WEDNESDAY COMICS HC
What did the
iFanboy
community think?
Pulls
Size: 200 pages
Price: 49.99
Tonight I sat down with the Wednesday Comics Hardcover and gently took the shrink wrap off its attractively bound cover. As I did, I felt an excitement reminicent of the night, last summer, when I plopped myself down on my bed to read the first issue of Wednesday Comics. Then, there was the thrill of something new and novel. Today, I nervously hoped that I was holding a volume of comics that I would revisit for years and years to come, that the pages within it contained the beautiful art that I had seen in those weekly strips, but in a form that would stand up to repeated readings, one that I could show to non-comic readers and say, “See, this is the best that the comic industry has to offer. Behold its beauty and its majesty!” As I flipped through its crisp white pages, I let its beauty soak in. I was not disappointed. This book was everything I wanted and more.
I read Wednesday Comics as it came out weekly. I genuinely enjoyed the stories in that format. Besides being fun and reminding me of reading the Sunday mornings funnies, there was both an immediacy and a fleetingness to it. Being printed on newsprint, it was nearly impossible to both read a copy of Wednesday Comics and have it remain pristine. After several attempts, I gave up trying to neatly fold that first issue back into shape and expecting it to look like it did when I picked it up off the shelf. It had been read, enjoyed and defiled. I just had to deal with it. But, this allowed me to let go and really enjoy the format for what it was. It was meant to be enjoyed and not necessarily collected. This, in my opinon, was the unique strength of the weekly format.
The hardcover offers a different experience and is fortunately more than just a collection of the weekly strips. It gives a different reading experience, and consequently, has its own unique strengths. First, the presentation is different. Clean, white, high-quality paper makes
the art pop and the colors sing. It really makes you realize just how amazing EACH and EVERY page of this collection is. I have been looking at it for hours and it still blows me away.
Second, the pages of the stories are grouped together, which makes for a very different reading experience when compared to the weekly version. The best exampleo f this is in the Metamorpho story, where Gaiman and Allred’s decision to do two-page spreads finally pays off in a big way. Further, by arranging the stories this way, it easily allows you to read one story from begining to end, without having to flip through the entire book, skipping 14 pages at a time. This means you can digest the book at your leasure in any order you want, as the mood strikes you. As an aside, in terms of the format, I also appreciated the decision not to have a slip cover, which would have been impractical on a book this big.
As far as the content, I could talk about how amazing the art is, or how competent the writing is, but the real triumph of this book is the marriage of the art and the story. The level to which the art styles displayed in this comic match the essence of the story that each particular author is trying to tell is stunning. For example, the Supergirl and Green Lantern stories are bright, primary-colored thrillrides of adventure, where the more cartoony styles fit perfectly. On the other hand, the art of Kamandi and Adam Strange appropriately reflects the other-worldly settings of those stories.
I will admit the writing and art in some stories is better than in others, but none of them are bad. And, some of the stories are BLOW-YOUR-MIND-GOOD! I also think arranging the pages by story helps some of the weaker ones, as it allows the reader to go with the flow more from one page to the next.
The $50 price tag is a little steep, but it is well worth the $31 that Amazon is charging at the moment. You owe it to yourself to own this collected addition. Go buy it. Now.
Story 4/5
Art 5/5
Presentation / Format 5/5.
Art: 5 - Excellent
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Could not agree more. This is a book to be treasured, and passed down to your kids. EVERYONE should at the very least give this a serious look.
I don’t think the $50 price tag is steep at all. The way I see it, we have a treatment here that, in terms of quality, is no different than an Absolute edition minus the slipcase. The presentation is so well done for half the cost of an Absolute edition. This is my logic. 3.99 x 12 = 47.88. Add the work to get these tales properly grouped together. Get two extra stories and a sketchbook section. All this and it remains in its original newsprint size, but on better paper. Sweet deal really.
Great work on the review. Sounds like we had the exact same experience.