’s what the future holds for collected editions.

But for now, we’re lucky to have bound reprints along with excellent curated blogs like Four Color Process, where you can see those ancient panel details you or your grandfather may have overlooked in the rush to find out what happens next.

Head on over there to read their essay and view more of those wonderful little dots.

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Update: This giveaway is now over. Stay tuned! Also, feel free to enter one of our currently running giveaways.

Update 2: The winner has been announced.

Here’s the weekly giveaway!

This week, I’ve got a spare copy of The Batman Chronicles Vol. 8. This book collects some great Golden Age Batman comics – specifically: Detective Comics #71-74, Batman #14-15, and World’s Finest Comics #8-9.

In this early volume the rogues gallery is in full effect. Batman and Robin are up against Catwoman, Joker, Penguin, Scarecrow, even lesser knows like Tweedledee and Tweedledum!

As an added bonus, there is plenty of Superhero vs. Nazi action in these wartime comics.

I’m a huge fan of the Chronicles series of reprints. Following the character instead of title (like the Batman Archives) is the way to go. I only wish DC would speed up their printing, since there’s so much to collect!

The Rundown:

(1) Prize: One copy of The Batman Chronicles Vol. 8

(1) Random Comment Winner: One logged in commenter will be randomly selected from the replies to this post.

Eligibility: You must be registered and logged in when you comment to be eligible. You must also be in the continental USA for shipping purposes. If you are overseas and want to pay for the shipping yourself, feel free to enter, but keep in mind that it will probably be more expensive than just buying the book.

Deadline: You have until 11:59 on Friday, January 21th, 2011.

Good luck everyone!

You can see the previous giveaways and results here.

27 Comments