THE UNBOXING - JANUARY 2021

Boy, these Unboxings have become few and far between lately, huh? I haven't done one since... July?! I can't believe that's right, but apparently it is. Between last summer and now, I bought no physical books. I have picked up some digital items here and there, but they've been so few and far between that they really weren't worth posting about. And this dearth of new purchases isn't for lack of trying on my part, mind you -- but rather, as I've mentioned once or twice before, Marvel and DC just aren't putting out as much of the classic material I personally want. (Or, more accurately, they aren't filling in the gaps that remain, because they've released a ton of classic stuff and I've bought it all already!)

Nonetheless, January always brings something, so let's see what we have this time. First, from Marvel as usual, it's two hardcovers: first is the MOON KNIGHT OMNIBUS, collecting many of the original stories written by his creator, Doug Moench, and drawn by several artists, most notably Bill Sienkiewicz. This will be replacing my MOON KNIGHT Epic Collections on the bookcase.

And the second item from Marvel is the THANOS: INFINITY SAGA OMNIBUS, which collects all of Jim Starlin's latter-day stories of the Mad Titan, released as various annuals, mini-series, and graphic novels throughout the past ten years or so. Since Starlin has sworn off working for Marvel ever again, this will close the book on Thanos as far as I'm concerned, and I look forward to reading it someday.

For Christmas, my wife gave me her custumary gift of one of the newest CARL BARKS DISNEY LIBRARY books, THE TWENTY-FOUR CARAT MOON.

And then there's digital. To close out the year, Marvel and DC both had sales, as they always do. I have a bunch of Marvel Epic Collections on my digital shopping list, but I was a little bummed that there wasn't a big five dollar a pop Epic sale like they ran last year. Instead, there was a sale on Marvel Masterworks, at only 99 cents to two dollars each -- which is great in theory, except that I already have nearly all the digital Masterworks I want, or digital Epic Collections containing the same contents. Nonetheless, I did pick up a few of the books which I simply couldn't pass up for the price: DAZZLER MASTERWORKS vol. 1, DEATHLOK MASTERWORKS vol. 1, KILLRAVEN MASTERWORKS vol. 1, and SPIDER-WOMAN MASTERWORKS vol. 1.

And in the DC sale, I grabbed a few items as well: that old standby, BATMAN: TALES OF THE DEMON (which factored heavily into my look at Batman in the Seventies a couple years ago), NEW TEEN TITANS vol. 11 (which will hopefully someday factor into a continuation of my NEW TEEN TITANS reviews from a number of years ago), SUPERMAN SMASHES THE KLAN (which I've been eyeballing for months and seriously cannot wait to read), and WONDER WOMAN BY GEORGE PEREZ vol. 4 (which, again, may someday down the line be used to continue the WONDER WOMAN by George Perez reviews I did in 2018).

And that about covers it! I don't know when the next Unboxing will be; in fact I may change it from a monthly feature (which it clearly has not been at all recently, with only four installments in 2020) to something I do on an "as warranted" basis. But I guess we'll find out going foward. I do know that I have two Marvel Omnibuses on order, which should release in February and March, respectively (meaning they would make the Unboxings for March and April), but after that I don't think there's much on the horizon at the moment...

THE UNBOXING - NOVEMBER 2018

I meant to have this up this past Sunday, but the Thanksgiving holiday weekend kept me busy, so here it is in an unprecedented midweek Unboxing!

Everything is digital this month, thanks to Amazon/Comixology Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales. First, from DC, I grabbed BATMAN AND ROBIN ADVENTURES vol. 3, NEW TEEN TITANS vol. 9 (which picks up where the Omnibuses I reviewed a few years back ended), TALES OF THE BATMAN: GERRY CONWAY vol. 2, and WONDER WOMAN: EARTH ONE vol. 1 and vol. 2. (Yes, I've gone out of my way to note more than once how much I dislike a lot of Grant Morrison's writing. I bought these books strictly for the artwork!)

Courtesy of Dark Horse, I grabbed USAGI YOJIMBO/TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION, which I somehow missed during the last Dark Horse sale, when I stocked up on Usagi books.

From Random House, of all publishers, I grabbed PELLUCIDAR: AT THE EARTH'S CORE, a comic I must assume was originally published at some point by DC, considering it's by Dennis O'Neil and Michael William Kaluta.

And from Marvel, I picked up WEREWOLF BY NIGHT: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION vol. 3. (This was actually part of a Halloween sale last month, but it missed the cutoff for the October Unboxing.)

That's it for November, for Black Friday, and for Cyber Monday. Next month we'll be back to physical volumes for a couple of books to close out the year!

THE NEW TEEN TITANS OMNIBUS VOL. 1 - 3

Over the course of three years, DC released more than sixty issues of Marv Wolfman's and George Pérez's classic NEW TEEN TITANS in a set of three Omnibus volumes. The books are huge and sturdy, with a very attractive trade dress and interior design. The blue used for the dustjackets is also featured prominently throughout all three volumes, giving them a lovely uniformity. Outside and in, these books are very nicely assemble packages.

But where I'm concerned, it seems there almost always has to be a negative. In the case of these books, that comes in the form of the binding. These books feature glued, rather than sewn binding. Marvel has been utilizing sewn binding the vast majority of their hardcovers for years now, but DC has yet to catch on. And when you're dealing with books this thick, glued binding can be a real detriment to the reading experience. The pages don't separate apart at the gutters, leading to occasional loss of artwork and/or text, especially as the series progresses and Pérez begins experimenting with full-bleed artwork. And of course, any two-page spread suffers due to the glued binding as well.

THE NEW TEEN TITANS

Here's a series I've wanted to read for years: THE NEW TEEN TITANS by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez. Both Marvel stalwarts in the seventies, this duo was among the many creators who jumped ship to DC when Jim Shooter took over as Marvel's editor-in-chief. At DC they revamped the long-running TEEN TITANS series, aging the characters a bit into their late teens and adding a handful of new members to the team. The book skyrocketed up the sales charts, becoming -- though all involved deny this was intentional -- DC's answer to Chris Claremont's X-MEN. But regardless of whether anyone felt the X-Men comparison was valid, it was that which made me want to check this series out.

A few years ago, DC began publishing a NEW TEEN TITANS OMNIBUS series. Volume One appeared in 2011, Volume Two in 2012, and Volume Three in 2013. I bought all three with the intention of getting to them eventually, and that time has finally arrived. The third volume has been mercilessly criticized by fans for its spotty collection of the series, but as long as it contains all the Wolfman/Pérez material, which is really the main draw for me, I'm fine with it. I understand there is a chunk of issues missing in the book, however, which should fit in there between other issues it does collect, but those installments are available through DC's digital store, so I'll look into reading them there when the time comes.