Showcase your Essential B&W TPBs

[Antiyonder]

What Marvel Essentials/DC Showcase Presents (Black & White Reprints) do you have in your collection?

I have:
The Essential Spider-Man Volume 1-5
The Essential Silver Surfer
The Essential Avengers Volume 1-3
The Essential Uncanny X-Men
The Essential X-Men
The Essential Fantastic Four Volume 3
The Essential Daredevil
The Essential Punisher
The Essential Ant-Man
The Essential Captain America
The Essential Iron Man
The Essential Human Torch
The Essential Marvel Team Up
Showcase Presents Superman
Showcase Presents Superman's Pal: Jimmy Olsen
Showcase Presents Batman
Showcase Presents Green Lantern
Showcase Presents Green Arrow
Showcase Presents The Justice League Of America
Showcase Presents Teen Titans

[Zebi]

Thus far, I only have Vols 1 & 2 of The Essential Spider-Man in my collection. I really need to catch up on this series, as I have been enjoying reading the older issues.

[AdamYJ]

Essential Spider-Man vol. 1
Essential X-Men vol. 1
Essential X-Men vol. 3
Essential X-Men vol. 4
Essential X-Men vol. 5
Essential Avengers vol. 1
Essential Avengers vol. 2
Essential Avengers vol. 3
Essential Avengers vol. 4
Essential Iron Fist vol. 1

These books are great for loading up on a whole lot of old material for a cheap price. The reason I don't have Essential X-Men vol. 2 is that I've already got "The Dark Phoenix Saga", "Days of Future Past" and I think the two part Arcade story reprinted in other forms. I wish I could read the other issues in that book, though.

[randomguy]

Yikes... I'm not sure I can even remember. I know I've got the first three volumes of The Avengers and The Amazing Spider-Man, the third volume of The Fantastic Four, the first volume of Wolverine, the first two volumes of Claremont's X-Men, and the first volume of Tomb of Dracula. There might be some others scattered about that I don't immediately recall.

These things really are awesome. Considering the price point, the lack of color and the paper quality don't really bother me. I'll admit that I was seriously annoyed by the crappy binding for several of the printings, but the newer volumes (and newer printings of old volumes) have much more durable spines and aren't too bad.

[Sandoz]

Essential X-Men vols. 1-5. I love these babies.

[Icer]

Essential X-Men 1-4

[EarthX]

Publishing B&W versions of items originally presented in color just don't appeal to me.

[Pyro]

I've got Essential Spider-Man 3 & 4 and Essential X-Men 1 & 2 (I'm just going by what it says on the cover. Essential Uncanny X-Men 1 is actually before Essential X-Men 1) Sadly, I've had a couple problems with pages coming out.

I'd like to get Essential Fantastic Four and the rest of Essential X-Men. How's Essential Avengers? I might look into that too if it's any good.

Yeah, color versions would be better, but the prices are too good to pass up, and the color printing back then wasn't that good anyway.

[Leaping Larry Jojo]

These things are great. It's all steak, without the sizzle. And the lack of colour in some ways is good for those who just want to learn about spotting blacks and inking. So many artists these days have trouble understanding how to ink effectively and some of these Essentials show you some techniques.

I have

Essential Conan (now out of print, before Dark Horse got the rights)
Essential FF 1 and 3
Essential Avengers 3 and 4
Essential Spidey 2
Essential Marvel Super Villain Team Up 1
Essential Daredevil 1
Essential Dr. Strange 1

I also recommend getting Essential FF 4 when it comes out later this year. Kirby and Sinnott were in their artistic prime during this time.

If you want great art, try some of the Essential Tomb of Dracula volumes.

[AdamYJ]

I just recently got:

Essential Monster of Frankenstein vol. 1

and

Essential Tomb of Dracula vol. 1

Surprisingly, I liked the Frankenstein one more. I'm just not crazy about Marvel's version of Dracula. He seems too much like Dr. Doom with fangs. Maybe I'm a little too hung up on Bela Lugosi's version from the old movie. I wonder if they'll make an Essential volume of Werewolf by Night?

[guerillacropoli]

Is there anything about Ant-Man that's really essential?

I've looked through the Essentials a few times, but I'd prefer them to actually be in color. My uncle has a colored X-Men book of the first few issues that came out in the early 90s, around the time of the cartoon, and it's so much more beautiful than the Essentials that look like coloring books. I wish they'd print expensive colored editions, because I wouldn't mind picking up the first 10 issues of ASM in color.

Regardless of my issues with these collections, I'm glad Marvel has them at all, but I do miss the color.

[AdamYJ]

I wish they'd print expensive colored editions, because I wouldn't mind picking up the first 10 issues of ASM in color.
Try the Marvel Masterworks hardcover books.

[Ed Liu]

Howdy,


I wish they'd print expensive colored editions, because I wouldn't mind picking up the first 10 issues of ASM in color.
Like AdamYJ said, you can get a nice hardcover edition of the first 10 issues or so of Amazing Spider-Man via the Marvel Masterworks hardcover volume (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0785112561/qid=1112022902/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/102-2003060-1000127?v=glance&s=books).

If $50 (or $33 from Amazon.com) is too rich for your blood, Barnes & Noble has an exclusive softcover edition (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=t823yaYASd&isbn=0760737932&itm=1) for sale for $13 ($11.65 on-line, plus a 10% discount if you're a member).

-- Ed/Ace

[kaine23]

Bought my first Essentials book, Essential X-Men vol. 2 when a friend suggested it. Loving it so far!

[Stuckey]

Fantastic Four Vol 1
Iron Fist Vol 1

I really love the Fantastic Four,and if I ever find it I'll finish reading it. :p

I must say I'm not too high on Iron Fist. It was ok at first, but it's a really slow read and I don't like the fact that it reads like I'm Iron First (is that first person?). However, I do plan on getting many more of the collections. I actually enjoy the B&W presentation as opposed to the coloring in the reprints of DC titles from the same era.

[James Meeley]

Here's what the wife and I have:


Avengers Vol. 1
Wolverine Vol. 1
X-Men Vol. 1
X-Men Vol. 2
X-Men Vol. 3

As you can see, it's mostly the team series. She just has a thing for the group dymanics, I guess. :shrug: ;)

[Antiyonder]

I decided to include DC's Showcase Present Trades in this thread.

Some I got recently:
Showcase Presents Green Arrow
Showcase Presents Teen Titans

[Anthonynotes]

Showcase Presents volumes I have:

Superman
Superman Family
Justice League of America
Green Lantern

[AdamYJ]

Essential Spider-Man vol. 1
Essential X-Men vol. 1
Essential X-Men vol. 3
Essential X-Men vol. 4
Essential X-Men vol. 5
Essential Avengers vol. 1
Essential Avengers vol. 2
Essential Avengers vol. 3
Essential Avengers vol. 4
Essential Iron Fist vol. 1

I would like to add the following to my list:

Essential X-Men vol. 6
Essential Werewolf by Night vol. 1
Essential Spider-Woman vol. 1 (what Brian Bendis saw in this, I'll never know).
Essential Nova vol. 1 (however, I do now recognize what Erik Larsen was such a fan of).

Also:

Showcase Presents Green Lantern vol. 1
Showcase Presents Jonah Hex vol. 1
Showcase Presents Metamorpho vol. 1 (what a kooky series, even by Silver Age DC standards).

As great as it is to get so many unique offerings from the Showcase line, the ones I really want to see are Flash, Hawkman and Atom. Oh well, they'll get around to it eventually. The fact that I've officially run out of shelf space does not make collecting these things any easier, though.

[Mister Intensity]

How many people are coloring their Essentials and Showcases?

I have:

Showcase:
Superman
Green Lantern
Metamorpho
Jonah Hex

Esentials:
Doctor Strange Vol. One
Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe

Mister Intensity

[xokxtrunks]

Essential Iron Man v1
Essential Avengers v1 and v2

I really need to catch up on those.

[Anthonynotes]

*Coloring* them?! Like with crayons or something? :-)

I admit I'm running out of shelf space, too (with the other TPBs and "real" books and such...)...

[Mister Intensity]

*Coloring* them?! Like with crayons or something? :-)

I admit I'm running out of shelf space, too (with the other TPBs and "real" books and such...)...

Yes with crayons or anything else at your disposal.

Mister Intensity

[Antiyonder]

Recently obtained:

Showcase Presents Shazam
The Essential Savage She-Hulk

[Hanshotfirst113]

Yikes... I'm not sure I can even remember. I know I've got the first three volumes of The Avengers and The Amazing Spider-Man, the third volume of The Fantastic Four, the first volume of Wolverine, the first two volumes of Claremont's X-Men, and the first volume of Tomb of Dracula. There might be some others scattered about that I don't immediately recall.

These things really are awesome. Considering the price point, the lack of color and the paper quality don't really bother me. I'll admit that I was seriously annoyed by the crappy binding for several of the printings, but the newer volumes (and newer printings of old volumes) have much more durable spines and aren't too bad.

That's the intention; they're cheap, and they're invaluable for catching up on things. Personally, I'm not the biggest fan of Silver Age writing, and Stan Lee endlessly grates on my nerves, but I love the bredth of material available.


How many people are coloring their Essentials and Showcases?

My friend refers to them as "coloring books."

[IanC]

Slightly old pic of em all (http://homepage.mac.com/iancharles/.Pictures/Photo%20Album%20Pictures/2007-01-21%2009.05.50%20-0800/Image-E500DCA9A97011DB.jpg)

Marvel Essentials-
The Avengers vol 1 and 2
Fantastic Four vol 1 and 2
The Amazing Spiderman vol 1 and 2
Uncanny X-Men vol 1
Classic X-Men vol 2 (did they ever explain the name change between these two?)

DC Showcases-
Shazam! vol 1 (not in pic)
Teen Titans vol 1
The House of Mystery vol 1
The Unknown Soldier vol 1

[Frank Castle]

The only one I have is Essential Punisher vol. 1.