Big News

$49.95 Coming in September

The first Batman Hardcover will not, repeat not be selling for 75 bucks but will now retail for $49.95.

Thank heavens. Great decision, DC Comics. And what do you the reader lose?
The slip cover...that's all! Big bloody deal.

Okay. That's half the battle. Will we be able to get new color from cover top cover?
It still doesn't seem like it. Still only the first half of the book.

Are we still doing finished color guides in the vain hope that they'll be used, without being paid?
Yes!

Have any of you asked DC if the second half of the book should have new color? What did they say to you if we may ask?

Anyway, keep your fingers crossed. Cory's coloring Batman / Sgt. Rock right now. It looks great. "Punish Snot My Evil Son" came out super. Neither is slated to be re-separated.

BATMAN ILLUSTRATED BY NEAL ADAMS VOLUME 1 HC

Written by various; art and cover by Neal Adams.

The first of three hardcover volumes chronologically collecting the early Batman work of the legendary Neal Adams! Volume 1 collects material from Batman #200, 203 and 210; The Brave and The Bold #75-76 and 79-85; Detective Comics #370, 372, 385, 389, 391, and 392; and World's Finest Comics 174-176, 178-180, 182-183, 185, and 186.

240 pages, $49.95, in stores on Sept. 3.

 O-kay

They (DC Comics) put the skids on the recoloring of the second half of the first Batman Neal Adams book.

DC comics, and they are nice fellows all, told us that the budget was set and they couldn't afford to have us to recolor the remainder of the pages.

When I begged them, in my email, I pointed out that the first half of the book would be a trip but the second half will simply be, well, I guess whatever it was which is probably okay, all in all, if you like that Neal Adams stuff.

I wish we could have recolored the rest of it for you.

Tell you what we're going to color and prepare all the rest of the pages for future color separations, in the hope that next time around we can finish the job we started.

If you want the complete recoloring I guess you'll have to email your feelings to the publisher.

Also please do this, if you want to get a copy of the book or you know someone who might miss the opportunity to get one reserve a copy or copies at your comic book store. Then they'll know how many to order.

I say this because I saw copies of the GL-GA book and the Deadman book disappear in less than a week from the stores. Fans who have dropped out of the General Comic book buying public never get a shot at these books.

Me, I like that big size Brian Hitch book.

- Neal

What's Neal been doing for this awesome book?

For starters he's been touching up any pages which he feels could use it. Things like that. Also, when Neal drew the books, letterers and paste up people didn't exactly follow his requests. heads were cut off by borders or cut in half. Balloons went over art when it wasn't necessary. Early inkers simply missed the point of the storytelling of stories. Neal was drawing at a level comics hadn't reached yet and subtleties were simply missed or worse... erased.

To the right you'll see an example. The original printing of the line work below the newly finished work.

I figure this sort of thing is the best reason for why a fan would want to spend $75 for a book of reprinted stories. This would make the book better than the original printing without losing anything from the original. It certainly looks great.

 Cory Adams has been doing color guides with Neal to make these books even better. Here you can see an example. It'd be great to see these colors in the book. Unfortunately, this story with Aquaman is not one of the first half of the book so likely wont be recolored for this publication.

We've gotten a lot of letters of people asking what's in the book and why don't we do this or that.

Boils down to time and money. It's not that we lack commitment. We only want you to get the very best, and we're working with DC to make it the very best.