Chain Reaction #4 Available OnlineDavid H writes, thanks to Ilke:
CHAIN REACTION #4 (UK)
(Spr 1984)
Overvoid Publication
CHAIN ReactioN #4
By Frank Plowright, Steve Whitaker, Hassan Yusuf - Spring 1984
Cover by Steve Whitaker ...
Posted by Vu Nguyen
If you read Tom Brevoort's blog
or have caught any of my interviews with other Marvel editors, you can
get a good grasp as to what goes into putting together a monthly
comic--from getting talent to making sure the book looks and reads well
and everything in between. But what are the editors who put work on the
collected editions? Think it's a cakewalk job because they're working
with already finished products? Think again, buster. I spoke with
Senior Editor of Special Projects Jeff Youngquist to get some insight
on what goes into editing collections, a bit of info on what's coming
up (Frank Miller's DD, Champions Classic and Secret Wars, to name a
few) and much more.
(excerpt)
AM: Does anything stick out in your mind as being especially cool from your tenure under Brevoort?
Youngquist: We worked on Avengers/JLA
and that was a lot of fun. I wasn't actually credited in any of the
issues because they came out so long after I was in the office. There
was a lot of lead-time on that book. I remember getting George Perez
reference for that first issue. That was ridiculous. And of course, Tom
knows down to the panel what you have to get.
NRAMA: One last question - something that always comes up in terms
of future plans that neither you nor Marvel has mentioned for years -
intercomapny crossovers. Why aren't we seeing those anymore?
...
DD: Right. Crossovers were a great thing for that moment in time. It was a great trick. But tell you what - after you do JLA/Avengers
by Kurt and George, where do you go? How do you one up that? And you
have to one up that. No one wants to crossover two characters or two
groups and have the immediate reaction, both from the fans, and even
from editorial be, "Well, this is good, but it's no JLA/Avengers."
JLA/AVENGERS: THE COLLECTOR'S EDITION OVERSIZED, SLIPCASED HARDCOVER
(Aug 2004)
JLA/Avengers — Finally got a chance to read it. Boy this was
fun! If you hated the 1990's "DC Vesus Marvel" story as much as I did,
read this. As with most of Kurt Busiek's stuff (he's one of my favorite
writers in the superhero genre), it feels stylistically like the fun
Bronze Age comics I grew up with—just enough angst to make the
characters human, not so much as to dull the senses—and for the art,
this was literally George Perez's dream project for twenty years. My
only two minor complaints are that, because his mind is being
influenced by some cosmic whatchamadoo for most of the story, Superman
acts out of character (and Perez draws his face a little funny, for
some reason); and also that because it's officially just an Avengers
story, Spider-Man gets only a very brief cameo (but, on the plus side,
that means Wolverine never shows up either). Apart from that, this
story totally rocks. Busiek actually tried to keep it as canon in later
JLA stories, despite its having been an intercompany crossover, but
Infinite Crisis (DC's most recent once-a-decade continuity purge) seems
to have erased it again. Pity.
This chronic feature lets me review
what's recently passed my bloodshot pupils. So pull up a chair, break
out the sarcasm filter and welcome to: Mr. Zad's comic critique.
A 20-year dream to cross over the two
mightiest superhero teams spawned by rival comic-book publishing
universes came to fruition last year: Legendary writer Kurt Busiek and
artist George Perez delivered a four-issue miniseries chronicling what
would happen if the Justice League of America met Marvel's Avengers.
This collector's edition
contains a pair of hardcover books that serves as a way for
sequential-art lovers to relish the rich, detailed pages illustrated by
Mr. Perez, in a format almost twice as large as the standard comic. It
also gives amateur historians a chance to find out what took so long to
get the project to print.
The secrets are revealed
in the second book, which, as a summary of the entire sordid affair,
reprints interviews with the primary protagonists, Jim Shooter from
Marvel and Dick Giordano from DC. It offers the original 21 penciled
pages done by Mr. Perez in 1983 and concludes with an encyclopedic set
of footnotes revealing that the superhero comic book mythology has more
textured complexity than a DNA strand.
What's it worth? Mr. Perez's fans
gladly would pay double for this enlarged reproduction of one of his
most significant works. Superhero lovers will consider this the
ultimate coffee-table set to display to friends.
• Zadzooks! wants to know you exist.
Call 202/636-3016; fax 202/269-1853; e-mail
jszadkowski[a]washingtontimes.com or write to Joseph Szadkowski, The
Washington Times, 3600 New York Ave. NE, Washington, DC 20002.
List Price: $75.00
Price: $51.00 & This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. See details
Availability: Usually ships within 24 hours from Amazon.com
DC keeps gobbling up smaller imprints,
starting with WildStorm and moving this year to Humanoids and 2000 AD.
This means more trades, collecting both the old and the new. I think
they have close to the entire Alan Moore collection in print now with
the 2000 AD books.
One of the highlight books of the year,
though, was Steven Seagle's autobiographical look at the Superman
concept with IT'S A BIRD. Moore's SMAX was one of the most entertaining
volumes of 2004, a TOP TEN spin-off that kept the easter egg hunt alive
while abandoning the American cop show formula for a more fantastic and
fairy-tale-gone-wrong mold. Kurt Busiek and Stuart Immonen's SUPERMAN:
SECRET IDENTITY is second only to Seagle's book for the Superman title
of the year. The regular monthly titles still fail to pique my
interesting.
The JLA/AVENGERS volume might get the
award for reprint of the year. Never before has a larger sized reprint
been so necessary. George Perez's art on the series screamed for this
large size edition, and the supplemental book was a welcome addition to
it, even if some of the teeth were cut out of it.
I suggest buying it from another place, if you have not bought a copy yet. Mile High Comics as a copy for $45, which is well below the suggested retail price of $75.
Maybe my expectation was too high, but I
thought $75 is too much to be asking for it anyway... although I did
enjoy the nice oversized pages.
JLA / AVENGERS: THE COLLECTOR'S EDITION
(Aug 2004)
PITTSBURGH COMICON 2003
(25-27 Apr 2003)
As mentioned by Bill Love earlier,
there's nothing new for fans who's already followed this series. The
review was vague, and didn't really go into details what was in the
hardcover, which suggested that they didn't have the hardcover book
prior to going to press.
Following the two page article on the
book, is a one page article on George Perez. Again, nothing new here.
You might be surprise to see a quote from the JLA/Avengers Panel at The Pittsburgh Comicon (April 27, 2003), which sums up the way George feels about drawing comics - to die with a pencil in his hand.
Unless you're a hardcore Perez or
JLA/Avengers fan, you don't need this magazine in your collection. If
you are interested in reading the magazine, you can always ask your
local library or order a copy.
Anyway, here is an excerpt from the JLA/Avengers Collected article:
Twenty
years ago comic book fans were promised their dream project. Marvel fan
or DC fan, everyone was looking forward to the meeting between the
premier super-hero teams of both companies: The Justice League of
America and The Avengers. Everyone knew only one artist could handle
such a monumental task: George Perez. George had drawn long runs on
both titles and was one of the most popular super-hero artists ever.
Inter-company crossovers were rare, but fans and professional alike
wanted to see this happen. Who was stronger, Thor or Superman? Who was
faster, Quicksilver or The Flash? Who would win in a battle between
Batman and Captain America? George was twenty pages into drawing the
story when he found out that the editorial department at DC and Marvel
were more combative than their heroes could ever be.
Just so Tom Smith doesn't think I want to nitpick the HC collection to death:
The following errors have been corrected, which should not be taken for
granted:
- "St. Roche" (issue 1 page 36/50 in the HC) now correctly reads "St. Roch".
- "loaclly" (issue 3 page 29/147 in the HC) now correctly reads "locally".
- "But I wield their energies not" (issue 4 page 2/172 in the HC) now
correctly reads "But I wield their energies now".
- The Martian Manhunter, who was miscolored as Superman (issue 3 page
37/155 in the HC), is now correctly kept in green and blue.
- "nothingess" (issue 4 page 2/172 in the HC) now correctly reads
"nothingness".
- "Morgan Edge" (issue 4 page 5/175 in the HC) is now correctly named
"Maxwell Lord".
And I take Tom's word if he says that he had no influence on the Plastic
Man's leg. I just checked, and all he said was he'd "fix it for the poster,
if they do a poster". So, no offense intended here. It's one out of 208
characters that has a miscolored leg - other colorists would depict one out
of 208 characters in the correct colors. :-)
I saw this on the site and wanted to respond. Torsten does not understand
once the cover was colored the first time with the miscolored leg it was sent to
Marvel & DC for print.
Once they had it it was a done deal, the lettering was added and the files
were set up for print and they used it for the cover.
Like it or not they were not going to all the expense of changing the files
just because Plastic man's leg was miscolored. There was nothing I could do
about it and it was not my call.
Everyone involved in this project went over every page and covers with a fine
tooth comb but even then we missed a few things. Hey we are only human you
know.
Get over it.
(Vu: I'll speak forTorsten B. Abel, we're just hoping that someone will fix these mistakes in future editions.)
Issue 1 page 35 (page 49 in the Hardcover collection):
J'Onn say "Great H'ronmeer". H'ronmeer is the Martian god of fire
(this is the correct spelling).
In issue 3 page 10 (page 128 in the HC), he says "Great Hronmeer",
without an apostrophe. The same happens in Kurt's annotations for page
49.
JLA/Avengers #3 Cover: The Plastic Man's leg is miscolored
on the cover of issue 3 (it's red, but it should be a fleshy tone,
since he has bare legs), which appears on the slipcase and pages
116-117 and 220-221.
What's really sad about this:
Tom was informed about this, he promised it would be corrected for the
HC. And the printed version of issue 3 had the barcode pasted over
Plastic Man's leg, to cover the leg.
Cover Key
Erroneously lists the Scarlet Skier's real name as "Kirtan Rodd",
which is actually the name of his former master, Mr. Nebula. The
Scarlet Skier's real name is "Dren Keeg" (read it backwards to
understand the pun).
Kurt thought the list was provided by George, but evidently it wasn't.
Oh, and a minor cultural error: Issue 2 page 29 (page 95 in the HC):
Phillippus (the black Amazon) swears by the name of "Minerva".
Minerva is a Roman goddess. Her Greek name would be "Athena" or
"Athene".
Annotations
And in his annotations for page 131 (issue 3 page 13), when Kurt
mentions the Red Skull being covered by a word balloon, he comments it
with "Verdammte". If you want to use German, do it right - it should be
"Verdammt!" (which means "Damn!" - "Verdammte" would only work with
either a feminin or a plural noun following it).
And Kurt mentions another error in his annotations, an error George Perez admits too:
when Krona blasts the Grandmaster at the end of issue 2, the remainder of the Grandmaster's costume suddenly has sleeves.
The error was spotted in time to correct the inked art for issue 3 (when they discover the "dying" Grandmaster).
Clash of the Titans
It did mention the "Rutland" stories and even gave a complete list, but it failed to mention that three of them (Amazing Adventures Featuring the Beast #16, Justice League of America #103 and The Mighty Thor #207)
were sort of an unofficial "crossover", with the three parts being
connected via a background story featuring Steve Englehart, Gerry
Conway and Len and Glynis Wein, the writers of this story.
And it was also missing a quick rundown on Avengers vs. Squadron Supreme/Justice League vs. Assemblers of Angor.
At first, I was very much excited about it. The
oversize treatment. The reprinting of the original
cross-over and stuff. I thought for sure of buying a
copy no matter how much it costs....D'oh!
So I went through all the articles concerning this
much anticipated tpb. Mostly about what people ( those
unfortunates who purchased it ) have say about it....
oach! I guess DC and Marvel have gone way over their
heads on this one.
I saw a copy of it over here. The cover (jla/a#3) is
absolutely very beautiful! But Too bad, I can only
just look, touch it and just admire it...
Below you'll find Market Shares based on actual sales of product shipped in August, 2004, as provided by Diamond Comics Distributors.
Each month we are asked what the
different rankings on the Top 300 list mean in terms of sales for each
book. While the publishers and Diamond keep the total number of copies
distributed closely guarded (the numbers are not released and those
that do get printed are only estimates), they do provide a guide by
which you can compare the success of one book to another.
TPB PICK OF THE MONTH:
JLA/Avengers: the Collector's Edition Oversized Slipcased HC
DC/Marvel
$75, color, 288 pages, available late August
writer Kurt Busiek; Artist George Pérez
reviewed by George Nelson **** (4 Stars)
The
intercompany crossover for which fans waited more than 20 years gets
the deluxe treatment with this two-volume package collecting the
min-series. Collected in the first volume, which features introductions
by Stan Lee and the late Julius Schwartz, Busiek and Pérez provide a
tale that lives up to two decades of anticipation, with a clever plot
that lets htem creatively use characters from throughout both teams'
histories. (Pérez ends up drawing, not only every member of each team,
but multiple incarnations of several.)
More than
a series of slugfest - though there are plenty of those, including
battles fans have speculated about for years - the story by Busiek
delivers great character moments and plot twists galore. Perhaps no
artist in comics best Pérez in handling this many characters in a
single story, and this tale shows why Pérez has been the primary artist
fans have associated with this concept for years.
The
64-page companion volume includes the original 21 pages of penciles
fromt eh canceled 1980s crossover, Busiek proposal for the mini-series,
plot synopses and other extras.
I got mine on ebay for $54, but I see Mile High has a special for $45 for the HC. I don't know how long it
lasts, but that's a pretty good price from anywhere
else I've seen.
I thought I read a while ago that you ordered the JLA/Avengers
Hardcover through Amazon.com. If so, have you received it yet?
I have not and when I check their website for the status it just says "Item not
shipped". I sent an e-mail asking about the status but got no response.
I was just wondering if you--or anyone else who ordered as I did--have
experienced the same thing.
(Vu: I have not received my order, nor have I heard that anyone else did. I am, at the moment, looking towards Ebay
for possibly getting a cheap book. I don't want to spend more than $50,
so if anyone knows a cheap book-selling place (that is in stock), let
me know.)
A beautiful two-volume slipcased hardcover set. The first volume
presents the 224-page, four-issue miniseries, including introductions
by Stan Lee and Julius Schwartz, and a key to the characters featured
on the cover.
The 64-page compendium contains the original 21 pages of pencils from
the previously unpublished 1980s crossover, an article on the original
crossover by K.C. Carlson, the actual miniseries proposal and plot
development, a Pérez portfolio of art done to commemorate the project,
annotated notes by Busiek, and more.
There are no plans to reprint this historic set, so don't miss out.
It's an amazing collection of art, and a celebrated crossover between
Marvel and DC. DC, 2004.
HC, 8X12, 288 pages, FC.
PRODUCT CODE: JLAAH
YOUR PRICE: $75.00
The
Shopping Channel in Canada will be the place for comics fans Friday,
August 27, 2004, at 11:00 ET, when Dynamic Forces and Nick Barrucci
host superstar artist George Pérez for a special showcasing the
recently issued JLA/Avengers hardcover.
“When we
were prepping this show, we were planning to offer our signed copies of
the massive Avengers/JLA hardcover collection,” Barrucci. Said in a
press release “We contacted George to see if he was up for a trip North
and he agreed! It's going to be a blast!”
DF will
also be presenting signed comics and lithographs featuring the
authenticated signatures of such creators as Terry and Rachel Dodson,
Alan Davis, Mark Farmer, Jae Lee, Mark Millar, John Romita Sr., Chris
Claremont, Adam Kubert, Brian Michael Bendis, Todd McFarlane, Michael
Turner, Jim Lee, Scott Williams, Alex Ross, Dave Johnson, Roy Thomas,
Greg and Tim Hildebrandt, and others.
Well gang here's my two cents on JLA/Avengers HC, at first glance the
product is very awesome, the the size and format is excellent (man do I
wish they did Crisis in this larger format). The box the two volumes
fit into is excellent, the art looks even better than I remember, maybe
because of the larger format. I like the features that were throughout
the collection and I like the the way they used the penciled and
colored version on the covers.
Now for
some of the things that I didn't like, one Tom Smith's name should have
been listed on the cover, his coloring was a very important part of the
series, that is one thing that Crossgen was awesome about. And everyone
is right about some of those pages that were taken from copies were
terrible, there has to be some kind of way they could have made them
come out clearer, heck my copies that I have are much copies than what
appeared in the book. I completely understand if don't have the
original you have to produce it from a copy, there is no other choice,
but I just got to believe there must be some way to make them produce
better.
I also
think the promo piece should have been produce each having there own
page in black and white or color, and they should have also included
the pieces that George did for the various trade mags, I even would
have loved to see various penciled pages from the series that would
have been a nice extra.
Now as
far as the price I think if those 7 pages that didn't reproduce well I
don't think people would have been complaining about the price. Heck
the Crisis book was $100, smaller format and and not much extras in it,
besides the poster. So overall all I'd give it a 7.5 out of 10.
Now I only wish DC would go back to the press and do a larger format Crisis, man that would be awesome.
JLA / AVENGERS: THE COLLECTOR'S EDITION HARDCOVER
(Aug 2004)
JLA / AVENGERS: THE COLLECTOR'S EDITION - SIGNED & REMARKED (DF)
(Oct 2004)
I asked Kurt Busiek about extra pages of art being in the DF
JLA/Avengers limited edition hard cover. He said he had no idea or something
to that effect. So, is it possible?
I know from everything thing I'd heard up until it came out, that it was
originally supposed to have had a number of extra pages. Unfortunately I
haven't received my copy yet, so I don't really know what's included.
I did ask Spencer about some art that I heard wasn't included. He said
there were legal issues, but that it was originally the plan to include
more.
So if there are extra pages in the DF edition, I know I'd buy it. Does
anyone know?
on 08/12/04 at 2:35pm, Guest-Xum Yukinori wrote:
Didn't the DC solicitation mention a "portfolio of related art" from George in the compendium?
At the
risk of looking crazy for talking to myself, I've noticed in the JLA/A
Hardcover "info-chain" on this site that the Previews solicitation
didn't mention additional art, but the Dynamic Force solicitation
states: "a Perez portfolio of art done to commemorate the project " to
be included in an "80-page" (not 64-page) volume 2.
I guess I
got those two solicitations mixed up -- which begs the question: is the
"missing art" really in the DF limited edition? Is there anyone who
actually bought the DF set that could tell us?
(Vu: I kind of doubt that the missing artwork will turn up on the DF version. Good luck on trying to contact them...)
>
Hi Tom, loved the HC and its large size has made the story more epic
than it is. Anyway now that the HC is out, could you maybe post a large
image of the JLA/Avengers heads, i just loved it, but the scans i get
from other sites seemed all too small. Many thanks!
I stopped by a different comic shop that had this deluxe hardcover in their store and I was looking at it.
First
thing's first, it is heavy. There are two hardbound books, the
collected JLA/Avengers series and the companion book, which looks a
little smaller than half the size of the collected book. They both fit
snuggly in the nice slipcase.
I did
look at a few other slipcase to compare and it seems that the
JLA/Avengers is the only one that came with an extra companion book. Of
course, I was looking at a limited supply of slipcases. Price
comparison that most slipcases are about $49.95.
When I
asked how many copies the store owner had ordered, he said they only
ordered one copy and that (obviously) it hasn't sold yet. They did get
a few interested parties asking about the book, but they all thought
the price was too high.
Anyway,
Kurt Busiek and George Pérez's last name are as big as the title,
JLA/AVENGERS on the slipcase. The cover can be seen here, via mycomicshop.com:
In response to what Vu wrote in his comment on the main page, I'd like to add a few things:
The
person who purchases the original art does not automatically obtain the
copyright to those pages. That means, even if you own a page of the
original JLA/Avengers story, you do not have creative control over what
is going to happen with that page. Unless given explicit permission to
do so, you are not allowed to make copies of it, and the only thing you
actually do own is the physical artwork itself. Therefore, If DC and
Marvel wanted to reprint the pages, they would NOT have to ask the
owners of those pages for permission, seeing as the characters depicted
are their property, and the pages have been drawn by George (just FYI:
If the pages were "fanart" depicting trademarked characters, DC/Marvel
couldn't publish them without the artist's permission, but the artist
also couldn't publish them without permission from DC/Marvel, and they
could even legally force the artist to destroy the unsolicited artwork
depicting their trademarked characters if they wanted to).
Now, I
recall George saying somewhere that he still has hi-res scans of the
original JLA/A artwork. Couldn't the reprints of those pages for the
companion book be done by using them, or would the result look inferior
to copies done from the original pages themselves? Were the non-copied
pages actually done by using George's scans?
The 2004 Wizard Fan awards were
announced last night at a somewhat more subdued ceremony than usual.
Wizard staffers Mike Cotton and Richard Ho emcee’d the affair, and
presenters included Joe Quesada, Jeph Loeb, John Cassaday, Alex Ross,
Jim Lee and Kevin Smith. The Loeb/Lee BATMAN continued to dominate the
awards, winning for artist, inker, letterer, colorist and ongoing.
Here in Blighty I just got my copy yesterday for a whopping £50
(slightly more thna $75 retail price at current exchange rates - but
what the hell)
The two
books are the actual crossover with introductions by DC and Marvel
people (Stan Lee for Marvel, can't remember the DC person)
The second book in an annotations books, which includes:
A reprint of an article from Marvel Age 19 (?) explaining their of events as to why the orginal 1983 team up fell apart.
Also a reprint of DC's response to the Marvel article (bit over defensive IMO - but I am biased towards Marvel)
There are
black & white copies of the original 21 pages George drew (without
permission - tut tut) with comments at the top detailing what the plot
was. There is also a summary of what the other 43 (?) pages of plot
would have been about.
There is
a detailed page by page breakdown of the current crossover, with little
titbits about characters (Wasp had the most costume changes throughout
the crossover - naturally :) )
There is
also Kurt original plotting for the crossover, which details some
slight differences to the finished product. Also there is an
alternative plot version of the beginning to Book 3, telling how the
combined DC/Marvel universe would have shown variations on exhisting
characters (ie Superman as done by Marvel in Silver Age, Captain
America as envisioned by DC etc)
All in all a worthwhile (if slightly expensive) purchase.
PS - I agree with Jim Shooter's assessement that Flash racing Quicksilver made no sense (let alone QS beating Flash )
I liked
the enlarged format for the artwork it allowed the small items to be
seen. But, I was very disappointed with the companion book. Compared to
other collected volumes of work put out by DC and Marvel separately in
the past this one was lacking. I would have liked to have seen pencils
from the series itself, concept drawings, even promo pieces published
at full size. I feel that both the editorial teams at Marvel and DC let
us down. I am also glad that I did not order the signed edition, for
this version was not worth the $75 price tag.
Vu is
there a chance that you can get some input from George as to what the
two editorial teams wanted in this collection as opposed to what we
received.....
From Mike Devlin (Melbourne, Australia)
I bought the Hardcover JLA/Avengers collection thingy yesterday and the one
thing that bugged me the MOST (aside from all the missing art - the 2000
JLA/Avengers picture Perez drew for Wizard for Eg) was the fact that not all of the 21
pages of JLA/Avengers from 1983 were scanned from the oginals. What a bummer!
I've been looking forward to this aspect of the collector's edition the most of
all since 2001, or whenever it was suggested they'd be included in such a
volume, anyway.
So can
you shed more light on why it *seems* DC didn't try very hard at ALL to
collect all the pages to borrow and scan as they should have done (for
the price if no other reason) ????
Do you think DC or Marvel may one day scan *all* the pages again and print
them with a consistent quality level?
(Vu: I don't have the book yet to compare notes, for those
interested Amazon.com hasn't billed or shipped the book to me yet (I
ordered two copies). I think sometime people forget that, hey, we have
the series printed in a big, nice format! The companion piece should be
treated as a bonus, it's not going to please everybody, but it's still
better than not having anything. I do agree that the price seems high
for extras that doesn't seem to have a lot of work put into it, even
though the people putting it together will probably disagree. I don't
want to speak for DC Comics, but things probably went down to
copyright. They would've had to hunt down all the owners of the ACTOR
auctions, the Wizard people, the Heroes Convention people, just to get
permission to print those artwork in high quality, and it's a lot of
work. Not to mention that they seem to be on a tight budget, I don't
know. This is an open forum, if you think the price was reasonable or
the extras were awesome, please let me know, I feel like I've just been
posting negative reactions to this hardcover.)
In the
vein of DC's “Absolute” oversize hardcover editions comes this
long-awaited collection of the blockbuster four-issue JLA/Avengers -
Avengers/JLA mini-series by Kurt Busiek and George Pérez. For those who
thought that the beautifully illustrated panels crammed with
superheroes were too small for the original format, this edition is
perfect. Thus far, though, we haven't made it to the main book, which
features the mini-series. Nope. We're stuck in the companion volume.
It's the DVD extras, and it does a great job running down the story of
the first, failed JLA/Avengers crossover, including the penciled pages
Pérez had completed before the book was scrapped, articles, interviews
and tons of insight. Combined with the mini-series itself, this is a
wonderful volume for collectors.
Yes, there was a big search online. Not only was it posted on your
site, I placed a note on George's page on my web site, I also notified
two yahoo e-lists ... one with 1,810 and another with 288 collectors
and professionals ( which is where the 16 pages did come from ) as well
as asked Newsarama to make a post about it ( I do not remember if Matt
did or not .. faulty memory ) I also put an ad in CBG classifieds as
well.
FYI - 16
of the pages were scanned DIRECTLY from the original art which was
loaned to DC Comics for the book. One pages was lost in shipping to a
new owner via USPS and as a result is gone for good.
The end
result being only about 3 pages were shot from Xeroxes as they could
not be located and DC wanted to show the complete works.
On the
topic of original JLA/Avengers pages not being shot from the originals:
I own the original page 4. I would have been happy to send it wherever
it needed to go so DC could shoot a copy of it… but I had no idea they
were looking for it. Unless I missed something online somewhere, there
certainly wasn’t a big search for these pages!
(Vu: I won't name any names, but someone sent me an email that a few people were looking for the originals for DC Comics.
This was before the announcement that they were going to print them on
the hardcover. When I posted it online, a few hours went by and I was
told to take down the 'announcement' that DC was looking for the
original art. The reason was given to me why they wanted it to be taken
down - and I didn't agree with them. But I guess it's the fans that is
paying for it... literally at $75 for xeroxes.)
Got my copy today. I was very impressed at the larger size -- really makes the story look more... epic.
However,
I'm not too impressed with the compendium. I did like how I get most of
the original 1983 story -- from what George Perez remembers of it. And
I even get a detailed plot-pages of Kurt Busiek's unused original
concept for issue 3 (which features more amalgamated worlds than what
we saw). However, not all of the 1983 pages are reprinted from the
original pencilled pages (now that Rob Liefeld isn't the sole owner of
them anymore) -- some are from xerox copies (and it shows). Also, I
don't think they waited long enough for the ink to dry at the printers,
as many pages of my copy has smears (one page is barely readable, since
they use small type). Worst of all, I expected full-page reprints of
the two JLA/A ACTOR pieces (used as framed pictures in issue 3), but
they are featured as small panels in the annotations section, and are
about twice as large as how they appear in the hardcover).
While I
like much of this slipcase (or should I say stick-case?) I'm still
debating whether, at $75, I should feel cheated or not...
The following products are expected to ship to comic book
specialty stores this week. Note that this list is tentative
and subject to change. Please check with your retailer for
availability.
APR040318 JLA AVENGERS THE COLLECTORS ED OVERSIZED SLIPCASED HC $75.00
That one was never colored. Marvel & DC did not want me to
color those 2 tier charity pieces "keeping the cost down on the
Hard Cover " and they will be putting them in the hardcover in
B&W.
But Kirk knows that I can always be commissioned to color it . :)
I don't
know if it has anything to do with this website, but upon anouncing the
JLA/AVENGERS: COLLECTOR'S EDITION on Amazon, that its sale rank
improved: by 13,644 in less than 24 hours!
Also, Amazon lists this book for September 2004, which doesn't surprise me that book stores get comics before Diamond.
HARVEY AWARDS, Comic and Cartoon Art Museum, New York, New York
(Oct 2004)
2004 HARVEY AWARDS NOMINATIONS HONOR DC COMICS PROJECTS AND CREATORS
April 29th, 2004 -
The
Harvey Awards committee has announced its 2004 nominees, with DC Comics
projects and talent receiving 23 nominations. DC's nominations come
from the DCU, WildStorm, VERTIGO and the Will Eisner Library.
DC Comics
thanks all those who participated in the Harvey Awards nominating
process, and extends congratulations to all the nominees.
DC's 2004 Harvey Award nominees are:
Best Writer
Alan Moore (PROMETHEA)
Brian K. Vaughan: (Y: THE LAST MAN)
Best Artist
George Pérez (JLA/AVENGERS — available in the upcoming JLA/AVENGERS: THE COLLECTOR'S EDITION oversized, slipcased HC)
Best Inker
Mick Gray (PROMETHEA)
Jimmy Palmiotti (TWO STEP)
Scott Williams (BATMAN)
PREVIEWS OF JUNE 2004
Friday April 30, 2004
Pipeline Previews for July 2004
written by
Augie De Blieck Jr.
(excerpt)
Marvel,
in the meantime, is churning out more stuff, most of which you saw last
month. This month, however, the issue numbers have been incremented!
The big news is the "Avengers Disassembled" storyline starting up with
AVENGERS #500. I'm not quite sure how much I care at this point.
The book
from Marvel that I'm most excited about is AVENGERS ASSEMBLE, the
hardcover collection of Kurt Busiek and George Perez's first year
together on the title. It contains issues #1-11, plus the Pacheco-drawn
ANNUAL '98. It is well timed, coinciding with the JLA/AVENGERS
hardcover the following month and the "Avengers Disassemble" event in
July. I wonder if DC is ticked off that Marvel is producing a hardcover
Busiek/Perez AVENGERS hardcover mere weeks before their expensive
AVENGERS/JLA hardcover hits stands?
When
writer Kurt Busiek and artist George Pérez delivered the crossover
between DC Comics' JLA and Marvel Comics' Avengers to readers after
years of anticipation, the result was one of 2003's hottest books. This
summer, DC Comics will collect the blockbuster mini-series in the
two-volume JLA/Avengers: The Collectors Edition Oversized Slipcased HC
(APR040318, $75.00). The 224-page first volume will contain the
historic four-issue meeting, along with introductions by Stan Lee and
the late Julius Schwartz (the architects behind the original Avengers
and Justice League of America, respectively), as well as a key to all
of the characters featured on Pérez's epic cover to JLA/Avengers #3.
The second, 64-page volume will be a Compendium featuring a new cover
by Pérez. The volume will also contain: the original 21 pages of
pencils from the cancelled 1980s crossover by Pérez and writer Gerry
Conway (with an article on it by former DC editor K.C. Carlson); a look
at several other unofficial crossovers; and Busiek's JLA/Avengers
mini-series proposal, plot synopses, and annotated notes on obscure
characters and creatures included in the final mini-series. Please
Note: DC does not plan to reprint this set, making this the only
opportunity to obtain the Compendium! The set is advance-solicited in
the April Previews for shipping on August 11.
PREVIEWS OF JUNE 2004
Friday April 2, 2004
Pipeline Previews for May 2004
written by Augie De Blieck Jr.
(excerpt)
I'm torn
on the August release of JLA/AVENGERS collection. It's an oversized
hardcover two-book set that's slipcased and everything. The second book
is only 64 pages, but includes the 21 pages of completed pencils by
Perez for the aborted 80s attempt, along with proposals, character
keys, and more. It's a beautiful package, and DC produces these very
well. On the other hand, it's $75.00.
The text
indicates that there are no plans to reprint "this historical set." In
other words, look for the trade paperback of the mini-series in time
for Christmas, but don't look for the second book to ever show up
again, in much the same way as the bonus material from the KINGDOM
boxed set hasn't shown up anywhere else. At least they're being more
honest about this one than they were with the CRISIS hardcover. (You'll
remember that they promised never to reprint it as a trade, only to
change their minds a few months laster.)
JLA / AVENGERS: THE COLLECTOR'S EDITION - SIGNED & REMARKED (Dynamic Forces)
(Oct 2004)
Signed By
the entire creative team of writer Kurt Busiek with artist George Perez
and colorist Tom Smith and Re-Marked with a Superman Head Sketch!. The
entire team of creators signs this beautiful collection! And as an
extra added bonus fans who order this by May 31st will get it at the
"Introductory Price" of $199.95! That's over a $50.00 savings off of
the MSRP of $250.00!
The
landmark crossover event of the decade is collected in a spectacular
2-volume slipcased hardcover set! Volume 1 presents the 224-page
4-issue miniseries including introductions by Stan Lee and Julius
Schwartz and a key to the characters featured on the cover. The 80-page
Volume 2 contains the original 21 pages of pencils from the aborted
1980s crossover an article on what went wrong by K.C. Carlson the new
miniseries proposal and plot development a Perez portfolio of art done
to commemorate the project and annotated notes from Kurt Busiek to the
characters and more.
Each Signed copy features a certificate of authenticity and is sealed with a DF Holo-Foil sticker!
* INCENTIVE *
ORDER 3 COPIES OF JLA/AVENGERS HC AND GET 5 RANDOM DC SIGNED BOOKS AT NO ADDITIONAL COST!
SKU: C100235
Shipping: June, 2004 (Please note that the book will not be
available until August 2004, and, realistically, DF will not have the
creators signatures/head sketch until September or October.)
(Vu: I do not recommend buying anything from DF, based on my personal experience.
First of all, they are very slow on
orders. According to their website average orders takes as low as four
weeks to six weeks. That's a whole month for them to place an item into
a box to mail it to you, that is if they even have the item in stock.
Second, certain information can be mis-leading. For instance, the re-marked sketches are done by Tom Smith,
but they never mention this. Granted, that they do not say the sketches
are by George Pérez, but if you try to email or submit your questions,
it doesn't get answered.
Third, customer service is absolutely
terrible. In fact, I dare you to call their customer service line, you
will never, ever get a real person. Emails do not get responded either.
I have emailed them in the past, maybe four times, each time ignored.
From a potential customer's standpoint, this is very bad.
So, take my advice, do not order
anything from these guys. Terrible, terrible service. There's probably
a lot more reasons to avoid DF, like really expensive prices... Feel
free to contact me
(email) if you have further complaints against DF. I will post testimonials for their products as well.)
That’s
why the once-in-a-lifetime crossover event that brought these two
historic super-teams together and rocked the comics world receives the
deluxe treatment it deserves in August! JLA/AVENGERS: THE COLLECTOR’S
EDITION is an oversized, slipcased two-volume set collecting the
legendary 4-issue miniseries with a full complement of bonus features!
The
224-page first volume in the slipcase contains the 4-issue miniseries
written by Kurt Busiek (ASTRO CITY, SUPERMAN: SECRET IDENTITY) with
stunning art by George Pérez (WONDER WOMAN) and introductions by Stan
Lee and the late Julius Schwartz, the architects of the original
iterations of the Avengers and the Justice League of America,
respectively. This volume also features a key to the characters on the
intricately detailed cover of JLA/AVENGERS #3.
The
64-page Compendium, featuring a new cover by Pérez, contains the
original 21 pages of pencils from cancelled 1980s crossover by Pérez
and writer Gerry Conway, plus an article on it by former DC editor K.C.
Carlson, a look at several other unofficial crossovers, and more! But
that’s not all — this volume also features the JLA/AVENGERS miniseries
proposal and plot synopses, and annotated notes from Busiek for all the
obscure characters and creatures crammed into the pages.
There
are no plans to reprint this historical set, so this is the only
opportunity to own the material reprinted in the Compendium. Don’t miss
out on what’s sure to be a crown jewel in any comics collection!
This project is supported with house ads.
224-page hardcover
Advance-solicited; in stores August 11
$75.00 U.S
Co-published with Marvel Comics
February 13, 2004 | Schwartz's Last Work To Be In JLA/A
I don't have many stories about Julie. I never actually worked for him,
so I mostly saw him in passing at the DC offices or at cons. But it was
always a little amazing to me that Julie Schwartz -- the Julie Schwartz
who kicked off the whole friggin' Silver Age and who was responsible
for so many great comics -- knew my name and liked my work.
...
Julie has
appeared as himself in ASTRO CITY, and as Marksman notes, he's the
namesake of Julius Furst. Maybe we should name the local baseball
tadium, home of strange sports stories, after Julie...
And I'm
honored, and sad as well, that apparently the last piece of writing
Julie did was an introduction to the JLA/AVENGERS book collection.
As a
friend of mine said of Julie's passing -- we should all live so long,
we should all have such accomplishments, we should all be as respected
and loved.
November 2, 2003 | Pérez to Sign JLA/A HC
From COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE #1565 (14 Dec 2003)
LEE'S COMICS - SIGNING
(2004)
TRIO OF CREATORS APPEAR AT LEE'S COMICS
written by Nate Melby
published in COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE #1565 (14 Dec 2003)
website: www.comicsbuyersguide.com
(excerpt)
(Lee) Hester said that there are a couple more signings he is hoping to have soon.
"I would
like to have Michael Chabon in here to promote his Dark Horse and DC
work. I also spoke with George Pérez about doing a signing for the
collected JLA/Avengers when that is released."
September 22, 2003 | Baltimore Con Report (SunWuKong)
Just got
back from the Baltimore Comicon 2003 and, as usual, I had one hell of a
time (and hell on my finances). Here's what I can remember from the con
regarding Perez:
Crossgen's "The War"
is going to be 3 issues long and it's going to be written by Ron Marz.
The first issue is going to be solicted in May of 2004. It's going to
resolve many storylines in many of the Crossgen titles.
Perez is jubelent about JLA/Avengers first issue success. He says that he can finally clear out is debts and then some. The selling of the art alone is going to provide his wife with a new car! He also is very glad that this series is totally going to be for the fans.
As of today. 1/4 of issue 4 of JLA/Avengers
is pen & inked. It looks like it will meet the Dec 31st release
date. Perez is very commited to meeting the deadline so that all of the
issues will be released before 2004.
There is talk of about what format the collected edition is going to be. Perez said that DC is talking to put it into an "absolute" HC format (which I will lobby to no end!). They also said that the prior JLA/Avengers art might be printed in the collected edition as well.
Perez needs the cover to issue 3 back because he needs to draw 4 more characters in it! It took 3 weeks for him to draw it. Tom Smith was asking fan at the con to find him color references for some of the characters!
I did get one nugget of exclusive info. Hawkeye and Black Canary will meet in issue 3.
That's all I can think of right now. I'll see how much will get back to me later on in the week.
September 5, 2003 | Reference For JLA/A Collection?
Re: JLA/Avengers: Q for Kurt [SPOILERS]
Posted by Kurt Busiek on Friday, September 05 2003 at 04:55:52 GMT
(excerpt)
>
Secondly, my only real disappointment when I reached the last pages was
the fact there were no endnotes. Any chance of getting endnotes in the
final issue, or perhaps in the inevitable trade (like "Marvels").
We're talking about doing an extensive sources/references column for a book collection.
George
Perez: It is going to be four (4) prestige books all 48 pages long with
wrap around covers which means a grand total of 200 pages of artwork.
George talked about how happy he is to be working with the creative crew and how they're doing a great job (Kurt Busiek, Tom Smith, Tom Brevoort and Mike Carlin).
George
then talked a little about the coloring of the project and it's
approval from the higher ups. George also threw a little trivia at us
when he said another great thing about having Mike Carlin involved in
the process is that Mike used to be the Late Mark Gruenwald's Assistant
editor when Mark was the editor of the original JLA/AVENGERS. It brings
a nice sense of closure to the project for him since they are the only
two from the original working on this project. Len Wein doesn't work in
mainstream comics anymore (Note: George was unaware of Len's Current Batman Mini-series BATMAN: NEVERMORE at DC) and Jim Shooter no longer works for Marvel.
Fan: Is there going to be a written history of your working on the original or the current version of the project?
George
Pérez: If anything like that is done it would be hopefully for a
collected version of the book because this is all in the talk stages so
until the book comes out anything regarding a collection is merely
speculation by my part but the hope of using the original 21 pages as
added material because I'm always a firm believer if you're doing a
collected addition of anything particularly the JLA/AVENGERS which is
already getting top notch reproduction. You really have to give the
fans something extra. I am bound my contract at CrossGen so obvious I
can't draw a new cover or anything else for a collection because I only
had the wavier for the project.
One thing that I did as sneaky as I am (everyone laughs)
is that for all the ACTOR auctions and other places were I had art work
auctioned off that I have done JLA/AVENGERS including the cover of this
program well ever single one of those pieces I keep a file so we can
use as additional material for any collect works as well so I will have
new material, ah, because obviously the only people at Pittsburgh
Convention will have seen that cover, ah, granted it will not say
"Welcome to the 10th Anniversary of the Pittsburgh Comic Con" (everyone laughs) but I will have new material there.
to be continued....
Coming soon: George answer about creator cameos, tuckering (drawing
real people in a fictional setting) and the rumor of Kurt Busiek as Big
Belly Burger.
February 12, 2003 | JLA/A #4 to be on Time, DC to Collect Edition
I got it
wrong yesterday, Marvel will handle JLA/A #1-3 and we will do #2-4.
Trust me, we're doing everything we can to make sure that when this is
schedule and solicited, we will ship all 4 on time. Me, I can't wait to
start the collected edition.
12/29/2006 20:08:54
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