A look at some absolutely amazing hardcover Batman collections coming out soon (plus ranting!)

[about_faces]

I've been incredibly annoyed at DC for the way they've treated their trade collections over the past decade. I can understand many great stories being left out of print, of course I can. Collections cost money to make, and if there's no market even for great stories which few people want or know about, why publish it? I get that, sad though it

Comments

[abqreviews]

I already pre-ordered the Colan and Rogers collections weeks ago. Yes, I really hope they improve the coloring too. I was recently re-reading that GREATEST GOLDEN AGE STORIES EVER TOLD book from the 90s, and wept because the coloring is so much better than the treatment they give their other stuff, like the Archives and Chronicles edtions.

Also, since you're such an Aparo fan, have you checked out his runs on Phantom Stranger and Spectre? Some of his very best work.

[about_faces]

At least the coloring there was better than the coloring of DC Comics from the late 80's to early 90's. Yeesh, it actually got worse, way worse! Isn't it sad how much more care went into those early TPBs, whereas today so many trades are clearly treated as disposable?

No, I haven't, and I must. I don't believe his Phantom Stranger stuff has been collected, or at least, not in color, right? Well, I bet I can find most of those over at http://iamthephantomstranger.blogspot.com. As for Spectre, yes, we've discussed that a bit in the past, and I dare say it's time to finally pick up that trade.

I want it, I want it, I want it!

[ext_768836]

Hi, there. riddler13 here. Always nice to see such good news on your most excellent weblog.

Re: I want it, I want it, I want it!

[about_faces]

Hey hey! Thanks! Yeah, I figured it was about time I posted something that made me giddily excited! Doesn't happen often enough these days, dontchaknow? :)

[ext_765974]

I've kinda wiped my mind of the Talia rape stuff. Son of the Demon is what really happen, so says my head!canon(which is the best canon, where Xorn was totally Magneto, and Cry For Justice was an extended dream/nightmare sequence of Oliver Queen). That said, I am a pretty big fan of Morrison's run in general('cept that last Batman Inc issue, WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT, GRANT!?), and I greatly look forward to them finally putting his first two trades in Deluxe hardcover form. MMM, oversized JH Williams III artwork

[lego_joker]

The only time I really dug Aparo's art was when it was combined with Peter Milligan's scripts. At first glance, Aparo's Batman is a Batman you'd expect to punch through a dozen goons, outsmart a corny deathtrap, and lay the smackdown on the Joker or the Penguin while delivering some ham-fisted social message.

It makes it all the more jarring, then, that Milligan's scripts portray Batman not as a superhero, but as something more akin to a cop with a unique outfit. Not just in how people react to him, but in how his mind works - Milligan's Batman was Batman at his most at his most human. And thus, we (or at least I) find the supernatural elements that Milligan throws into his tales all the more jarring, because this isn't Grant Morrison's I-have-a-plan-for-everything Batgod facing them. This is a regular guy trying to do the best he can to clean up Gotham with a few toys, and you can't help but be scared that he's getting in way over his head whenever something beyond the laws of science pops up in Gotham.

[about_faces]

Milligan and Aparo, eh? I've never read any of those stories. Wait, I think I have an issue or two, but I'm not sure if I've read those yet. I'm not a huge Milligan fan myself, but you've got me intrigued.

[ext_765974]

The Milligan Batman issues are easily some of the best of the 1990s. Aparo didn't draw "Dark Knight, Dark City", but that's a good one, too.