posted March 06, 2003 11:51 AM               

DC's Archives initiatives is spreading far and wide- between the core Archives line, Eisner's Spirit, THUNDER Agents and MAD Archives, and now Elfquest, they're covering alot of bases! Good for them....I wish them well.

posted March 06, 2003 02:49 PM               

THANK GOD!

I have the original softcover trades and have long been hoping that someone would come along and redo them in an archives type format.

Having them recolored and relettered is just gravy!

My only hope is that DC doesn't wait so long between publishing these editions.

posted March 06, 2003 03:06 PM            

I don't know about the format on this; I hope they use the same EXACT paper as the Spirit series. I think that the glossy paper on the Donning reprints obscured Pini's good linework--it looked strangely translucent. But,in that edition, the watercolor-like coloring job sort of melded with that nicely.

Later, when it was republished and recolored, the linework was darker but this time the color was very bold and unsubtle. I've never been entirely satisfied with either color reprinting, so I'm looking forward very much to this 3rd go-round. This for Wendy Pini: Spirit Archives paper, black ink work showing well, and subtle color, showing lots of half-tones and shadings...perfect Elfquest.

posted March 07, 2003 06:46 PM               

This is great news.

posted March 08, 2003 03:15 PM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by Lightning + Chemicals:
Joe P. -- Good point about the controversial content in Cerebus. It is definitely NOT a PC read. So I bet DC would shy away from it.

However, it is a complex, beautifully- rendered, thought-provoking and idiosynchratic one-of-a-kind work that is worthy of a better kind of permanent distribution than the cheap newsprint phonebooks that are now the only option.

---

I don't like the flimsy paper either, but it does have it fans due to the fact that the art actually reproduces well. Back in the 80's when all the baxter books were coming out, Sim said (this is from memory) that he was happy with the paper and liked the way it reproduced the blacks and the linework. More recently Eddie Campbell raved about the paperstock (which is very close to the same stock that he used for his From Hell collection and his comic) and complained about thicker/glossier paper hiding his fine lines and tones.

I think the Spirit & Mad Archives finally have the right paper stock. Of course I have no idea how much this paper cost compared to other options.

What I'd really like is a big hardcover coffe-table art book of all the Cerebus covers. Sim has a great eye for cover design and the readers of the phone books are missing one of the best parts on Cerebus. Of course, the same time Dave Sim was saying the he didn't need the thicker paper he said the hardcover cover collection sounding like a bad idea.

One last thought, based on pages and not story length, Cerebus would probably be a 30 volume archive series (this isn't included the appendices). I doubt there would be enough people willing to spend the $1500. Not that I wouldn't want to see it happen. Maybe since it's B&W and wouldn't need any reconstruction it'd have a lower price.

Joe

posted March 08, 2003 03:48 PM               

The guy that offers the binding service also sells custom Cerebus HCs. They're not on better paper or anything. They're just copies of the tpb's with hardcovers added, I think. He's revamping his site, so the page with all the info on the Cerebus books is currently unavailable as far as I can see. I don't own these, so I can't tell you any more about them.