BLOOD STAIN, VOLUME 1

DC IN YOUR FUTURE

DC collections for the fall and beginning of 2017 are starting to show up in the Edelweiss website. (That's a web site touted as a "book discovery tool." They publish the publishing plans for lots of publishers. Is that too redundant?)

These are all, of course, subject to change, but a couple of interesting things come from them:

  • January 2017 is the plan for a Gen13 Complete Collection by J. Scott Campbell. Remember -- you started reading the reviews for this book almost a year in advance in Pipeline. I lucked into that with the Epic Gen13 Re-Read, but it's seriously about time. It's hard to believe that Campbell's arguably best known work has been out of print for so long. Though I do have to agree with Campbell that it's unfortunate that it won't be a more deluxe presentation. Some of that coloring will not hold up well with cheap paper. Fingers crossed.
  • DC is specializing in collections by creator name. This is a necessity for two reasons. First, there is no publishing continuity anymore. With series renumbering so often, you can't give a series of trade paperbacks a straight volume number anymore. Even a simple title would be confusing. But the die-hard DC fans who are most likely to buy this stuff will remember the stories from the creators who told them. Second, there is no long-term continuity at DC anymore. Most of those books collecting the runs of a creator are from a continuity that DC no longer admits ever existed. When you see "DC Comics Series By Creator Name Here," just keep in mind that that is their way of saying "DC Elseworlds," if they even still used that moniker. Functionally, it's the same. Actually, ALL of those books are from a disavowed era of DC now with a new rebirth coming in a month or two. It all makes my head spin.
  • A second volume of Batman by Norm Breyfogle is always good news. As a bonus, it's still a hardcover. MY FAVORITE FRENCH COMIC THAT'S IN FRENCH
    There's a new volume of "Mega Spirou" out now. Available through digital distributor, Izneo, for just over four dollars, you get 192 pages of humorous and adventurous comics in French, both old and new. There's a Girl Power theme in this volume, which means most of the material features the stable of Spirou's favorite female characters. This even goes so far as to reprint the entire Smurfs book that introduced Smurfette. It's an amazing value for the money.
    The caveat is just that it's all in French. I have to be honest, though -- I stumble my way through some of the one-page gags and shorter stories with a lot of help from Google Translate, but I mostly enjoy this series for the various art styles and cartooning. It's a great visual variety.
    There are a lot of pages from "Melusine" and "Dad" in there this month, both of which are artistic favorites of mine. "Melusine" has a nice cartoony style with cute characters. A few volumes are available in English through Cinebooks, too. "Dad" is a fantastic bit of cartooning, centering on a married man with two daughters and all the drama that combination creates. The art is lively and attractive, and the coloring is unique and engrossing. I could look at these pages all day, if only to study the coloring technique and choices.
    Even without knowing French, you can kind of get the idea of what's going on. I hope Cinebook picks this book up, as it appears to be gaining steam in France from what I've seen. To sum it up: That's nearly 200 pages in full color for the cost of a many single Marvel or DC comics. I know the economic model is different. This is an anthology book that does all reprints, most of which serve as ads for other collected editions. I doubt anyone could afford to print a 192 page book for $3.99 in America, let alone take a profit from it. I'd certainly love to see someone try. Twitter || E-mail || Pipeline Message Board || Instagram || Tumblr || VariousandSundry.com || AugieShoots.com || Original Art Collection || Google+