[boox909]

This came out Wednesday, and I have to say I am pretty mixed on it.

I realized that it was nearly 99% a reproduction of the original, rather than a true reprint, when I read The Angel feature and said to myself "this isn't Paul Gustavson art!"  Hello? McFly?! 

There is a Golden Age Marvel Comics Omnibus Vol. 1 Hardcover being advertised for later this year, but I am pretty positive that I will not spend one cent on it due to my faith that it too will be nothing more than a giant reproduction. 

I dunno, I want Marvel and DC to provide access to their GA catalog, but I do not want to support these reproduction efforts.

Opinions?

B. 

[OtherEric]

I thought it was vastly better than the Masterwork edition of a few years ago, but that's not saying much.

One thing they made a point of in the solicitation but didn't mention in the book:  They were deliberately coloring the book in a modern style.  I thought it was an interesting choice; but it does hide the art somewhat.  I'll try and find what issue of the recent "Timely Comics" had a story that will be in the omnibus, it may be a better guide to what that will look like.

I did think Sub-Mariner looked pretty good; but to be honest Bill Everett is about the only GA Marvel artist that has ever really impressed me on a regular basis.  (While, him and Wolverton.  But I've seen almost none of Wolverton's Timely work.)

[misappear]

I bought one of these today.  It seems to be the original stories stripped down, then "re-inked" and colored to accomodate the nice white paper.  Sort of cleaned up.  I don't have a Marvel #1 reprint to compare it to at the moment.  I dunno, sort of cool I guess. 

If Marvel and DC systematically republished their old stuff in comic book format for $5.00 a pop (give or take) I'd buy every book they'd put out.  The archives don't float my boat because there's no ads.  People don't seem to appreciate that a golden age book is more than characters, writers, and artists.  As a complete thing it's a chunk of history, a moment carved out in time. 

Wait! There's probably some ridiculous copyright or trademark law covering the re-presentation of old ads that would make the whole thing illegal, immoral, and detrimental to national security. 

I tell you, if Timely and DC were re-releasing their old stuff, I'd be camped out at a comic store.  Fresh copies on paper?  Man, paradiso.

[Ed Love]

I've not looked at it yet so not made a decision... but the fact that they were releasing this did irk me that in the Sub-Mariner comic they reprinted his origin story that was going to be in this. They did this in their Western 5th week event some time back as well, choosing to reprint some stories that were just reprinted elsewhere. With the Sub-Mariner tale, it's compounded by the fact there are hundreds of Namor stories out there, why reprint this one yet again? Even if the Marvel Comics book wasn't coming out, this story has seen print a couple of times too many already. Without checking, I know I have several reprints and retellings of it already. It ranks up there with Captain America and Bucky's origin and Bucky's death as some of the most reprinted and repeated pages out there.

[OtherEric]

As I understand it, at least for a while the Sub-Mariner story was the only one where Marvel had an usable copy of the artwork.  (I want to say it was at least partly because they could get a clean B&W copy from the Motion Picture Funnies Weekly issue, but I may be way off base.  That issue of Invaders is in storage somewhere.)  So it shows up a lot; and even now it seems to generally be considered the best drawn feature of the issue.  So it keeps popping up.  But yeah, I've got at least 4 or 5 copies of it.  It definitely was the one where I was most interested in the recoloring rather than the story itself; for several of the others it's the first time I've seen a remotely decent looking copy.

I would love to see a regular "reprint an old book" series; the Millennium editions were wonderful as far as they went but I already had either complete reprints or the originals of well over half of the issues they did.  But I think that is a somewhat specialized market, sadly.

[Astaldo711]

I'd definitely rather see an actual reprint than a reproduction. Reading a reprint is seeing the comic as it was originally intended, not as how some current editor sees it.

[DOC]

True but I am buying them anyway. Is there a Dyna-pub version of Marvel #1, I don't think so but may have missed it.

[Yoc]

I've just read the HT and Angel stories here.
You certainly notice the modern colouring in the Angel story.
Angel of course must be the great godfather of "kill-em all and let God sort them out" style of hero Wolverine and Punisher would be much later.  Ruthless.
The Subby story looks not bad compared to their usual gaudy colouring in the Masterworks collection.

It's not a 10 but it's hardly a 1 either.  I'll give it all a 7.  Results may vary.

[boox909]

I've just read the HT and Angel stories here.
You certainly notice the modern colouring in the Angel story.
Angel of course must be the great godfather of "kill-em all and let God sort them out" style of hero Wolverine and Punisher would be much later.  Ruthless.
The Subby story looks not bad compared to their usual gaudy colouring in the Masterworks collection.

It's not a 10 but it's hardly a 1 either.  I'll give it all a 7.  Results may vary.

I've bought all of these special editions thus far Yoc, and some of them do vary. My favorite thus far is Young Allies Comics. Miss America was okay as was Marvel Mystery Comics, and Human Torch Comics; USA Comics was pretty good, and Daring Comics was was surprisingly great (other than that horrible Marvex character who you just know is going to pop up again in current continuity. I hope a few more of these come out and that DC might consider a similar effort.

B. 

[boox909]

True but I am buying them anyway. Is there a Dyna-pub version of Marvel #1, I don't think so but may have missed it.

The Dyna-Pub was Marvel Mystery Comics #4, I know because I have an entire set squirreled away in my catacombs.

B. 

[phabox]

It was indeed issue four and any scans of this ever found floating around the net are down to me.

Marvel themselves DID do an (almost) c2c hardcover reprint of Marvel Comics_001 back 1989 to mark their then 50th Anniversary and this may or may not have used less retouched artwork then the latest release.

I sold both these reprints when I bought the Masterworks Edition ( not a good move ?) so I am unable to check.

-Nigel

[DOC]

True but I am buying them anyway. Is there a Dyna-pub version of Marvel #1, I don't think so but may have missed it.

The Dyna-Pub was Marvel Mystery Comics #4, I know because I have an entire set squirreled away in my catacombs.

B. 

That's what I thought, I have most of them myself.

[DOC]

Angel of course must be the great godfather of "kill-em all and let God sort them out" style of hero Wolverine and Punisher would be much later.  Ruthless.

I think we find out who the Angel is in the new Marvels Project mini-series.

[Yoc]

 
When he takes off the moustache right?

[boox909]

Angel of course must be the great godfather of "kill-em all and let God sort them out" style of hero Wolverine and Punisher would be much later.  Ruthless.

I think we find out who the Angel is in the new Marvels Project mini-series.

Thus far this Marvels Project mini-series is reading pretty well.

B.