.
Continuing the review, I turn my attention to Marvel. They don’t usually have a strong Holiday list, instead relying on licensed products to sell in bookstores. They even have a tendency to take what would be big ticket gift items like omnibus hardcovers and schedule them for January! No big gift books on the radar, so I wonder if anything will pop when people surf on Cyber Monday.
[Author’s note: Marvel’s website is atrocious, making it EXTREMELY difficult to locate title-specific pages. So bad, that even the Google-powered search doesn’t work, unless you start from Google’s home page, and that’s if Marvel actually has a page ready! So I’ll link to barnesandnoble.com instead. Click on the titles.]
It’s back in print! (Yes, I know that’s cryptic, given Marvel’s publishing schedules, but this is big news for some retailers.)
Secret Wars
by Jim Shooter , Mike Zeck (Illustrator) , Bob Layton (Illustrator)
[This is what got me collecting comics. I still want a Doom Cycle to drive.]
Spider-Man: Marvel Team-Up by Claremont & Byrne
by Chris Claremont , John Byrne (Illustrator) , Ralph Macchio
Fantastic Four by John Byrne Omnibus – Volume 1
by John Byrne , Mike Zeck (Illustrator) , Ron Wilson (Illustrator) , Chris Claremont , Marv Wolfman
Ozma of Oz
by Eric Shanower , Skottie Young (Illustrator) , L. Frank Baum
Licensed titles:
Claremont and Byrne Marvel Team-Up is terrific stuff. It’s awesome to see that getting collected.
The Marvel website is slightly better than it used to be, but still fundamentally broken. It’s a shame, because there’s actually quite a decent database of comics in there, but it’s virtually impossible to find the entry you want, because the search engine is broken.
For example, if you search for “Avenging Spider-Man 3 Marvel” on Google, the top result is the “Avenging Spider-Man #3” page in Marvel.com’s catalogue. But type “Avenging Spider-Man 3” into Marvel’s own website, and the first page of hits doesn’t even return an issue of the correct title. Nor do the next few. The first actual comic in the search results is Spectacular Spider-Man #19. I mean, I ask you.
It’s been like this for years, but nothing seems to get done about it. Even replacing it with a Google site-search widget would be an improvement – at least it would work. It’s pathetic and ought to be a source of tremendous embarrassment to the company.
I don’t know how many of those superhero Little Golden Books there are, but they also have them for Thor and the SuperFriends.
Thank you, Torsten and Paul, for pointing out how backwards Marvel’s site is. It must be vexing for fans. As a journalist, I find it especially irritating.
I’m looking at that Secret Wars trade. I own the first seven issues of the series, so I would only buy it for the last five.
(goofed on the url for my blog, delete the above comment)
I ordered several of the Secret Wars TP. If Marvel would keep it in print, it would be a perennial best-seller.
Secret Wars II on the other hand, well, I ordered one for the completists…
The Spider-Man Marvel Team Up and Oz books will be on my list for sure.
Woah! Just searched another online retailer for 15-Love and got some interesting results. Washing my eyes now.
Secret Wars was my gateway drug into the MU. I already own the floppies but am definitely getting the tpb. Love this series!!!
SWII on the other hand wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on or the time it took to read it…
You’ll probably be appalled by the buyers’ opinions of the SECRET WARS II OMNIBUS, then.
I wonder how much of the “datedness” the readers see in comics from the ’80s and older is due to production qualities, and how much is due to writers trying to make the stories accessible to younger readers? I read TALES OF THE TEEN TITANS ANNUAL #3 and ToTTT #47 this weekend, and was not impressed by either one. There was no datedness, though.
SRS