Here’s where we talk about collected editions: TPBs, hardcovers, omnibuses, Absolutes… anything with a spine!
The Trades Thread: volume two
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maximum bathos
Isn’t that EVERY Marvel Crossover?
Oh and TIL what bathos meant. Very useful word, thank you!
edited to add: A great comic review from Mr I’m-not-in-the-mood-for-comics? Unexpected. Or am I confused?
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So bringing a few posts from the “Random Comic Related” thread;
Gideon Falls – very close to the ending, this book is the best on the stands, the artwork is incredible.
Yes, I have been listening to all that support.
At this point I’m waiting for the oversized hardcovers. I don’t think there’s been any announcement about that, I’m just assuming there will be (and there had better be ’cause I’ve learned how to dig my heels in…)
So looking forward to this.I need to find the time to do a big re-read of East of West. I think it’s one of the all time greatest books, and that’s from reading it as it came out (more or less) where it was so very hard to keep everything straight. I think it would be totally amazeballs in one binge read.
So there are Oversized Hardcovers of this, yes?
I remember being very disappointed with the last Amazon Prime Day with anything to do with comics (at least in my country).
Black Friday soon, then X-mas. If I get a good deal, I’m all over it.
Looking forward to this too.It’s not that my “to read” pile needs more, it’s past the point of being a safety hazard (but safer when it’s just 4 or 5 smaller stacks that could only hurt you from the knee down…)
Ha! as I was typing that Amazon arrived with The Question: The Deaths of Vic Sage
It is a damn good-looking Hardcover (totally distracted now).Thanks guys!
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Ha! as I was typing that Amazon arrived with The Question: The Many Deaths of Vic Sage It is a damn good-looking Hardcover (totally distracted now).
Enjoy! It’s a good series.
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East of West = 3 big OHCs, the last has just come out
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So there are Oversized Hardcovers of this, yes?
Year One, Year Two, and Year Three, 7.5″ X 11″ each volume for the complete 45-issue series.
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Year One, Year Two, and Year Three, 7.5″ X 11″ each volume for the complete 45-issue series.
The shelves cannae take it Captain!
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‘Course they can take it, it’s a Billy bookcase
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Dealer Alert
Finally!
Erm… I’ve had a hardcover of this for several weeks
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‘Course they can take it, it’s a Billy bookcase
And when Billy Bookcase is in trouble, he shouts out SHAZAM to be imbued with the power of Shelves, the durability of Hardwood, the persistence of Archival storage, the … er … dammit, Z is a bugger …
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At that price? I doubt it. It’s been available at the £15-16 mark for weeks, but that was too pricey.
Ok, no, I paid more than that. I thought you were saying it’s only now available at all.
Edit: and yes, it was too pricey. I wish I had waited
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‘Course they can take it, it’s a Billy bookcase
And when Billy Bookcase is in trouble, he shouts out SHAZAM to be imbued with the power of Shelves, the durability of Hardwood, the persistence of Archival storage, the … er … dammit, Z is a bugger …
Brown wood finish
Ikea packaging
Lots of shelf space
Low price
You have to build it yourself
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‘Course they can take it, it’s a Billy bookcase
I may have found their limit. We’re looking at getting some custom built.
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Waiting for the Hellblazer Omnibus to be available at a great price was six months.
how good a price was great? I’ll take one for <span style=”color: #222222; font-family: Raleway, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;”>£15-16 :)</span>
£58 for a RRP £120 book.
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My Absolutes etc are in cubes.
Iso-Cubes?
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Plunge HC
I hadn’t really intended to check out DC’s Hill House range of horror books by Joe Hill, but I ended up buying this one on recommendation from a friend – and I’m glad I did as it’s a very solid comic.
The basic plot revolves around a salvage vessel being sent to investigate a mysterious signal that has started coming from a decades-old wreck on an atoll near Russia. But that’s just the starting point for a story that reveals itself to have more of a supernatural element than might first appear, and which is as much about exploring the characters as it is about the horrors they face.
In that sense, it really reminded me of The Abyss – not only the semi-underwater setting, but also the close family vibe of this sea-faring blue-collar gang who get dragged into something that’s far bigger and more potentially Earth-shattering than they at first expected.
But it reminded me of a lot of other classic 80s sci-fi/horror movies too – there’s a touch of John Carpenter’s The Thing in the remote and claustrophobic settings, as well as some of the more gruesome body-horror that worms its way into the book later on. And I was reminded of the Alien movies not only due to the otherworldly nature of the creatures who threaten the crew as the story goes on, but also due to the conflict between the corporate concerns that underpin the mission and the health and safety of the crew sent to complete it.
Ultimately, the sci-fi/supernatural elements develop nicely and build to a good, satisfying climax, which isn’t always the case with books like this. In some ways the concepts are similar to those of The Wake, the Scott Snyder and Sean Murphy book – but where that comic felt like it couldn’t quite bring all of its disparate elements together, here it all aligns very smoothly.
I haven’t even mentioned the art yet, but the truth is that Stuart Immonen was one of the main draws of this book for me, and his work here is as strong as ever. There’s a real sense of solid form and a confident line here that helps to sell the reality of even slightly nebulous concepts, and he has such a great way with faces and bodies that he can really sell the more shocking and horrific moments through the characters’ expressions and body language and not just violence and gore.
And Dave Stewart’s colours add a sense of atmosphere and energy to proceedings, even if the setting does often limit him to fairly dull metallic or earthy shades of grey and brown.
This is a nice slim HC collecting all six issues as well as a small amount of additional material, including some commentary from Hill and an early synopsis (and it’s interesting to see how some of the ideas changed in the journey to the page), as well as some pencil art from Immonen and some variant covers by Gary Frank. All in all, a nice little package.
Oh, and it also features a really nice semi-transparent acetate dustjacket thing that reminds me a little of the original Superman For All Seasons HC.
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Thanks, Dave. I’ve been tempted by Plunge (likewise for Immomen, mainly) and Basketful of Heads too, but I don’t know Joe Hill’s work at all so slightly reluctant to pull the trigger. The other Hill House books also featured work by Kelley Jones and the Lucifer/ Unwritten team of Carey & Gross, so the pedigree is pretty impressive.
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Thanks, Dave. I’ve been tempted by Plunge (likewise for Immomen, mainly) and Basketful of Heads too, but I don’t know Joe Hill’s work at all so slightly reluctant to pull the trigger.
I’m pretty much the same, he’s an unknown quantity for me and I’m not a particular horror fan. But this worked well enough for me.
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Yeah, might be familar with it. ;)
In other news, Gideon Falls Volume 5 and East of West Year 3 OHC arrived today.
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I don’t know Joe Hill’s work at all
I’ve read a couple of his prose novels (HORNS, NOS4A2) and a collection of short stories (20TH CENTURY GHOSTS), and he is a talented horror writer. Haven’t read any of his comics work, though, so I can’t comment on that.
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I don’t know Joe Hill’s work at all
He’s the guy who shot the Waynes, you know… Thomas and Martha.
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Martha
WHY DID YOU SAY THAT NAME?!
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Martha
WHY DID YOU SAY THAT NAME?!
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Oh, I’ve been looking forward to this showing up. Some great material in here, and the new painted covers for these new editions are gorgeous.
Plus it means the Brubaker-Phillips shelf is once again complete. Until Reckless, anyway…
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I’ve got a shelf that just like that! It’s quite a body of work isn’t it?
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This arrived today.
Not much in the way of additional material – a few pages of sketchbook material and that’s it, when some form of commentary might have been nice – but when the core material is this good I can’t really complain.
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Oh, I’ve been looking forward to this showing up. Some great material in here, and the new painted covers for these new editions are gorgeous.
Plus it means the Brubaker-Phillips shelf is once again complete. Until Reckless, anyway…
I love the Pulp at the top sideways with a couple of other things.
Also love seeing the Sleeper Omnibus, and that is a way better to show off than in single issues tucked away in a box.
I remember those days, and the joy loaning the single issues to the people that quit (“I never would have quit if they were producing this” is a quote I won’t forget.1 user thanked author for this post.
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I love the Pulp at the top sideways with a couple of other things.
Pulp, Gotham noir and those couple of single issues aren’t oversized so would break up the uniformity if they were upright.
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That’ll just about fit on the top there too. I have thought about these things.
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Ok, that buys you …. Six months
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Ha!
Ultimately all will be in balance once Reckless gets a deluxe OHC collecting it all.
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Bonus – just nabbed Wonder Woman Dead Earth from SpeedyHen
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My East of West volumes 1-3 have arrived. My, they are mighty tomes!
Now to decide if the Manhatten Projects are equally worthy of being more than digital.
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In other news, I’m on a long Powers re-read, along with watching the TV series.
I’ve been really enjoying the books – I think I’m partway through deluxe Volume 5.
I did leap ahead to the 2015 All New Powers that must have been made at the same time as the TV series.
Which was an odd volume. The story was slight and pretty much powers by the numbers.
However it was such a simple joy to read it got done in one sitting and I was impressed how the art and storytelling had progressed whilst still staying in style. It’s kinda a shame there was not an amazing story to tell.(regarding the TV series, it is quite quite different – though not as bad as the first episode made it out to be. my partner, a non-comics reader is enjoying it)
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Now to decide if the Manhatten Projects are equally worthy of being more than digital.
No. I loved that series, but it never finished. It just trails off leaving lots of dangling plot threads. Annoying.
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My East of West volumes 1-3 have arrived. My, they are mighty tomes!
Now to decide if the Manhatten Projects are equally worthy of being more than digital.
Manhattan Projects is unfinished and probably likely to stay that way.
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Millar never finished War Heroes either.
While we shouldn’t always preface our credits with the writers name, we also shouldn’t give them all the blame either.
We’re not a Millar board anymore so there’s no reason to cosy up to any narrative putting him in a positive light but let’s be honest there’s one project he never finished, which is by a guy who has a series of unfulfilled Kickstarter jobs the backers are moaning about.
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njerry wrote:
Todd wrote:
I wonder who has more unfinished projects: Warren Ellis or Jonathan Hickman?One of them is #2, but #1 is still Rob Liefeld. Which reminds me, I’m still waiting for the second issue of YOUNGBLOOD: BLOODSPORT.
That is only one book. I’m talking about quantities. Millar never finished War Heroes either.
I only mentioned one book. I didn’t mention BIONIX, YOUNGBLOOD: GENESIS (only 2 of 4 solicited issues published), the scheduled 2013 reboots of of BRIGADE and BLOODSTRIKE, his THE INFINITE book with Kirkman…
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I finished reading Fantastic Four Epic Collection: The Coming Of Galactus (oh my!) this week. It’s an interesting.
In some regards it’s great, but in others, it’s underwhelming. Kirby’s art is really great through-out, but it’s hampered by being inked by Vince Colletta for a long stretch, including the wedding annual. I get all the pragmatic arguments for why Marvel used Colletta, but you’d think given the importance of that story, they’d have got a better inker on it (though I can well see it needing to be a rush job given the page count on-top of the usual monthly stuff). To be fair, this isn’t the worst stuff I’ve seen from Colletta, but it pales in comparison to Joe Sinnot’s inking when he leaves.
Story-wise, there’s loads of good concepts here: the Frightful Four (even if they are a bit c-list, even for 1965), the Inhumans, the Silver Surfer, Galactus! All in one continuous run, with the Black Panther promised for the start of the next volume. But the stories themselves are somewhat flawed by having really limp endings. The Inhuman stuff ends with Maximus’s doomsday machine just doing nothing, which, in another era, could be played for laughs or pathos, but here it’s just a lazy bit of plotting to get out of the story and then push the creation of the great barrier thing.
A lot of the Inhuman plot doesn’t really stack up from issue to issue either. Gorgon’s desperate to capture Medusa. But then it’s because he wants to stop her being captured by the Seeker. The Seeker wants to return them all to Attilan (not named) which they don’t want to do, until they do just that to evade the Seeker. Maximus hands back the crown he somehow stole with absolutely no problem, which raises the question of why the Black Bolt lot ran off in the first place. Medusa initially wants to be able to live free amongst the humans, until she gets captured by Gorgon and the others are introduced and that’s forgotten in favour of Crystal wanting to live free amongst the humans. Which isn’t something that really goes against them all hiding out amongst human society in the first place.
The Galactus story is also impressive on a conceptual level but falls down in plotting terms. He’s defeated by an almost literal deus ex machina, but only a third of the way into that issue, the rest of which just focuses on Johnny going to college. You’re expecting an issue long conclusion to this monumental sci-fi epic and its almost brushed aside so the Human Torch can get a dorm. Weird.
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A guide to all announced 2000AD and Treasury of British Collections and Specials for 2021.
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BooksEtc have copies of Reckless for £14.79
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BooksEtc have copies of Reckless for £14.79
Tempting but I think I’m going to give my LCS the business on this one. Looking forward to it.
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Green Lantern: The Silver Age Omnibus Volume 1
I think Green Lantern was one of the weaker Silver Age comics. The character just isn’t convincing. Green Lantern has a magical wishing ring which will do anything he can think of, and yet he is often struggling with foes that Batman would beat with ease.
And in his private life, Hal Jordan is completely bland. Literally his only ambition in life is to date his boss, Carol Ferris (who is annoyingly referred to as his pretty boss every time she is mentioned, because being pretty is clearly her main defining characteristic). Even on Silver Age terms, these are very poorly developed characters.
Things are more interesting when GL gets away from Earth and science fiction elements are introduced (with most of the best stories coming from Gardner Fox rather than John Broome), but there’s still little to excite the imagination in the way that (for example) the work being done by Edmond Hamilton on the Legion does.
Finally, I know Gil Kane is considered one of the greats, but his art here is often very rudimentary. He gets better as the series goes on, but he’s never going to be one of my favourites.
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So Amazon.ca has a Incredible Hulk by Peter David Omnibus Vol. 3 Hardcover – May 25 2021
No pic available, no information. Can’t find at .com or .co.uk either.Looking around, that was an 11 year run he did. Pretty much unheard of nowadays.
There’s an Epic collection coming next week (“Going Gray”) that has issues #314 – #330
That’s the 6 issues Byrne did plus the next 12 issues. Peter David starts at # 331
_______________________________________So I did a search, and it’s not news. Been solicited for 2 months.
I guess this is just me being nostalgic. I’ll leave you with a pretty picture at the end.NOV200613
(W) Peter David, More (A) Jan Duursema, More (CA) Gary FrankGary Frank! Honestly Hulk was spoiled with some great artists.
And I’m thinking that coincides with David & Larry Stroman on X-Factor? Great Times.
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Near Mint Condition announced there will be a David X-Factor Omnibus 1 next year too.
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Bendis did 11 years on Ultimate Spider-Man and then (following the death of Ultimate Peter Parker) went straight into seven more years on the Miles Morales version of Ultimate Spider-Man. So 18 years in total!
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The beginning of Ultimate Spider-Man was, is, so very very good. Bendis really sold Uncle Ben. Made me like him. A lot. It was the best buildup to Uncle Ben’s death I’ve seen since those autonomus BLM-activists burned down that rice factory*.
(* – Fake News. It was an angry mob of Karens.)
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Alan Grant had an almost 12 year run on Batman (over 3 titles consecutively – Detective Comics/ Batman/ Shadow of the Bat).
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Filmish & Gamish
I first heard of these books through an interview with Edward Ross around the launch of Gamish, the more recent of the two, and was intrigued enough by that article and the preview pages to pick them both up.
Both of them are factual examinations of a medium (film and videogames) presented comics-style, with Ross as the on-panel narrator in a style that feels very Scott McCloud-influenced.
I had mixed feelings about both of them. They’re quite charming books thanks to Ross’ simple but clear art style, which captures lots of classic movie and game moments recognisably. And comics is a great medium to provide these kinds of quick whistle-stop tours through a given subject, as you can convey a lot of information quite immediately and accessibly thanks to the dense and economical combination of words and visuals.
But at the same time there’s a slight lack of focus here, like the books don’t know quite what they want to be. Part history of the medium, part examination of genre, part modern commentary on discrimination and representation within these mediums, part technology-focused examination on how films and games are made… the narratives flit around between all of these and ultimately don’t quite tie it all into a coherent whole.
I don’t regret reading them, as they offer some interesting insights and food for thought, but they fall short of being the definitive statements that they seem to aspire to be, with some mixed messages and structural obstacles (especially the heavy reliance on footnotes and third-party critical quotes in Filmish, which are thankfully reduced in Gamish).
Of the two, Gamish was the stronger book for me – partly due to the relative youth of the medium of videogames, which leaves a little more room for original observations on how and why games work as they do. And both provide a decent mix of well-known and more niche examples to make their points. But overall they just don’t quite come together.
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Bendis did 11 years on Ultimate Spider-Man and then (following the death of Ultimate Peter Parker) went straight into seven more years on the Miles Morales version of Ultimate Spider-Man. So 18 years in total!
Good call that I’d forgotten. The other weird thing now to take into account is the extra shipping and twin books. Bendis wasn’t on Avengers that long in years but claims in interviews he wrote over 250 books in the franchise with two main books and various minis and specials.
It seems very recently that Al Ewing took over Hulk and the run is already 41 issues in. A long way from David’s epic 137 issue run but I’m sure if you went through the history of the comics it’s one of the longest. Browsing the Wiki on it he’s behind Bill Mantlo but only 2 issues behind Bruce Jones which he’ll pass soon, Greg Pak looks quite long term but it’s too much of a headache to count the book being renamed so many times.
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The other weird thing now to take into account is the extra shipping and twin books. Bendis wasn’t on Avengers that long in years but claims in interviews he wrote over 250 books in the franchise with two main books and various minis and specials.
Yeah I can believe that. I guess part of all that is the annual event cycle – especially around the time of Bendis’ Avengers run – and also the way successful books are very quickly milked for all they are worth these days with spinoffs, tie-ins etc.
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It’s a little pet subject of mine the idea that long runs were the norm in the past. There’s no real fact behind it, it’s most probably a reaction to time moving faster as you get older. There are a few really long ones but when you look beyond the 2000s there are just as many. It seemed like Simonson was on Thor forever but he was on it for 4 years and Jason Aaron did 7.
The 1970s was probably the worst, everyone is jumping around everywhere.
In total years Claremont probably still has the record because he came back to the X-Men in 2000 and was kept on via Extreme X-Men and a return to Uncanny for 6 years in total. So his real regular X-Men tenure is 22 years, with a gap (although David has come back to the Hulk a couple of times too and has a Maestro book out right now).
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For anyone after it BooksEtc have copies of the Thanos: Infinity Saga Omnibus collecting the new Starlin OGNs and miniseries done 2014-2019, with art including work from Ron Lim and Alan David. Supposed to be a quite freestanding volume.
Price is around £46.
Marvel Omnibuses seem to be highly variable to obtain currently.
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Slaughterhouse-Five
Listen: I’ve always loved the original Slaughterhouse Five. It opened my eyes to Vonnegut’s novels and I immediately became a fan, devouring his work and enjoying it all. But I’m not sure anything ever topped Slaughterhouse Five, even if it came close. There are images and lines from that book that are still seared into my mind years later, and frankly, when I heard that a comics adaptation was on the way, I wasn’t that enthused.
So it goes.
But then I saw some advance reviews and opinions and they were incredibly effusive and complimentary, and made me think I should maybe check it out after all.
But by then it had sold out and I couldn’t get hold of a copy – and it was only through the kindness of our own Vikram that I was able to track one down (thanks Vik)!
And I’m really glad I was able to get hold of a copy, as I really loved it.
Not only do North and Monteys make it work very well (and really make it feel almost tailor-made for comics) but they actively enhance it in places. There’s some really clever use of comics technique here to reflect the “unstuck in time” stuff and to distill parts of the book down to single moments. And the vibe of Vonnegut’s story is preserved very well in general, with the poignant moments still really hitting hard.
The art is great too, with a deceptively simple style that then uses that simplicity to do some quietly amazing things, especially in terms of playing with time, and drawing connections between moments of the story that are separated by years, in a way that’s not only unique to comics but also perfectly fitting for Slaughterhouse Five in particular.
This is highly recommended, not only if you’re a fan of the original book but also if you’re looking for a thought-provoking graphic novel with some messages about war and life and time that are just as pertinent now as they ever were.
Much better than I ever could have expected.
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I don’t normally post here but I love this book and people asked about the trade.
https://www.amazon.com/Adventureman-1-End-Everything-After/dp/1534317120
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And SpeedyHen have just sent off my copy of the Adventureman OHC
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The Adventureman OHC arrived and it’s a great, big lovely hardback.
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Pulp by Brubaker & Phillips is so. Fucking. Good!!! Kicking myself for not getting to it sooner. I knew it’d be a mash-up of Western and crime, I wasn’t expecting them to throw blowing Nazis’ heads off into the mix as well! Such a satisfying read on a few different levels, not least of which is Max Winter’s touching love for his wife. It’s not often a Brubaker/Phillips book explores a healthy, loving relationship between two people.
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I also read Thor by Jason Aaron Vol. 2 which includes the end of his Thor: God of Thunder run, the first 8 issues of Jane Foster Thor, and the Secret Wars tie-in Thors. I loved the conclusion of God of Thunder, Esad Ribic might be my favorite Jason Aaron collaborator, but I have to say, the other stuff didn’t really do it for me. I love the idea of Jane Foster, dying of cancer, wielding Mjolnir even though it’s hastening her demise. But I don’t know… Aaron just seems a little too… pleased with himself over making a woman Thor. There’s this dumb scene where Titania surrenders to Jane out of respect for a woman being Thor, and then later on there’s a super-forced girl power moment just as bad as the one from Endgame where Thor Odinson gathers a bunch of female heroes to back up Jane. Why only women? Don’t think about it, girl power!!! My wife thought the Endgame scene was empty pandering and I think she’d say the same about this (if she gave a shit about comics).
Also, I really hate the whole “Thor is a title, not his name” BS. Makes zero sense. If Thor’s not his actual name then how come he has no name to fall back on except his surname?
The Thors mini-series is okay, kind of a spin on Top 10 where a bunch of multiverse Thors form a police force under Dr. Doom. But the whole time reading it I was just reminded of how much better Top 10 did the superhero cop drama thing. Not as good as it could’ve been.
I’ll still pick up vol. 3 when that comes out as Aaron’s one of my favorite writers. I just hope he drops the cringey back-patting.
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Pulp by Brubaker & Phillips is so. Fucking. Good!!! Kicking myself for not getting to it sooner. I knew it’d be a mash-up of Western and crime, I wasn’t expecting them to throw blowing Nazis’ heads off into the mix as well! Such a satisfying read on a few different levels, not least of which is Max Winter’s touching love for his wife. It’s not often a Brubaker/Phillips book explores a healthy, loving relationship between two people.
Yes, it’s great. The new Reckless OGN out this week is also an excellent read. Don’t wait so long on that one!
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Oh I won’t, I’m helping out at my LCS over the holidays and made sure to slip a copy in my sub folder on Tuesday. :)
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Meltdown Man
The format of Meltdown Man was unusual in the early years of 2000AD, being a single, self-contained story that ran for fifty continuous episodes and came to a definitive end. The story concerned a modern British soldier, Nick Stone, who is thrown into a future time period where humans are served by genetically modified animal-men. Aided by a cat-girl, wolf-man, and bull-man, Stone must convince the different animal factions to rebel against the brutal human overlords, while trying to figure out where he is and how to get home.
Alan Hebden’s story feels heavily indebted to Flash Gordon, both in its theme of an unbeatable outsider hero uniting a world against a dictator, and in its use of cliff-hangers at the end of each episode. Read as a collected edition, you’re getting a life-or-death threat and resolution every five pages, making the story crack along at breathless speed with no flab at all.
Massimo Belardinelli’s detailed art is a perfect fit for the series. His character designs for all the varied animal-men are beautiful, and his futuristic settings are striking and inventive.
Overall this is a great collection. It’s not especially deep or clever, it’s just good fun.
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The format of Meltdown Man was unusual in the early years of 2000AD, being a single, self-contained story that ran for fifty continuous episodes and came to a definitive end.
I’m trying to think of other examples like that. Harry 20 on the High Rock is the one that comes to mind. Mind Wars in Starlord is another one, also written by Hebden, I read that recently as a backup GN in Judge Dredd Megazine. That was similar when read in one chunk that the pace of the story is so quick.
Most were continuing characters but there are a few examples of the finite story. Popularity probably plays its part too, Skizz I’m pretty sure was envisioned as a finite story but Jim Baikie brought it back in two further stories.
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I recently bought the wonderful collection “Lokmannen” (~The Locomotive Man) and I am really sad it isn’t translated to english so I could recommend it to you guys. It’s a collection of stories by Knut Larsson and I struggle at great length to put into words the total weirdness and imagery presented within.
The titular story is about… umm… a small boy growing up, ultimately faced with becoming a father. Oh, and he’s obsessed with trains to the point where he thinks he’s a locomotive. There isn’t much story here. But the images really speak volumes.
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If you enjoyed Meltdown Man then I’d like to point you in this direction.
The same creative team and plenty of fun.
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The format of Meltdown Man was unusual in the early years of 2000AD, being a single, self-contained story that ran for fifty continuous episodes and came to a definitive end.
I’m trying to think of other examples like that. Harry 20 on the High Rock is the one that comes to mind. Mind Wars in Starlord is another one, also written by Hebden, I read that recently as a backup GN in Judge Dredd Megazine. That was similar when read in one chunk that the pace of the story is so quick.
Most were continuing characters but there are a few examples of the finite story. Popularity probably plays its part too, Skizz I’m pretty sure was envisioned as a finite story but Jim Baikie brought it back in two further stories.
I’d forgotten Skizz (!!!) but I also thought of Ant Wars (possibly best forgotten), so they did happen, they were just rare. I would think Meltdown Man’s 50 issues beats them all in length, though.
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Caught up on Ennis’s two most recent Punisher comics: The Platoon and Soviet. The first has art by Goran Parlov, the second by Jacen Burrows.
The Platoon is probably Ennis strongest take on Frank in Vietnam yet. The biographer from Valley Forge, Valley Forge meets up with men from Frank’s first command as he researches his next book. This is Frank as a greenhorn, eager to learn the ways of war, but he is still very much Frank Castle. He learns fast, thinks laterally, and doesn’t hesitate to do what needs to be done, including calling in a napalm strike on his first patrol. The writer is looking for answers, realizing his Valley Forge book about Frank’s final tour was only the end of the beginning, but the veterans care little about what Frank became after the war and instead mourn the man he might have been.
Soviet is set in the present-day and shows Frank teaming up with a Russian vet of Afghanistan to take down a Russian oligarch turned mafia boss. It’s not Ennis’s best work on the character but is still very good, and features maybe the most brutality since The Slavers. The bad guys definitely get theirs. A satisfying read.
