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| > News Archive 2003 |
| NEWS ARCHIVE FOR 2002: According to the scuttlebutt originating from Joe Quesada's message boards, it appears as if Marvel is planning on publishing all 32 Masterworks sometime in the first quarter of 2003 all at once. Remastered? Remodelled? What does this all mean? Who knows- but feel free to visit the message board whereit's all the talk. Needless to say, I'll believe it when I see it. But it is encouraging news. No news on new Masterworks, but if this crazy plan of Mavel's comes to fruition, we may just see more new Masterworks soon after. Meanwhile, from DC, there comes news of a second THUNDER AGENTS Archives, a Neal Adams Batman three volume hardcover compilation, a two volume Archives of Challengers of the Unknown, and a second New Teen Titans Archives. All sounds good to me! NEWS UPDATE: 10-25 Still waiting on any official word regarding the Masterworks. This is a sad, forlorn hobby, I confess. I would like to thank those in charge at Marvel for sapping the will of an ardent fan...... Now, on to brighter news! Here is something YOU MUST DO! There is no room for waffling, indecision, and procrastination. Carve some time out of your busy day and visit the DC Archives Survey! Take the survey! It's science, folks! NEWS UPDATE: 9-28 Not much more news, folks, except a couple new hardcovers announced for early next year. Spidey fans will be happy to have the second volume of Ultimate Spider-Man, and the Kevin Smith Black Cat mini will be collected between hardcovers as well. Joe Quesada has a newmessage board at his website, joequesada.com, and when asked the question "What's up with Masterworks?" he answered confidently "As far as I know, Masterworks aren't cancelled!" Gee....thanks for that stirring and decisive statement of faith. A few days later he more affirmativelystated that Masterworks fans would have something to look forward to in 2003. What that means is 100% speculative, and says nothing about the promises made for 2002. Will we see more volumes this year? Stay tuned. On the "good news" front, I have a bunch more amazon coupons!But they only last until the 30th! Sorry for the lateness in posting them, but they took me by surprise. I'll try to do a better job next time. Here they are: MAPDCARD3Q35 $5 off $35 Four different coupons! Yikes! You can make four different orders, I guess, especially since amazon has lowered their free shipping offer to $25. Go get some books, people! Remember, you can place four different orders with these coupons, and amazon will only charge you when the booksship! You can place an order for, say, the two February Spidey books, and get $5 off and free shipping. You'll only pay $35 for both books and pay in February. Your order will maintain itself until then. It's a good deal. And don't forget to shop through my links, natch! NEWS UPDATE: 8-13 Howdy folks! Updates have been slow coming lately, and I wish there was more to report on the Masterworks front. Nothing came out of San Diego Comics Convention except Joe Quesada mentioning that the Masterworks are still a concern of Marvel's and were not cancelled. Well, I declare! There have been rumblings that Iron Man Vol. 2 will indeed ship soon, but no official word yet. Consider this a call to arms for all Masterworks fans to cross your fingers! One thing I am sad to report is that the upcoming Avengers: Kang Dynasty collection will not be a HC, but instead a TPB. Boooo!!!! A collection of the MAX title Cage is in the offing, though. And speaking of Marvel HCs, here is a link to a great article about the rapid expansion of comics into the book store market. Marvel has recently accelerated an already burgeoning presence on the shelves of book stores like Borders, Barnes and Noble, and Waldenbooks. The good news is that it doesn't appear to be slowing down. Book stores can't keep this stuff in stock, and they want more! Read on at this link: (Link is now obsolete.) Now, on to the DC front. Lots of info has flooded out from the SDCC concerning the Archives line. Coming sometime next year, we'll see a GA Spectre and Legion Vol. 12. Also, some semblance of a Silver Age Aquaman Archives will finally surface from 20,000 leagues under the sea! Silver Age Batman gets his due with a Dynamic Duo Archive, reprinting the first New Look stories from the pages of Detective and Batman. Finally, the books we'll see at the end of this year include the third volume of Shazam and our yearly fix of Plastic Man, with Vol. 4. NEWS UPDATE: 7-12 An X-Men Masterworks due in November mysteriously popped up on Amazon the other day. I am assuming it is going to be Vol. 2, since it is credited to the talents of Stan Lee, Alex Toth, and Werner Roth (what!?!?! no Jack Kirby! That oversightwill be corrected!) Now, the months Amazon lists for future release of books is not always accurate, but assuming it is, these are the previously scheduled reprints for the every-other-month strategy. Missing are Masterworks for the other "every-other" months! Take your conspiracy theoryof choice to the message boards, where we are discussing this matter right now! Also turned up are HCs devoted to the first storyline of the new Captain America series from Marvel, and something called X-Men: The Best of Chris Claremont. That ought to be something worth debating. Shipping next week: Spider-Man Masterworks Vol. 2! This is another significant milestone for the Masterworks revamp, as it's the first non #1 volume from the original series to see reprinting. Those of us who don't have this book in your collection, you can now avoid ebay! No more searching for this one far and wide and paying big bucks for it. Also, September's Masterworks, while not officially announced yet, seems to be FF Vol. 1, as it has popped up on amazon recently. Amazon has also solicited en masse the whole year's worth of Marvel hardcovers. A new one has popped up on the radar screen: Daredevil/Elektra Love and War. It comes in November. Much of next year's DC Archives schedule will be announced at the San Diego con in early August. Perhapssome Masterworks announcements, too?
In updating the site today, I accidentally trashed all of 2001's News Archives. Not too big of a deal, but I would have liked to keep all the updates for posterity. This is a longshot, but if anyone has a cached copy of mysite with that page, please save it somehow and contact me. It was the complete archive of 2001 news updates from the inception of this site through Dec. 2001. Remember, that's the period of time when all the news of Masterworks was good! Wonder Woman Archives Vol. 3 has shipped! Still no word on any Masterworks news :( First the good news- for Marvel HC lovers, there is a newly announced New X-Men compilation coming in October or thereabouts. This series is very highly regarded by fans of the X-team old and new. Also, the Avengers finallyget their due between hardcovers with a reprint of the sprawling Kang Dynasty storyline, which will turn out to be the sayonara from Kurt Busiek to his long and esteemed run on writing Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Now, regarding Masterworks, it doesn't appear thatthere are any solicited volumes through September coming. Perhaps the audible called on changing the schedule from 6/6 to a schedule undetermined (or at least unannounced) is too much to cope with. It would be nice to see the gaps being filled with new reprints,but I just have no news to report on that front. No word, too, on whether Iron Man Masterworks Vol. 2 is simply late or a casualty of the change in direction. I want to remind everybody of my words back in the day when first announcing all the exciting Masterworks news- "plans are subject to change" and words to that effect. Poor us...looks like they were prophecy. Finally, I want to promote a super-cool project worked on by Argo Press. I am a dyed in the wool Charlton Comics fan, as they were some of the first comics I was exposed to as a kid. Well, Argo Press is shipping its second issue of Charlton Spotlight, a 40 page magazinedevoted to Charlton Comics history. Interveiews, feature articles, memoirs, reviews, and especially valuable checklists of the comics themselves abound. The first issue of Charlton Spotlight had an exhaustively complete checklist of all Charlton comics ever published!The magazine is only $5.95 and can be ordered directly from Argo Press. Here is a link to their website!If you're a fan of Charlton Comics, order a copy and support a wonderful and needed researchinto the history of that unusual comics company. NEWS UPDATE: 6-17 Word from the Mike Allred message board (frequented by our own ace reporter Bill Nolan!) let loose some info that a big ol' hardcover is planned to capture all the issues of the Allred/Milligan run. Check out the message board for my thoughts on this book! (Good thoughts, btw!) Also, September solicitations are here for DC Comics, and they show that Tor Archives Vol. 2 is coming! Cool news for Joe Kubert fans. I wasn't too sure the first one sold all that well, so it's nice to see another one coming. I hope they beef up the page count a little! Also in the solicits was the first T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents reprint volume, a purely unexpected surprise, yet another DC hardcover reprint enterprise. After the Archives, Spirit, Tor, and T-Agents lines, what could be next? Hats off and then hats off again to DC Comics! It's amazing what a healthy line of books like DC Archives can splinter off into....are you listening Marvel? Not much news to report, other than for amazon lovers, there is finally a link up to the Green Lantern Archives Vol. 4 which is on sale soon! Being a big GL fan, I am looking forward to that one. I also addedamazon links to many of the hardcover collections Alan Moore has been working on over at DC. Also, the Punisher hardcover ships this week. For those of you not too excited about the Garth Ennis tales of Frank Castle, here's at least a littlegood news about it: it's ON TIME!!! Wow, what a concept! MAJOR NEWS ITEM! Well, I was away for about ten days while vacationing in Chicago, but now I am back home and able to update the site. In the meantime, this webpage's ace reporter Dum Dum Dugan managed to get the scoop on a major change in the Marvel Masterworks line. Some of you may like this, some of you may not- so sit down and get ready to receive the news! Marvel Masterworks is going to an all Millie the Model schedule until further notice! ......No, that's not it.....I kid, I kid! Really, what it is happening is that Marvel has decided, I presume based on lower than expected pre-orders for volumes such as Iron Man #2 and Avengers #4, to make a priority out of bringing the original 27 volumes of Marvel Masterworks back to print. The exact wording of Tom Brevoort's statement is as follows: "It looks like for the moment the emphasis is on getting the original 27 volumes back into print before we move ahead to any more new volumes--the notion being that retailers are more likely to order a collection of #31-40 if they can still get #1-30 in the same format. So we're working on it, but it'll likely take some time." With only three down and 24 to go, that would seem to be about two more years. I have a few opinions about this which I am going to share on the Message Board, so why don't you come over and visit and share yours too! There are still a bunch of books you want to own! So if you like to order through amazon- don't forget about that mighty powerful $10 off coupon located a few items below, and take advantage of their free shipping, too! I'll have more new couponsposted here in the next few days! Don't forget when buying from amazon to use those coupon codes I listed a couple items down- that's free money, folks! News has come down from Newsarama about a $5 rollback in priceson the new Marvel Hardcover books. Don't know when that will be implemented, but that is good news for the pocketbook! Also, exciting news about an upcoming hardcover that will be the most recent take on the much beloved Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe. The ubiqitous Alex Ross has already turned in the cover artwork for the book, titled Marvel Universe, and it will be "a single, fall-shipping, 200-plus page oversized hardcover volume in the spirit of their old handbooks but rethought and redesigned for longtime and contemporary readers" according to the news item. More info on this book as it comes available! From the X-Fan website, news is coming down of a new Marvel HC (due in September, it seems) that sounds pretty danged cool! We all know and love our Cap, and this book is to celebratehis 60th Anniversary as America's super soldier. Here is the solicit information: This will be the first new Marvel HC with predominantly new material. OK, here are some super-cool Amazon coupon codes that you can use to get big savings! I used it just last week on a purchase of 1 Masterworks and 2 Archives- the order withfree shipping (and no sales tax!) cost me $105. I inserted the $10 off coupon code and all of a sudden I was paying only $95 for the three books. Not bad! Not bad at all!!!! Here are the coupon codes, along with expiration dates: 1- $10 off $75 order: MAPMCARDSAVE (good through 6-10) After the order, (through this site, if you please :) ) there will be a box asking for any coupon codes, just put one of these puppies in and give it a go. This is completely legit promotional codes, so don't be afraid. I have already tested the $10 one and the darned thing works. I am not certain if they are good for multiple uses or not. Happy book buying! Wonder Woman Archives looks like it will be late. Bummer...But it appears that next Wednesday, we will have the Origin HC coming out at the same time as DD:Yellow. Plus, Avengers Masterworks Vol. 1 is firmfor March 22, one day from now! This marks Masterworks #4 in the new trade dress. Woo hoo!!!! For those into ordering through amazon, I now have links to the new Wonder Woman Vol. 3 and All-Star Archives Vol. 8 set up on the DC Archives page. I have already ordered mine! GA Wonder Woman....hubba hubba! Also, links to a bunch of new Marvel hardcovers, and a link to Spider-Man Masterworks Vol. 2! Avengers Vol. 1 in the new trade dress is due to ship next week, on the 22nd of May, according to the preliminary shipping list from Diamon distributors.There was confusion last week when it appeared that some sort of FF volume was to ship next week, but that appears to have been some mirage. No, everything seems to be going according to plan. Thoughthe Avengers book will be a week late, it still will make it to us in the month of May, the first Masterworks to make it in the month promised :) For some reason, my images across the site are getting cranky and not showing up. I have been working overtime to locate the problem, and I think I have. Needless to say, it's quitethe annoyance, and will be addressed as time and my feeble computer skills permit. Over on the Masterworks message board, our very own Bill Nolan reports his purchase of the new Subby Masterworks, and deems it "quite a nice looking package." Astonishingly (pun intended), the contents of the book differ in major ways than it was solicited. Two MORE stories have been added to the mix, with TTA #86 and 87 included to the run of #70-85. Also, the FF#4 reprint is out, replaced by the Subby story in Marvel Comics #1 and Namor's appearance in Daredevil #7. Whew! That's almost too much change to cope with, but it's all good change, don't you think? Shipping this week: Sub-Mariner Masterworks Vol. 1!!! This is a significant Masterworks milestone, as it is the first new Marvel character to enter the Masterworks canon since Dr. Strange way back in 1992! This volume reprints Tales to Astonish #70-85, which will also be the first pages from that grand ol' comic to reach the Masterworks. Also leaking out is news of future installments in Marvel's HC program. Coming soon is reprints of the first several issues of the Brian Michael Bendis MAX series Alias. Also, in a recent interview he mentioned Ultimate Team-Up's entire 16 issue run was going to be reprinted (Whew!) Ultimate X-Men's first 12 issues will reach hardcover, as will the old Frank Miller Elektra Lives Again graphic novel. Lots of HC goodness coming down the pike- save those dimes and nickels! NEWS UPDATE: 4-22 Shipping this week: X-Men Masterworks Vol. 1 in the new trade dress! For those just now getting into the Masterworks, now you have something to put next to your brand-spankin' new Spidey Vol. 1! Don't pass this one up, there are some great stories and art in there, as well as the original perspective on the X-men. This first book shows the work-in-progress nature of the theme of this new group of Marvel misfits. It's an exhilarating ride reading Stan and Jack make their way over the first ten issues, with some surprising twists and turns. This volume is only 4 weeks late, unlike Spidey which was 5 weeks late and Subby, which appears to be about three weeks late. I notice a positive trend here! Also shipping this week: Sgt. Rock Archives....I think I know what two books I am going to be getting from amazon this week :) I think I'll also get around to purchasing that Ultimate Spider-Man HC everyone is raving about. NEWS UPDATE: 4-11 There is a very nice article about the upcoming Daredevil:Yellow hardcover coming out in May. Here is a link to the article at newsarama at comicon.com: (LINK OBSOLETE.) Spider-Man fans rejoice! The late by one month Complete Frank Miller HC and the late-by-one-week Best of Spider-Man 2001 HC both ship Wednesday April 10, according to Diamond. If these books are as nice as the Ultimate Spidey book, we're in business. The word is that the new trade dress of the Masterworks is the best ever. I haven't gotten my copy yet, but when I do, I will be sure to post my opinions on the message board! (Join us there, won't you?) Also, Diamond previews indicates that the July Spider-Man Vol. 2 reissue is a go! Don't know exact dates yet, but look for this volume to come out in July, or as possibly as soon as June. That's good news! Want more good news? Reports are that the Avengers/Defenders War and Celestial Madonna trades have been RECOLORED! Those that are annoyed by the dot coloring that really tends to stand out on the clean white pages won't have to worry about that with these volumes. That's more good news! (For links to the trades- check the "Other Marvel Trades" link above!) And finally, for fans of the DC Archives, word has come down about the June and October Archive choices: Green Lantern Vol. 4 and Enemy Ace Vol. 1! These are two surprises nobody really imagined ahead of time. There's some talk about these books on the message board. See you there! It is out! The first new Marvel Masterworks in the brand new (and, full of hope) and FINAL trade dress! Spider-Man Masterworks Vol. 1 has hit the streets!!! Look for it at your local comics shop and give it a gander. And chime in on the Masterworks Message Board and let everyone know what you think! Coming soon...X-Men Vol. 1 and Subby Vol. 1. I hope it's only up from here on out! Holy Bejeesus! There's an actual image of an actual new Masterworks at amazon! Click on the link to see the X-Men Vol. 1 (due for March) listed above and see for yourself. There is talk on the Masterworks message board this book will actually ship two weeks early, this upcoming Wednesday. Let's hope! I just want to see one of these puppies in real life. It'll make my blood pressure go down, I'll tell you that much! There's also funky images for all the new books, including an Iron Man image for IM Vol. 2 that looks like Bob Layton. Hmmm.....check out, also, the X-Men Vol. 3 image while you can- it is actually the cover of the 2nd X-Men book from the first series. Don't know how they messed that one up, but I have dashed off a corrective email to the amazon book department on behalf of everyone out there!!! Also, Amazon now has Flash Archives Vol. 3 up and on sale! Check the link from the my DC Archives page! Still not much news to report. This past Wednesday Marvel dropped 4, count 'em, 4 Essentials on the buying public, all of which were late, I think. I made my first Essentials purchase in the Ant-Man volume. (Is it just me or is there a near-toxic stench that comes from those books? I thought I was sniffing one of Egg Head's ant-killing formulas...whew!) I bought it not because I am thrilled with the Essentials format, but simply to show support for the character. I'll get to reading it, too, I suppose! :-) But despite the onslaught of Essentials, no sign yet of that new Spider-Man Masterworks which was scheduled for January. Perhaps it will come soon. Fingers crossed.... I have updated the links on the site to amazon so a cute little popup window comes up for the item. If you plan on purchasing a book through the site, it would be super cool of you to add it to your cart from the pop up window- it makes for easy shopping, since all the links are right here for you, and this site gets a small percentage towards its monthly maintenance. If you don't do it this way, I am not entirely sure that any percentages will register to my account. One more thing about amazon- they are now offering free shipping on all orders over $99! Since I already buy an Archive and a Masterworks per month (together at $70 amazon prices,) I get a couple trades, a cd or a dvd to go with them, and soon enough, I am over $99. Free shipping...no tax, dirt cheap prices. I don't have a problem with that! Now, back to monthly maintenance- I am straightaway upgrading this site so it has no annoying pop-up adverts for casinos, health-care packages or secret video cameras! This costs me moolah, so any purchase through the site helps (thanks very much!) This change may take a few days to go through, but it will go through, and it will make your surfing pleasure a bit less painful. Not much going on....strange silences from the Marvel camp it seems. Not much information coming out and the revamped Spider-Man Masterworks is late! Certainly things are not going as expected in the trades department. I certainly hope this Masterworks program isn't going to be any more late than it already is. The Spidey book was originally scheduled for a month ago, then delayed a week, and it still has yet to see release. Grrrr.....Anyone jealous of the DC Archives program? They just keel plugging along. Wonder Woman Vol. 3 has been announced for May release. DC also has the Kevin Smith Green Arrow HC around the corner. Speaking of which, March will see the new HC program Marvel has planned hitting the street. We'll believe it when we see it, no? Major update! Turns out the new Iron Man book coming out in June is NOT Vol. 1 going back to press! It is a brand new Vol. 2, reprinting Tales of Suspense #51-67, and it clocks in at a big ol' 256 pages. It is so perfectly chock full of 60's era Shellhead that there ain't even room enough for an introduction! (You'll just have to write your own and tape it in the appropriate place.) There will also be a two week delay on the Spider-Man book, announced to come out in late January, but coming out instead on Feb. 8. Also, a good friend to this website, Mr. Bob Greenberger, has been victimized by a recent staff trimming at Marvel Comics. He and Tom Brevoort made up the dynamic duo that breathed new life into this beloved series of books. For that we are eternally thankful. He also has been a steady stream of information about Masterworks, so that readers of this page get the news first! (Sometimes, way first!!!!) Good luck, Mr. Greenberger, in your next pursuit! And keep in touch so we can let the readers of this page know what you're up to! Finally, I have a rough sketch of what 2002 is planned to look like. It is NOT definitive, nor is it official. Don't plan holidays or your kid's college funds around this. It's just fleshes out what Marvel is looking at doing in 2002. I want to plug a new book coming out from Pure Imagination. It is the fourth volume in their Complete Jack Kirby series. It covers material from the summer of the year 1947, 200 pages of Jack's strips from a variety of different comics and genres. They have a hardcover volume, but in very limited quantities. So check out their site and order now! They also have the third volume for sale in hardcover, but are sold out on the first two. Also of interest at their site is the the Complete Sky Masters book, which reprints all of the strips Jack, Dick Ayers and Wally Wood did of that syndicated strip. I have that beauty sitting on my shelf and it is a must have for Kirby lovers! Visit the Pure Imagination site at this link! I have an excerpt from an interview in Comic Book Marketplace Magazine (Oct. 2001) with Masterworks editor Tom Brevoort. I edited it down to the parts where Tom walks us through the whole Masterworks prepping process. It's pretty interesting, and gives you an insight on the long journey these books have to take to get to publication. For the full interview, track down that issue of Comic Book Marketplace, a great magazine for fans of Golden and Silver age comics! Here is the link to the Brevoort Interview 1-3 NEWS UPDATE If you were hanging out at the Masterworks Message Board, you would know that's where all the action is! For instance, Marvel editor Bob Greenberger has revealed another book in the 2002 Masterworks lineup- Vol. 6 of the Spider-Man series, which will be "the fattest Masterworks yet...Something like 304 pages and with luck we won't jack the price up" quotes Bob. Now that sounds exciting!!! Further exciting news revolves around the Masterworks going back to press! Iron Man Vol. 1 appears slated for either May or June; as for the official rest of the list, I am waiting on word and as soon as I get it- it will be right here!
All cover images are courtesy of the Silver Age Marvel Comics Cover Gallery. Website design by Doug Roberts and John Thomas. All images on this site are copyright of Marvel Comics. This site is for reference purposes and promotion of the Masterworks line of books as well as Marvel Comics and their properties. | ||
