tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54485811324794817402024-03-15T21:09:37.832-04:00Existential EnnuiBooks, comics, graphic novels, book collecting, classic crime fiction, vintage spy novels, science fiction, first editions, modern firsts, old paperbacks, book cover design, book reviews, suspense, mystery, thrillers, illustration, filmsNick Jones (Louis XIV, the Sun King)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17716508525331235684noreply@blogger.comBlogger1193125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-55676633792822984052024-03-14T05:40:00.002-04:002024-03-14T07:35:49.457-04:00Cover Reveal: DC Cinematic Universe by Nick Jones and Stephen Wiacek<p>Just in time for <a href="https://www.londonbookfair.co.uk/en-gb.html">London Book Fair</a> – which I was doing the rounds at yesterday – there's a cover up on Amazon for my next book:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBpKynM2trNwltxjTEtjWOK4pMyLSkEXN-xpW6UVEWvNikCQKdOtxCja_YrbyMfn5zuchAYrjbCZTqUlmZJ-kKTQwl6-XdMHbQgUnN5024PYPbIJSCN0Adt2EVhnPk4bZ9zofCSRU9lsbMQTWf0JU1ZsijRhyphenhypheng6CKLuEG5texWNAIslmXlSbwJmlDaDc8j/s1500/DC%20Cinematic%20Universe%20cover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1260" height="410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBpKynM2trNwltxjTEtjWOK4pMyLSkEXN-xpW6UVEWvNikCQKdOtxCja_YrbyMfn5zuchAYrjbCZTqUlmZJ-kKTQwl6-XdMHbQgUnN5024PYPbIJSCN0Adt2EVhnPk4bZ9zofCSRU9lsbMQTWf0JU1ZsijRhyphenhypheng6CKLuEG5texWNAIslmXlSbwJmlDaDc8j/w345-h410/DC%20Cinematic%20Universe%20cover.jpg" width="345" /></a></div><p><i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/DC-Cinematic-Universe-Celebration-Movies/dp/0593844149/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=oGyPm&content-id=amzn1.sym.3413293e-3815-4359-96ba-1ec5110e0b30&pf_rd_p=3413293e-3815-4359-96ba-1ec5110e0b30&pf_rd_r=258-6205152-7110600&pd_rd_wg=mVkdN&pd_rd_r=18112812-a73e-4b33-ae8e-c0cd8b749976&ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk">DC Cinematic Universe: A Celebration of DC at the Movies</a></i>. Co-written with Stephen 'Win' Wiacek and published by DK, it's a fully licensed, lavishly illustrated guide to eight decades of DC films, serials and TV series, from 1941's <i>Adventures of Captain Marvel</i> to 2023's <i>Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom</i>, with Win handling everything up to the end of the 1990s, and me taking on the majority of the movies from Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy onwards. I'll no doubt divulge some more details about the book ahead of the September pub date, but for now I'll just say it was a thrill to get to write about some of my favourite films – not least the aforementioned <i>Batman Begins</i> and its sequels – and note that anyone interested in DC's cinematic endeavours, not to mention films and filmmaking in general, should find it a darn good read.</p>Nick Jones (Louis XIV, the Sun King)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17716508525331235684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-80032103134279516532023-10-05T04:21:00.004-04:002024-03-14T05:41:50.160-04:00Marvel Arms and Armour Out Now!<p>If it seems like all I ever blog about on Existential Ennui these days are books that I've <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2023/04/marvel-guardians-of-galaxy-ultimate.html">written</a> – or <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2023/02/batman-detective-comics-dc-heroes.html">edited</a> – that's because I'm too busy writing – or editing – those books to blog about anything else. For instance, right now I'm in the middle of co-writing a book – <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2024/03/cover-reveal-dc-cinematic-universe-by.html">on movies for a change</a>, out autumn next year – whilst editing two <i><a href="https://hachettepartworks.com/en-en/dc-heroes-villains-collection/">DC Heroes & Villains Collection</a></i> volumes and pondering what to write for the two volumes after those. All of which leaves me little time to do anything other than, well, briefly blog about yet another book that I've written:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT1zwrAi9z1LF5Z-UBHcGa_YdJAqAL5IfP4llz4jZnHpa3fo5VmhTzuTTz12yvRzEgDlpksjhbS9HzhYBMWzx-oK6LvU26ZqZcrpQnB6uitealvL6qnKoemp-XMXryS0XzFQqbSgqV2qZsuZ3JvOS6u7jIdmRHlJMO04_HojtribIOErFG2R-qwJzke9dl/s1048/Marvel%20Arms%20and%20Armour%20by%20Nick%20Jones.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1048" data-original-width="848" height="484" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT1zwrAi9z1LF5Z-UBHcGa_YdJAqAL5IfP4llz4jZnHpa3fo5VmhTzuTTz12yvRzEgDlpksjhbS9HzhYBMWzx-oK6LvU26ZqZcrpQnB6uitealvL6qnKoemp-XMXryS0XzFQqbSgqV2qZsuZ3JvOS6u7jIdmRHlJMO04_HojtribIOErFG2R-qwJzke9dl/w392-h484/Marvel%20Arms%20and%20Armour%20by%20Nick%20Jones.jpg" width="392" /></a></div><p><i><a href="https://www.dk.com/uk/book/9780241659984-marvel-arms-and-armour/">Marvel Arms and Armour: The Mightiest Weapons and Technology in the Marvel Universe</a></i>, which is published by DK in the UK today. I posted some spreads from the book <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2023/06/marvel-arms-and-armour-by-nick-jones.html">back in June</a>, along these lines:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtRQz1X3gupc-DpXa9zgCZwJC2SqS0XzEIKJXWjISAXYSxgL2A7Xk1-dRn3jnukw3Pm2EAFfI9khlAUiuR0RNiR_1LqS9vMNX1N3XBi1r6hpFOK-PeohoXhHr8DkI9KwuAVfaX9mUbrbTlOCuDgDBwzJN9BltxDC113nRSpO8Cchxi8gVLeFc_PDakwB7A/s2560/Marvel%20Arms%20and%20Armour%20spread%206.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1544" data-original-width="2560" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtRQz1X3gupc-DpXa9zgCZwJC2SqS0XzEIKJXWjISAXYSxgL2A7Xk1-dRn3jnukw3Pm2EAFfI9khlAUiuR0RNiR_1LqS9vMNX1N3XBi1r6hpFOK-PeohoXhHr8DkI9KwuAVfaX9mUbrbTlOCuDgDBwzJN9BltxDC113nRSpO8Cchxi8gVLeFc_PDakwB7A/w456-h275/Marvel%20Arms%20and%20Armour%20spread%206.jpg" width="456" /></a></div><p>but there's also now a back cover <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Marvel-Arms-Armour-Mightiest-Technology/dp/0241583691">on the Amazon listing</a>, which will give some indication of what the book's about:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXCbZsjVn16zwUbFFpl4TSqbDCgSCAY3er4YASL-lIvqJ-enLIjM9frpt-ANMYyYSRHKoSpP4oCoUMHqM6vmP9RopRqvZX-h_XORJHKnUIndBWE14bwnDXiUnojWdnrODLhmZb5uHppHmZg31MWvL8Ii3y0VldyZEKf3TdXLJ2CzqoyCeQ6Fijdf1d74pk/s1500/Marvel%20Arms%20and%20Armour%20back%20cover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1250" height="373" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXCbZsjVn16zwUbFFpl4TSqbDCgSCAY3er4YASL-lIvqJ-enLIjM9frpt-ANMYyYSRHKoSpP4oCoUMHqM6vmP9RopRqvZX-h_XORJHKnUIndBWE14bwnDXiUnojWdnrODLhmZb5uHppHmZg31MWvL8Ii3y0VldyZEKf3TdXLJ2CzqoyCeQ6Fijdf1d74pk/w311-h373/Marvel%20Arms%20and%20Armour%20back%20cover.jpg" width="311" /></a></div><p>My author copies haven't turned up yet, so hopefully when they do I'll be able to find the time to, er, briefly blog about an actual physical copy too.</p>Nick Jones (Louis XIV, the Sun King)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17716508525331235684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-18128760881241036192023-07-13T10:05:00.005-04:002023-07-14T04:24:13.609-04:00The Art of Classic Sci-Fi Movies: An Illustrated History Out in November<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaBJSwHMsv1jBbPWR1iqzl4cvSen2AuK8ZcZFGZIQjjffSKPjiMRugpysixd8Mec4HzHNxDqPZhVDkV9wVW0v73Mmblb0A585wfkPN2tpcCX2yWPHfo0Q3moHgpC0T1QE0rLlraT0Z2oCYxTuWkK103LLQEpuDd033w87kDe66Lqm106AuevKjSeY5rYg2/s2560/Art%20of%20Classic%20Sci-Fi%20Movies.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2560" data-original-width="2238" height="408" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaBJSwHMsv1jBbPWR1iqzl4cvSen2AuK8ZcZFGZIQjjffSKPjiMRugpysixd8Mec4HzHNxDqPZhVDkV9wVW0v73Mmblb0A585wfkPN2tpcCX2yWPHfo0Q3moHgpC0T1QE0rLlraT0Z2oCYxTuWkK103LLQEpuDd033w87kDe66Lqm106AuevKjSeY5rYg2/w357-h408/Art%20of%20Classic%20Sci-Fi%20Movies.jpg" width="357" /></a></div><p>Speaking of covers, <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2023/06/marvel-arms-and-armour-by-nick-jones.html">as I was last month</a> in relation to my forthcoming book <i><a href="https://downthetubes.net/sneak-peek-marvel-arms-and-armour-by-nick-jones/">Marvel Arms and Armour</a></i>, which is out in the autumn, there's also <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Classic-Sci-Fi-Movies-Illustrated/dp/1493071033#:~:text=Acknowledging%20the%20iconic%2C%20but%20with,like%20Invasion%20of%20the%20Body%2D">a cover and info up on Amazon for another book I've contributed to</a>, which is also out in the autumn. Edited by Adam Newell, <i>The Art of Classic Sci-Fi Movies: An Illustrated History</i> is a phantasmagoria of sensational SF poster art culled from across the 20th century, and comes complete with an introduction by Kim Newman and essays by Stephen Jones, Margaret A. Weitekamp, Mark Salisbury and me. As you can see, I'm in rarefied company, so it was a thrill to be asked to contribute, and to get to write about two of my favourite science fiction films. As to what those films are, I'll reveal the titles, and the era I discuss, a little nearer the publication date, which is 1 November 2023.</p>Nick Jones (Louis XIV, the Sun King)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17716508525331235684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-82272075780742848272023-06-16T08:34:00.000-04:002023-06-16T08:34:01.008-04:00Marvel Arms and Armour by Nick Jones: Cover and Interior Pages Revealed!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3VBryjCNWuIyQj3LtpV2vtEVZOtHpQhQc38e4ZjbgV9UwyoG6mysVQ99mj-eLgYsWF8Fj8S13JmMv6kU0y9AwcRBuFfjxPjmzJZCkXA9BoHqtxhprefPTL-_Vn034rC0dPEzLW5axRDoWcyvJAeiNOEKX4NngeeOwp_R3fFUzmFQSVUdNdSMdNP3bzA/s2560/Marvel%20Arms%20and%20Armour%20cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2560" data-original-width="2134" height="417" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3VBryjCNWuIyQj3LtpV2vtEVZOtHpQhQc38e4ZjbgV9UwyoG6mysVQ99mj-eLgYsWF8Fj8S13JmMv6kU0y9AwcRBuFfjxPjmzJZCkXA9BoHqtxhprefPTL-_Vn034rC0dPEzLW5axRDoWcyvJAeiNOEKX4NngeeOwp_R3fFUzmFQSVUdNdSMdNP3bzA/w347-h417/Marvel%20Arms%20and%20Armour%20cover.jpg" width="347" /></a></div><p>Just a quick note to say there's a rather splendid-looking cover up on Amazon for my next book, <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0241583691/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tu00_p1_i3">Marvel Arms and Armour: The Mightiest Weapons and Technology in the Marvel Universe</a></i>. Titled, naturally, <i>Marvel Arms and Armor</i> in the US, it'll be out in October, and there are sample spreads on Amazon too. Feast your eyes on this lot, and rest assured I'll be banging on about the book a lot more ahead of publication.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1CiPVnFpkPtTOwcqNaeS_iJQ7JhxkvL-gW9OxWWMaUmS_Sh4arotBNMALwk-zehLgiZxpoCYiPRiZejHefSHDLJ3zMfnk1YtkHH6oyXNeZzhU9BGkd-B37gRNgPqHUrFIsE4Lnn20DK0a8wLm9D-gSL_IhA5aFzoIhElwpApQz0NcfvVrXf9s2tso8Q/s2560/Marvel%20Arms%20and%20Armour%20spread%201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1544" data-original-width="2560" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1CiPVnFpkPtTOwcqNaeS_iJQ7JhxkvL-gW9OxWWMaUmS_Sh4arotBNMALwk-zehLgiZxpoCYiPRiZejHefSHDLJ3zMfnk1YtkHH6oyXNeZzhU9BGkd-B37gRNgPqHUrFIsE4Lnn20DK0a8wLm9D-gSL_IhA5aFzoIhElwpApQz0NcfvVrXf9s2tso8Q/w459-h276/Marvel%20Arms%20and%20Armour%20spread%201.jpg" width="459" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnuhZptO7kDE0TUfhb-JyKCx2bLjzryAzOyKcabXgi-t8dlJwGNYYmFJs38nYXtT08lQ1eVO2PWSnnbCcJs5Y3bmGzsqI39ZYj_Ck4tcPeTMyjKP4TYO8r6m7sdZQW0QLgpxna5uRXRN3_R8qfFztsatJbZm74sI1gQZhRRBLHgzaHV6uJhmfap1eYCw/s2560/Marvel%20Arms%20and%20Armour%20spread%202.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1544" data-original-width="2560" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnuhZptO7kDE0TUfhb-JyKCx2bLjzryAzOyKcabXgi-t8dlJwGNYYmFJs38nYXtT08lQ1eVO2PWSnnbCcJs5Y3bmGzsqI39ZYj_Ck4tcPeTMyjKP4TYO8r6m7sdZQW0QLgpxna5uRXRN3_R8qfFztsatJbZm74sI1gQZhRRBLHgzaHV6uJhmfap1eYCw/w458-h277/Marvel%20Arms%20and%20Armour%20spread%202.jpg" width="458" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj96pvpvzfei5uEsw9kdxhVxQ0JJMB-t3XdNWepA1vC5XNMVTECwDu7V_Q_MpowuD6phYsCg7hw8CCCj2tS_ul09TEkudnjiFzsSKvMVZ7P0zz217HK1AhmFf-lx5m-Csf8OTHd79t4cMVvuvd-VGhPNfS4stlXeOhLMaUobqj7tHtyAfdDRsfB6K40Xg/s2560/Marvel%20Arms%20and%20Armour%20spread%203.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1544" data-original-width="2560" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj96pvpvzfei5uEsw9kdxhVxQ0JJMB-t3XdNWepA1vC5XNMVTECwDu7V_Q_MpowuD6phYsCg7hw8CCCj2tS_ul09TEkudnjiFzsSKvMVZ7P0zz217HK1AhmFf-lx5m-Csf8OTHd79t4cMVvuvd-VGhPNfS4stlXeOhLMaUobqj7tHtyAfdDRsfB6K40Xg/w456-h276/Marvel%20Arms%20and%20Armour%20spread%203.jpg" width="456" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkygov-MLc_C_z8zi2BurD6zk0tv601jv52gZZM_CylC2VDGgezupre5kpErSJ3OXssbfcpP-QaDJPsdjpQpm0HFNoH4tvm4AyVKOcuf_jhhQMww297GP-fyDPO1h7w7AqUE6pGNA7gskw87yUdn1QaJTwL4COWzldknQHI_OM2wGpFXvSWcDudQQwTg/s2560/Marvel%20Arms%20and%20Armour%20spread%204.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1544" data-original-width="2560" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkygov-MLc_C_z8zi2BurD6zk0tv601jv52gZZM_CylC2VDGgezupre5kpErSJ3OXssbfcpP-QaDJPsdjpQpm0HFNoH4tvm4AyVKOcuf_jhhQMww297GP-fyDPO1h7w7AqUE6pGNA7gskw87yUdn1QaJTwL4COWzldknQHI_OM2wGpFXvSWcDudQQwTg/w456-h275/Marvel%20Arms%20and%20Armour%20spread%204.jpg" width="456" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj14MJ0vYh2Xrx3vNNKzdNR75XcWbjJaVNLvPuubB9HcC1oVRYTouMXPAxR87LkfP7bUNxki7Nn005awp-u3Q8SOtpJpOTkinlB-pvM0JTvIJh4fa7799iyxf_20muaTRFgTpPocqg1H3aDQrkxboLv59FoYDLeFWBXb4-De-gVMj44c8oAoUfTl6Vv8Q/s2560/Marvel%20Arms%20and%20Armour%20spread%205.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1544" data-original-width="2560" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj14MJ0vYh2Xrx3vNNKzdNR75XcWbjJaVNLvPuubB9HcC1oVRYTouMXPAxR87LkfP7bUNxki7Nn005awp-u3Q8SOtpJpOTkinlB-pvM0JTvIJh4fa7799iyxf_20muaTRFgTpPocqg1H3aDQrkxboLv59FoYDLeFWBXb4-De-gVMj44c8oAoUfTl6Vv8Q/w456-h275/Marvel%20Arms%20and%20Armour%20spread%205.jpg" width="456" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTYmG2IaZ6XQz8o_fwwEpO2cK7j6tUKS6x-Z9wOotVrrIqy8CkHEumN9z51PTSqMGLc8ok9OubJMf4mhLfQae3tpDFXU2kHRWn-7Vqdtx36NNg4XnNIaAdc3F502VM8uk0jd3_VMRXetTm9aTds5fJCpzSa8KGIFh44BKclvcRtra0EJzOm2_9NYVyNw/s2560/Marvel%20Arms%20and%20Armour%20spread%206.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1544" data-original-width="2560" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTYmG2IaZ6XQz8o_fwwEpO2cK7j6tUKS6x-Z9wOotVrrIqy8CkHEumN9z51PTSqMGLc8ok9OubJMf4mhLfQae3tpDFXU2kHRWn-7Vqdtx36NNg4XnNIaAdc3F502VM8uk0jd3_VMRXetTm9aTds5fJCpzSa8KGIFh44BKclvcRtra0EJzOm2_9NYVyNw/w459-h276/Marvel%20Arms%20and%20Armour%20spread%206.jpg" width="459" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBchE7qoR5PpXJD0mrdtDkKdHtSEBaz8LcyZfqEcSnWFDnSSKcZ8ADoe1BLH5QhMAqghjsWmeBnwEhDXzrG5col2UHJ3JMrNnmDICVkkDdFC-Ae87uFsZ6z-xaeqJVok-d28woOAZk86vr1oOHaqYArjGmSboP2iL5f4CEkMEcruKm3IJP_ozoVrvrEg/s2560/Marvel%20Arms%20and%20Armour%20spread%207.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1544" data-original-width="2560" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBchE7qoR5PpXJD0mrdtDkKdHtSEBaz8LcyZfqEcSnWFDnSSKcZ8ADoe1BLH5QhMAqghjsWmeBnwEhDXzrG5col2UHJ3JMrNnmDICVkkDdFC-Ae87uFsZ6z-xaeqJVok-d28woOAZk86vr1oOHaqYArjGmSboP2iL5f4CEkMEcruKm3IJP_ozoVrvrEg/w458-h276/Marvel%20Arms%20and%20Armour%20spread%207.jpg" width="458" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2qo-ELwyNYnbhDxFmwGw4oEzYJZsKrHDZbrGUkh3k-ubpu86atBDcTPl5GkHEToeIn781VxUwfdb1zSI2yuEc7sEjGDRuz_b4o6Smij6z9go1UsvfyT6U7ii_22M3UV8XB2Ri8rcrIJLnT55g23Fr3mP4s8z5a4NWqDleYGcPf7cGhJ6kagis8HHTxA/s2560/Marvel%20Arms%20and%20Armour%20spread%208.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2560" data-original-width="1544" height="756" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2qo-ELwyNYnbhDxFmwGw4oEzYJZsKrHDZbrGUkh3k-ubpu86atBDcTPl5GkHEToeIn781VxUwfdb1zSI2yuEc7sEjGDRuz_b4o6Smij6z9go1UsvfyT6U7ii_22M3UV8XB2Ri8rcrIJLnT55g23Fr3mP4s8z5a4NWqDleYGcPf7cGhJ6kagis8HHTxA/w456-h756/Marvel%20Arms%20and%20Armour%20spread%208.jpg" width="456" /></a></div>Nick Jones (Louis XIV, the Sun King)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17716508525331235684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-13424371169989261502023-04-04T14:23:00.002-04:002023-04-04T14:23:38.012-04:00Marvel Guardians of the Galaxy The Ultimate Guide New Edition by Nick Jones (i.e., me) Is Out Now!<p>Or rather, <i><a href="https://www.dk.com/uk/book/9780241574782-marvel-guardians-of-the-galaxy-the-ultimate-guide-new-edition/">Marvel Guardians of the Galaxy The Ultimate Guide New Edition</a></i> by Nick Jones (i.e., me) is <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0744069513?ie=UTF8&camp=9325&creativeASIN={{isbn10}}&linkCode=as2&tag=d0124-20">out now in the United States</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Marvel-Guardians-Galaxy-Ultimate-Guide-dp-0241574781/dp/0241574781/ref=dp_ob_title_bk">on Thursday 6 April in the UK</a>. So actually it's out twice! Except 'Out Twice!' looked a bit weird in the blog post title, hence why I went with 'Out Now!' </p><p>I like to think that one day I'll manage to write a snappy opening to one of my posts, but clearly that day isn't today.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw3CmurmSqil9HWfhsf2Rvb_1-4qqMuWlkbX0hEII1VSrOXdAr_kt2sERdSUqryu57v3_6XekM3V8-cxchypCf0Bm8FolGzepEFi-9vuJxYK4_bNSmV3xwAsFmui0U2u_0bZ-DkQozObkSlVVtL5g7Y0Vig2KtiALqOrnWWE6QRcRdp3KfyZuU47UBhA/s2560/Guardians%20of%20the%20Galaxy%20Ultimate%20Guide%20New%20Edition.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2560" data-original-width="2133" height="423" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw3CmurmSqil9HWfhsf2Rvb_1-4qqMuWlkbX0hEII1VSrOXdAr_kt2sERdSUqryu57v3_6XekM3V8-cxchypCf0Bm8FolGzepEFi-9vuJxYK4_bNSmV3xwAsFmui0U2u_0bZ-DkQozObkSlVVtL5g7Y0Vig2KtiALqOrnWWE6QRcRdp3KfyZuU47UBhA/w353-h423/Guardians%20of%20the%20Galaxy%20Ultimate%20Guide%20New%20Edition.jpg" width="353" /></a></div><p>Anyway, the gist of all this is I have a new book out – an updated edition of my 2017 book <i>Guardians of the Galaxy: The Ultimate Guide</i>, revised throughout (by me) and with an additional 16 pages (also by me). On first inspection it might not appear to be radically different to the original edition – its splendid new cover aside – but every page has been revised or tweaked in some fashion and/or shuffled around in the running order so that the whole thing is now a tighter, better read. I always intended the book to be read narratively from front to back as well as in a dip-in-and-out manner, and the updates and changes mean that it now does so even more effectively. Plus, the additional pages allowed me to bring the story of the Guardians in comics up to a more natural – and obviously more up-to-date – stopping point, rather than being curtailed two-thirds of the way through the Brian Michael Bendis run.</p><p>As well as James Gunn's much-anticipated <a href="https://www.marvel.com/movies/guardians-of-the-galaxy-volume-3">third <i>Guardians of the Galaxy</i> film</a>, there's also a <a href="https://www.marvel.com/articles/comics/guardians-of-the-galaxy-1-trailer-2023-grootfall">new Guardians of the Galaxy comic series imminent</a>, so the timing of <i>The Ultimate Guide New Edition</i> is perfect. Basically, if you want to know pretty much everything there is to know about the Guardians ahead of either the movie or the new comic, grab yourself a copy of <i>Marvel Guardians of the Galaxy The Ultimate Guide New Edition</i> (or borrow it from your local library – either works for me).</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS8ZLgE69XmvFXLwcw1wn_2X6hlim-FDVCGt_Ku7XjkHCrwvak3YmLpKpb4LH7KVT0hNCeHGCjoYd5cXBhzxWx6OS4gtzfqyj7auqPEjJojj9a6tO1rRMqgNuoMCKH4bdS-MxLDQz8MLEBnB0K9w9uiKcKFBbdd-uEcTIB04JYR_G3r0A9K6TF8-OvQg/s2560/Guardians%20back%20cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2560" data-original-width="2133" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS8ZLgE69XmvFXLwcw1wn_2X6hlim-FDVCGt_Ku7XjkHCrwvak3YmLpKpb4LH7KVT0hNCeHGCjoYd5cXBhzxWx6OS4gtzfqyj7auqPEjJojj9a6tO1rRMqgNuoMCKH4bdS-MxLDQz8MLEBnB0K9w9uiKcKFBbdd-uEcTIB04JYR_G3r0A9K6TF8-OvQg/w354-h424/Guardians%20back%20cover.jpg" width="354" /></a></div>Nick Jones (Louis XIV, the Sun King)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17716508525331235684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-49903845980337311052023-02-05T10:36:00.013-05:002023-02-05T13:04:51.698-05:00Batman, Detective Comics, the DC Heroes & Villains Collection, and the Rise of Killer Croc<p>The earliest DC comics I remember reading as a kid were reprints in various British publications, chiefly 'Superman, You're Dead... Dead... Dead!' from <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/24133/"><i>Action Comics</i> #399</a> (April 1971), a shocking story – to an impressionable lad who was unaware that Superman almost certainly wasn't dead – by Leo Dorfman, Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson which I either read in a secondhand copy of the <a href="https://britishcomics.fandom.com/wiki/Superman_Annual_(Brown_Watson)_Vol_1_1">1973 <i>Superman Annual No. 1</i></a> or in the 1981 Hamlyn edition of <i><a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/24740/#169156">Superman: From the 30's to the 70's</a></i> (or both); and 'The Secret of the Waiting Graves' from <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/23250/"><i>Detective Comics</i> #395</a> (January 1970), Denny O'Neil, Neal Adams and Dick Giordano's groundbreaking first Batman collaboration, which I probably read in black-and-white in the <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/275480/#592557">October 1980 first issue of <i>The Super Heroes Monthly</i></a>. But the earliest DC comics I remember reading in their original American comic book format are the ones collected in the latest volume of the<a href="https://hachettepartworks.com/en-en/dc-heroes-villains-collection/"> <i>DC Heroes & Villains Collection</i></a>: </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUqPgMSFWEuAdT2kAUE1HvCd4nTUH1qzjjaHg28IHXrFPe20FqdClOMTuvzHc4miSYEFZ5YhQn_PhMsKQfJ65gf_rboDaUoDDxgRP2tUw74OrEciJTYNBpQ813T5vBP9e2m0_1C2bFcoPEKInucf3XX15DSqppmhwZpEPs-6Wr2q7EbOc0idDRFlP5qg/s1576/Batman%20Rise%20of%20Killer%20Croc.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1576" data-original-width="1166" height="445" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUqPgMSFWEuAdT2kAUE1HvCd4nTUH1qzjjaHg28IHXrFPe20FqdClOMTuvzHc4miSYEFZ5YhQn_PhMsKQfJ65gf_rboDaUoDDxgRP2tUw74OrEciJTYNBpQ813T5vBP9e2m0_1C2bFcoPEKInucf3XX15DSqppmhwZpEPs-6Wr2q7EbOc0idDRFlP5qg/w328-h445/Batman%20Rise%20of%20Killer%20Croc.jpg" width="328" /></a></div><p><i><a href="https://hachettepartworks.com/en-en/dc-heroes-villains-collection/batman-rise-of-the-killer-croc/">Batman: The Rise of Killer Croc</a></i>, namely <i>Detective Comics</i> #523–526 and <i>Batman</i> #357–359 (February–May 1983). I bought most of these comics in a long-since-vanished newsagent opposite Beckenham Rec, most memorably the double-sized <i>Detective Comics</i> #526 (May 1983), an extra-length all-star villain extravaganza by regular writer Gerry Conway and artists Don Newton and Alfredo Alcala. It's <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2019/01/80s-comics-cavalcade-detective-comics.html">still my favourite Batman comic</a> all these years later, but the whole storyline is great, weaving between <i>Detective</i> and <i>Batman</i> – the two titles tied together so closely by this point that they effectively became one fortnightly series, a Conway innovation – featuring fine work by Don Newton's fellow regular Bat-artist Gene Colan, plus guest artists Curt Swan and Dan Jurgens, and introducing not just the new villain of the <i>DC Heroes & Villains Collection</i> edition title – actually my title; this storyline has never had a proper title, so I gave it one – but a Robin-to-be in the shape of Jason Todd.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMsrg-GC_h8BvGzY8c1LpTZeoLEWO5TdmA-bIARRQja2sSXKvi1oBUQrbxd3s-8l9oCgq_BSz92Ax3YIEtdnS86n483UfjeanHTKCsMuP73q20zYFI1KbC4_xUy_VLx0r4vZl0gx5dC2pg3Q_eh-K2XA6PtN8Da-HBeQsxvYTxxQR-oypHV3jVsZeAvw/s1292/Detective%20526%20cover%20Newton.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1292" data-original-width="830" height="486" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMsrg-GC_h8BvGzY8c1LpTZeoLEWO5TdmA-bIARRQja2sSXKvi1oBUQrbxd3s-8l9oCgq_BSz92Ax3YIEtdnS86n483UfjeanHTKCsMuP73q20zYFI1KbC4_xUy_VLx0r4vZl0gx5dC2pg3Q_eh-K2XA6PtN8Da-HBeQsxvYTxxQR-oypHV3jVsZeAvw/w312-h486/Detective%20526%20cover%20Newton.jpg" width="312" /></a></div><p>When I was first putting together notes and ideas for what would eventually become the <i>DC Heroes & Villains Collection</i>, one of the first storylines – if not <i>the</i> first storyline – I put on the list of potentials was this one (titled simply the 'Killer Croc saga' at that point). It remained on every iteration of the list right through to the finished collection itself; I made damn sure of that. I loved these comics as a kid, and forty years later I got to collect them in a discrete volume for the first time (the storyline has been collected once before in full, as part of <i>Tales of the Batman: Gerry Conway</i> Vol. 3, but not as its own edition) under a title I came up with. Even better – from my perspective if not necessarily the poor readers' – I got to write a 500-word introduction and 6000-word feature on the Conway/Colan/Newton era of Batman.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKr767N8Bkk3nPiNbhXkwS-QfNx4pxvPX3EMFQd5yrbcx27eJT6DJZXutMFPFfXtq6zQZRRJYdRzCFUjzGJaHXiH4mcqaXB353-EYMjvXz3BvK4zXG1Jg7DBYjjdShlWlVLKsTDpdRWIk4ja4K5dGpOYfa9Z3vkwZuPAUQhNL6BFassnET9Nc6-FzHeA/s1574/Batman%20Rise%20of%20Killer%20Croc%20back%20cover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1574" data-original-width="1072" height="460" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKr767N8Bkk3nPiNbhXkwS-QfNx4pxvPX3EMFQd5yrbcx27eJT6DJZXutMFPFfXtq6zQZRRJYdRzCFUjzGJaHXiH4mcqaXB353-EYMjvXz3BvK4zXG1Jg7DBYjjdShlWlVLKsTDpdRWIk4ja4K5dGpOYfa9Z3vkwZuPAUQhNL6BFassnET9Nc6-FzHeA/w314-h460/Batman%20Rise%20of%20Killer%20Croc%20back%20cover.jpg" width="314" /></a></div><p>I would rest on my laurels here, but the <i>DC Heroes & Villains Collection</i> rolls ever onwards, plus I've got a book to write, so there's no rest for the wicked just yet. But now I have a copy of it in my hands – a freshly printed hardback, with its spot-varnish cover and that inky new-book smell – I will take a moment to leaf through and linger over <i>Batman: The Rise of Killer Croc</i>, a book I reckon 12-year-old-me would have been well impressed by.</p>Nick Jones (Louis XIV, the Sun King)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17716508525331235684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-90221434845139782902022-12-06T05:30:00.005-05:002022-12-06T05:36:52.450-05:00DC Heroes & Villains Collection Festive 50!<p>It's <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2021/01/introducing-dc-heroes-villains.html">almost two years</a> since we launched the <i><a href="https://hachettepartworks.com/en-en/dc-heroes-villains-collection/" target="_blank">DC Heroes & Villains Collection</a></i>, the fortnightly graphic novel collection of which I'm editor and chief feature writer (and over three years since I started putting the whole thing together); which means that, this week, we've reached the 50th volume! And just in time for Christmas too, hence the 'Festive 50' in the title of this post – also an allusion, for those of a certain age and indie disposition, to John Peel's annual rundown of his listeners' favourite tracks of the year (the apogee of which, surely – and I invite no argument here – was when House of Love's blistering <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nza7AlHV5I" target="_blank">'Destroy the Heart'</a> topped the 1988 chart).</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0N_TxdDDF6J2WpbrMWq1WhfbmiFQq29aXDB9kJtttb1Lz4Pdr1UhZjZpHbJ5QrwLjBxxUhlKPCUltebmd2DntFNmQhSnSaaX6LbEBrTiZzLol3M9GS0dv7KTHQL6cD1_p-rRUZmFuMsCBS2xym91shvTmP_Udu6TfTfFTjY5Asu84ana6lUw8efP_kQ/s1647/Justice%20Society%20of%20America%20Next%20Age.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1647" data-original-width="1244" height="442" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0N_TxdDDF6J2WpbrMWq1WhfbmiFQq29aXDB9kJtttb1Lz4Pdr1UhZjZpHbJ5QrwLjBxxUhlKPCUltebmd2DntFNmQhSnSaaX6LbEBrTiZzLol3M9GS0dv7KTHQL6cD1_p-rRUZmFuMsCBS2xym91shvTmP_Udu6TfTfFTjY5Asu84ana6lUw8efP_kQ/w335-h442/Justice%20Society%20of%20America%20Next%20Age.jpg" width="335" /></a></div><p>But anyway, as ever the continuing demands of the collection (I'm currently working on the 59th and 60th volumes, with an eye on the 61st and 62nd) plus other work (I'm also writing a book) mean that I don't have much time to blog, but I wanted to mark the occasion at least, and hail the hard work that's gone into the thing thus far – by myself, obviously, but also everyone at Hachette (plus Steve White, late of that parish, since gone on to <a href="https://stevewhiteart.co.uk" target="_blank">more artistic endeavours</a>) and designer Martin at <a href="https://amazing15.com/newmain.html" target="_blank">Amazing15</a>. As I've mentioned before, for me the <i>DC Heroes & Villains Collection</i> is a labour of love – a love letter, in a way, to the DC comics of the past 40 years or so... albeit a meandering and prolix one. </p><p>The 50th release (volume 90 in the correct numbering), <i><a href="https://hachettepartworks.com/en-en/dc-heroes-villains-collection/justice-society-of-america-the-next-age/">Justice Society of America: The Next Age</a></i>, may well be in some subscribers' hands already, but is officially published tomorrow, and as is now traditional with the <i>DC Heroes & Villains Collection</i>, it goes above and beyond the previously published DC edition of the same title, collecting not just the first four issues of the 2007 <i>Justice Society of America</i> series, but issues #7 and 8 as well (issues #5 and 6 will be in the <i>Justice League of America</i> crossover <i>The Lightning Saga</i>), plus the usual bonus material.</p><p>Merry Christmas, and here's to the next 50 volumes!</p><p></p>Nick Jones (Louis XIV, the Sun King)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17716508525331235684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-76065186610921026462022-11-24T04:47:00.002-05:002023-07-17T02:24:32.607-04:00Guardians of the Galaxy The Ultimate Guide New Edition Coming April 2023<p>I posted this on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, but it deserves a post here as well, if only to raise the consciousness of Existential Ennui from the freezing reefersleep it's slipped into. What can I say: these days I'm back to spending most of my time writing professionally – as opposed to editing, though I also do a fair amount of that – so I don't really have the time to blog here too. But anyway, up for pre-order now – <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0241574781/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i5">on Amazon</a>, obviously, but it's also available through the likes of <a href="https://www.whsmith.co.uk/products/marvel-guardians-of-the-galaxy-the-ultimate-guide-new-edition/hardback/9780241574782.html?gclid=CjwKCAiAyfybBhBKEiwAgtB7fq4hn7eRinPQj_XTu-CfcDH6s0E34V-XBuYc5caa8bg_9ws5o15t7hoCon0QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds">WHSmith</a> – is the new edition of my 2017 book <i>Guardians of the Galaxy The Ultimate Guide</i>!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzrwEH4HoyHopOyvZOR7EgFx37ybO2xnWvgW29256zOQt7x9oiioWmnpsm37faDL5ags6fRolK1XTHRG0LQpKJ9lm7Q43p90gXhwykzMk6xpq0D4asPXl0UwUsBTtPgK3GkwBDNRx4s3I5gKOn_d4dHpUpWnWVXMcpTsO7JopyoFftsKM-SoFOUTbrJg/s2560/Guardians%20of%20the%20Galaxy%20Ultimate%20Guide%20New%20Edition.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2560" data-original-width="2133" height="395" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzrwEH4HoyHopOyvZOR7EgFx37ybO2xnWvgW29256zOQt7x9oiioWmnpsm37faDL5ags6fRolK1XTHRG0LQpKJ9lm7Q43p90gXhwykzMk6xpq0D4asPXl0UwUsBTtPgK3GkwBDNRx4s3I5gKOn_d4dHpUpWnWVXMcpTsO7JopyoFftsKM-SoFOUTbrJg/w329-h395/Guardians%20of%20the%20Galaxy%20Ultimate%20Guide%20New%20Edition.jpg" width="329" /></a></div><p>Pleased as I was with <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2017/04/marvel-guardians-of-galaxy-ultimate.html">the first edition</a>, this new edition is even better, fully updated with new info, images, and even more pages, bringing the story of the Guardians in comics bang up to date – and not a moment too soon either: published on 6 April 2023, it'll be out just ahead of <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardians_of_the_Galaxy_Vol._3">Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3</a></i>, so if you want to know who Adam Warlock is ahead of the film, <i>Guardians of the Galaxy The Ultimate Guide</i> will explain all. You can read more about the book <a href="https://www.dk.com/us/book/9780744069518-marvel-guardians-of-the-galaxy-the-ultimate-guide-new-edition/">here</a>, and no doubt I'll be banging on about it at greater length ahead of publication – and about <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2023/06/marvel-arms-and-armour-by-nick-jones.html">the other book I'll have out later next year</a>, and the <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2023/07/the-art-of-classic-sci-fi-movies.html"><i>other</i> other book I've contributed an essay to</a>.</p>Nick Jones (Louis XIV, the Sun King)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17716508525331235684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-38348829090175190612022-03-18T07:45:00.010-04:002022-03-18T10:09:36.506-04:00Meanwhile... in the DC Heroes & Villains Collection: Joker's Dozen and The Untold Legend of the Batman<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEioJNz7jQ5paozXrqyNbCYyjPUJso4R5GjK_vUAs7kagCnebBDXwKbo42rv_ZTLfkGgdQ28yYbwiiAZNfLI2novdrY0CynsY9E_ll7jm1wxHt5RmSl0u2bjeHO7UNNhEVou5olYnkkRxhoWbgYndEWX6u6F1BZmjwhlBLLTqQLDUpO7HKl8pBVbmAnYEg=s2222" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1738" data-original-width="2222" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEioJNz7jQ5paozXrqyNbCYyjPUJso4R5GjK_vUAs7kagCnebBDXwKbo42rv_ZTLfkGgdQ28yYbwiiAZNfLI2novdrY0CynsY9E_ll7jm1wxHt5RmSl0u2bjeHO7UNNhEVou5olYnkkRxhoWbgYndEWX6u6F1BZmjwhlBLLTqQLDUpO7HKl8pBVbmAnYEg=w394-h308" width="394" /></a></div><p>The next release going out to <i><a href="https://hachettepartworks.com/en-en/dc-heroes-villains-collection/">DC Heroes & Villains Collection</a></i> subscribers is significant, because not only does it boast one of the volumes I was keenest to include in the collection <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2021/01/introducing-dc-heroes-villains.html">when I put the whole shebang together</a>, but it comes accompanied by a subscriber-exclusive special edition. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhjecFpy0cZFceDkbbhXY_KUzbtVC3TMYbdZQx-TfUBxoJC-6w18Zo05l6KvgdlqkTf-tA4Zv9tHUtXsRgzA52c5kgln_F5zMf2Xktuyeh9yO3tU15BBDxAAeoEP9aN98vQdLII64u3GcwfWCwG3NtffzGWxx2f0gq4a5ePVH5KQ6-BU71UMAY65vfXJQ=s1738" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1738" data-original-width="1086" height="435" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhjecFpy0cZFceDkbbhXY_KUzbtVC3TMYbdZQx-TfUBxoJC-6w18Zo05l6KvgdlqkTf-tA4Zv9tHUtXsRgzA52c5kgln_F5zMf2Xktuyeh9yO3tU15BBDxAAeoEP9aN98vQdLII64u3GcwfWCwG3NtffzGWxx2f0gq4a5ePVH5KQ6-BU71UMAY65vfXJQ=w273-h435" width="273" /></a></div><p>That special edition is <i>Joker's Dozen</i>, a 432-page bumper collection of some of the best Joker stories of the 1980s – 13 Clown Prince of Crime Classics, as I put it in the subtitle. There was a bit of back-and-forth with DC on the contents, but I think we've arrived at something unique: 13 Joker stories – 20 comics in total – which delineate a decade of change at DC, as the Bronze Age of Comics gave way to the Modern Age. The murderers' row of creative talent on the front cover – Len Wein, Walt Simonson, Gerry Conway, Don Newton, Jim Aparo, José Luis García-López, Doug Moench, Gene Colan and Marv Wolfman – isn't even the half of it, because there are also stories from Paul Levitz, Joe Staton, Martin Pasko, Dan Mishkin and Gary Cohn, Paul Kupperberg, Alex Saviuk, Max Allan Collins, Chris Warner, Ross Andru, Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle, many of which have rarely been reprinted since original publication.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjO5o2ZtzmkoBoa7wslX-tcFWq3AXRWqlZKp4HZYasruqqDLmcsrGV9pwCqK0BTdjByfYnM0Ra7oQWuF2G-BHae669HrMaOmnaItkVMezcAW130AvOrF1VvnsIZNxnj4K5ODY5h7YOPR6P18PqTEAuk9BW90FYSH3OgB7l_bQLFZtbTjLgqZ2t4aSOI2w=s1453" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1453" data-original-width="945" height="423" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjO5o2ZtzmkoBoa7wslX-tcFWq3AXRWqlZKp4HZYasruqqDLmcsrGV9pwCqK0BTdjByfYnM0Ra7oQWuF2G-BHae669HrMaOmnaItkVMezcAW130AvOrF1VvnsIZNxnj4K5ODY5h7YOPR6P18PqTEAuk9BW90FYSH3OgB7l_bQLFZtbTjLgqZ2t4aSOI2w=w275-h423" width="275" /></a></div><p>On top of that, the book includes October 1986's <i>Batman</i> #400, a 60-page multi-villain extravaganza written by Doug Moench and with art by – among others – John Byrne, Steve Lightle, George Pérez, Bill Sienkiewicz, Arthur Adams, Joe Kubert and Brian Bolland which has only been collected by DC once since its original publication 36 years ago. <i>Plus</i>, it's preceded by September 1986's <i>Detective Comics</i> #566, a Doug Moench and Gene Colan lead-in story to <i>Batman</i> #400 that's <i>never</i> been reprinted – though its cover may be familiar from posters, prints, T-shirts and the like:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjWVwDMXewCXuiCHRP9BRhT88W1vDNGGE1g-D_bD0pZ8ZudnieNcYYAn4f0HsLLCwpMMzStOGVLtkb5SIPUKVI_-mOTrHdng8iP7_MLrAt_Wvhx7HnokQUdvqZiIBFL5HkJnyBsYa3tx6mvGlDwuaXxt1asZuJQynVncrbUfNamJfxMDus1Zd9auRXxbg=s1509" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1509" data-original-width="962" height="430" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjWVwDMXewCXuiCHRP9BRhT88W1vDNGGE1g-D_bD0pZ8ZudnieNcYYAn4f0HsLLCwpMMzStOGVLtkb5SIPUKVI_-mOTrHdng8iP7_MLrAt_Wvhx7HnokQUdvqZiIBFL5HkJnyBsYa3tx6mvGlDwuaXxt1asZuJQynVncrbUfNamJfxMDus1Zd9auRXxbg=w274-h430" width="274" /></a></div><p>As for the volume I was keen to include in the <i>DC Heroes & Villains Collection</i>, that would be our 32nd release, <i>The Untold Legend of the Batman</i>, which features the eponymous 1980 three-issue Len Wein, John Byrne and Jim Aparo miniseries. Only ever collected under its own title as a book once before – by Tor Books in 1982 as a pocket-size black-and-white paperback, long out of print – it's a terrific mystery thriller that expertly weaves together decades of piecemeal Batman continuity, an approach reflected by the four other stories in the volume, each of which I selected for the brilliant way they too embellish the legend of the Batman. (Incidentally, the <i>Untold Legend</i> miniseries was reissued in 1989 as a three-part 'audio theater' edition, each issue comprising a mini-version of the original comic and an audio cassette; you can hear the audio, and its accompanying funky theme tune,<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMaW2cpMwmc"> on YouTube</a>.)</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjsoSH2CZUstcftHFiZZHX4vbbCGi-jqr8Lhr3EZwWUnSsb4rW42JFUwktdQT229nJPjDpzJskANtZFvaElPyI-LR-1HfjyEgkUctXXAJbpsS46ShDzWXturFW7E1-E-9I9zTsQgsn-yxg2z0vs33YkWdvV-3TpYe1IaEEngADtSblSj6PmUVI_KYQ7Qw=s1631" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1631" data-original-width="1066" height="421" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjsoSH2CZUstcftHFiZZHX4vbbCGi-jqr8Lhr3EZwWUnSsb4rW42JFUwktdQT229nJPjDpzJskANtZFvaElPyI-LR-1HfjyEgkUctXXAJbpsS46ShDzWXturFW7E1-E-9I9zTsQgsn-yxg2z0vs33YkWdvV-3TpYe1IaEEngADtSblSj6PmUVI_KYQ7Qw=w276-h421" width="276" /></a></div><p>Speaking of those other stories, one of them is mentioned in a 'Meanwhile...' column I was reading just this morning. For those who don't know, back in the 1980s, DC's Executive Editor, Dick Giordano, wrote an editorial column, 'Meanwhile...', which appeared in most DC titles on a monthly, then later weekly, basis. The 'Meanwhile...' that appeared in comics which went on sale on 3 July, 1986 was an especially notable one, because it announced some epochal changes to come in the Batman corner of the DC Universe over the remainder of that momentous year. It's also pertinent not just to the aforementioned bonus story that appears in the <i>The Untold Legend of the Batman</i>, but to a pair of stories that appear in the <i>DC Heroes & Villains Collection</i>'s edition of 1986–87 crossover event <i>Legends</i>, <i>and</i> a sequence of stories that will appear in the <i>DC Heroes & Villains Collection</i> down the line. Click on the column below and see if you can work out which comics I'm referring to.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEic8fy7p4B6pB_UZuLP_1CuYWmgO14CSmzw_CrHP_2z8rY8Sk0ttdAZIvczPrGEauhEX64eyRKQ1_pdcUkFsMz-_jgwMnIQBdC--rYW1S53YIzVkNduVoIfwrTqD1SG2gWniwJpqCrb97xGPQFhKNvc0zEjf_Xq7XDbv0sydVW2t_9sjubRjzqgEcs9QQ=s1929" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1929" data-original-width="1275" height="468" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEic8fy7p4B6pB_UZuLP_1CuYWmgO14CSmzw_CrHP_2z8rY8Sk0ttdAZIvczPrGEauhEX64eyRKQ1_pdcUkFsMz-_jgwMnIQBdC--rYW1S53YIzVkNduVoIfwrTqD1SG2gWniwJpqCrb97xGPQFhKNvc0zEjf_Xq7XDbv0sydVW2t_9sjubRjzqgEcs9QQ=w310-h468" width="310" /></a></div>Nick Jones (Louis XIV, the Sun King)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17716508525331235684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-31026285539872948892021-12-22T07:30:00.000-05:002021-12-22T07:30:24.341-05:00The Existential Ennui Review of the Year 2021<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgSeaYaW2nmU4ay_F8rBFxPS6_3fCBkZXndU4-iVeW6C-GblP7H9csYdmb9xHCIhPw8YMF2VLfMzXlODw79gW1PJ4LO2Db-uivPCoauX4YgIX4nH9ot6ZwBhG9PdqR7OTu6HTpM8FnpNVNa5A0ep2LZ5SLicLqBPJKc3V9lkM6hMvKeDJLsAqkkECukvg=s2000" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="1680" height="352" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgSeaYaW2nmU4ay_F8rBFxPS6_3fCBkZXndU4-iVeW6C-GblP7H9csYdmb9xHCIhPw8YMF2VLfMzXlODw79gW1PJ4LO2Db-uivPCoauX4YgIX4nH9ot6ZwBhG9PdqR7OTu6HTpM8FnpNVNa5A0ep2LZ5SLicLqBPJKc3V9lkM6hMvKeDJLsAqkkECukvg=w296-h352" width="296" /></a></div><p>Time was I would mark the end of the year with <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2019/12/a-big-long-list-of-comics-graphic.html">a post</a>, or even <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2013/12/the-existential-ennui-review-of-year-10_20.html">a series of posts</a> (ha! those were the days...), rounding up everything I'd read or watched or listened to or, sometimes, worked on over the previous 12 months – a record of certain aspects of my life, preserved for my own posterity (after all, it was pretty unlikely anyone else would be interested in years to come – or even right then for that matter). The last time I managed anything along those lines was the end of 2019; the pandemic, the death of my dad, and my complete inability to read a book – three things which were not unrelated – put paid to any notion of a round-up last year. This year has been better both personally and work-wise, and in recent months I've even managed to start reading novels again (albeit at a much slower pace than previously), so although the pandemic is still very much a going concern, and life continues to throw shit at us all with alarming abandon, I thought I'd post something about what I've been up to.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgVMI8xosTrgW1u-i-h_YWNfP_h6aXB5gdqkfzZIb4Ljqof6OWGSrlOCa5uqgz-1mozrYlTwEk9UuqsjjnefrzAidcr2CMnC1wFG32hIcjJ5lbDh3lcrFNugRDDgbqmcbd93iXzcxXZjwjcFvf2kbijXDgm41SwdZ_eIufSnPYGRhxtVAwf7LQGVAfH-Q=s1440" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1063" data-original-width="1440" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgVMI8xosTrgW1u-i-h_YWNfP_h6aXB5gdqkfzZIb4Ljqof6OWGSrlOCa5uqgz-1mozrYlTwEk9UuqsjjnefrzAidcr2CMnC1wFG32hIcjJ5lbDh3lcrFNugRDDgbqmcbd93iXzcxXZjwjcFvf2kbijXDgm41SwdZ_eIufSnPYGRhxtVAwf7LQGVAfH-Q=w363-h268" width="363" /></a></div><p>First and foremost, there's the <i><a href="https://dccollection.hachettepartworks.com">DC Heroes & Villains Collection</a></i>. I've written about this graphic novel partwork <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2021/12/on-tim-truman-and-dc-heroes-villains.html">a few times already</a>, so I shan't dwell on it here, except to say that editing it has allowed me to do more professional writing (as in, writing for money; I can't speak to the professionalism or otherwise of the actual writing) than I probably have since the start of what I laughingly call my career (back when I was a music journalist in the 1990s). By the time the collection reaches 100 volumes in about three years' time, I'll hopefully have written a fairly thorough history of the DC Universe since 1980, bit by bit, in the introductions and bonus features in each volume (alongside the occasional creator interview by my good friend Tim Pilcher). That's the plan anyway. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg9k3KzOc0_VbAnNPenB1KH8P5UYH_eAhToJAEfp-cFU7vbLUKHEkfVnCqVGb-cYTJrkTWWk0dSYMeKJQsrr_WWJHbkQbZKqvCm1v8qN50SA_COaZa7eMPtnQ4Mjfu0-dP4lCiXOayjzI4ugwITUy7rO2SMKIIZ4XzylCxEWBV5pfS57oLRFemtOseceg=s2022" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2022" data-original-width="1701" height="343" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg9k3KzOc0_VbAnNPenB1KH8P5UYH_eAhToJAEfp-cFU7vbLUKHEkfVnCqVGb-cYTJrkTWWk0dSYMeKJQsrr_WWJHbkQbZKqvCm1v8qN50SA_COaZa7eMPtnQ4Mjfu0-dP4lCiXOayjzI4ugwITUy7rO2SMKIIZ4XzylCxEWBV5pfS57oLRFemtOseceg=w289-h343" width="289" /></a></div><p>The <i>DC Heroes & Villains Collection</i> <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2021/01/introducing-dc-heroes-villains.html">launched in January</a> (during lockdown no less), and is <a href="https://hachettepartworks.com/en-en/dc-heroes-villains-collection/">now up to 25 volumes</a>, which is no mean feat considering everything that's been going on. Meanwhile, in November, the book pictured at the top of this post was published: <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0744039797/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i2">Marvel Universe: Map by Map</a></i>, co-written by James Hill and me, and illustrated by Adam Simpson, Matt Taylor and Andrew DeGraff (and, of course, a legion of Marvel Comics artistic legends). It's a lovely great big beast of a book – you can get a good look at it <a href="https://bleedingcool.com/comics/a-sneak-peek-at-maps-of-the-marvel-universe-from-asgard-to-wakanda/">here</a> – and it was an honour to be asked to play a part in its existence (by DK's estimable Senior Editor, and British comics vet, Cefn Ridout, to whom go my thanks). Four months before that, another DK book I contributed to was published: the updated edition of the <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/DC-Comics-Encyclopedia-New/dp/0241439531/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=">DC Comics Encyclopedia</a></i>, which I wrote even more of this time, and which in this new version sports a spectacular Mikel Janín cover. And somewhere in amongst all of that, Titan and I relaunched <i>Star Trek Magazine</i> as <i><a href="https://titan-comics.com/m/89-star-trek-explorer-1/">Star Trek Explorer</a></i>, with all sorts of new-fangled features and regulars in it, including brand new fiction.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhfKUYBZNe8iepZ2glyXis4pMPjnGDK1cr4JChGZBF4l7sX-u23-ZQ4lsiKpzWkvLvF2rD6q5IHMVDFqVi5AdD6N8Y6C7dWhklVvhy2VL_g1H_Cai4YyyRvXVUNP_FkxymLKyk-nolB2YhUobJ3ttKC8jhjp2NLEo7KXXloTpmyKKMjBggtgI8GDCymSA=s1200" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="869" height="373" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhfKUYBZNe8iepZ2glyXis4pMPjnGDK1cr4JChGZBF4l7sX-u23-ZQ4lsiKpzWkvLvF2rD6q5IHMVDFqVi5AdD6N8Y6C7dWhklVvhy2VL_g1H_Cai4YyyRvXVUNP_FkxymLKyk-nolB2YhUobJ3ttKC8jhjp2NLEo7KXXloTpmyKKMjBggtgI8GDCymSA=w270-h373" width="270" /></a></div><p>So that's what I've been up to this year. As to what I've read, I haven't actually kept a record of whatever comics I've consumed, but I have been making note of the books I've read since I managed to pick one up again, which in order have been:</p><p><i>The Moat Around Murcheson's Eye</i> by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle<br /><i>Rendezvous with Rama</i> by Arthur C. Clarke<br /><i>Dune</i> by Frank Herbert (which I read shortly before seeing Denis Villeneuve's excellent and powerful film adaptation)<br /><i>The Prefect</i> by Alastair Reynolds<br /><i>Elysium Fire</i> by Alastair Reynolds<br /><i>Jack Kirby</i> by Tom Scioli<br /><i>The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist</i> by Adrian Tomine</p><p>I might also manage to finish Alastair Reynolds' most recent novel <i>Inhibitor Phase</i> – a first edition of which he kindly inscribed to me (he's featured in the forthcoming second issue of <i>Star Trek Explorer</i>) – before the end of the year. We shall see.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiJv1Hw5melzY60tPyoLHROX3hKMdJKCtAt2TCzWKdiHtLa4WOBp8VU6cEZK139QXuNYEFyzycCEQ4trdIr7RGS2txtf23iKbMZryV-NeCp6EEAmOeGvRhto6zACeYB91R42rj6Fz-pbtNOQbh55Tfq_OJ8nh7n-BkDKYu73JnJvtAWxoNu2oN4xkJHMg=s1701" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1325" data-original-width="1701" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiJv1Hw5melzY60tPyoLHROX3hKMdJKCtAt2TCzWKdiHtLa4WOBp8VU6cEZK139QXuNYEFyzycCEQ4trdIr7RGS2txtf23iKbMZryV-NeCp6EEAmOeGvRhto6zACeYB91R42rj6Fz-pbtNOQbh55Tfq_OJ8nh7n-BkDKYu73JnJvtAWxoNu2oN4xkJHMg=w381-h297" width="381" /></a></div>Nick Jones (Louis XIV, the Sun King)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17716508525331235684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-6657533706830053582021-12-11T12:01:00.002-05:002021-12-11T12:16:30.545-05:00On Tim Truman and the DC Heroes & Villains Collection Edition of Hawkworld<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiLQtCSjhBBNIWP1tUZXwEJaPIf2b6wTw9fVfl6k7OSVsga330PG7YmHgGwBSWYAnSAies1k1_hn5uClq-YFe9lbAhJtR2KwD4ZreJYEHdTd6MLs0O0MLggV5DAhOj8U8jNzKmaNIFFH77Fk9Pum0zFd5YDIxNcelJu0HxxuEK9UNIIkXiFuAsrNpgLhA=s1663" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1663" data-original-width="1257" height="421" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiLQtCSjhBBNIWP1tUZXwEJaPIf2b6wTw9fVfl6k7OSVsga330PG7YmHgGwBSWYAnSAies1k1_hn5uClq-YFe9lbAhJtR2KwD4ZreJYEHdTd6MLs0O0MLggV5DAhOj8U8jNzKmaNIFFH77Fk9Pum0zFd5YDIxNcelJu0HxxuEK9UNIIkXiFuAsrNpgLhA=w318-h421" width="318" /></a></div><p>Something I don't really get into in my bonus feature on Tim Truman, Gardner Fox and Joe Kubert in the <i><a href="https://hachettepartworks.com/en-en/dc-heroes-villains-collection/">DC Heroes & Villains Collection</a></i> edition of <i>Hawkworld</i> – which has <a href="https://hachettepartworks.com/en-en/dc-heroes-villains-collection/hawkworld/">just been published</a> – is how the 1989 three-issue prestige format miniseries was received at the time. (There's only so much space in these books for me to bang on about the minutiae of DC's past!) Certainly it did well enough for DC to launch an ongoing series off the back of it, but it seems there were some readers who were less than pleased with Truman's take on Fox and Kubert's Silver Age Hawkman – this despite Truman being a friend and avowed fan of Katar Hol's creators. In an October 1994 interview in <i>Wizard</i> magazine (issue #34, which I happened to be reading just now), Truman responds to interviewer Paul J. Grant's assertion "You managed to enrage a lot of old-time Gardner Fox/Joe Kubert fans with Hawkworld" in the following manner:</p><p></p><p>"Yeah, especially those that only managed to read the first issue. Most of those that read through all three issues of the miniseries and saw what I was trying to do appreciated it, but I've had people come up to me at cons practically spitting on me. In no way did I want to denigrate the character, especially since I was dedicating this to Gardner and Joe Kubert. This was just my take on the fact that there are heroes, but they aren't created by seeing a bat fly though a window. </p><p>"In order to appreciate the story, you had to hang with it. Luckily, a lot of people did. I'm very proud of the fact that it won a Haxtur Award, a fan-based nomination sponsored by the government of Spain in 1992, for best comic series. They flew me over there to accept it. Having been so fond of European work for so many years, that was a real honour."</p><p>In the same interview, there's a nice bit of background on the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art, which Truman attended in the late 1970s – and which I do cover in my feature – Truman recalling, "We were housed in this big, ramshackle old mansion with a pool out back where we'd go swimming with tadpoles and frogs," and revealing that among the instructors, besides Kubert himself, were the likes of Dick Ayers and Dick Giordano. If you want to read more about that period of Truman's life, and how his friendships with Kubert and Fox shaped his life and career, check out the <i>DC Heroes & Villains Collection</i>'s edition of <i>Hawkworld</i>.</p>Nick Jones (Louis XIV, the Sun King)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17716508525331235684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-43459796239961985672021-05-26T13:20:00.005-04:002021-05-28T04:24:30.858-04:00Brian Bolland's First Joker Cover<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghscXObmPMpTjJSVAb43YaxGgiLZwmpbqj6WRtwmVVq-C5VRIbvbPP6qVesEy8JkdRyAoZNQXzWTQlrwHAiAKAlJ2usNI0Ss5t7MdBALysOLaHTmoZWa2BOuQ9qfkQs5o6GpqO3Sdj-K4L/s1448/Joker+Last+Laugh.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1448" data-original-width="1063" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghscXObmPMpTjJSVAb43YaxGgiLZwmpbqj6WRtwmVVq-C5VRIbvbPP6qVesEy8JkdRyAoZNQXzWTQlrwHAiAKAlJ2usNI0Ss5t7MdBALysOLaHTmoZWa2BOuQ9qfkQs5o6GpqO3Sdj-K4L/w293-h400/Joker+Last+Laugh.jpg" width="293" /></a></div><p>Something I neglected to mention in my piece on Brian Bolland's Joker comic book covers in the back of the <a href="https://dccollection.hachettepartworks.com/"><i>DC Heroes & Villains Collection</i></a> edition of <a href="https://hachettepartworks.com/en-en/dc-heroes-villains-collection/joker-last-laugh/"><i>Joker: Last Laugh</i></a> – which has just been published – is that <i>Batman: The Killing Joke</i> (1988) wasn't really Bolland's first Joker cover. That honour arguably belongs to his cover for the British <i>Batman Annual 1982</i>, published by London Editions in 1981. Bolland did a number of covers – and the odd interior page or endpapers – for the Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman annuals published by London Editions in the early 1980s (as did Garry Leach, Bryan Talbot and other stalwarts of the British comics scene), around the time he was breaking into US comics at DC. His <i>Batman Annual</i> cover naturally has the Dark Knight front and centre in the composition, but in Batman's hand is a Joker playing card, and there, behind him in the background, is the Joker himself, pointing a pistol at Batman's back. So even though the Joker's not the star of the cover, I suppose it probably does qualify as a Joker cover, and therefore Bolland's first Joker cover.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtQLIyLCsd27hLoLP-SIjcqOI5cTzzV7G2hXGGRgi12-RDlRK5IEIRGHEU9bNKGTzjjOnShGd_eqx8UOYSF9xkbUkM1iKVcU0tL0kfg_oSxhgbuSlQZ0QNyGWkTsJZ3Csuxv1rP-_oizUh/s1163/Batman+Annual+1982.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1163" data-original-width="850" height="411" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtQLIyLCsd27hLoLP-SIjcqOI5cTzzV7G2hXGGRgi12-RDlRK5IEIRGHEU9bNKGTzjjOnShGd_eqx8UOYSF9xkbUkM1iKVcU0tL0kfg_oSxhgbuSlQZ0QNyGWkTsJZ3Csuxv1rP-_oizUh/w301-h411/Batman+Annual+1982.jpg" width="301" /></a></div><p>You can read more about Bolland's cover work – Joker and otherwise – in <i>Joker: Last Laugh</i> (available now <a href="https://hachettepartworks.com/en-en/dc-heroes-villains-collection/">via Hachette</a> and at all good newsagents and supermarkets), but I'll just note here that, like many of the British superhero annuals published back then, the <i>Batman Annual</i> <i>1982</i> – which isn't easy to come by these days (my copy was a very lucky recent-ish eBay find) – has a text story nestled in amongst the reprinted comics stories (one of which is Len Wein, Walt Simonson and Dick Giordano's terrific 'Dreadful Birthday, Dear Joker...!' from 1980's <i>Batman</i> #321). Written by <i>2000 AD</i> and <i>Starlord</i> editor Kelvin Gosnell, it boasts splendid illustrations by <i>Anderson: Psi Division</i>/<i>Button Man</i> artist <a href="https://www.arthurranson.com/">Arthur Ranson</a>, who also illustrates the annual's endpapers. Well worth the price of admission alone... assuming you can find a copy in the first place.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy01YbMp-oqQyXO0CobYH2VKbpicAYAd9NGre5w3ucLe6pjd7Bvv35TN74TDjWLk9J_N_UqkicnsWNk9Tt2Cdvp04n9SO7iVC83OgnGzHL_dMZpfxymwQsiTBraey5Gf70fjXvI5PF4Fqn/s1817/Batman+Annual+1982+int.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1817" data-original-width="709" height="651" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy01YbMp-oqQyXO0CobYH2VKbpicAYAd9NGre5w3ucLe6pjd7Bvv35TN74TDjWLk9J_N_UqkicnsWNk9Tt2Cdvp04n9SO7iVC83OgnGzHL_dMZpfxymwQsiTBraey5Gf70fjXvI5PF4Fqn/w254-h651/Batman+Annual+1982+int.jpg" width="254" /></a></div>Nick Jones (Louis XIV, the Sun King)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17716508525331235684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-12304189771581944222021-03-31T05:00:00.000-04:002021-03-31T05:00:11.843-04:00Free Stuff! The DC Heroes & Villains Collection Subscription Gifts<p>A little remarked-upon aspect of the graphic novel partwork I'm editing, the <i><a href="https://dccollection.hachettepartworks.com">DC Heroes & Villains Collection</a></i> – well, little remarked-upon by me, anyway – is that if you subscribe to the collection you get <a href="https://dccollection.hachettepartworks.com/how-it-works/#gifts">free stuff</a>! I've had absolutely no input into the free gifts that have been arranged for subscribers – my purview is the graphic novels themselves – so I'm not really beholden to anyone when I say that the two I've received thus far (you get four altogether – plus a free volume – spaced out across a few deliveries) have been bloody great.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2DbZpQ4JFSqbzVy3vLqTwKZrW6g-y87oM_8XSxHc1d9qszJFDzzIGp-bNUx7p6pd_Tc1azq3a8ZxucnFZ9Oe-OdD9iP25vEwAy-F4MTyYDwVFXvDyYXXM35Sbeve9cvHeJ6DBEMd5O6kW/s550/DC+Heroes+Villains+Batman+bottle+opener.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="550" data-original-width="550" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2DbZpQ4JFSqbzVy3vLqTwKZrW6g-y87oM_8XSxHc1d9qszJFDzzIGp-bNUx7p6pd_Tc1azq3a8ZxucnFZ9Oe-OdD9iP25vEwAy-F4MTyYDwVFXvDyYXXM35Sbeve9cvHeJ6DBEMd5O6kW/s320/DC+Heroes+Villains+Batman+bottle+opener.png" /></a></div>The first one, a metal Batman bottle opener keyring, turned out to be surprisingly sizeable and hefty, with the potential to be used as an actual shuriken-style Batarang once your beverage of choice has been de-lidded (perhaps to fend off anyone foolish enough to try and steal your beer). <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIhLd0EqguV6-xAEjeajI0tiDqqM3qPh-O-arwTBa5CJCX00QDTAfCUDICwZRKrzXoxAdUEmI9m5EqTnzAC9k66_e7gqBVMVQKFBeT4oHWVIX8NRYHwSqJaQIg5m-JasIVnqsKlLHw4iyZ/s550/DC+heroes+Villains+heat+changing+mug.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="550" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIhLd0EqguV6-xAEjeajI0tiDqqM3qPh-O-arwTBa5CJCX00QDTAfCUDICwZRKrzXoxAdUEmI9m5EqTnzAC9k66_e7gqBVMVQKFBeT4oHWVIX8NRYHwSqJaQIg5m-JasIVnqsKlLHw4iyZ/s320/DC+heroes+Villains+heat+changing+mug.png" width="320" /></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Just as surprising was the second gift, a heat-changing mug sporting the Andy Kubert image from the cover of our debut release <i>Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?</i> I did dimly recall it was heat sensitive as I dropped in a teabag and filled the mug up with hot water, but it was still a delight to behold the villains behind Batman – Penguin, Joker, Two-Face and Catwoman – being slowly revealed. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnw8nJt-MpCy5ViOhxu4CZXgdKhXz0XVj70pZGRnGuLOMr7dDyo7CXxJCf9peseRI7iHVB0d0nJ0Lg6B4nX0MmhuOhm-RsW_EyE-c5_SVVeFMB9z6ILUwBL3g_QLOonZWaJAEGrscxQr7w/s550/DC+Heroes+Villains+Killing+Joke+cover.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="550" data-original-width="540" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnw8nJt-MpCy5ViOhxu4CZXgdKhXz0XVj70pZGRnGuLOMr7dDyo7CXxJCf9peseRI7iHVB0d0nJ0Lg6B4nX0MmhuOhm-RsW_EyE-c5_SVVeFMB9z6ILUwBL3g_QLOonZWaJAEGrscxQr7w/s320/DC+Heroes+Villains+Killing+Joke+cover.png" /></a></div>The next free gift I'll be getting should be a metal version of Brian Bolland's <i>Batman: The Killing Joke</i> cover art (look out for the inside story of that cover's creation in the bonus feature in our tenth release, <i>Joker: Last Laugh</i>), followed by potentially the best of the lot, a pair of metal Batman and Joker bookends to keep the gradually growing collection<i> </i>upright and together. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFEX9hloZLflf4o_qpOz6aX7Xa_fxpPvKBKxh27NaMUWC2EEdHvM3ubryi-yXqG5So_NTgRn2h04iLPALwKSF0hPxhp1cnwGUCOSH7rY148EJApgd6ZlzzmJ2KY7pydFy8mCNGEShxXD1N/s550/DC+Heroes+Villains+Batman+Joker+bookends.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="550" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFEX9hloZLflf4o_qpOz6aX7Xa_fxpPvKBKxh27NaMUWC2EEdHvM3ubryi-yXqG5So_NTgRn2h04iLPALwKSF0hPxhp1cnwGUCOSH7rY148EJApgd6ZlzzmJ2KY7pydFy8mCNGEShxXD1N/s320/DC+Heroes+Villains+Batman+Joker+bookends.png" width="320" /></a></div>The <i><a href="https://www.facebook.com/HachetteDCcollection/">DC Heroes & Villains Collection</a></i> is a genuine labour of love for me – something I plan on expanding upon in a future post – and it's been a pleasure seeing the reactions of readers in the Facebook subscribers' group to the books we've been putting together; but these free gifts have been an unexpected added joy – something I get to to share in common with everyone else who's along for the ride on this collection.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div></div>Nick Jones (Louis XIV, the Sun King)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17716508525331235684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-5655867432812354302021-03-19T12:00:00.004-04:002021-03-19T12:30:13.258-04:00Testing, Testing... Coming Soon in the DC Heroes & Villains Collection<p>Further to <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2021/01/introducing-dc-heroes-villains.html">this post</a> on the graphic novel partwork I'm editing, the <i><a href="https://dccollection.hachettepartworks.com">DC Heroes & Villains Collection</a></i>: I've noticed in the Facebook member's group (there's also a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/HachetteDCcollection">public Facebook page</a>) that some subscribers are receiving the sixth volume now, <i>The Flash: Rebirth</i>, which means we're reaching the end of the 'test' volumes. What the dickens are the test volumes, I hear you cry? Allow me to elucidate – and to offer a preview of upcoming volumes into the bargain.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtg5wF0tcXwWLZCU4i2NBFWLSI7CwNUTmj-FSU0YbGLw-jYCDr0wQrtw36CMMZdyPFLLrRitctRmyXUyYxA7uovysa88R_ViQBMm5H8DEWNfSMSl-yKSnsxbhphdCgVNPvYW8W2p0V7UT3/s2048/DC+006+small.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1337" height="395" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtg5wF0tcXwWLZCU4i2NBFWLSI7CwNUTmj-FSU0YbGLw-jYCDr0wQrtw36CMMZdyPFLLrRitctRmyXUyYxA7uovysa88R_ViQBMm5H8DEWNfSMSl-yKSnsxbhphdCgVNPvYW8W2p0V7UT3/w258-h395/DC+006+small.jpg" width="258" /></a></div><p>Partworks go through a pretty long process before they go on sale. In the case of the <i>DC Heroes & Villains Collection</i>, I started putting ideas together for it – possible approaches and potential contents – at the tail end of 2019, followed by some firmer ideas for direction and an initial list of titles (which, looking back now, I realise wasn't a million miles from the final list) at the start of 2020. After some back and forth between myself, Hachette and DC and some further refining of the list and contents, we moved on to the test stage. </p><p></p><p></p><p>This is the stage of a partwork's development where the initial instalments of the proposed collection are released in a particular part of the country to see what the response is. In our case, this entailed myself and the collection's ace designers, <a href="https://amazing15.com">Amazing15</a>, putting together the first four volumes, and then Hachette publishing those volumes... somewhere; don't ask me where because I still don't know (and even if I did I wouldn't be able to tell you; the world of partworks is shrouded in mystery and subterfuge). Complicating this – well, besides the pandemic, that is, which has introduced an extra element of complexity throughout – was the fact that alongside the UK test there was a Spanish test, which comprised some different volumes to the UK one.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivEAKzd3_7P_rH9Qxpj8BwXdzuWFGWbcYPNAZPhWxRzUdV8n9xPCSuyvszvOHAFltx24YUc2_bjpsig1ZBmnXPRMpFeBbaWKmFruHf9E2wLdUg589lPGWUKkdjRZxW2DHANxf7GMXVneUD/s2048/DC+005+small.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1376" height="393" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivEAKzd3_7P_rH9Qxpj8BwXdzuWFGWbcYPNAZPhWxRzUdV8n9xPCSuyvszvOHAFltx24YUc2_bjpsig1ZBmnXPRMpFeBbaWKmFruHf9E2wLdUg589lPGWUKkdjRZxW2DHANxf7GMXVneUD/w264-h393/DC+005+small.jpg" width="264" /></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I don't think I'm revealing anything terribly sensitive here by saying that the tests went well: the evidence for that is that the collection proper has now launched. But with <i>The Flash: Rebirth</i> arriving in some folks' hands, we've essentially reached the end of the volumes we assembled for either the UK or Spanish tests. From this point on, nobody (other than myself, Amazing15, Hachette and DC, obviously) will know for sure what lies ahead. So let me give you a flavour of what's coming up in the next few volumes: <br /></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtOHHZH7Ghgre_jqtBhpgHSNCCh9Kz3c32hVkkVfD5XmuRgf7CRKSoDQRvk0Aoy3VxmW5hPm_Gqe_5_Z2eOgqo8O73nR7VVxt1RpYYXmNZ-uBg08h9pVfTV5dfffWROnnxxrjULkI8sK7v/s2048/DC+007+small.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1373" height="402" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtOHHZH7Ghgre_jqtBhpgHSNCCh9Kz3c32hVkkVfD5XmuRgf7CRKSoDQRvk0Aoy3VxmW5hPm_Gqe_5_Z2eOgqo8O73nR7VVxt1RpYYXmNZ-uBg08h9pVfTV5dfffWROnnxxrjULkI8sK7v/w270-h402/DC+007+small.jpg" width="270" /></a></div><i>Infinite Crisis: The OMAC Project</i>: As part of the <i>DC Heroes & Villains Collection</i> we'll be collecting the entire 2005–2006 <i>Infinite Crisis</i> saga, including miniseries, specials and key tie-in issues – some of which have never been included in previous collected editions – with commentary and behind-the-scenes insights setting it all in context. This is the start of that.<p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4x9N_qpTrUrxrRBJsBZjR_g_BuAgvwv2U4amZDXyR3c5r0NQv6HfSiJT3Tuz0wtuyrz0oOJVAtc4f_AdXXtTvMbZGweovlZIcJvTgFGMohdvNzrDSy6BO1GDlDOMmSSuUv9r73M-yZV2n/s2048/DC+008+small.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1326" height="408" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4x9N_qpTrUrxrRBJsBZjR_g_BuAgvwv2U4amZDXyR3c5r0NQv6HfSiJT3Tuz0wtuyrz0oOJVAtc4f_AdXXtTvMbZGweovlZIcJvTgFGMohdvNzrDSy6BO1GDlDOMmSSuUv9r73M-yZV2n/w264-h408/DC+008+small.jpg" width="264" /></a></div><i>Aquaman: The Trench</i>: A story that was a big inspiration for the 2018 <i>Aquaman</i> movie, and one of the big successes of the 2011 New 52 relaunch – not to mention a taster for what was to come in the 2016 Rebirth initiative...<p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-5NL1VuUBz2-Fc51_-G1Cwh_6L-gMzyI6IGiUpl-u5K4MErLgpmWqR3OzV4L9nsT-X8vydIxd__t8ItD-Ax9DX4b3BhVGt0sOYjEmqYS67fuh5Ezbl93Hmmm9WW5fmn_QpQTpIYhqCvFK/s2048/DC+009+small.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1371" height="416" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-5NL1VuUBz2-Fc51_-G1Cwh_6L-gMzyI6IGiUpl-u5K4MErLgpmWqR3OzV4L9nsT-X8vydIxd__t8ItD-Ax9DX4b3BhVGt0sOYjEmqYS67fuh5Ezbl93Hmmm9WW5fmn_QpQTpIYhqCvFK/w278-h416/DC+009+small.jpg" width="278" /></a><i> </i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>World's Finest</i>: Dave Gibbons and Steve Rude's splendid 1990 Superman/Batman team-up tale, which comes accompanied by an exclusive new interview with Mr Gibbons, plus his original outline, and lots of sketches and designs by Mr Rude.</div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGL-ZF9zuUN9jeDeBt4foOE2vDL6zu228nZiB90zfHASPEMxIuUnF-lzfxSovxMxl3nwI8dk7n1QPsAscOYaNqXqDevdRdaH3oAW5D49X564TTiMmuMNdA92WovCVofgdKR3OlGgDdYRQ6/s2048/DC+010+small.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1317" height="418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGL-ZF9zuUN9jeDeBt4foOE2vDL6zu228nZiB90zfHASPEMxIuUnF-lzfxSovxMxl3nwI8dk7n1QPsAscOYaNqXqDevdRdaH3oAW5D49X564TTiMmuMNdA92WovCVofgdKR3OlGgDdYRQ6/w269-h418/DC+010+small.jpg" width="269" /></a><i> </i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Joker: Last Laugh</i>: Out of print for over a decade, this 2001 miniseries event is finally reissued as part of the <i>DC Heroes & Villains Collection</i>, complete with its essential first chapter, which has never been reprinted since originally appearing in the 2001 <i>Joker: Last Laugh Secret Files and Origins</i> one-shot. In addition, there's a bonus feature exploring Brian Bolland's iconic Joker covers.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Beyond those, you can expect more Rebirth volumes (following on from our fifth release, <i>Batman: I Am Gotham</i>), more brand new creator interviews... and a story which has never before been collected in graphic novel form.</div><p></p>Nick Jones (Louis XIV, the Sun King)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17716508525331235684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-61668302250813695192021-01-20T06:00:00.002-05:002021-03-19T07:34:42.928-04:00Introducing the DC Heroes & Villains Collection: the Ultimate DC Comics Graphic Novel Collection<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvl8VBdUP7wMZaeHkPIOSz81p3ucDqHSg-kpq3ZSjigdyno9AsKSNmNb7ixErVjDtewW5HhhWm3Kp27K_1wBm_AXw_rIPYLtngFxFXGfyRGFUTxQmXJpc_UNSkSvp3BgAprfZX_VK4epR7/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="1090" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvl8VBdUP7wMZaeHkPIOSz81p3ucDqHSg-kpq3ZSjigdyno9AsKSNmNb7ixErVjDtewW5HhhWm3Kp27K_1wBm_AXw_rIPYLtngFxFXGfyRGFUTxQmXJpc_UNSkSvp3BgAprfZX_VK4epR7/w430-h237/DC+Heroes+and+Villains.png" width="430" /></a></div><p>Here's something I've been working on for well over a year now. The <i><a href="https://dccollection.hachettepartworks.com">DC Heroes & Villains Collection</a></i> is a fortnightly partwork comprising 100 hardback graphic novels, collecting comics stories from across the DC Universe. I've been shaping the rationale and approach, putting together the content – including writing many of the editorials and bonus features that will appear in each volume – and generally reworking and refining it all since October 2019, and now the first issue, <i>Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?</i>, is <a href="https://www.facebook.com/HachetteDCcollection/">finally on sale in the UK</a>, from WHSmith, newsagents, comic shops, and <a href="https://dccollection.hachettepartworks.com/how-it-works/">direct from publishers Hachete Partworks</a>. I'll try and write some more about the collection – the idea behind it, the process of making it (in the midst of a pandemic no less), what's in it – soon, but for now, I'll just say that everyone involved is dead chuffed with how it's turned out so far, and that if you happen to buy it, and like the first few volumes... the best is yet to come.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkDx1IepxZxciGv74M_4F3Ry1bPxvTE5wBBfBsnFKvWHMv_acrKdJ45hztaffv35Mj5fy5eVlX8FO4cyjOUsZmCPqUjwDA411zzV8nTwQOw5E3MfBQ_irskZZCAj3YXhd0koZ5BFjj2iAV/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="980" data-original-width="1040" height="380" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkDx1IepxZxciGv74M_4F3Ry1bPxvTE5wBBfBsnFKvWHMv_acrKdJ45hztaffv35Mj5fy5eVlX8FO4cyjOUsZmCPqUjwDA411zzV8nTwQOw5E3MfBQ_irskZZCAj3YXhd0koZ5BFjj2iAV/w405-h380/DC+Heroes+and+Villains+3.png" width="405" /></a></div><p></p><p></p>Nick Jones (Louis XIV, the Sun King)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17716508525331235684noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-15667162213230405622020-10-01T05:00:00.005-04:002020-10-05T14:44:49.065-04:00DC Comics Cover Art by Nick Jones – Out Now!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWN3ylgfVVzxXFpeH1lNRj2K8Efrhhyy81eVUMr6kc5PWwoeGx3sBtBKFiOZ3_qn5d9mXNWHimhRzLZw2TaZ0Dwj-W_hnbeztf0ccBAsB5Fg4XP-BWM7gCx0KBUMtTh1q94qtzX5XufY1n/s2048/DC+Comics+Cover+Art+front.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1717" height="394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWN3ylgfVVzxXFpeH1lNRj2K8Efrhhyy81eVUMr6kc5PWwoeGx3sBtBKFiOZ3_qn5d9mXNWHimhRzLZw2TaZ0Dwj-W_hnbeztf0ccBAsB5Fg4XP-BWM7gCx0KBUMtTh1q94qtzX5XufY1n/w330-h394/DC+Comics+Cover+Art+front.jpg" width="330" /></a></div><br /><div>I'm breaking my blogging silence (blame the pandemic for the lack of blog posts this year – it's as good an excuse as any... and it actually has been a tough year in some respects, as it has for many of us) to note that my new book,<i> <a href="https://www.dk.com/uk/book/9780241438343-dc-comics-cover-art/">DC Comics Cover Art</a></i>, is available now from <a href="https://forbiddenplanet.com/295339-dc-comics-cover-art-hardcover/">all</a> <a href="https://www.waterstones.com/book/dc-comics-cover-art/nick-jones/9780241438343">the usual</a> <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Comics-Cover-Art-Nick-Jones/dp/0241438349">places</a>, published by DK. As the title suggests, it's a showcase of some of the best DC Comics covers of the past 80 or so years, selected by me (largely; a few other folk had input), with commentary also by me. Naturally I stuffed it full of as many of my favourite DC covers as I could, but that's not to say I wasn't also employing my critical faculties. Criteria for selection included bold, striking, or unusual designs; notable issues (i.e. first appearances, deaths and the like); unusual layouts and logo treatments, and of course just knockout art – all arranged under the recognised eras (Golden Age, Silver Age, and so on).</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixwmqzDUIoS4Jv8b-Iuv_SB8pyP3IrDS6VATSDw5Fx3s7h_KiZ9cKOXyboM8GhVCrWmO2rwAkcs2BJpz4RLzwKYutQmax4kmkGvb8Gmn1uLDopqqUld_6UT3rPboV21-L93q2I2eny2I22/s2048/DC+Comics+Cover+Art+pages.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1226" data-original-width="2048" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixwmqzDUIoS4Jv8b-Iuv_SB8pyP3IrDS6VATSDw5Fx3s7h_KiZ9cKOXyboM8GhVCrWmO2rwAkcs2BJpz4RLzwKYutQmax4kmkGvb8Gmn1uLDopqqUld_6UT3rPboV21-L93q2I2eny2I22/w472-h283/DC+Comics+Cover+Art+pages.jpg" width="472" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>I think it's come together really nicely. I haven't seen a final printed copy yet*, but I did see layouts all the way through, and the juxtaposition of covers on spreads is very pleasing. As for the text, I worked hard to make it as informative and insightful as I could – a lot of research went into how and why covers were created – but how successful I was will, in the end, be determined by the reader. Obviously there are bigger things to worry about at the moment than a book about comic book covers, but maybe this book about comic book covers will bring some pleasure into someone's life. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDLR2mFqBgL0N9sROEQmBr7cCKk092rmOi1KjVofdgEd0FWlQ5dqtsAHpLLi5_kqKcNgZF5ubzpat1J8lFycIzc2wfowx1FFN4j7_BlOZkA3detkObd5QUEKZOwLFIB3WhpNsS5k9uIiKf/s2048/DC+Comics+Cover+Art+back.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1717" height="394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDLR2mFqBgL0N9sROEQmBr7cCKk092rmOi1KjVofdgEd0FWlQ5dqtsAHpLLi5_kqKcNgZF5ubzpat1J8lFycIzc2wfowx1FFN4j7_BlOZkA3detkObd5QUEKZOwLFIB3WhpNsS5k9uIiKf/w330-h394/DC+Comics+Cover+Art+back.jpg" width="330" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Incidentally, I'm working on a couple of other DC-related projects at the moment; still a little early to say anything more about them, but I should be able to share some info soon.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuNCG9ervWuy-lqmUXDsuOUQnW8i-cLXZY0m93IvUQDjDMKtcp4w8UEopUgFeNEqO-AzEL3oIVTDre1JJigtYG7JxEX4DMcmJb0BD6sTsC-uUtVSDdOSZXcRIe6aEhHDP51-duAwJYRV9k/s1636/DC+Comics+Cover+Art+by+Nick+Jones.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1497" data-original-width="1636" height="466" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuNCG9ervWuy-lqmUXDsuOUQnW8i-cLXZY0m93IvUQDjDMKtcp4w8UEopUgFeNEqO-AzEL3oIVTDre1JJigtYG7JxEX4DMcmJb0BD6sTsC-uUtVSDdOSZXcRIe6aEhHDP51-duAwJYRV9k/w508-h466/DC+Comics+Cover+Art+by+Nick+Jones.jpg" width="508" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">* <i><b>Update 5/10/20:</b> my author copies arrived today, and I'm delighted to report that the final printed book looks lovely.</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZGJwoFfWGbMEmbMSI4CjvSQmyukQddsAyqf8i_2swWh63H9RTtSP4-fdMYT-12FPKyncVD5LzPEauZBEdVEMQ6db3UyF3yGb_4snm7yZnP4tYLvrtYsyzH48YBFF6d4YsTy6JVmgV8EVJ/s1080/120766902_10164091321640462_44072990539609759_o.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZGJwoFfWGbMEmbMSI4CjvSQmyukQddsAyqf8i_2swWh63H9RTtSP4-fdMYT-12FPKyncVD5LzPEauZBEdVEMQ6db3UyF3yGb_4snm7yZnP4tYLvrtYsyzH48YBFF6d4YsTy6JVmgV8EVJ/s320/120766902_10164091321640462_44072990539609759_o.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5k0eWcVyjly2GN10B4yI_CYF6P28B8Fy1jNcqQ6OoBKj8uFvXJAT5ZLtBWIXAY5Zw-GICBuyAY_V3du5C1S5mJqC2n7-7g8x8SGtJvKRV5JIGH8Rv7UN4ZGeO3wqJ_WBjjpyEbmGvuwU6/s1080/120772732_10164091321735462_6623880327482337315_o.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5k0eWcVyjly2GN10B4yI_CYF6P28B8Fy1jNcqQ6OoBKj8uFvXJAT5ZLtBWIXAY5Zw-GICBuyAY_V3du5C1S5mJqC2n7-7g8x8SGtJvKRV5JIGH8Rv7UN4ZGeO3wqJ_WBjjpyEbmGvuwU6/s320/120772732_10164091321735462_6623880327482337315_o.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWguSq_lBYHmhi4R_bbGueT5FNQtoOEFYO5aOpl3dO69vYbTqq-v8eDKBxNNruJVFQuoJQfCmZgi_t1KnSAKiOUBDuFN14Xx6Olb93H-9HrR4Ipl1rNu4QSaawScHjrXU_KGav7KWz-dyf/s1080/120797687_10164091321815462_5949742714583960905_o.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWguSq_lBYHmhi4R_bbGueT5FNQtoOEFYO5aOpl3dO69vYbTqq-v8eDKBxNNruJVFQuoJQfCmZgi_t1KnSAKiOUBDuFN14Xx6Olb93H-9HrR4Ipl1rNu4QSaawScHjrXU_KGav7KWz-dyf/s320/120797687_10164091321815462_5949742714583960905_o.jpg" /></a></div>Nick Jones (Louis XIV, the Sun King)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17716508525331235684noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-47710104217321534312020-02-06T04:45:00.001-05:002021-05-18T02:43:52.304-04:00A Ripley's Game Reprise: 1974 US Knopf First Edition of Patricia Highsmith's Third Tom Ripley NovelWhat scant posts there have been on here of late have been to do with comics – those are, after all, what have been preoccupying me both personally and professionally <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2019/12/a-big-long-list-of-comics-graphic.html">over the past year or so</a> – but I have been picking up the odd book here and there too, and among those have been a number by another perennial preoccupation of mine, <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/search/label/Patricia%20Highsmith">Patricia Highsmith</a>. Just the other day I came into possession of this:<br />
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An American first edition of <i>Ripley's Game</i>, published by Knopf in 1974, dust jacket design by Janet Halverson (whose other jackets include the 1970 and 1978 US firsts of Graham Greene's <i><a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2011/03/lewes-bookshop-bargain-travels-with-my.html">Travels with My Aunt</a></i> and <i><a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2011/03/tale-of-two-greenes-human-factor-bodley.html">The Human Factor</a></i>, and the 1981 US first of Ross Thomas's <i><a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2010/11/mordida-man-by-ross-thomas-from-simon.html">The Mordida Man</a></i>). You may recall... actually at this point I doubt anyone recalls anything I've written on Existential Ennui, but anyway: <i><a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2012/09/the-great-tom-ripley-reread-3-ripleys.html">Ripley's Game</a></i>, the third book in the <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2013/04/the-ripliad-patricia-highsmiths-tom.html">Ripliad</a> (<a href="https://www.sho.com/ripley">soon to become a TV show</a>, with Andrew Scott as Tom Ripley – intriguing and encouraging casting there), is not only my favourite Highsmith novel, but my favourite novel full stop, and it was the acquisition of a 1974 Heinemann first a dozen years ago (in a long-since-vanished Cecil Court bookshop) that first got me into book collecting. As such, it's a <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2014/03/1000th-post-20-secondhand-books-which.html">totemic book</a> for me.<br />
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I had my eye on a Knopf first six years ago, but it slipped through my fingers (as compensation I settled instead for a <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2014/06/patricia-highsmiths-ripleys-game.html">1989 Heinemann Uniform Edition</a>). The notion of getting my filthy mitts on a Knopf (ooer) has floated in and out of my head ever since then, but just the other day it seemed the fates had finally aligned when I was in Lewes's <a href="https://www.bowwindows.com/">Bow Windows Bookshop</a> and co-proprietor (and friend of mine) Ric mentioned he'd come into possession of one as part of a box of books – mostly crime fiction and spy fiction – he'd bought from a local. Or at least he thought he had: when we looked in said box, there was no sign of <i>Ripley's Game</i>. Bugger.<br />
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I'd pretty much resigned myself to the fact that once again the Knopf first had eluded my grasp when two days later Ric sent me a message saying he'd found it. And it turned out that not only was it a first edition (not a later printing – the Knopf edition went through a few), but it was once owned by local author <a href="http://www.johnpearsonwriter.co.uk/">John Pearson</a>, he of <i><a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2010/10/lewes-book-bargain-james-bond.html">James Bond: The Authorized Biography</a></i> and <i><a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2011/05/lewes-book-bargain-life-of-ian-fleming.html">The Life of Ian Fleming</a></i> fame.<br />
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So I'm very happy with my copy (even though the dust jacket is a little battered: the sign of a well-read book, whether by Mr. Pearson or whoever it was Ric bought it off – and quite right too), not least because it affords me the opportunity to compare the US and UK first editions. The text in the Knopf edition, which was published in May of '74, a few months after the Heinemann edition, has been Americanised, or I suppose – depending on whether Highsmith, who was American, wrote the manuscript in American English – re-Americanised: within the first few sentences, there's a "parlor game" as opposed to "parlour game" in the Heinemann edition.<br />
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The Knopf has deckled edges, as is often the case with American editions, and a red-stained top block. I also rather like the jacket flap description of Tom Ripley as "energetic, amoral, overcivilized" and "undersensitized".<br />
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Now I suppose I'll have to write something abut the other Highsmith books I've picked up – especially as they're all signed.</div>
Nick Jones (Louis XIV, the Sun King)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17716508525331235684noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-44205982783562757402019-12-20T06:07:00.000-05:002019-12-29T04:11:37.762-05:00A Big Long List of the Comics, Graphic Novels and Books I Read in 2019I've barely had time to think over the past few months, let alone blog. Besides editing <i>Star Trek Magazine</i> – the next one, #74, is out in January – and related specials – a <i>Star Trek: Voyager</i> 25th anniversary one is out in February, followed by a <i>Star Trek: Picard</i> one in March – I've also written my fourth book (mostly; still a few bits to do in the new year). That will be out May 2020, and is about comic book covers. Doubtless I'll be banging on about that nearer the time, but the net result of all that is that I've been working flat out – hence the absence of posts here.<br />
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I have, however, been keeping track of what I've been reading – comics for the most part, plus a couple of science fiction novels. Next year I'd like to get back into prose fiction, but I've still got a fair way to go on Doug Moench, Don Newton, Gene Colan et al's <i>Batman</i> and <i>Detective</i> run (and have just unexpectedly secured the one issue I was missing, the elusive <i>Batman</i> #386, featuring the first apperance of Black Mask), plus sundry other back issues/rereads (Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's <i>Batman</i>; Marv Wolfman and George Perez's <i>New Teen Titans</i>; Gerry Conway and George Perez's <i>Justice League of America</i>; Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen's <i>Legion of Super-Heroes</i>; Roy Thomas, Rich Buckler and Jerry Ordway's <i>All-Star Squadron</i>; J. M. DeMatteis and Mike Zeck's <i>Captain America</i>, and too many others to mention) – and that's without factoring in new comics. So we'll see if I manage to read any novels in the new year.<br />
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Anyway, here's what I read this year. Merry Christmas.<br />
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<b>BOOKS</b><br />
<i>Gateway</i> by Frederik Pohl (Del Rey, 1977)<br />
<i>Pushing Ice</i> by Alastair Reynolds (Gollancz, 2005)<br />
<i>Watching the Watchmen</i> by Dave Gibbons, Chip Kidd and Mike Essl (Titan, 2008)<br />
<i>The Art of Matt Wagner's Grendel</i> by Matt Wagner et al (Dark Horse, 2007)<br />
<i>Kirby: King of Comics</i> by Mark Evanier (Abrams, 2008)<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>OLD COMICS</b></span><br />
<i style="font-family: inherit;">Six from Sirius</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> by Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy (Epic, 1984)</span><br />
<i style="font-family: inherit;">Six from Sirius 2</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> by Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy (Epic, 1985)</span><br />
<i style="font-family: inherit;">Rick Mason: The Agent</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> by James D. Hudnall and John Ridgeway (Marvel, 1989)</span><br />
<i>Batman: Earth One</i> Vol. 1 by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank (DC, 2012) (reread)<br />
<i>Batman: Earth One</i> Vol. 2 by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank (DC, 2015)<br />
<i>Detective Comics</i> #497–526 by Gerry Conway, Don Newton, Gene Colan et al (DC, 1980–83)<br />
<i>Batman</i> #337–359 by Gerry Conway, Don Newton, Gene Colan et al (DC, 1980–83)<br />
<i>Detective Comics</i> #527–539 by Doug Moench, Don Newton, Gene Colan et al (DC, 1983–84)<br />
<i>Batman</i> #360–372 by Doug Moench, Don Newton, Gene Colan et al (DC, 1983–84)<br />
<i>Batman Annual</i> #8 by Mike W. Barr and Trevor von Eeden (DC, 1982)<br />
<i>Batman: Son of the Demon</i> by Mike W. Barr and Jerry Bingham (DC, 1987) (reread)<br />
<i>Planetary/Batman: Night on Earth</i> by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday (WildStorm, 2003) (reread)<br />
<i>Star Trek: The Next Generation/X-Men: Second Contact</i> by Dan Abnett, Ian Edginton and Cary Nord (Marvel, 1998)<br />
<i>Zero Hour: Crisis in Time</i> by Dan Jurgens and Jerry Ordway (DC, 1994) (reread)<br />
<i>Batman: Brotherhood of the Bat</i> by Doug Moench, Jim Aparo et al (DC Elseworlds, 1995)<br />
<i>Batman</i> #300 by David V. Reed, Walt Simonson and Dick Giordano (DC, 1978)<br />
<i>Superman: Distant Fires</i> by Howard Chaikin, Gil Kane and Kevin Nowlan (DC Elseworlds, 1998)<br />
<i>Batman: League of Batmen</i> by Doug Moench, Mark Bright and Romeo Tanghal (DC Elseworlds, 2001)<br />
<i>Justice League: The Nail</i> by Alan Davis and Mark Farmer (DC Elseworlds, 1998) (reread)<br />
<i>JLA: Destiny</i> by John Arcudi and Tom Mandrake (DC Elseworlds, 2002)<br />
<i>Batman: Prelude to Knightfall</i> by Doug Moench, Chuck Dixon, Graham Nolan et al (DC, 1993)<br />
<i>Batman: Knightfall</i> Vol. 1 by Doug Moench, Chuck Dixon, Graham Nolan et al (DC, 1993)<br />
<i>Batman: Knightfall</i> Vol. 2 by Doug Moench, Chuck Dixon, Graham Nolan et al (DC, 1994)<br />
<i>Gotham by Gaslight</i> by Brian Augustyn, Mike Mignola and P. Craig Russell (DC, 1989) (reread)<br />
<i>Batman: Master of the Future</i> by Brian Augustyn and Eduardo Barreto (DC Elsworlds, 1991)<br />
<i>Robin 3000</i> by Byron Preiss and P. Craig Russell (DC Elseworlds, 1992)<br />
<i>Batman/Houdini: The Devil's Workshop</i> by Howard Chaykin, John Francis Moore and Mark Chiarello (DC Elseworlds, 1993)<br />
<i>Batman: In Darkest Knight</i> by Mike W. Barr and Jerry Bingham (DC Elseworlds, 1994)<br />
<i>Wild Dog</i> #1–4 by Max Collins and Terry Beatty (DC, 1987)<br />
<i>Underworld Unleashed</i> by Mark Waid and Howard Porter (DC, 1995) (reread)<br />
<i>Justice League: Trinity War</i> by Geoff Jones, Jeff Lemire, Ivan Reis et al (DC, 2013)<br />
<i>Forever Evil</i> by Geoff Johns and David Finch (DC, 2013–14)<br />
<i>Batman</i> (Vol. 2) #1–27 by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo (DC, 2011–13)<br />
<i>The Hunter</i> by Joe Sparrow (Nobrow, 2015)<br />
<i>Lost Property</i> by Andy Poyiadgi (Nobrow, 2015)<br />
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<b>NEW COMICS</b><br />
<i>Action Comics</i> by Brian Michael Bendis, Patrick Gleason, Ryan Sook, Steve Epting et al (DC)<br />
<i>Batman</i> by Tom King, Mikel Janin et al (DC)<br />
<i>Batman: Damned</i> by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo (DC)<br />
<i>Batman: Last Knight on Earth</i> by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo (DC)<br />
<i>Batman's Grave</i> by Warren Ellis, Bryan Hitch and Kevin Nowlan (DC)<br />
<i>Batman/Superman</i> by Joshua Williamson and David Marquez (DC)<br />
<i>Batman Who Laughs</i> by Scott Snyder and Jock (DC)<br />
<i>Captain America</i> by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Leinil Francis Yu et al (Marvel)<br />
<i>Criminal</i> by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips (Image)<br />
<i>Curse Words</i> by Charles Soule and Ryan Browne (Image)<br />
<i>DCeased</i> by Tom Taylor and Trevor Hairsine (DC)<br />
<i>Detective Comics</i> by Peter J. Tomasi, Brad Walker et al (DC)<br />
<i>Doomsday Clock</i> by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank (DC)<br />
<i>Event Leviathan</i> by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev (DC)<br />
<i>Green Lantern</i> by Grant Morrison and Liam Sharp (DC)<br />
<i>Green Lantern: Blackstars</i> by Grant Morrison and Xermanico (DC)<br />
<i>Guardians of the Galaxy</i> by Donny Cates and Geoff Shaw (Marvel)<br />
<i>Heroes in Crisis</i> by Tom King and Clay Mann (DC)<br />
<i>House of X</i> by Jonathan Hickman and Pepe Larz (Marvel)<br />
<i>Invaders</i> by Chip Zdarsky, Carlos Magno and Butch Guice (Marvel)<br />
<i>Justice League</i> by Scott Snyder et al (DC)<br />
<i>Lazarus Risen</i> by Greg Rucka and Michael Lark (Image)<br />
<i>Legion of Super-Heroes</i> by Brian Michael Bendis and Ryan Sook (DC)<br />
<i>Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium</i> by Brian Michael Bendis et al (DC)<br />
<i>Lois Lane</i> by Greg Rucka and Mike Perkins (DC)<br />
<i>Powers of X</i> by Jonathan Hickman and R. B. Silva (Marvel)<br />
<i>Man and Superman</i> by Marv Wolfman and Claudio Castellini (DC)<br />
<i>Mysteries of Love in Space</i> by various (DC)<br />
<i>Paper Girls</i> by Brian K. Vaghan and Cliff Chiang<br />
<i>Punisher: Soviet</i> by Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows (Marvel)<br />
<i>Shazam!</i> by Geoff Johns and Dale Eaglesham (DC)<br />
<i>Silver Surfer: Black</i> by Donny Cates and Tradd Moore (Marvel)<br />
<i>Spider-Man: Full Circle</i> by various (Marvel)<br />
<i>Superman</i> by Brian Michael Bendis, Ivan Reis et al (DC)<br />
<i>Superman: Leviathan Rising</i> by various (DC)<br />
<i>Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen</i> by Matt Fraction and Steve Lieber (DC)<br />
<i>Superman: Year One</i> by Frank Miller and John Romita Jr. (DC)<br />
<i>Trees: Three Fates</i> by Warren Ellis and Jason Howard (Image)<br />
<i>Undiscovered Country</i> by Scott Snyder, Charles Soule and Giuseppe Camuncoli (Image)<br />
<i>Walking Dead</i> by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard (Image)<br />
<i>War of the Realms</i> by Jason Aaron and Russell Dauterman (Marvel)<br />
<i>X-Men</i> by Jonathan Hickman and Leinil Francis Yu (Marvel)<br />
<i>Year of the Villain</i> #1 by various (DC)<br />
<i>Black Adam: Year of the Villain</i> by Paul Jenkins and Inaki Miranda (DC)<br />
<i>Black Mask: Year of the Villain</i> by Tom Taylor and Cully Hamner (DC)<br />
<i>Joker: Year of the Villain</i> by John Carpener, Anthony Burch and Philip Tan (DC)<br />
<i>Lex Luthor: Year of the Villain</i> by Jason Latour and Bryan Hitch (DC)<br />
<i>Ocean Master: Year of the Villain</i> by Dan Watters and Miguel Mendonca (DC)<br />
<i>Riddler: Year of the Villain</i> by Mark Russell and Scott Godlewski (DC)<br />
<i>Sinestro: Year of the Villain</i> by Mark Russell and Brandon Peterson (DC)<br />
<i>Young Justice</i> by Brian Michael Bendis, Patrick Gleason et al (DC)<br />
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Nick Jones (Louis XIV, the Sun King)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17716508525331235684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-11671160133237400652019-08-29T07:30:00.002-04:002019-08-29T10:01:36.166-04:00(Mostly) 80s Comics Cavalcade: Brighton Comic Mart Bargain Bonanza<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Back in July, over successive days one weekend, there were two distinct but related comic marts, both titled Comics And Beer, in two different Brighton pubs. One was in a couple of smallish rooms upstairs at the Haus on the Hill and consisted of boxes and piles of organiser The Reaper's (no, me either) own wares; the other was in a bigger area at the back of the North Laine Brewhouse and consisted of The Reaper's wares plus a selection of other dealers. I went to both and ended up with a sizeable pile of comics, most of them hailing from the 1980s, most for either 20p or 50p each. It was brilliant. Here's what I got.<br />
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A load of '80s indie comics: Mike Grell's <i>Starslayer</i> (Pacific Comics/First Comics, 1982 onwards), including the second issue, which features the first appearance of Dave Stevens' the Rocketeer (in a back-up strip); Mark Evanier's <i>DNAgents</i> (Eclipse Comics, 1983 on); Mike Grell's <i>Jon Sable</i> (First, 1983); Neal Adams' <i>Ms. Mystic</i> (Pacific, 1982); Bill Willingham's <i>Elementals</i> (Comico, 1985); and Mike Baron's <i>Badger</i>, including the <i>Hexbreaker</i> graphic novel (First, 1988).<br />
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Some Marvel and Epic stuff: Simon Furman and Bryan Hitch's <i>Death's Head</i> #1 (1988); Alan Davis's <i>ClanDestine</i> #1 (1994); and Steve Englehart and Steve Leialoha's <i>Coyote</i> #1–5 (plus #14).<br />
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A run of Roger Slifer and Keith Giffen's <i>Omega Men</i> (DC Comics, 1983 on), missing #1 (which I'd bought not long before anyway for 50p in Dave's Comics' bargain dump bins) and #3 (first appearance of Lobo, so no wonder I couldn't find it in the 20p boxes).<br />
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Some random DCs: Roy Thomas, Rich Buckler and Jerry Ordway's <i>All-Star Squadron</i> #1 and 13 (1981 on); <i>Legion of Super-Heroes</i> #259 (in which Superboy buggers off and lets the Legion have their own title at last) and 282 (1980/1981); Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan's <i>Night Force</i> #1 (1982); <i>DC Comics Presents</i> #36 (1981); <i>Justice League of America Annual</i> #1 (1983); <i>Superman Special</i> #1 (1983); and the <i>New Teen Titans Drug Awareness Special</i> (1983).<br />
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A bunch of Baxter-paper DCs: Mike W. Barr and Brian Bolland's <i>Camelot 3000</i> (1982–1985); J. M. DeMatteis and Paris Cullins' <i>Forever People</i> (1988); and a few issues of <i>Vigilante</i> (1983 on).<br />
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More Baxter DCs, plus a couple of 1990s DCs: Pete Milligan, Brett Ewins and Steve Dillon's <i>Skreemer</i> (1989); Robert Loren Fleming and Trevor Von Eeden's <i>Thriller</i> (1983–1984 – I'd previously bagged #1 in Dave's dump bins); Don McGregor and Gene Colan's <i>Nathaniel Dusk</i> (1984–1985); Mark Waid and Howard Porter's <i>Underworld Unleashed</i> #1 (1995); and <i>Batman: KnightGallery</i> (1995), an Elseworlds one-shot by Doug Moench and lots of different artists.<br />
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A couple of Scott Snyder/Greg Capullo New 52 <i>Batmans</i> I was missing, and a run of Tom King et al Rebirth <i>Batmans</i>, mainly the rather nice Tim Sale cover variants.<br />
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And lastly, a run of #1–20 of Roy Thomas, Dann Thomas and Michael Bair's <i>Young All-Stars</i> (1987 on).<br />
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One of the dealers at the Sunday mart was the aforementioned Dave's Comics, whose bargain bins frequently produce fine 50p wares. Some of those I showcased in my <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2019/07/80s-comics-cavalcade-back-issue-bonanza.html">previous 80s Comics Cavalcade post</a>, but more recently I bagged the above. I was particularly pleased with the Mark Evanier/Steve Rude <i>Mister Miracle Special</i> (DC, 1987) and the complete <i>Peacemaker</i> miniseries (DC, 1988) by Paul Kupperberg and Tod Smith.<br />
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So those were my Bighton comic mart (and shop) bargains. Hmm. I should probably post something about some of my '80s comics eBay wins at some point as well, shouldn't I? <i>Justice League of America</i> and <i>All-Star Squadron</i> anyone...?Nick Jones (Louis XIV, the Sun King)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17716508525331235684noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-62785671153850313682019-07-22T06:35:00.000-04:002019-07-22T12:12:41.081-04:00Star Trek Magazine #71: Picard, the Borg, Jeri Ryan and Jonathan Del ArcoAnyone with even half an eye on events at this past weekend's San Diego Comic-Con 2019 can't have failed to notice <a href="https://intl.startrek.com/news/star-trek-universe-panel-hall-h-sdcc-recap">the revelations about the forthcoming Patrick Stewart-starring <i>Star Trek: Picard</i></a>. The biggest surprise at the Hall H panel on the Saturday was the announcement that both Jeri Ryan – <i>Star Trek: Voyager</i>'s Seven of Nine – and Jonathan Del Arco – <i>Star Trek: The Next Generation</i>'s Hugh Borg – will be making appearances in the show (as will Brent Spiner, Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis, as Data, Riker and Troi respectively). So it would be remiss of me not to point out that both Ryan and Del Arco are interviewed in the current <i>Star Trek Magazine</i>, issue #71 (#198 in the UK) – a Borg 30th anniversary special, still on sale now.<br />
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Clearly I was exhibiting some form of precognition when I commissioned those interviews... and Ryan wasn't exactly fibbing when, in answer to the question would she ever return as Seven, she replied, "Never say never."<br />
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If you're interested in reading Ryan and Del Arco's thoughts on the Borg – or indeed former <i>Star Trek</i> executive producer Rick Berman's reminiscences about Borg creator Maurice Hurley (among many other Borg- and non-Borg-related <i>Trek</i> matters) – <i>Star Trek Magazine</i> #71 is available at newsagents, in specialist sci-fi and comic stores, <a href="https://titanmagazines.com/t/star-trek/us/71/">or direct from Titan Magazines</a>.Nick Jones (Louis XIV, the Sun King)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17716508525331235684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-2247596675477816052019-07-12T10:30:00.002-04:002019-07-13T11:41:13.774-04:0080s Comics Cavalcade Back Issue Bonanza: Captain America, New Teen Titans, Legion of Super-Heroes and MoreI've documented most of the early–mid 1980s <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2019/04/80s-comics-cavalcade-collecting-conway.html">Gerry Conway/Doug Moench/Don Newton/Gene Colan et al <i>Batman</i> and <i>Detective Comics</i></a>, er, comics I've collected – in fact have pretty much finished collecting; just the elusive (and pricey) <i>Batman</i> #386 from Moench's run left to secure – since the start of the year, but I've been picking up lots of other 1980s comics besides – not to mention turning up ones I'd forgotten I even had...<br />
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Somewhere, sometime – no idea where or when but it must have been a good few years before this latest collecting frenzy – I'd somehow conspired to collect (or rather re-collect; I originally had them back in the 1980s) a good number of J. M. DeMatteis and Mike Zeck's <i>Captain America</i> comics (plus the preceding short stint by Roger Stern and John Byrne). With my fervour for '80s comics reinflamed this year, it seemed the right time to collect the post-Zeck DeMatteis <i>Caps</i> as well, which I duly did at a London comic mart, with a couple of stray issues from Dave's Comics in Brighton.<br />
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To those I added a run of late-1980s Mark Gruenwald/Kieron Dwyer <i>Caps</i>, which I came across at the Lewes Book Fair. I've not read those ones before, so I'm interested to find out what they're like.<br />
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Something I have read before, in large part, is George Perez and Marv Wolfman's <i>New Teen Titans</i>, and again in Brighton, in the basement of the ramshackle, aptly-named Raining Books (previously Rainbow Books) on Trafalgar Street I found a stack of cheap copies from early in the run. Courtesy of Dave's Comics I filled in some gaps, and then on eBay I secured a run of issues #3–15...<br />
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...plus key issues <i>DC Comics Presents</i> #26 – which has a 16-page <i>New Teen Titans</i> insert, the first appearance of the team – and <i>Tales of the Teen Titans</i> #44, which is the first appearance of former Robin, Dick Grayson, as Nightwing (long one of my favourite comics characters).<br />
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Then in Scorch Comics in Eastbourne, for just a tenner, I scored the first issue of the series:<br />
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(plus some Mike W. Barr/Alan Davis <i>Detectives</i>, and a couple of post-Moench Batman issues), meaning I now have a near-complete run of #1–50 (missing just #2, the pricey first appearance of Deathstroke).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisBb62rgjDgBuSUf8Kgnbg-7kI8U41XSvSQh3G04uu-D4qsNZWnuZXdht-SBTDNsT0ztBEt3c7ij_BRtE4pTGsyMRBPfoXY2Aww_Qrp_34ztPROUP3srOfrUt_Klmy0pwZrLmxbUaMS7kb/s1600/Legion+of+Super-Heroes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="810" data-original-width="1080" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisBb62rgjDgBuSUf8Kgnbg-7kI8U41XSvSQh3G04uu-D4qsNZWnuZXdht-SBTDNsT0ztBEt3c7ij_BRtE4pTGsyMRBPfoXY2Aww_Qrp_34ztPROUP3srOfrUt_Klmy0pwZrLmxbUaMS7kb/s400/Legion+of+Super-Heroes.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Once again from Dave's in Brighton, I bought a run of Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen's <i>Legion of Super-Heroes</i> – some from the 50p dump bins, some from the general back issue bins – including the celebrated "Great Darkness Saga" – plus most of the <i>Legends</i>-tie-in <i>Cosmic Boy</i> miniseries...<br />
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...the sole remaining issue of which I subsequently picked up in 30th Century Comics in Putney, along with the first four <i>Legion Annuals</i>. While I was there, I also bought the issues I was missing from Steve Engelhart and Joe Staton's <i>Millennium</i> miniseries, some of which I'd already found in those aforementioned Dave's Comics 50p dump bins....<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0-aAN5676wFjR4OCjMCjo1WHBY9Xqv-ywLrJrNzW6eLmYXGIa17ko4v-yEiQ1hK0BT26jooyd2BBpn9vYtNEAjeIUYHwHqvwA2TsiLdfr5-5r75pCYIHrutnq8ScbKyqbSTXJGLWZZyqm/s1600/DC+Millennium.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="810" data-original-width="1080" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0-aAN5676wFjR4OCjMCjo1WHBY9Xqv-ywLrJrNzW6eLmYXGIa17ko4v-yEiQ1hK0BT26jooyd2BBpn9vYtNEAjeIUYHwHqvwA2TsiLdfr5-5r75pCYIHrutnq8ScbKyqbSTXJGLWZZyqm/s400/DC+Millennium.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
....alongside all manner of other 50p comics: Robert Loren Fleming and Trevor Von Eeden's <i>Thriller</i> #1; Cary Bates, Gene Colan and Klaus Janson's <i>Silverblade</i> #1...<br />
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...all four issues of Max Collins and Terry Beatty's <i>Wild Dog</i> miniseries; the first three issues of Jim Starlin and Berni Brighton's <i>The Weird</i> miniseries...<br />
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Roger Slifer and Keith Giffen's<i> Omega Men</i> #1; Mike W. Barr and Jim Aparo's <i>Outsiders</i> #1; Gerard Jones and Mike Parobeck's <i>El Diablo</i> #1; plus a late-1990s <i>JLA in Crisis Secret Files and Origins</i>.<br />
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Further afield, in the Cartoon Shop in Basildon, I came across a cheap set of the first 13 issues of Roy Thomas and Jerry Ordway's <i>Infinity, Inc...</i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz9zVtBsbtcUuaBIlJD2pwiueRSt8VbYhq7Sdsw2qPLx8TDeKHzW_DCVqPMgy5Icxomgi_4I0o6drxX_OEBU07yajkslcFk6A1e7Aqq0rKCyeUQ6ul1BYd2m-W7YbsJjbCf_BjqU7ug4j8/s1600/All+Star+Squadron.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="854" data-original-width="1080" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz9zVtBsbtcUuaBIlJD2pwiueRSt8VbYhq7Sdsw2qPLx8TDeKHzW_DCVqPMgy5Icxomgi_4I0o6drxX_OEBU07yajkslcFk6A1e7Aqq0rKCyeUQ6ul1BYd2m-W7YbsJjbCf_BjqU7ug4j8/s400/All+Star+Squadron.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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...which was handy, because I've also been collecting the "Ultra War" storyline from Roy Thomas and Jerry Ordway's <i>All-Star Squadron</i>, which features the first appearance of Infinity, Inc.<br />
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And, inevitably, there have been more issues of <i>Batman</i> and <i>Detective</i>, too – from Mega City Comics (Brian Augustyn and Mike Mignola's <i>Gotham by Gaslight</i>, the first Elseworlds title), 30th Century Comics (<i>Batman</i> #307, the first appearance of Lucius Fox), Gosh! Comics (<i>Detective</i> #575, the first part of "Batman: Year Two", which completes my run of Barr/Davis <i>Detectives</i>), Dave's Comics, and Scorch Comics (where I also scored DC's two-issue <i>Christmas with the Super-Heroes</i>, the second issue of which features stories by Paul Chadwick, Eric Shanower and Colleen Doran) – not least, and returning to my earlier comment about turning up comics I'd forgotten I had, these:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiehMnCFN60YMZuyf4sev69UxxX5GBApXHtZGsn3sB4WWb9T5ghAyDKNztf3HvaMimGn2oGzl2G5JYwhxpcTrbCYqjDhgzoAkaa7piCXytOzGtwKWgnhZ7dPzHublKK9ygSc5aJOHowdIKk/s1600/Batman+Collins.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="774" data-original-width="1075" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiehMnCFN60YMZuyf4sev69UxxX5GBApXHtZGsn3sB4WWb9T5ghAyDKNztf3HvaMimGn2oGzl2G5JYwhxpcTrbCYqjDhgzoAkaa7piCXytOzGtwKWgnhZ7dPzHublKK9ygSc5aJOHowdIKk/s400/Batman+Collins.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Batman</i> #408–410 by Max Allan Collins, Chris Warner, Ross Andru and Dave Cockrum (in which, post-<i>Crisis on Infinite Earths</i>, Jason Todd, the second Robin, is reimagined as a juvenile delinquent rather than a circus acrobat – comics, eh?), which I came across in the loft whilst hunting for something else, and which I have no idea where (or when) they came from. A turn up for the (comic) books indeed.Nick Jones (Louis XIV, the Sun King)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17716508525331235684noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-56386424007577820702019-06-05T10:25:00.000-04:002019-06-27T05:11:02.005-04:00Anthony Price, 1928–2019<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I wasn't planning on commemorating Anthony Price, <a href="http://www.shotsmag.co.uk/feature_view.aspx?FEATURE_ID=422">who died last Thursday, 30 May</a>; I was content to let my 2011 <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2011/08/interview-with-anthony-price-author-of.html">two-part</a> <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2011/08/interview-with-anthony-price-author-of_03.html">interview</a> with the spy novelist stand as tribute (along with <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/search/label/Anthony%20Price">all my other Price posts</a>). But Ethan Iverson – who has posted his own <a href="https://ethaniverson.com/2019/06/04/timelash/">typically excellent tribute</a> – encouraged me to do so, and so here are a few thoughts.<br />
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I still think fondly of the day I interviewed the author at his then-home in Oxfordshire: spotting red kites on the drive there; the warm welcome Rachel and I received from Price and his late wife, Ann, when we arrived, exemplified by the salmon lunch we were served; and Price's candour during the interview in his study, including the revelation – which I left out of the transcript at his request – that the reason he never wrote the 20th <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2011/06/author-anthony-price-david-audley.html">David Audley</a> novel after 1989's <i>The Memory Trap</i> was because Ann had fallen seriously ill.<br />
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Something else I haven't since revealed is that following the interview, Price and I corresponded for a little while, exchanging the odd letter and Christmas card. When his wife died in 2012 he wrote of the funeral and his memories of Ann, and when Rachel and my daughter Edie was born in 2013, he commended the choice of her "lovely Anglo-Saxan name", and shared the news that he'd moved to Blackheath in London and had just been to a "wonderful, but terrifying!" Leonard Cohen concert at the 02. ("All those people!") I regret that I didn't keep up the correspondence past that point – I didn't want to pester him – but I shall always treasure my small stash of letters.<br />
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I'll also treasure the firsts of <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/search/label/Anthony%20Price"><i>The Labyrinth Makers</i>, <i>The Alamut Ambush</i>, and <i>Our Man in Camelot</i></a> he inscribed to me. And I'll continue to make my way through the David Audley series, which I'm ashamed to admit I'm still not even halfway through. <i><a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2011/08/tomorrows-ghost-by-anthony-price-signed.html">Tomorrow's Ghost</a></i> is next up for me, even though Price somewhat spoiled the fate of its protagonist during our interview. I wouldn't have it any other way though.<br />
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<i><b>Addendum:</b> There are now obituaries at</i> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/14/books/anthony-price-dead.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytbooks">The New York Times</a><i>,</i> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jun/09/anthony-price-obituary">The Guardian</a><i>,</i> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/anthony-price-british-author-of-thrillers-with-deep-links-to-history-dies-at-90/2019/06/15/8ebb79fe-8f9a-11e9-8f69-a2795fca3343_story.html?utm_term=.ade2bd2fbd02">The Washington Post</a><i>,</i> <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/anthony-price-obituary-sj67fglzd">The Times</a><i>, and</i> <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2019/06/02/anthony-price-much-admired-author-dr-david-audley-spy-novels/">The Telegraph</a><i>, all of which refer to my 2011 interview.</i>Nick Jones (Louis XIV, the Sun King)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17716508525331235684noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-19988482583447937222019-04-17T07:00:00.000-04:002019-04-26T10:20:16.777-04:0080s Comics Cavalcade: Collecting Conway and Moench Batman and Detective Back Issues<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So much for maintaining my blogging momentum this year: this is the first post I've managed since I <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2019/02/first-editions-of-raymond-chandlers.html">declared my intention to blog more frequently</a> two bloody months ago. I've been pecking away at a prospective post about Batman comics, but it just wasn't coming together, so rather than persist in fruitlessly puffing at the flickering flame of what I laughingly call my muse, I thought I'd simply post a bunch of pictures of the early–mid-1980s <i>Batman</i> and <i>Detective Comics</i> I've been collecting since the start of the year, and write whatever comes into my head about them.<br />
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Comprising consecutive runs by writers <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2019/01/80s-comics-cavalcade-detective-comics.html">Gerry Conway</a> (<i>Detective</i> #497–526/<i>Batman</i> #337–359, 1980–83) and <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2019/01/80s-comics-cavalcade-six-from-sirius-by.html">Doug Moench</a> (<i>Batman</i> #360–400/<i>Detective</i> #527–566, 1983–86), a lot of these issues I had and read as a kid, around the age of twelve or thirteen or so, but subsequently flogged (probably to long-lost London back issue specialists LTS/Paradise Alley to fund the purchase of import electro and hip hop 12"s from long-lost London record shop Groove Records).<br />
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Boasting terrific art by Don Newton, Gene Colan and others (with some fab Jim Aparo covers thrown in for good measure), this era of Batman is notable for the way <i>Batman</i> and <i>Detective</i> became increasingly interlinked, with stories weaving back and forth between the two titles so that they effectively became one fortnightly series. It also marked the arrival of a more sophisticated style of storytelling, with more defined characterisation and multiple ongoing subplots which would simmer away until exploding into lead stories – all of which the <a href="http://www.gothamcalling.com/gerry-conways-marvelized-batman/">Gotham Calling blog has identified as the 'Marvelization' of Batman</a>.<br />
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That's besides more prosaic – but of course of vital interest to superhero comics collectors – fictional events as the debuts of Jason Todd (although I haven't yet got my hands on the issue with his first appearance in it; I'm still missing the odd issue here and there), Killer Croc and Nocturna (all characters I have a lot of time for), the return of Bruce Wayne/Batman to Wayne Manor (after an extended stint living in the penthouse of – and Caped Crusadering out of a Batcave beneath – the Wayne Foundation building), and Batman briefly becoming a vampire!<br />
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I've been picking up issues of <i>Batman</i> and <i>Detective</i> in a handful of comic shops – my local, Dave's in Brighton, as well as Uncanny Comics in Worthing and 30th Century Comics in Putney – plus on a visit to the bimonthly London Comic Mart at the Royal National Hotel near Russell Square, which I hadn't been to in over a decade (the comic mart I mean; I've been to a fair number of book fairs at the same venue in the interim).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh90IkxI5bmK0HxWyBa2lcNIA4f-TljwoekuOnDv1IRRUus4Sufer8gTXWfcZddSHd6EMzKV85Ejrd9dvE7zG8DWsbp462MujU_cSfTpzKDAQDPOEO13l2PPeU_tdLSKESEWR2ro386e_r6/s1600/Batman+comics+06.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="1080" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh90IkxI5bmK0HxWyBa2lcNIA4f-TljwoekuOnDv1IRRUus4Sufer8gTXWfcZddSHd6EMzKV85Ejrd9dvE7zG8DWsbp462MujU_cSfTpzKDAQDPOEO13l2PPeU_tdLSKESEWR2ro386e_r6/s400/Batman+comics+06.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Somewhere else I found myself for the first time in probably a dozen years was Mega City Comics in Camden. I made the journey there on the off chance, not really expecting to find anything, only to discover that they'd just got in a collection of precisely the era of <i>Batman</i> and <i>Detective</i> I was after – the sort of serendipitous occurrence that us collectors can usually only dream of, even in the internet age.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC4qq9JQJ6OSa0J4lPZNnK1hVRQm-4NuMr3F5jnF9IisrvMSWQAonQypLVCQ4kqqJkfnRTIimKEZZqEKqdR7IQL34JsG9n9BecDJzVOzpEAu9w1c57_Pp3C69ksutOe5Z6P17I0Drue8O-/s1600/Batman+comics+07.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="770" data-original-width="1080" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC4qq9JQJ6OSa0J4lPZNnK1hVRQm-4NuMr3F5jnF9IisrvMSWQAonQypLVCQ4kqqJkfnRTIimKEZZqEKqdR7IQL34JsG9n9BecDJzVOzpEAu9w1c57_Pp3C69ksutOe5Z6P17I0Drue8O-/s400/Batman+comics+07.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Speaking of which, I've been picking up issues on eBay as well – a run of ten <i>Detectives</i> from one seller, half a dozen <i>Detectives</i> from another, random issues of <i>Batman</i> and <i>Detective</i> here and there.<br />
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Although this is all ostensibly an exercise in nostalgia, I am intrigued to find out if these stories are as good, as contemporary-seeming, as I half-remember and half-suspect (I've only read/re-read up to the end of 1981 so far, so the best stuff is yet to come). Certainly Gene Colan's appositely shadowy and swirling art is as excellent and evocative as I remember, and <a href="http://donnewton.com/">Don Newton</a>'s is even better than I recall, owing an obvious debt to Bernie Wrightson and Neal Adams but still distinctive and aesthetically inviting.<br />
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And then there are all the additional pleasures of reading these stories in their original floppy format (rather than in collections or online): comics adverts for Hostess Twinkies (and Fruit Pies and Cupcakes) and Bubble Yum; other adverts for plastic toy soldiers and Sea-Monkeys and bodybuilding courses and magic tricks and pranks and <i>Grit</i> newspaper and the Olympic Sales Club ("Prizes for cash") and NBC's Super Star Saturday cartoon marathons (oh how I wished we had those in the UK back then) and comic book back issues; letters pages; a very modern (employing narrative captions rather than thought bubbles) Conway-written Robin back-up strip circa 1981; house ads for other DC comics; and from 1983 onwards, DC Managing Editor Dick Giordano's Meanwhile... columns.<br />
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Collecting – or in many cases re-collecting – these comics has been a lot of fun, and reading them has been just as enjoyable so far. And hopefully, when I get a little further along in my reading, I'll find time to write about them again.<br />
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Nick Jones (Louis XIV, the Sun King)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17716508525331235684noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-32160518951008477312019-02-12T07:00:00.000-05:002019-03-08T14:32:01.229-05:00First Editions of Raymond Chandler's The Little Sister, John Rowland's Calamity in Kent and Henry Kane's Trilogy in JeopardyIt's perhaps a measure of the neglect Existential Ennui has suffered in recent times – on my part I mean; whatever commensurate neglect there's been on the part of the readership is neither here nor there – that I haven't updated my <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/p/beautiful-british-book-jacket-design-of.html">Beautiful British Book Jacket Design of the 1950s and 1960s</a> page in well over a year. That's partly down to my gravitating more towards science fiction from the 1970s and later in my collecting and reading over the past few years, and as a consequence acquiring fewer books that fit with that 50s/60s theme; but it's not the whole story. As I <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2018/05/larry-nivens-world-out-of-time-greg.html">mentioned last May</a>, the blogging muse, such as it was, rather deserted me in 2018; so while I have still been picking up books here and there, the wrappers of which have been eminently suitable for Beautiful British Book Jacket Design, I haven't been able to summon the impetus or enthusiasm to blog about them.<br />
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This year, however, the muse has seemingly made a marginal return. I managed <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2019/01/80s-comics-cavalcade-six-from-sirius-by.html">two posts</a> in January – a nascent series called <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2019/01/80s-comics-cavalcade-detective-comics.html">80s Comics Cavalcade</a>, which I hope to continue – and am keen to maintain that momentum, however faltering it may be. To that end, I thought I'd increase 2019's post tally by showcasing a few finds which I'm adding to the aforementioned Beautiful British Book Jackets page, starting with a small haul from one of Brighton's flea markets last year – small but, I feel, given the piddling prices paid, impressive, especially this book:<br />
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A British first edition/first impression of Raymond Chandler's <i>The Little Sister</i>. Published in hardback by Hamish Hamilton, strictly speaking its issue date of 1949 should disqualify it from inclusion in Beautiful British Book Jackets of the 1950s and 1960s; but I've made exceptions before, and its wrapper, by <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2012/05/cold-waters-by-p-m-hubbard-geoffrey.html">Cecil Walter Bacon</a>, is too good not to include, especially as it makes a nice companion to the two other CWB jackets on the page.<br />
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The fifth of Chandler's <a href="http://www.thrillingdetective.com/marlowe.html">Philip Marlowe</a> novels, <i>The Little Sister</i> is quite a valuable book in British first (the true first of the book, as it preceded the American first by three months), especially in its original dust jacket, even a somewhat chipped and worn one as here. When I spied this copy on the shelves of the bijou book stall in the flea market, I couldn't quite credit what I was seeing, but on closer inspection I realised it was indeed a British 1st/1st, and with a ludicrously low price pencilled on its front free endpaper. I've come across some real bargains in my time collecting books, but this is by far my biggest find: the closest comparable copy I can see online is listed at £375 – rather more than the £3 I paid.<br />
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The other two books from this haul aren't in quite the same league as the Chandler, but they are both pretty scarce and fairly valuable. Probably scarcest of the two, at least in first edition, is this one:<br />
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<i>Calamity in Kent</i> by John Rowland, published by Herbert Jenkins in 1950. <a href="https://www.bl.uk/shop/calamity-in-kent/p-291">One</a> of two Rowland novels reissued by the British Library in 2016 under their Crime Classics imprint (the other being 1938's <i><a href="https://www.bl.uk/shop/murder-in-the-museum/p-292">Murder in the Museum</a></i>), <i>Calamity in Kent</i> is an entry in Rowland's series of novels featuring Inspector Shelley (and <a href="http://www.classiccrimefiction.com/john-rowland.htm">one of the last he published</a>), and is set in the fictional Kentish coastal town of Broadgate, a name which Rowland presumably arrived at by shmooshing Broadstairs into Ramsgate. As a Kent man myself (originally – I suppose I'm more of a Sussex sort these days), I can only commend this act of geographical commingling.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtgyBPAnuX7F7dBR7ZQi7e7xTaUg4KwpOfmkpdh2XOLuWjoXBXDhz0y79EarND_J-YCBn8-npaEXstiI3UelbBiYwH76kGv4D2mCsIZ2gfwper_WG1ostACwom8YkRsff0hiYgUlB-oAW9/s1600/Rowland+Calamity+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="940" data-original-width="1440" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtgyBPAnuX7F7dBR7ZQi7e7xTaUg4KwpOfmkpdh2XOLuWjoXBXDhz0y79EarND_J-YCBn8-npaEXstiI3UelbBiYwH76kGv4D2mCsIZ2gfwper_WG1ostACwom8YkRsff0hiYgUlB-oAW9/s400/Rowland+Calamity+3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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John Norris of Pretty Sinister Books <a href="https://prettysinister.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-death-of-nevill-norway-john-rowland.html">wrote about Rowland back in 2016</a>, so head to that post if you want to learn more about the author. What concerns us here is the dust jacket of the first edition, which was designed by an H. T. Watts... although I've been able to find out very little about him, if indeed he is a him. I do know he also designed the wrappers for the 1950 Jenkins edition of Leonora Starr's <i>Azaleas on the Hill</i> and the 1950 Sampson Low, Marston & Co edition of Paul Townend's <i>The Modern World Book of Wonders</i>, but beyond that, I've drawn a blank. I did wonder if H. T. Watts might have been related to the publisher <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Albert_Watts">Charles Albert Watts</a>, for whom I believe John Rowland worked at one time, but that's barely even conjecture on my part.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT3DPvSfh0Rm7pzDe7US41Rv-EN3LudHI_KgqRaJOF3hyphenhypheng4fMU7jyy-MV_kvcDdToU8Ysb33phvjEASyu5z3xXCHMkwTbEqhs9a8AbFJoR6A-ysS97T1Eo-NGvEKjzGOT_6Qcvzr3mtcrf/s1600/Rowland+Calamity+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1058" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT3DPvSfh0Rm7pzDe7US41Rv-EN3LudHI_KgqRaJOF3hyphenhypheng4fMU7jyy-MV_kvcDdToU8Ysb33phvjEASyu5z3xXCHMkwTbEqhs9a8AbFJoR6A-ysS97T1Eo-NGvEKjzGOT_6Qcvzr3mtcrf/s400/Rowland+Calamity+2.jpg" width="263" /></a></div>
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One note, however, before we move on to the final book in this haul: there was a John Rowland designing dust jackets in the 1950s and 1960s – I wrote about him <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2011/10/on-beach-by-nevil-shute-first-edition.html">here</a>, and his work is featured on the Beautiful British Book Jackets page. Were Rowland the author and Rowland the illustrator and designer one and the same? As ever, if anyone can shed any light, do please leave a comment.<br />
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At present I can't see any jacketed firsts of <i>Calamity in Kent</i> for sale online, so the £2 I paid for mine, even with its torn wrapper, has to be considered something of a steal. As does the £3 I paid for this book:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifZ_OUKxjq06ZjL6JZmpjJSOEjENSayUzSk9LTdVWROBvUVjuYd0BKea5ZYdfrzeZR5drfMEF5TWR73ZATaY4Uq6rlHAe7pXjAca-xjRoOw00tns6BAVJn7EEuJMnSy671zQ74HYhBkJE8/s1600/Kane+Trilogy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1058" data-original-width="720" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifZ_OUKxjq06ZjL6JZmpjJSOEjENSayUzSk9LTdVWROBvUVjuYd0BKea5ZYdfrzeZR5drfMEF5TWR73ZATaY4Uq6rlHAe7pXjAca-xjRoOw00tns6BAVJn7EEuJMnSy671zQ74HYhBkJE8/s400/Kane+Trilogy.jpg" width="271" /></a></div>
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A British first edition of <i>Trilogy in Jeopardy</i> by Henry Kane, published by T. V. Boardman in 1955 – #113 in the publisher's American Bloodhound Mystery series. I've written about <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/search/label/T.%20V.%20Boardman">Boardman</a>, and the designer of most of their dust jackets and book covers, <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/search/label/Denis%20McLoughlin">Denis McLoughlin</a>, many times, so I shan't tarry here; follow the links for more on both. This particular book, a collection of three of Kane's <a href="http://www.thrillingdetective.com/chambers.html">Peter Chambers P.I.</a> stories (namely "Slaughter on Sunday", "One Little Bullet" and "Skip a Beat"), is in very short supply online: I can see a couple of jacketed copies in the US priced at around £40, but that's it.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuDWDy0yODRMDo-KVLMB0h3sF0qEmlHAPoMcqFcTZypyakfY6nqthOoRgTYp41wyYIfJU5M_8P0Vo6Wf3eQuo44KEGk_AI4DOkvImSHB-d76WTt9FROMlV7DJ_LtL2ZdvYfO84B-ipgYUA/s1600/Kane+Trilogy+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="971" data-original-width="1440" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuDWDy0yODRMDo-KVLMB0h3sF0qEmlHAPoMcqFcTZypyakfY6nqthOoRgTYp41wyYIfJU5M_8P0Vo6Wf3eQuo44KEGk_AI4DOkvImSHB-d76WTt9FROMlV7DJ_LtL2ZdvYfO84B-ipgYUA/s400/Kane+Trilogy+3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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I've added all three of those wrappers to <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/p/beautiful-british-book-jacket-design-of.html">Beautiful British Book Jacket design of the 1950s and 1960s</a>, but blogging about <i>Trilogy in Jeopardy</i> has reminded me that I have some other McLoughlin-wrapped Boardmans to add to the page. I shall endeavour to do that at the earliest opportunity.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0ny0Z7eafTcxgvVz7yGcO5_ClTGDMh3k2s0VTINS2DqGAITDI1WTQa9AzkvxRljNTbuAjDEv4DE2AX8bzj-K3S0q6xg-ZYvhtTfsEg98uNt4vch5QKd3lIWNsKXtrlVWCm3uNRNVbRDZk/s1600/Kane+Trilogy+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1071" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0ny0Z7eafTcxgvVz7yGcO5_ClTGDMh3k2s0VTINS2DqGAITDI1WTQa9AzkvxRljNTbuAjDEv4DE2AX8bzj-K3S0q6xg-ZYvhtTfsEg98uNt4vch5QKd3lIWNsKXtrlVWCm3uNRNVbRDZk/s400/Kane+Trilogy+2.jpg" width="267" /></a></div>
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<i>Linked in <a href="https://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2019/03/fridays-forgotten-books-and-more-links_8.html">Friday's Forgotten Books, 8/3/19</a>.</i>Nick Jones (Louis XIV, the Sun King)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17716508525331235684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-84113414198776524062019-01-27T10:45:00.001-05:002019-04-26T10:20:38.348-04:0080s Comics Cavalcade: Detective Comics #526; the Best Batman Comic Ever?In my <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2019/01/80s-comics-cavalcade-six-from-sirius-by.html">previous 80s Comics Cavalcade post</a> I mentioned how <a href="https://www.existentialennui.com/2019/04/80s-comics-cavalcade-collecting-conway.html">Doug Moench and Gene Colan's 1983–84 stint on <i>Detective Comics</i> and <i>Batman</i></a> made a big impression on 13–14 year-old me. But what I didn't mention was that it was probably the issue just preceding <a href="http://www.gothamcalling.com/doug-moenchs-literary-batman/">Moench's run</a> that made the biggest impression of all: <i>Detective Comics</i> #526, written by <a href="http://www.gothamcalling.com/gerry-conways-marvelized-batman/">Gerry Conway</a>, art by Don Newton and Alfred Alcala.<br />
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I would have been on the cusp of 13 when this issue was published in 1983; cover-dated May, it was published in the US on 24 February, so I reckon it would have made its way over to British newsagents by early March – newsagents being where I bought the majority of my American comics at that point (I wouldn't find my way to any of London's comic shops for another year or so). I even know which newsagent I bought it in: a corner shop (long since converted to residential use) opposite Beckenham Rec on Croydon Road, south London, which I'd walk the 20 minutes to from my house at least once a week to see what new American comics might have arrived.<br />
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So vivid is my memory of buying this issue that I can pretty much picture it on the right-hand side of the bottom shelf, where the US comics were kept, its gold-stamped cover calling to me... although the copy seen here isn't actually the one I bought back then: my original copy is long gone, sold, I expect, to central London back-issue specialists <a href="https://www.librarything.com/venue/84607/Paradise-Alley-%5BFormally-named-LTS%5D">LTS/Paradise Alley</a> off Denmark Street, where a lot of my comics ended up (flogged off to feed a subsequent habit: the acquisition of import electro/hip hop 12"s from Groove Records on Greek Street). This particular copy is a more recent purchase, nabbed by chance on a flying visit to Uncanny Comics in Worthing.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWhqL72hUAdP2hFp3h9gXuZpq0UIEnxWrLdTLlZzguq7f3UD1LqTR6Idsqo0EYlCbMiG6xpWhfY384h0U3yh4eZJEYvwUgUIGpoKdb259L7fI-uFmnOOFe-6GM8Pmsfxbhuz6iyBFtLcTV/s1600/Detective+526+01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1376" data-original-width="951" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWhqL72hUAdP2hFp3h9gXuZpq0UIEnxWrLdTLlZzguq7f3UD1LqTR6Idsqo0EYlCbMiG6xpWhfY384h0U3yh4eZJEYvwUgUIGpoKdb259L7fI-uFmnOOFe-6GM8Pmsfxbhuz6iyBFtLcTV/s320/Detective+526+01.jpg" width="221" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrMgg80l7v2jBTXZGq3Ty0VTxi0XP7kGsAoi0tGFADp0zXiTERQJikHyJgiamdaLr4Q6_zrhnTQnYoL6uoZ48-CQ2pLJLCcaWsrGoUVZKfkHK2Ze6KIORh01lIB4crYVE2odiAHal_Kf8K/s1600/Detective+526+02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1372" data-original-width="947" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrMgg80l7v2jBTXZGq3Ty0VTxi0XP7kGsAoi0tGFADp0zXiTERQJikHyJgiamdaLr4Q6_zrhnTQnYoL6uoZ48-CQ2pLJLCcaWsrGoUVZKfkHK2Ze6KIORh01lIB4crYVE2odiAHal_Kf8K/s320/Detective+526+02.jpg" width="220" /></a></div>
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Reading it again over 35 years on from first exposure, I experienced a rush of nostalgia, pages and panels so familiar to me that I can only conclude that teenage me must have read and reread the comic countless times. It's easy to see why. A 68-page square-bound anniversary issue, boasting a 56-page story (plus ads, plus a celebratory Bob Kane pin-up page), <i>Detective</i> #526 features all of Batman's recurring villains teaming up to take him down – an obvious conceit on reflection but one which I'd not come across before (and have rarely seen since).<br />
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But I was most struck by how the smaller character moments have stayed with me all these years: the way Conway and co. deftly demonstrate Two-Face's mercurial nature by having him let Talia al Ghul escape after his scarred coin lands good side up; Vicki Vale, working late, having to forcefully fend off the unwanted amorous advances of a sleazy colleague; Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) revealing to a shocked Dick Grayson that she's worked out that he and Bruce Wayne are Batman and Robin; various bizarre villains (some of whom I would have recognised at the time, others I wouldn't; this wouldn't have been the first Batman comic I read, but it was an early one) unused to working together, blundering into one another and taking each other off the field.<br />
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I also see things now I didn't see then, notably Conway's refreshing characterisation of Batman as a relatively balanced individual; a crime-fighter more than a crusader; an adventurer rather than an avenger: a Batman who quips, as opposed to a <a href="https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/The_Batman_Who_Laughs">Batman Who Laughs</a>. As Batman, Talia and Catwoman race to their cars, Conway's narration notes: "Three grins light three grim faces. This is what they love: in a way, it's what they live for. The chase. The hunt. The thrill of facing the unknown."<br />
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Such is the nature of nostalgia that we believe the things we loved as kids – comics, books, TV shows, films, toys – were better than the things that came later, irrespective of whether they were or not, and no doubt that's the case here too. Even so, reading <i>Detective</i> #526 again at this remove, I think there's more going on here. I've read a lot of brilliant Batman stories over the years – <i>The Dark Knight Returns</i>, <i>Year One</i>, too many others to name – but I struggle to think of a single issue – as in a stand-alone, effectively done-in-one instalment – as good as this one. The best Batman comic ever? That's a bold (maybe even a brave and a bold) claim. But <i>Detective Comics</i> #526 is hard to beat.<br />
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Nick Jones (Louis XIV, the Sun King)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17716508525331235684noreply@blogger.com0