George Perez visits Mannheim’s Comicothek in GermanyFrom 13thdimension.com
COMICOTHEK (Signing) (04 Aug 1999)
Mannheim, Germany
In retrospect, meeting [George] Pérez was maybe one of the most important moments of my life. Sure, I had read Crisis on Infinite Earths, but actually seeing the man who drew it blew my mind. And it made comics suddenly very “real.” Like, there were actual people who made these things that had always been around? This realization left a lasting impact.
Posted by Vu Sleeper
“Hi Q, With CW’s [Crisis on Infinite Earths] having started and DC Daily
having gone through each issue [of the original comic], I reread it
again. So I’ve got a two part question for you. How many “named”
characters are in COIE? Given the large number does that make George
Pérez the artist who has drawn the most DC characters? (If not [Pérez],
then who holds that title?)”
You’re really living up to your name, acolyte, because this question was
downright sadistic. Nevertheless, for my hungry readers, I endeavored
to identify and tally every single named character in the entire 12
issue Crisis on Infinite Earths epic, from Abra Kadabra to Zirral of the
Omega Men. Throughout its myriad crowds and costumes, I counted 518
characters in total. I will not list them here. (Curiously absent,
though? Hal Jordan. Interesting, that. True, he was retired at the time,
but you’d think he’d have at least made a small appearance somewhere.)
Related:
Crisis on Infinite Earths poster, featuring a key identifying all 562
characters. Painted by Alex Ross over pencils by original Crisis artist
George Pérez, the 65" w x 28" h poster features a 1/2" solid black
border "framing" the image, which otherwise appears without any
additional graphic elements or logos.
The year is 1985. DC releases Crisis on Infinite Earths to merge their
universes and absolutely changes their publications and the idea of
comics events forever. Thirty-four years later, the Longbox Podcast
tries to review it and Matt and Tyler are dumbfounded. This book is as
heavy and detailed as you remember but is that a good thing? Listen to
the latest Shortbox and find out!
I made a book mark and had it laminated of the missing panel.
Vu: That is a photo of the infamous Crisis
printing error (on page 281). DC Comics realized their mistake in
December 1998 and recalled the books. Some copies made it out and I have
seen sellers trying to sell this as a rare collectable. Personally
speaking, I wouldn't pay full price for a misprinted book.
DC Comics is releasing a mammoth
slipcased hardcover edition which collects the 1985 maxiseries that
redefined DC's original universe, Crisis on Infinite Earths. The book
features a wraparound illustration of more than 500 characters --
painted by Alex Ross over pencils by original Crisis artist George
Perez. The book's interior is the result of a restoration effort
unparallelled in the history of comics.
"The best way to think of this is book
is as 'Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Special Edition,'" Jim Spivey,
Associate Editor said. "While no new story pages have been added, we
have taken great care to make sure mistakes and inconsistencies have
been corrected, taking full advantage of current technology to do it."
Since the original Crisisused a special
printing process that has long since been outmoded, every page had to
be reconstructed from the original four-color film. The painstaking
process included multiple corrections for scratches, art that had
dropped out, typos, and other mistakes and inconsistencies. "Many of
the pages needed to have their surprints (color special effects)
entirely redone," Spivey said, adding "each of the 342 pages was then
re-coded and color-separated using state-of-the-art computer separation
techniques and effects, fixing errors and even clarifying some story
points (on instructions from series writer Marv Wolfman and artist
George Perez) as needed."
Included with the hardcover in the
foil-stamped slipcase is a 22" x 34" poster-sized reproduction, without
type save the logo, of the cover to Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 (death
of Supergirl). The 368-page Crisis on Infinite Earths slipcased
hardcover can be ordered now from ComicSource for expected delivery in
December.
June 21, 2001
From Vu
Extremely expensive and limited. It
comes in a slipcase to hold the book, a sturdy and metallic box to keep
the George Perez/Alex Ross duskjacket nice and safe, and enough room to
hold a folded poster of the "Death of Supergirl". There were some
printing errors that went out to the general public before it came to
DC's attention (see Crisis On Infinite Earths Printing Error) so those
variants exist, but it is rare (and also not really worth it, as who
wants printing errors?).
Although, it is a nice reprinted
material (including all new digital re-coloring), the printed ink
doesn't look that good (or fine). It looks botchy and less detailed.
The highly publicized "inked" on "The Monitor Tapes" looks really bad
with ink. I prefer the pencil printing to be honest.
The other nice bonus is all the original
gorgeous George Perez covers are reprinted along with character
designs, including the female Dr. Light (pencils only), Harbinger, the
Monitor, and Pariah (all of which have appeared the first couple of
issue of Crisis comic book, except for the new Dr. Light). There are
some relevant drawings of the Monitor, Alexander Luthor, and Lady
Quark, which are taken from various Who's Who entries.
Despite the darker inks and cost, it is
really a nice collection to have on one book (even if you own all the
maxi-series). It is perhaps the most important story and artwork ever
printed. Well worth owning - that is if you can find someone selling
it. I have seen it sold for as much as $200, so $99.95 might be a
bargain after all.
Due to a printing error, most reorders
and advance reorders of the CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS HARDCOVER WITH
SLIPCASE (SEP98 0138) are being held back from release to allow time
for the error (a misprinted page) to be corrected. A new item code has
been assigned for all further activity: SEP98 8476.
Well, @perezartist used many overlays for color effects on Crisis, so
maybe they had to recreate some? I don’t know.I do know they needed to
recreate the strip panels on the bottom of one issue, as George had
inked them on different boards.
Answer:
Ex-DC Employee Rick Taylor wrote:
"Technically speaking, Crisis on Infinite Earth was literally in
THOUSANDS of pieces of film. Because the artists drew THOUSANDS of
surprints (all those wacky effects) and hundreds of drop out (all that
snow), it took a production artist (thanks Nick Napolotano, you BUSTED
YOUR ASS for scale) literally a year to reconstruct all the art.
"I was saddled with the worst sep house DC used at the time (because
they were the cheapest, something I fought tooth and nail and got shot
down on). I think we proof issues 1 at least 4 times and they STILL
couldn't get it right."
"Then DC 'rolled the deadlines FORWARD' 16 weeks (by the way, the line
editors were able to just keep being late) on me and my then-assistant
(2 people produced 96 collected editions that year) and told us the book
HAD TO SHIP ON TIME.
"We got to the issue where they reproduced from George (Perez)'s pencil
and because it was letterpress on newsprint those pencilled panels
looked like hell. George had Xeroxes which he gladly loaned us, but
Gerry Ordway [sic] was not available to ink so we hired AL Vey (his assistant when Crisis was originally inked and a great guy. Hey AL!).
"We were pretty far into production by the so the sep house had to strip
in those panels. They screwed up and stripped on panel in twice. We
missed it when we proofed the book (getting past three sets of eyes) and
it made it into print.
"If you wanted to call Crisis a reprint, go ahead. It was a giant
assembly process that took over a year, was in THOUSANDS of pieces, had
four months cut out of the schedule, got the worst sep house they had
who was doing about 15 monthlies at the same time.
NBC's Constantine is based on the DC/Vertigo comics Hellblazer. The show
regularly airs on NBC on Fridays at 8pm. The comic was also the basis
of the Warner Brothers movie Constantine, starring Keanu Reeves as the
chain smoker.
...
As a sign of how old I am, my first comic book that I purchased with my own money was Crisis on Infinite Earths for $0.75, 30 years ago. I bought it from Yunkee, because I was drawn to the many characters in the books. I believe the Crisis #3
was on newsstand at that time period, so I was actually missing issue
#2 for a while (but obviously I've tracked down the missing issue at a
comic book store - Sierra Comics and Books in Clovis, California). I
have very fond memories of the series, read #5 in the bathtub (to this
day, the comic has water damage), blown away by the death of Supergirl,
followed by the death of Flash (Barry Allen). Wow, this was amazing
comic-changing stuff! There was no internet, there was no Previews;
the only way to find out what was happening was to visit a newsstand
(because the comic book store was usually too far for me).
Having said all that, and excuse me if you think I do not understand the
digital age (because I will agree with you), but selling a digital
collection of Crisis for $19.99 is way, way too much.
The digital collection came out this week, February 3rd, 2015,
previously you had to purchase each issue individually, priced at $1.99
each. In both cases, you're going to spend around $20 to $24 to get the
entire story... which I think is just too much.
I understand the real cost is the content, but I will argue with you
that after 30 years, believe me when I tell you that DC Comics have
already made their money on these comics, whether it is through various
printings or different formats or licensing it to foreign countries.
I've personally contributed over $200 to DC, just in the Crisis line...
I know that kids these days probably have more money than when I was a
young - but the entry way for me into comics were the fact that it was
inexpensive. Comics were still under $1 for most newsprints and it was
affordable for me. Current pricing for most new books ($2.99 or $3.99),
I think is just too much money. While there is really no way to
reduce the cost of the flimsies, due to the rising cost of paper and
ink, I believe they should focus to digital. Make digital the entry
point by reducing the price to 99 cents or lower. From my personal
experience, the flimsies were usually an entry point for me - if I enjoy
a series, I'll end up buying more books from the same creators or
getting the deluxe hardcover down the road.
Look, I'm not negative on all things digital, here are some companies that are doing it right:
All new Marvel Comics comes with digital codes.
Buying CDs/Vinyls from Amazon will also grant you digital version.*
Buying new Bluray, I usually prefer to get the "Ultraviolet" version.
At the end of the day, my point is that I just don't see the value of
paying $20 for bits and bytes, especially when you get none of the
benefits of print (lending, re-selling, showing it off...) The
tradeoff is, of course, is convenience, portability, and updateable (for
example, they raised the resolution on old Comixology comics and
updated typos or initial errors). Since there's virtually no cost to
digital, I believe this is the perfect opportunity is to get fans into
comics by making that affordable (especially for really old titles)...
and they'll be hooked in and will buy more of your books in the long
run.
* Limited to certain record labels. And oddly enough, when Amazon
bought the popular digital comics retailer, Comixology, they made it
worst by removing in-app purchasing from iTunes. They basically lost a
bunch of digital comic fans overnight.
CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS (Digital) (03 Feb 2015) DC Comics
For the first time, CRISIS is available collected in its digital format.
You know how I feel about digital prices, it's on par with print
editions, retailing for $19.99.. although current printing prices lists
$29.99. Looking online, you can easily grab the trade paperback from
Amazon for $17.99 (new) and $13.49 (used). Personally, if you love the series as much as I do, try to get your hands on the CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS: ABSOLUTE EDITION (Nov 2005), which I own and love the bigger artwork.
This is the story that changed the DC
Universe forever. A mysterious being known as the Anti-Monitor has begun
a crusade across time to bring about the end of all existence. As
alternate Earths are systematically destroyed, the Monitor
quicklyassembles a team of super-heroes from across time and space to
battle his counterpart and stop the destruction. DC's greatest heroes,
including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Aquaman,
assemble to stop the menace, but as they watch both the Flash and
Supergirl die in battle, they begin to wonder if even all of the heroes
in the world can stop this destructive force. Collects CRISIS ON
INFINITE EARTHS #1-12.
Page Count: 359 Pages
Print Release Date: December 18 2012
Digital Release Date: February 3 2015
Age Rating: 12+ Only
CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS COVER BY PEREZ/ROSS
(Dec 1998)
In
the mid 1980's DC comics realized that their entire history had become
too big to handle. So Marv Wolfman and George Perez took care of that
with Crisis on Infinite Earths. The mini-series took all of the
mulitiple universes that DC created and merged them into one. In 1998
DC merged the 12 issue series into a hardcover book with a wrap around
cover by Geroge Perez and Alex Ross.
DC
also produced a poster of the wrap-around dustjacket. In order to
showcase all the fantastic detail in the painting, they had to make the
poster oversized - 5 feet 5 inches wide by 2 feet 5 inches high. You
can find a guide-map of all the characters over at the Annotated Crisis on Infinite Earths web site.
Name:
Eric C Dixon
Comments:
I remember one of the first comics I ever read was Crisis On Infinite
Earths. While it took me several years before I understood why there were like 2
Supermen, 2 Flash, Two Green Lanterns...etc, I remember loving the art. Mr
Perez, you are my absolute favorite artist. I can't express how much joy I have
gotten from reading books drawn and written by you. Some of my favorites was the
before mentioned Crisis, the 1986 Wonder Woman revival, and The Hulk - Future
Imperfect. I thank you for bringing me such joy and inspiring me to persue my
own art interests.
It's pretty
obvious what you guys wanna do here... Jumpstart the Avengers with a
dynamic and a more popular group of characters. SuperHeroes who have
long made names for themselves and that most of whom star in their own
monthly books. Just like DC's JLA. Out of seven of it core members, six
have their regular series. Whereas the Avengers only has three. But
now, it's down to two. Namely Captain America and Iron Man. It's very
unfortunate that even The Mighty Thor got cancelled. He and his
Asgardian family will be missed...
As for the rest: Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye,
Wasp, Hank Pym, Vision, WarBird, She-Hulk, WonderMan, Black Panther,
Black Widow, Falcon, Hercules, Quasar, Namor, Sersi, Captain Britain,
QuickSilver ... They're wonderful individuals. They look great as a
whole. Apparently, they just don't have enough appeal to stand up on
their own. Another problem I must state is the constant roster change.
In times, strong members get replaced by second-raters (e.g. Dr. Druid,
Gilgamesh). And these sucky players even have the nerve to call
themselves Earth's Mightiest.
Ross said he was 15 when he read CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS
and thought it was everything that excited him in comic book. He also
described what a pleasure it was for him to work with George Perez on
the Crisis cover, despite the fact that it took him over 30 days to
completely paint it.
The two pages that I thought was really
cool is a character study of the two Supermen and a one-page close-up
detail of Superman [I]'s face.
THE NEXT BIG THING
written by Andre Shell
published in
TOYFARE: THE TOY MAGAZINE #74 (Oct 03)
What Stories Should Get Their Own DC Direct Figures?
CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS (Trade Paperback) (Dec 2000)
DC Comics
NEW TEEN TITANS: THE JUDAS CONTRACT
(Mar 2003)
(excerpt)
CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS
The grandfather of all comic book crossover events, the epic
"Crisis" deserves its own line. We want to see the Monitor, Harbinger,
and one of the most evil villains of all time: The Anti-Monitor. Of
course, the line's highlights would be George Pérez-styled, highly
articulated versions of the main DC characters in their classic
costumes; we want Wonder Woman and Flash and Aquaman, and … well,
everyone!
JUDAS CONTRACT
Considered by some as the definitive Teen Titans story, the
controversial "Judas Contract" revolved around a family and betrayal. A
highly articulated Deathstroke the Terminator would be the crown jewel
of this line (they could even do a young Deathstroke repaint, with both
eyes!), and figures of his agent Terra and his mute son Jericho, plus
the original Nightwing, would round out it quite nicely.
Lying In The Gutters
Monday February 17, 2003
by Rich Johnston
(excerpt)
TAYLOR MADE
Tony Bedard then outed 'ettacandy' as
ex-DC employee, Rick Taylor. Taylor was fired in the wake of the
"Crisis" hardcover recall, which saw DC's most prominent Christmas item
a few years ago recalled and reprinted after one panel in the book was
repeated. After repeated criticism for that on the board, Rick went
Krakatoa.
"You see, this is the same cluelessness
I got from the DC management and why I so appreciate the comments of
Mr. Bedard (who by the way, hasn't had the balls to answer my personal
emails. He's probably 'outing' some gay celebs or something. I can
count on him answering me back publicly, I'm sure)
"Technically speaking, Crisis on
Infinite Earth was literally in THOUSANDS of pieces of film. Because
the artists drew THOUSANDS of surprints (all those wacky effects) and
hundreds of drop out (all that snow), it took a production artist
(thanks Nick Napolotano, you BUSTED YOUR ASS for scale) literally a
year to reconstruct all the art.
"I was saddled with the worst sep house
DC used at the time (because they were the cheapest, something I fought
tooth and nail and got shot down on). I think we proof issues 1 at
least 4 times and they STILL couldn't get it right."
"Then DC 'rolled the deadlines FORWARD'
16 weeks (by the way, the line editors were able to just keep being
late) on me and my then-assistant (2 people produced 96 collected
editions that year) and told us the book HAD TO SHIP ON TIME.
"We got to the issue where they reproduced from George (Perez)'s
pencil and because it was letterpress on newsprint those pencilled
panels looked like hell. George had Xeroxes which he gladly loaned us,
but Gerry Ordway was not available to ink so we hired AL Vey (his
assistant when Crisis was originally inked and a great guy. Hey AL!).
"We were pretty far into production by
the so the sep house had to strip in those panels. They screwed up and
stripped on panel in twice. We missed it when we proofed the book
(getting past three sets of eyes) and it made it into print.
"If you wanted to call Crisis a reprint,
go ahead. It was a giant assembly process that took over a year, was in
THOUSANDS of pieces, had four months cut out of the schedule, got the
worst sep house they had who was doing about 15 monthlies at the same
time.
"So if you want to be pissed at me, oh clueless fanboy, knock yourself out.
"I got the shit end of the stick for
busting you ass for you for over a year after hauling the monthlies out
of the toilet for 9 years, too. Hardly fair. Sorry you didn't get your
collected book on time. I'm sure you could've just gotten you Crisis
book out of their plastic and reread them if you were that anxious.
"Any one who really knows what happen, feel free to chime in.
"You won't have to worry about hearing from me again.
"Go to hell."
October 23, 2002 |
Crisis Uncorrected HC is Rare
From MEMORABILIA #6 (Nov/Dec 2002)
#23 CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS (UNCORRECTED) HARDCOVER
After some 20 years, DC finally got around to collecting its classic Crisis
miniseries in a gorgeous - not to mention expensive - hardcover
featuring an all-new George Perez and Alex Ross cover. And so, as is
often the way in these things, somebody goofed, and one stupid little
panel on page 280 was duplicated on page 281. Slight flaw, but with a
$100 price tag, DC recalled all the copies and tipped-in a corrected
page 281. Of course, some copies made it out and folks saved their
flawed copies rather than vying for the corrected version. And yes, the
uncorrected version is worth more than the corrected one. Go figure.
(Vu: MEMORABILIA's "30 Rarest Comics of All Time" top comics
includes the ELSEWORLDS 80-PAGE GIANT #1 and the "Marvel's vaginal
syringe" LEAGUE of EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN #5. Oh and your typical
ACTION COMICS #1 and DETECTIVE COMICS #27.)
from sackett@deskmedia.com
Do you see the Crisis on Infinite Earths as a successful experiment?
Did the DC universe go in the direction you had envisioned? I tried to
follow the DC universe for 3 years after Crisis... and I just couldn't
take it anymore. The reset button kept being pushed.
Sackett, this is a very hard question to
properly answer. I came up with the basic idea for Crisis because, in
1980, DC needed something to bring attention to itself. Unlike today
where the sales of all comics are down, in 1980, Marvel was selling
quite well but DC wasn't, with the main exception being George Perez
and my New Teen Titans comic. In fact, Marvel zombies at the time would
never even think of looking at a DC Comic as if it were covered with
the pox or something. Something drastic needed to be done.
Unless you'd been following DC for any
length of time, our continuity was difficult to wade through. It was my
feeling that if we were going to draw Marvel readers to DC we needed to
A: Do something big and flashy, and B: Make the DCU easier to follow.
We needed a jumping on point.
I did as good a job as I could and,
based on the sales jump the rest of the DCU experienced, I'd have to
say it was a success. That fans and professionals alike voted it the
second best comic book story of the 20th Century still boggles my mind.
I wouldn't have put it in the top 100, let alone the 2nd (The
Galactus/Silver Surfer trilogy justly came in number one). That the
$100.00 hardcover book DC issued a year or so back and the paperback
reprint that followed it sold out completely, indicates that we did the
job we intended to do.
But something happened after we were
done. The Crisis in a sense gave a sort of perverse permission to make
wholesale changes, often without thinking about the domino effect that
would occur. It's my contention that before you can be a comic book
writer that you need to set up dominoes in one of those long, winding,
circular, mobius-strip like tracks and begin the process of knocking
down the first domino. Only then do you fully realize that something
you start at point A directly affects point Z and everything between.
If you don't think about the ramifications of what you start, you'll
suffer for it later.
DC Comics is releasing a mammoth
slipcased hardcover edition which collects the 1985 maxiseries that
redefined DC's original universe, Crisis on Infinite Earths. The book
features a wraparound illustration of more than 500 characters --
painted by Alex Ross over pencils by original Crisis artist George
Perez. The book's interior is the result of a restoration effort
unparallelled in the history of comics.
"The best way to think of this is book
is as 'Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Special Edition,'" Jim Spivey,
Associate Editor said. "While no new story pages have been added, we
have taken great care to make sure mistakes and inconsistencies have
been corrected, taking full advantage of current technology to do it."
Since the original Crisisused a special
printing process that has long since been outmoded, every page had to
be reconstructed from the original four-color film. The painstaking
process included multiple corrections for scratches, art that had
dropped out, typos, and other mistakes and inconsistencies. "Many of
the pages needed to have their surprints (color special effects)
entirely redone," Spivey said, adding "each of the 342 pages was then
re-coded and color-separated using state-of-the-art computer separation
techniques and effects, fixing errors and even clarifying some story
points (on instructions from series writer Marv Wolfman and artist
George Perez) as needed."
Included with the hardcover in the
foil-stamped slipcase is a 22" x 34" poster-sized reproduction, without
type save the logo, of the cover to Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 (death
of Supergirl). The 368-page Crisis on Infinite Earths slipcased
hardcover can be ordered now from ComicSource for expected delivery in
December.
June 21, 2001
From Vu
Extremely expensive and limited. It
comes in a slipcase to hold the book, a sturdy and metallic box to keep
the George Perez/Alex Ross duskjacket nice and safe, and enough room to
hold a folded poster of the "Death of Supergirl". There were some
printing errors that went out to the general public before it came to
DC's attention (see Crisis On Infinite Earths Printing Error) so those variants exist, but it is rare (and also not really worth it, as who wants printing errors?).
Although, it is a nice reprinted
material (including all new digital re-coloring), the printed ink
doesn't look that good (or fine). It looks botchy and less detailed.
The highly publicized "inked" on "The Monitor Tapes" looks really bad
with ink. I prefer the pencil printing to be honest.
The other nice bonus is all the original
gorgeous George Perez covers are reprinted along with character
designs, including the female Dr. Light (pencils only), Harbinger, the
Monitor, and Pariah (all of which have appeared the first couple of
issue of Crisis comic book, except for the new Dr. Light). There are
some relevant drawings of the Monitor, Alexander Luthor, and Lady
Quark, which are taken from various Who's Who entries.
Despite the darker inks and cost, it is
really a nice collection to have on one book (even if you own all the
maxi-series). It is perhaps the most important story and artwork ever
printed. Well worth owning - that is if you can find someone selling
it. I have seen it sold for as much as $200, so $99.95 might be a
bargain after all.
Due to a printing error, most reorders
and advance reorders of the CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS HARDCOVER WITH
SLIPCASE (SEP98 0138) are being held back from release to allow time
for the error (a misprinted page) to be corrected. A new item code has
been assigned for all further activity: SEP98 8476.
In December, DC Comics
collects the 1985 maxiseries that redefined comics' original
universe-CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS-in a mammoth slipcased hardcover
edition (SEP98 0138). While the jacket illustration-a stunning
wraparound featuring more than 500 characters-painted by Alex Ross
(KINGDOM COME) over pencils by original CRISIS artist George Perez, is
a stunning selling point, the book's interior is more than a match for
the cover, the result of a restoration effort unparallelled in the
history of comics.
CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS HC (Dec 1998) 
ALTIVERSE (May 2005)
CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS COVER BY PEREZ/ROSS
(Dec 1998)
BLACK WIDOW (2020)
