First up is the new printing of THUNDERBOLTS CLASSIC volume 3*, which, as I've noted a couple times in the past few months, when combined with volume 1*, volume 2, and HAWKEYE AND THE THUNDERBOLTS volume 1 and volume 2, completes the run of what I consider the definitive THUNDERBOLTS -- issues 1 - 50 by Kurt Busiek, Fabian Nicieza, and Mark Bagley. I seriously have no idea why the T-Bolts just received this level of fast-track love (five trades -- three reissues and two new -- released in the lightning-quick span of four months), but I'm really glad to see it happen.
And our second item is X-MEN: THE TRIAL OF GAMBIT, a nice trade collecting a chunk of issues of both X-MEN and UNCANNY X-MEN which were originally published between the "Onslaught" and "Operation: Zero Tolerance" events. My goal of getting all the Scott Lobdell/Fabian Nicieza X-MEN on my bookcase grows ever closer to completion, and I'm quite happy about it. This book will be slotted for an in-depth spotlight as part of my monthly X-Men collected editions review project (all of which can be found archived about halfway down this page), somewhere around December or January, so for now I've nothing more to say on the topic.
I expect another very light month next time, leading me to note that Marvel and DC seem to have scaled back publishing the sorts of classic material I'm interested in. For now I don't mind; a new baby inevitably leads to a diminished budget for these kinds of things -- but I hope this downward trend levels out at some point! Two books a month or so is just about right in my opinion, but I always feel a little bummed out those months when I only receive one or even none.
* Note that the above links go to the original 2011 and 2012 printings of THUNDERBOLTS CLASSIC volumes 1 and 3. Amazon doesn't seem to have the new printings on their site yet -- but in any case, the contents should be identical.
Marvel and DC seem to have scaled back publishing the sorts of classic material I'm interested in
ReplyDeleteAlso, theoretically, there's a tipping point where there simply is less uncollected material out there you'd want to see collected.
I mean, I'm nowhere close to that point yet, especially on the DC side (which is pretty bad - but getting better - about putting more historic/classic stuff into trades) , but theoretically, there could come a day when I have everything I'd want in trade.
Which is kind of amazing in and of itself...
That's a good point -- from Marvel, at least, certainly the amount of classic material I'd like to see collected is shrinking. Though at the same time, there's lots out there I'd still like to see. For example, I've been waiting a few years now for some Spider-Man Epic Collections of seventies material (Gerry Conway/Len Wein/Marv Wolfman), but that entire decade is unrepresented in the line!
DeleteI agree on DC, though -- there's a great deal of older stuff from there I'd love to see collected, beginning with the early eighties Batman by Conway and, later, Doug Moench.