Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

Collected Editions

The 2016 Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus Secret Ballot – What’s been printed?

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It’s time to vote for your Top 10 most-wanted Marvel Omnibuses for 2018 on the 2017 Secret Ballot, but that begs a question: How many omnibuses from the 2016 Secret Ballot did we get in 2017?

Here’s the short answer:

We saw 10 Omnibuses solicited for 2017 – 20% of the list!

Those books are Amazing Spider-Man, Vol. 3 Omnibus, Alpha Flight by John Byrne Omnibus, Avengers by Jonathan Hickman Omnibus Vol. 1, Spider-Man by David Michelinie and Erik Larsen Omnibus, Loki: Journey Into Mystery by Kieron Gillen Omnibus, The Mighty Thor Omnibus Vol. 3, Deadpool & X-Force Omnibus, Daredevil by Mark Waid Omnibus Vol. 1, Daredevil Omnibus Vol. 1, War of Kings Aftermath: Realm of Kings Omnibus, plus kinda sorta Punisher: Back to the War Omnibus

We also saw some or all of the content of 8 Omnibuses solicited in other formats for 2017 – 16% of the list!

That means, of all the books we desired the most in 2016, we saw some format of 36% of them in 2017. That’s not bad!

Want to know the specifics of what saw print, what we’re still waiting on, and how I did with my “Will We See It in 2017?” predictions from last year? Keep reading!

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The 5th Annual Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus Secret Ballot, presented by Tigereyes

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It’s the most wonderful time of the year … for Marvel Omnibus fanatics!

That’s right, it’s time for the 2017 edition of Tigereyes’ Marvel’s Most-Wanted Omnibus Secret Ballot, where Marvel fans from all across the web can vote on their top ten most-wanted omnibus volumes from Marvel Comics.

Each year the survey not only acts as a barometer of the most-wanted deluxe format Marvel runs, but over the past four years it’s established itself to be a solid indicator of what Marvel might be most-interested in reprinted, with 20% of the books generally arriving in omnibus each year and many more being reprinted in other color formats.

Here’s Tigereyes’ official announcement post on the Marvel Masterworks forum (and a mirror on CBR)! I’ve had a chance to trade messages with Tigereyes as he’s prepared for this year’s survey and learned that he is hoping for the biggest response of all time this year.

Of course, I’m happy to help with the hype, since this is like my personal version of a month-long holiday celebration.

Stay tuned to CK during the weeks of of voting, as I’ll be posting regularly to break down the reprint statistics from past surveys and give you suggestions on books to vote for. Then, once Tigereyes begins to reveal the results, CK will feature daily write-ups the winning comic runs – including what they include, why people love them, and where you can read them right now.

How to Vote

You can vote one time before midnight ET on May 7 in one of three ways. Just send a list of your omnibuses numbered from 1 (most-wanted) to 10 (least most-wanted) to Tigereyes in one of the following fashions: [Read more…] about The 5th Annual Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus Secret Ballot, presented by Tigereyes

New Comic Guide: All of the Robins!

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This is the final of four weeks of Bat-Guides before we switch to a a more “universal” theme for the next few weeks. And, you can’t have Bat-Guides without The Definitive Guide to Robin(s)!

Yes, that’s Robins – plural.

This guide tracks each Robin for as long as they bear the title from Dick Grayson debuting in Detective Comics (1937) #38 to Damian Wayne’s current reign as the Boy Wonder.

Before starting this guide I knew there were four distinct Boy Wonders (and one Girl Wonder), but I was confused about who was Robin when. It seems like Grayson has been Nightwing since time immortal – I’ve never read a story with him as Robin that wasn’t a flashback! When did he get upgraded?

Plus, I remembered Jason Todd dying back in the 80s (and coming back in the 00s), but when did he initially arrive? And, while I’m now a Damian Wayne expert from working on the Morrison Batman guide, what exactly was a Red Robin and when did Tim Drake start calling himself that?

I untangle all of those questions in this guide. It’s Robin-centric, so it does not follow Nightwing and Red Hood into their post-Robin adventures (they will be covered by future guides).

What it does do is track every Robin title, plus all of the many Robins’ appearances in Batman flagships and Titans titles from the Golden Age through present.

Plus, the Robin(s) Guide has a few new elements, including collapsable sections for lengthy issue lists and links back to the top of the TOC.

Okay, now it’s time for the tough question: Who is your favorite Boy Wonder? Post-Robin careers don’t count (a-hem, Nightwing). I’m talking about who was the best Robin?

New Comic Guide: A Guide to DC’s Gotham City Titles

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Today is the third week of my Bat-themed new guides, except this week’s guide isn’t for a character – it’s for a place…

The Guide to Gotham covers every DC book with “Gotham” in the title. Some of them are Batman ongoings, but others aren’t – like Gotham Central, Gotham City Sirens, and Gotham Academy.

I know that’s a slightly odd choice. The guide came about as I struggled to map Batman’s universe of ongoing titles as well as decide where to place some of his most important supporting books. After a lot of puzzling things together, I decided the best approach would be one page of Gotham titles, another (still to come) of his ongoing series (other than Detective, Batman, and LotDK), and a third to capture outliers and act as an index to everything.

These Gotham books tend to be fan-favorites and are frequently met with critical acclaim, which just speaks to the richness of Batman’s city as a setting.

I’ll be back with one last Bat Guide in this sprint next week – The Definitive Guide to Robin! I really enjoyed putting that one together, and I’m excited to share it with you. Then we’ve got a few big releases. I’d call them “universal” in size, each for a different reason.

This week in comic book collected editions & graphic novels – April 5, 2017

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Welcome to another wild week in new releases of graphic novels and comic collected editions!

You’d think seeing a list of what comics are out this week along with what they collect and what’s come before would be an easy thing to do since comic book publishers want you to buy comics, right?

Well, they don’t. At least, they don’t without you going through the arcane process of pre-ordering books three months ahead of time from a physical comic shop with no guarantee that the books will come out on time or at all.

When it comes to promoting books to the mass book market (which is exponentially larger than the comic market) on the week of release, most companies do nothing.

Oh, and all of their books come out in the mass market at different delayed intervals from the direct market!

If you’re anything like me, you think that’s a short-sighted bunch of malarky. Well, until we convince comics publishers of the same, I’ll do the heavy lifting for you.

Here’s what’s out this week from all the major publishers and many of the indies, frequently with context on the book and preceding or related collections.

Publishers:

What are the must-read books this week?

Green Arrow was one of my favorite Rebirth one-shots, but my review came with some caveats – I wasn’t sure if the excellent dynamic with Black Canary would continue with her also in Batgirl & The Birds of Prey, and I only wanted to keep reading if I could consume more of the delectable art from Otto Schmidt. His panels look like single cells of animation from a Green Arrow cartoon in the style of the classic Batman: The Animated Series.

Well, last week I caught up with the first trade of Green Arrow, Volume 1: The Death and Life Of Oliver Queen, and it easily took care of both of my caveats. It’s a nice blend of DC’s classic, more mature Arrow with a hint of the romance and adventure of his TV show. This week, the second edition is out – Green Arrow Vol. 2: Island Of Scars – still with art by Schmidt.

This guy is a must-see, must-buy artist and Arrow is so far one of DC’s stronger books. Don’t sleep on this.

Also out this week: Lumberjanes, Vol 06: Sink or Swim! Our house is finally caught up through the end of Vol. 5. More on this treasure of a series, along with everything else out this week, below.

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