ABC Warriors Mek Files 1 – out 8th May

[Bat King]

In the original format, no resizing, no recolouring.

This is a huge hardback collection of tales of the Meknificent Seven from the start.

Classic artists include Dave Gibbons and Brett Ewins. I'm reviewing from a PDF but it certainly looks very good, if the paper stock is good quality it'll be a very nice book.

Review in the normal place.

[Hawkmumbler]

Gonna be another month before I can aford to order this. Bah!

[glassstanley]

Any extras in this beyond the Meknificent Seven & Black Hole strips?

[Bat King]

Good point I didn't list all the strips. I should have. I'm eating tea at the mo. Will edit the article for future views n pop the details straight in to this thread.

[Steve Green]

Lovely.

I've ordered this today.

[Dash Decent]

In the original format, no resizing

When you say 'no resizing', do you mean the book is basically the same height & width as an old school prog?

[Bat King]

Yes, no resizing at all. This from the press release I received from the cLanky one:

Starting from the series' very beginning, these stories from the golden age
of British comics in the 1970s and '80s are presented in a stunning hardback
volume at the same over-size format as the they were first printed. It also
includes, for the first time, the original colour centre spreads - lovingly restored
and brought back to their full glory.

Similar to the IDW Judge Dredd Treasury Edition, though they decolourised the centre spreads, which was a soft cover and shorter and cheaper. I love the IDW Treasury, picked it up for £6.99 at OK Comics. Well worth it.

[BPP]

Surely there must be some resizing as the earliest ABC would have been in the old pre-500 'square' prog size and the Black Hole came at the start of the modern 'envelope' shape? (Around prog 520 on if memory serves).

[Bat King]

Well the pages look pretty much right to me... but I am reviewing from pdf as I say. (that's what previews always are of course).

Molch-R says 'over-size format as the they were first printed' and that's what it looks like. Till the physical proves me right or wrong we won't know I guess.

[Link Prime]

Keep us posted BK, I'm fairly curious about the printed format myself.

[Frank]

Surely there must be some resizing as the earliest ABC would have been in the old pre-500 'square' prog size and the Black Hole came at the start of the modern 'envelope' shape? (Around prog 520 on if memory serves)

Prog 555, so well after The Narrowing. I honestly hadn't considered that until now.

[BPP]

I meant the shape change was around prog 520 - the 500th issue was the great grid sketches by all the big name artists (and robin smith (!)) then the 10th Ann was the change-over white the John Higgens 'space station cake' oddness.

I remember at the time wishing they'd kept the old size but gone with the slick paper quality on the cover that 500 had.

[Frank]

I remember at the time wishing they'd kept the old size but gone with the slick paper quality on the cover that 500 had

Yep. Those dimensions look fantastic and seem much better suited to the purposes of storytelling than the pinched-in pages of the US format. If I had to guess, I'd say it was because, when your eyes are scanning left-to-right, square or horizontal oblong images feel more natural and expansive than lots of tall, narrow panels crowded together. Here's hoping The Mek Files are as square as Hammerstein's head when McMahon draws him.

[Bat King]

Well if you've seen the IDW Treasury Edition you'll see that on the outside it looks standard shape of modern comics. But inside it is printed in ORIGINAL dimensions - hence big white areas below each printed page. I'm thinking this was due to the printing machines... easy to scale up the standard dimension not so easy to alter the ratio of the paper (just a guess)

[Steve Green]

Size wise, it's the same size as the current prog (well the hardback cover is a little larger)

It looks great - the original colour spreads from the short run of good paper quality are great to see again - the other spreads feel a little pastelly, but that's just a matter of personal taste, and reflect the original printing.

A lovely collection overall.