Here's the posting that was on the 2000AD Facebook page:
Stand-by, Earthlets – the ultimate collection of the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic is coming soon! 2000 AD: The Ultimate Collection brings you the best stories from forty years of Britain’s biggest comic, from Judge Dredd to Sláine the Barbarian, from Rogue Trooper to Strontium Dog and a galaxy of Thrills in between! Subscriptions launch at www.2000adcollection.com on 7th August with issue one on sale from 23rd August, so whether you’re a new Squaxx Dek Thargo or a venerable Deca Thargo make sure you snap up this ghafflebette collection. Don’t be a grexnix – subscribe to 2000 AD: The Ultimate Collection from Hachette Partworks!
http://www.2000adcollection.com
18 comments:
i think this was done as a test run a while ago (never spotted a copy myself) so it is good to see it is coming back with a full national launch.
The hardback partwork market is starting to look a little crowded (and pricey) with this, the still-going JUDGE DREDD one, two (red and black... plus a relaunch of the black) MARVEL ones, the rival DC one, STAR TREK (which occasionally reprints the British strips... as well as the old Gold Key strips familiar from numerous World Annuals), TRANSFORMERS (again with the occasional runs of UK strips... and some great behind-the-scenes text features) and the text-based DOCTOR WHO COMPLETE HISTORY. All of which are on fortnightly publishing schedules for a tenner a time.
The DC and TREK ones are also spinning off the occasional specials (the Trek/ POTA crossover is the current ST one) and I've also seen two different BACK TO THE FUTURE strip collections in the same format which, judging by their sparse distribution, may also have been tests.
Looking to the future, the publishers of the DOCTOR WHO one are obviously doing a bit of succession planning as they have invited subscribers to express an interest in a variety of possible future launches... one would reprint comic strips ala the TREK series (yay if it means some of the strips not seen since DOCTOR WHO CLASSIC COMICS get another outing), another would reissue the old Target books in a swanky new hardback format, another would be a 'fact file' ala the ongoing MARVEL FACTFILE bung-em-in-a-binder series. And yet another would reissue the Big Finish CDs.
The GERRY ANDERSON comic strip reprints never went beyond the test run. Nor did the BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER one.
For me, the no-brainer (despite Titan's inability to keep a Collectors's Edition comic in business) would be a STAR WARS one plundering the combined Marvel and Dark Horse back catalogue.
I'm not sure who currently has the UK rights to the Star Wars strips (Egmont I think, who only do Lego ones) but it could be a possibility one day perhaps.
There are a lot of these things out there now but they're for different tastes so hopefully people won't feel pressured into buying every line of books.
Yes, a shame the Gerry Andereon comics one didn't work. I think the potential market for that material is smaller than it used to be unfortunately.
problem with these partworks is that if you don't want them all, you can't get them.. It's kinda an all or nothing job..
of course, I personally hate when they call something 'The Ultimate Collection' then point out it's only the 'Best stories from'.. So if your favourite story isn't seen as one of the best, no good.. though I don't know when it changed to mean it, but now Ultimate an be 'the best off' which I disagree with.. reminds me why I hate most awards.. "Best Comic strip" for example (I'm sure there are a few of them).. you need to compare two completely different types of strip and decide which is the best? can't do.. It's such a subjective matter.. in pretty much all cases..
Still, at least they are releasing things things once in a while..
This looks like something I'll be picking up. I was late in collecting the Judge Dredd series so I want to be at the start of this series. At the same time I've been collecting the phone book style collections of various series, so will this be a replacement for me? I'll have to wait and see how they turn out.
I'm already collecting the Star Trek and Transformers Graphic Novel collections. If they started a Star Wars collection I would give that a miss since I'm collecting all the Marvel Epic collections and I prefer this format.
Doctor Who I would also pass since I have the excellent Panini Graphic Novel collections. I would love for them to collect the TV Comic/Countdown strips in this format as well. Any chance/news of this happening?
I'm disappointed the Gerry Anderson comics didn't get the go ahead for a complete hardback series. This would have been my number one must have series to get.
These look great, but probably a little out of my price range. Do you know if there will be a 2000AD summer special this year, Lew?
It doesn't look like there will be, CZX, unfortunately. (I forgot to ask when I was talking to them at the weekend.) I think they've put their efforts into the Scream and Misty Special instead, which will be out in October.
Ryan, in the case of these books, as with the Judge Dredd Mega Collection, they'll be available in comics shops so you can buy whichever ones you want without being tied into a subscription.
Also they're available from the relevant websites - and over the Christmas period last year, Hachette had all of the Marvel ones at half price (£5 a pop) with free postage for larger orders. But if you have a local comic shop, support them by buying there, obvs!
Also you can buy the individual books directly from the Hachette Partworks website. I'll probably do the same with this series as I've collected some of these in Rebellion trades.
Ah.. interesting they aren't just partworks.. much better ^_^
They are partworks, but as with any partwork you don't have to buy every one.
The only thing I don't like about the partwork series is the numbered spines, the connecting artwork, and the lack of titles on the spines. If I wanted to be selective and just buy the ones I wanted, they would like odd on the bookshelf.
Anybody tried to create their own spines for these types of books and stick them on?
The missing volumes wouldn't bother me but you could always store them in a comics box instead of on a shelf?
Going back to a question you asked that I missed; there have been thoughts about reprinting the Countdown/TV Action DrWho strips but nothing has been decided yet as far as I know. It'd be nice to see them collected for posterity but I'm not sure if there's a big enough demand for the old material. Doctor Who Magazine brought back Countdown for one issue a few months ago which reprinted an old third Doctor story so anything's possible!
https://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/countdown-classic-strips-free-with.html
I think global sales potential is a factor that comes into play. I know the MARVEL 'red' and 'black' volumes are translated (the modern version of switching out the text plate) and published in foreign language editions. The same might also be true for the DC one. I guess combined print runs mage the project more cost effective.
The English-language editions of the STAR TREK and DOCTOR WHO books are being shipped to the States... which in the former case might be influencing the selection of contents to avoid competing too much with IDW's own TREK collections.
The spin-off specials in the STAR TREK series reprint crossover events (Trek & Green Lantern and Trek & POTA thus far) in a slightly more swanky (dust jacket) format. For a higher price. It will be interesting to see if they also have the rights to reprint the DOCTOR WHO crossover and - looking back to the 1990s - the two TREK/ X-MEN crossovers that appeared as part of the MARVEL PRESENTS PARAMOUNT COMICS publishing line.
Slow Robot - that BTTF comic series test sounds interesting - got any links to it?
The BTTF Build the DeLorean has exclusive graphic novels as part it's collection. I doubt there'd be enough for their own partwork.
I don't think there's any need for a BTTF partwork anyway (short as it would be, as you say) because the graphic novels are still available and the comic is ongoing so people can buy it every month as it is.
The BTTF hardbacks are spin-offs from the build-a-car series rather than an ongoing series of releases in their own right. Although maybe there are plans to release more (possibly quarterly) if the material exists. The distribution seemed to be very patchy so it is hard to know whether they were a test or just sent out to stores in very few numbers. Which meant only a few random branches of WHS ever put them on sale. Possibly they work as bolt-ons to the main partwork, a bit like the (more expensive) DC and TREK specials sit alongside the core title.
My advise is, whenever you are in WHS, always take the time to look at the partworks display as you may well spot something that is being tested. Especially if you are in a town you don't visit very often. London, btw, never seems to be the focus of a test... maybe it is not seen as being representative of the country as a whole. Specialist stores also never seem to carry tests... possibly for the same reason.
I'd also like to know what happens to all the unsolds once a test run is completed. Especially if they don't go ahead with a national roll out. Do they get pulped or do they work their way into the remaindered book market somehow....?
Well, for the 2000ad, they sent the first four issues out free to people who'd signed up. Which was nice....
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