We all know that conventions are a place for publishers and creators to announce their next big things, but last weekend’s WonderCon was legitimately dominated by a series of blockbuster announcements from IDW. From reviving an out-of-print oddity from the 80s, ushering in one of comics’ most celebrated original works to its Artist’s Edition line to uniting two of comics’ foremost independent heroes and more, IDW is firing on all cylinders this news cycle.
Jeff Smith’s Bone Getting The Deluxe Artist’s Edition Treatment at IDW: You know you’re onto something when other publishers come to IDW to do special edition books. And after doing Artist’s Editions based on Marvel and DC work, they take on what could be the biggest of them all: Jeff Smith’s Bone Artist’s Edition. This sure-fire crowd pleaser will contain the inaugural “The Great Cow Race” story-arc, and will measure 12″ x 17″ and 144 pages. At last count, it marks the 859th format for the beloved story (not really), but we’ll take it!
Mark Waid & Paul Smith team up for The Rocketeer/The Spirit: Pulp Friction: Two of comics’ greatest heroes, and two of comics’ greatest creators. The team-up of Dave Stevens’ most popular creation with Will Eisner’s signature hero, as handled by industry veterans Mark Waid and Paul Smith is an inspired pairing on all fronts. And Waid feels it too; in IDW’s press release, he likens this team-up to winning the lottery, but we think it’s the fans who’ll reap the most rewards. The first of four issues is scheduled for launch on July 10th.
Also of note, IDW is reprinting the trading card/comic series Dinosaurs Attack! which was originally put out by Topps & Eclipse in the 80s. And lastly, streetwise wunderkind Jim Mahfood is getting a full-color hardcover art book called Visual Funk: Jim Mahfood Art.
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The Rocketeer and The Spirit are two of my all time favourite characters so this news is fantastic. Cannot wait till July!
*golf-clap*
& I was just thinking the other day how I missed the Spirit — can’t wait to see how Waid handles him . . .
That’s cool, I didn’t want all this money anyway.
Bone Artist Edition! YES!!!
I just picked up the Rocketeer Artist Edition. I promised myself it would be the last time I spend over 100 on a collection that I already own….Looks like I will have to break that promise.
I really like Mark Waid, but I love the Spirit. I’ve only read volumes 1 & 2 of the archive books but that’s the standard I hold Spirit stories to, and I was not impressed with Darwyn Cooke’s take on him or Azzerallo’s “First Wave”. However, Waid’s DD is exceptional and he’s also working on Green Hornet so I guess I need to trust him.
Eisner’s Spirit is indeed the gold standard – truly fabulous stuff. I agree that the Azzerallo take in the First Wave series didn’t work for me, and I never read any of the following series beyond issue one. I did like the preceding series, however, especially the Aragones/Evanier issues. Waid sounds very promising for the character, plus the teaming with Rocketeer will finally give me an excuse to try one of the recent Rocketeer series . . .
It’s not that I hate the Rocketeer, but I have no inclination to pick up books starring him. You were smart to stop reading after “First Wave”, it remains one of the worst books I’ve ever read. Who were Aragones/Evanier? Did they pick up after Cooke or start a different series? I almost bought one run at a book sale until I read the (horrible) reviews but it was by a team I was unfamiliar with.
Aragones/Evanier are a writing team arguably best know for Groo (I knew someone obsessed with the series when I was younger). They took over The Spirit after Cooke left. Naturally, they were not equal to Eisner, but I found their stories fun. Definitely closer to the (sorry) spirit of the character. First Wave seemed to be trying too hard to gritty up the character., make him all noirish. This isn’t to say that Eisner’s stories weren’t dark at times, but still First Wave just looked like all the wrong tones. Plus, the changes to Ebony White were pretty lame . . .
Looked it up; Aragones/Eavnier were the team that got that those bad reviews. Only on volume 3 tho, volume 2 had a rating of 3.5. The book I was thinking of buying was $12-15 so the reviews I saw put me off buying it, but I don’t recall what volume. “First Wave” had alot of problems; characterizations were one of the minor ones to me. At first I was intrigued by Azzerallo’s Spirit; his carefree attitude, relaxed view on dying, down on his luck antics, but in the end he just didn’t deliver (on anything, so much was wrong with that book). I agree with the Ebony White changes being lame, even tho I didn’t care for Cooke’s revamp at least he got the Ebony/Spirit dynamic I think. The funny thing was in the special features of “First Wave” Azzerallo wrote in his notes that making Ebony female would help the character make more sense in a modern context (wrong!). I think the Spirit could be written as noir, but the thing I loved about the original was how it used all sorts of genres (sci-fi, drama, suspense, comedy) in the stories. I think if DC were to try another Spirit series, gritty wouldn’t be all that different from the others so maybe something more lighthearted would stand out?
There just seemed to be something off about Azzerallo’s Spirit; plus, he didn’t really seem to do much during the course of the series. I agree with you about Eisner’s mixing of genres in the original Spirit tales. Anytime you could read something whimsical and goofy, or something dark and serious. “Noir” was definitely an element, but only one of them. I agree that the more lighthearted aspect of the character is what makes him stand out today — it’s one of the reasons I enjoyed reading some of DC’s more so-so Spirit stories — they were something different.
Given the juggling of tones that Waid has been pulling off on Daredevil, I am optimistic that he’ll have a good take on The Spirit . . .
Waid writing a Spirit/Rockateer comic? Yeah, count me in!
Yeah, I’m definitely going to have to get my hands on that Mahfood book.
Waid on Spirit/Rocketeer?
Sold.
IDW is one of my favorite publishers now.