First up is the clumsily titled "Tales of the Batman - Gene Colan Vol. 1." Based on the subsequent solicits it looks like DC is doing this as a series of creator spotlights. First up was Colan, with Engleheart and Newton following. No 2nd volume for any of these creators has been solicited to date, just a Volume 1 of each creator. The assumption is that there could be future volumes (otherwise why number these as #1s?) but I will believe this when I see the solicit. There was also one previous "Tales" release from 2007 featuring Tim Sale's stories that fell outside of his Absolute collections. That collection does not match the Colan design.
The price point for this hardcover is $39.99, for 288 pages of content (thats $.13 per page for those of you scoring at home). This is a non-over-sized volume, with no "deluxe" features like bookmarks or art-on-cover work. The 288 pages are parts of 14 different stories from Detective Comics and Batman. Notably Detective issue 520 is listed as being part of the collection on the dust jacket, but is not part of the collection (Colan was not part of the book), meanwhile Detective Comics #510 and 512 ARE included, but not listed on the dust jacket.
 |
| Tales of the Batman cover |
Cover design seems more like an interior title page versus the cover to a book. With this being the first volume of a multivolume set, I am not sure how they are going to create any cover-theme consistancy since so much of the title placement/size is based on the cover art chosen. Some sort of header branding that can carry thru to the rest of the volumes (nolan, etc). It certainly is an eye catching cover, and should pop on the shelves/displays.
On the other side of the spectrum is the spine design, which seems to be an overdesigned/busy spine. The book line has a very cumbersome branding to try and fit on a narrow spine "Tales of the Batman" then subtitled for the individual creator spotlight. Adding the character image at top plus the DC branding at bottom fills the entire spine leaving no clean space. And while "Gene Colan" is a short name, they will need to resize the name as they start to add volumes with other creator names (Im looking at you Steve Engleheart!) Also the color mix, reds, yellows, blues (for Batman & the DC branding) is very striking, but also somewhat overbearing. So between the crowding, the color and the font, we have a very busy, garish spine design.
The Goods
Interiors
As far as the interior of the book, it is a mix of the good and the bad. DC is using a good paper quality, glossy but with a low shine with appropriate thickness for this type of archive at this price point. The book has page numbers, and a table of contents that nicely lists each issue, the story title along with the creative team.
The coloring on this book still pulls from the original scans with the over-saturation (which was necessary for the newspaper print on which the inks set) of color, which as always seems somewhat overdone. With the Simonson Thor omnibus setting the new standard in Bronze age recoloring/restoration, it is tough to go back to the old overdone color spectrum. While not horribly garish, the inking seems thick, and the colors a bit blown out.
The book has no book mark, which is not surprising for a book this short, but would be nice considering the mid-level price point of $40 for the book, and the relatively high cost/page price.
Summary
In the end unless you are a die heard Batman fan who has been waiting for more hardcovers from the 70s-80s era the price point vs page count sinks this book. Were this book oversized (at it's current price) or a $5-10 price drop, it would be a more compelling buy, despite some of its design shortfalls. Since it will be a while until the Showcases reach this era, and even longer (if at all) before the Archives do, this collection serves as the only option for a collector wishing to have any non-Neal Adams Batman work in a nice HC collection.
Final rating: 3 out of 5 stars.
No comments:
Post a Comment