posted March 19, 2003 08:58 PM               

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I meant "mixed feelings." Not sure what missed feelings are.

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posted March 19, 2003 10:46 PM               

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The only question I have is with the skipping around. Will there be any "dark spots" in continuity that I'll be grappling with as I read these stories for the first time? Will it be a seamless reading experience?

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posted March 20, 2003 09:16 AM               

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quote:

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Originally posted by Joe Pacheco:
Any opinions on Adams restoring and recoloring the art?
I have mised feelings whenever I see restored or recut editions, whether it's film, music or comics.
Sometimes I think it's more about ego than anything else. Is Neal Adams 2000 really the right collaborator for Neal Adams 1970?
Hopefully the main fixes will be letter balloon placement and not a full scale inking.

The coloring really bothers me esp. since it won't be consistant throughout the book. I guess I wanted a definitive collection of classic comics and instead I'm getting new product that uses old comics as a starting point.

Joe

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I hear what you're saying, Joe. However, in the case of Neal Adams reprints, IMHO, I believe we need the man himself doing some tweaking for the thicker paper.
The thing is his work was
truly "revolutionary" in the early 70s and not just because of his sense of design layouts and gorgeous anatomy, but because he got involved in his own coloring techniques he developed for the cheap paper comics used back then. Every time they reprint his stuff they usually do it on thicker, better paper (the Baxter series from the late 80s for instance) and the END RESULT IS NEVER AS GOOD AS THE ORIGINALS. Ironically, his art looks better on the cheap paper. I've lost count how many Adams purists I've heard complaining about the "too-bright" colors on those Baxter minis. Apparently, Neal himself wasn't too pleased with the results, either, and I've seen at least one interview where he said he wished they asked for his assistance and collaboration on those reprints so he would change the coloring to fit the thicker paper.
Apparently, somebody at DC read that interview, too.

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posted March 20, 2003 09:22 AM               

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quote:

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Originally posted by dylanfan:
The only question I have is with the skipping around. Will there be any "dark spots" in continuity that I'll be grappling with as I read these stories for the first time? Will it be a seamless reading experience?

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Nope. It won't.
Particularly as we move on to the third and final volume and into the Ras Al Ghul storyline (yeah, Adams did the first appearance and the concluding trilogy, but most of the stuff concerning the Sensei and the Assassins and even some Talia will go MIA).
Just check the TALES OF THE DEMON TPB to see what will be cut. Of course, it can be argued the complete Ras stories have already been reprinted ad nauseum (they have). But there will be "dark spots".

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posted March 20, 2003 09:29 AM               

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There's revisiting the coloring to make sure it looks good on the new paper, and then there's slapping so much excess color nonsense that it looks like a hack job on an Image Comic from 1998. He's so impressed with so-called "modern" coloring techniques that he doesn't realize they really went out of style a few years ago in favor of cleaner, less distracting and art-obscuring less-is-better look. His studio's work on his first Deadman story in the Deadman HC was an abomination.

- Bill

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posted March 20, 2003 10:38 AM               

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Bill is dead on about the abominable coloring job in the Deadman book. It was garish and, to me, disrupted the flow of the book/story. I haven't gotten the GL/GA hardcover yet, so I would like to know if Neal tweaked the colors on that volume as well. If he did, I plan to skip it and will probably skip the Batman books as well.

Steve

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posted March 20, 2003 12:00 PM               

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Well, I still stand by what I said, but yeah, the coloring on that Deadman story is pretty lousy.
The one on the Baxter miniseries was garish as well, but not as grotesque.
Who knows? Maybe the only answer that will satisfy all of us is to save enough bucks for the original comics

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posted March 20, 2003 01:12 PM               

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I agree. I got worried when he said he was recoloring the batman stuff. That Deadman story was too dense and overdone. Nobody wants to see Neal's new coloring overpowering his classic pencils. That Deadman story didn't fit with the rest of the book and was very hard to read. I hope he's toned down on the Batbook.

And I wouldn't worry about the missing Irv Novik Ra's stories. I have the Tales of the Demon and it certainly doesn't read as one story. Missing a couple won't cause confusion, the same way missing a couple of Joker stories wouldn't.

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posted March 20, 2003 07:57 PM               

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quote:

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Originally posted by BillNolan:
There's revisiting the coloring to make sure it looks good on the new paper, and then there's slapping so much excess color nonsense that it looks like a hack job on an Image Comic from 1998. He's so impressed with so-called "modern" coloring techniques that he doesn't realize they really went out of style a few years ago in favor of cleaner, less distracting and art-obscuring less-is-better look. His studio's work on his first Deadman story in the Deadman HC was an abomination.

- Bill

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My point exactly.

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posted March 21, 2003 05:21 AM            

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It looks as though, if Neal Adams is going to tweak and re-color his Batman stories, I will bypass these very expensive hardcovers, and instead try to purchase the approximately half dozen original issues that he did that I am still missing from my collection.

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posted April 29, 2003 12:50 AM               

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Offhand, I would give these three volumes in the slipcase the following subtitles--

vol. 1: The Brave & The Bold
vol. 2: The Night of the Bat
vol. 3: The Legend of Ra's al Ghul

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Myself, I'd just label them

1. BRAVE & THE BOLD
2. DETECTIVE COMICS
3. BATMAN

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posted April 29, 2003 12:53 AM               

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Osgood Peabody:

"At Dawn Dies Mary MacGuffin" Batman #241 (May 1972) DO/Irv Novick/DG (No earth-shaking menace or supernatural gimmicks - just Batman racing against the clock to track down a killer, one of O'Neil's finest Batman stories IMO)

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One of my favorite picks too.

Cerainly influence by it being the first DC comic I purchased off the stands, in early 1972.

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posted May 01, 2003 08:29 AM            

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If someone's gotta recolour these books I'd rather it be Laura Depuy!

Stupid question number one: The first Neal book isn't coming with a slipcase. right? Or will it come with one that has space for all three books?

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posted May 11, 2003 04:09 PM               

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Would there be enough material for a 'Superman Illustrated by Neal Adams'? I know that he did a lot of covers featuring Superman, but what about the interiors? If there's enough material, I think it could make a good companion for the Bat books.

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posted May 11, 2003 08:55 PM               

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Other than the Superman/Muhammad Ali Collector's Edition, I can't think of any Superman stories done by Neal (excepting the 2 WF stories already in the Batman volume).

He did do a Private Life of Clark Kent story, and the origin of Terra Man, both as back-ups in the Superman title - that may be it.

And John, I don't believe the Batman volumes are being marketed as a slipcase collection - you may have been steered wrong by the title of this thread, which anticipated a whole other type of collection - seems like eons ago...

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