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The Complete Zenith

Started by James Stacey, 29 May, 2013, 12:02:17 PM

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opaque

It had gone earlier and actually said not available but it seems to be back again. Along with the big advert on the main page.
Considering they've not even been printed yet it's not that they are finding them down the back of the filing cabinet so why the confusion?

ming

Quote from: opaque on 03 July, 2013, 09:11:42 AMConsidering they've not even been printed yet it's not that they are finding them down the back of the filing cabinet so why the confusion?

Copies in shopping carts / unfinished transactions being recycled?  I guess that there can't be many copies left, anyway.

opaque

People's credit cards being rejected further down the line?
Could be possible I guess.
I wonder how many are actually being printed. Obviously 1000 for sale but then there will have to be promotional ones for the authors/artist, ones to the bosses etc.
Or maybe they only get the pdf and have to spend their own money to get one?

johnnystress

Woohoo--glad I checked this


Frank

Quote from: opaque on 03 July, 2013, 09:38:04 AM
I wonder how many are actually being printed. Obviously 1000 for sale but then there will have to be promotional ones for the authors/artist, ones to the bosses etc.

Someone linked to a review of the actual book (not just the content), so review copies have gone out. Judging by comments about a high volume of sales to the US, I'd say Tharg's been touting this as a way for US Morrison completists to get their hands on a legit copy of one of their holy grails. If sales of this are good enough, maybe we can get a compendium of stuff like The New Adventures of Hitler and Bible John. I wouldn't mind paying to own those stories twice if they promise to reprint them on something other than the brittle school toilet paper on which Crisis was smeared.

Presumably there's no ownership issues with those stories, which were commissioned underCrisis's first-reprint-then-the-rights-revert-to-the-creators deal - right?

TordelBack

Quote from: sauchie on 03 July, 2013, 11:33:43 AM
Someone linked to a review of the actual book (not just the content), so review copies have gone out.

If you're referring to this, there's no indication in the review that Jason has actually seen the physical thing - it's a review of Zenith cheekily dressed up as a review of the book to capitalise on clicks from hungry muppets like us.

opaque

Do you mean the Comic Bulletin link Sauchie?

As on Facebook under that link it was said that 'Reviewers were provided with PDF copies of the book, so they're reviewing its contents.' (Monday 8.20pm) and on page 35 of this thread Molch-R says 'When they're actually printed, perhaps.' in respond to a request for an internal photo.

The Comic Bulletin mentions the number of pages but nothing else about the actual book as it doesn't yet physically exist. But reviewing the combined content is the important thing of course.
Unless you mean another link of course. Bound to be a lot out there.


I am surprised it didn't sell out quicker (well it's still on the shop page as available now) because of the potential US market especially.

The problem with some of the Crisis stuff is in my mind the quality of the work, not the copyright ;)


Jim_Campbell

Quote from: sauchie on 03 July, 2013, 11:33:43 AM
Someone linked to a review of the actual book (not just the content), so review copies have gone out.

I'm pretty sure the 'review copies' are PDFs. Some (I presume all) are watermarked with the intended recipient, which will make it pretty easy to track back if the inevitable torrent appears on the P2P networks.

Cheers

Jim
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

TordelBack

Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 03 July, 2013, 11:50:48 AM...which will make it pretty easy to track back if the inevitable torrent appears on the P2P networks.

Not that Complete Zenith torrents were ever hard to come by before this.  In a way it's heartening that Tharg can sell a kilozenith at a substantial price in a world where any unscrupulous sod can read the same comic digitally for nowt. 

Frank

Quote from: opaque on 03 July, 2013, 11:49:27 AM
Do you mean the Comic Bulletin link Sauchie?

Sorry, skim reading is my downfall. Shame.


opaque

Easy enough thing to assume though :)

And I know it's written on the page and we know but I wonder how many people don't realise they won't be getting it until December?

I, Cosh

Quote from: sauchie on 03 July, 2013, 11:33:43 AMIf sales of this are good enough, maybe we can get a compendium of stuff like The New Adventures of Hitler and Bible John. I wouldn't mind paying to own those stories twice if they promise to reprint them on something other than the brittle school toilet paper on which Crisis was smeared.

Presumably there's no ownership issues with those stories, which were commissioned underCrisis's first-reprint-then-the-rights-revert-to-the-creators deal - right?
I'm certainly not arguing against reprinting everything ever, nor do I have the faintest idea about publishing but I'm not going to let that stop me weighing in anyway. Would there really be much of a market for this stuff? Sure plenty people here would probably buy it, so that's twenty copies sold. Zenith's a different thing as it's a hefty chunk of Morrison's early career as well as being known for the ongoing controversy. Are the oft-cited Yankee masses really going to shell out on a volume of thirty year old ephemera in sufficient numbers to make it worthwhile?

Further, does the creator-owned part make it even less likely? If a publisher already has the rights then maybe sticking it out is worth a punt but if they have to spend time and money renegotiating does that impact further on small profits? NB As already mentioned, I know hee-haw about publishing.

Mini-reviews.

New Adventures of Hitler. Great stuff; vintage Morrison; Yeowell's art looks uncharacteristically good coloured (something to do with D'Israeli, I believe, even though he professes to be embarrassed by it.) Would read again. Please reprint in a single volume alongside St Swithin's Day, Kill Your Boyfriend and Big Dave. Thanks.

Bible John. Dugshite. To expand: a bald-faced grafting of some superficial elements of From Hell onto a far less interesting Scottish case retaining pretty much none of the insight or power of the original. One or two pages do look very nice though.
We never really die.

Link Prime

Quote from: Link Prime on 29 May, 2013, 02:37:20 PM
Really glad its in print.
I think they're havin a fackin giraffe with the price though...100 quid is too much- that'd be almost 120 Euro.

No, I'll wait for a paperback or digital trade.

Due to being a fickle geek / sheep hybrid who's purchasing whims could be swayed by some forum hyperbole and Bleedingcool quips, I back-tracked on this comment so fast it would send goosebumps up Diamond Joe Quimby's arms.

Just checked my bank balance online this morning- the payments been made.
(Ended up costing 131 Euro Incl postage by the way)

Proudhuff

So, as far as we know there has been no, ahem, fallout from this? 
DDT did a job on me

Frank

Quote from: The Cosh on 03 July, 2013, 12:47:16 PM
Would there really be much of a market for (Morrison's early Crisis work)? Sure plenty people here would probably buy it, so that's twenty copies sold. Zenith's a different thing as it's a hefty chunk of Morrison's early career as well as being known for the ongoing controversy.

Aye, Zenith's an easier sell because it's very superhero-y. I'm only parroting what others have said here, but Inferno (and I think Crusade too) apparently sold better than the other Dredd stuff in the US. You have to put that down to the names of Morrison and Millar on the covers, because it certainly doesn't reflect the quality of the material inside. The image of Hitler on the cover would do a lot of the PR department's work for them in a similar way; he's not published any new material for a while, but his last TPB was a bestseller .

QuoteMini-reviews: New Adventures of Hitler. Great stuff; vintage Morrison; Yeowell's art looks uncharacteristically good coloured (something to do with D'Israeli, I believe, even though he professes to be embarrassed by it.) Would read again. Please reprint in a single volume alongside St Swithin's Day, Kill Your Boyfriend and Big Dave. Thanks.

Bible John. Dugshite. To expand: a bald-faced grafting of some superficial elements of From Hell onto a far less interesting Scottish case retaining pretty much none of the insight or power of the original. One or two pages do look very nice though.

I'd agree with both reviews, but I probably enjoyed Bible John much more because I'd never read or heard of From Hell at the time; when I first found Moore and Campbells' magnificent octopus I wondered if they were ripping off Morrison and Vallely. Plus, having grown up seeing that photo-fit in the tabloids on a regular basis, I thought they used the totemic power of that image in a way that resonated really well - but that's a peculiarly parochial perspective.