CBR: WC11: IDW Lifts the Hammer for "Mighty Thor Artist's Edition"

[CBR News]

CBR spoke with editor Scott Dunbier about "Walter Simonson's The Mighty Thor: The Artist's Edition," the first of several volumes presenting original art from classic Marvel adventures to be published by IDW. Yes, IDW.


Full article here.

[hondobrode]

I somehow missed that the Rocketeer edition before was all but 2 pages of reproduced original art. That's awesome !

This is too. Simonson's art bursts off the page, like Scott said. Great choice, and frankly incredible that this is available. Can't wait to see what else will roll down the pike later.

[maniacmatt]

Wow, sounds really cool.

Weird that Marvel couldn't just do this themselves though.

[Sean Walsh]

I can understand IDW reprinting GI Joe Marvel comics (because technically, Hasbro owns it all).......but this glorious project is just a head-scratcher, it is...

[Imraith Nimphais]

This would most certainly be a MH/MB for me. It is Simonson, after all Just tell me when...I am informing my wallet as I type.

[jpbl1976]

I suspect that Marvel's reasoning for allowing this is that this will probably be a niche project. As a corporate with a large organization, Marvel probably has a minimum number of copies it needs to sell to make money on a project.

Notice how they are more likely to cut titles that don't sell, say 30,000 copies a month than DC is, even after the Disney acquisition.

In this case, Marvel loses nothing because they probably share quite a bit of the gross sales by IDW as licensing fees. It's all upside; they're just loaning-out part of their library. In the meantime, IDW has all the downside in the form of variable costs like printing, fixed costs such as administration and headaches in the form of unsold inventory.

Also, I take it that this is more like a coffee table book project than an archive reprint -- a la Marvel Masterworks (remember, Marvel is selling the Simonson omnibus in April). I've seen a few books about Marvel characters not necessarily printed by Marvel itself. To my mind, this is more like those books than the others.

... or this could all be a precursor to Disney also acquiring IDW... ;-)

[FanboyStranger]

I can understand IDW reprinting GI Joe Marvel comics (because technically, Hasbro owns it all).......but this glorious project is just a head-scratcher, it is...

It's an art book that explains Walt's process and can be an educational tool. Marvel isn't really in the business of producing art books (all I can think of is that Gene Colan book that Clifford Meth put together and the Ed Hannigan covers one-shot). It's not like a it's completed Thor story published by another publisher published as a Thor story-- it's unfinished pages from Walt's Thor broken down and commented on to explain Walt's method, changes between his initial vision and the finished product, etc. Marvel would have had to sign off on this, but there's no reason why they wouldn't.

If any living artist deserves to have a book like this, it's definitely Walt. I'll be buying one.

[CMBMOOL]

Wow, sounds really cool.

Weird that Marvel couldn't just do this themselves though.

I have to say that surprised me to given its their company art archives, but then again IDW has reproduce some of the Archies stories through their company and Archie comics.

[prismablue]

What a cool idea. I hope they do a Sam Kieth MCP volume soon.

[Ivan Isaacs]

It's an art book that explains Walt's process and can be an educational tool. Marvel isn't really in the business of producing art books (all I can think of is that Gene Colan book that Clifford Meth put together and the Ed Hannigan covers one-shot).

There are the three "Project 100" volumes (with a fourth to come), The Art of Marvel Vol. 1-2, The Art of Marko Djurdjevic, The Art of Joe Quesada, The Art of Iron Man: The Movie, The Art of Iron Man 2, the upcoming The Art of Thor: The Movie (IIRC the same goes for the Captain America movie) and Amazing Spider-Man: 500 Covers that immidiately come to my mind.

It's not like a it's completed Thor story published by another publisher published as a Thor story--

Yeah... except that it's exactly that - 7 issues, 2 complete stories.
And if it's anything like the "Rocketeer" volume it will have an introduction and after that it's all the pages and only the pages and no comment and no comparison. Which is what makes these "Artist's Edition" so beautiful.

And it's not that new for Marvel to allow other publishers to toy with their characters - Del Rey was recently allowed to publish faux-manga of "X-Men" and "Wolverine", Graphitti Designs used to publish Deluxe versions of several of Marvel's "Graphic Novels" (such as "Elektra lives again"), the Japanese were allowed to do several takes on their characters (2 "Spider-Man" manga and one each for "X-Men" and "Hulk").
And of course they allowed the people from "Hero Initiative" to have other artists finish Mike Wieringo's last comic book (although Marvel co-published it) and there was an exclusive "Spider-Man" story in the "Within our Reach" graphic novel. As there were covers of Marvel characters for the "Fund Comics" anthologies published by the CBLDF.

[Gryphon]

I am troubled by this. I want it but I am not sure I can justify buying it.

[Boabie]

Brilliant news. Arguably the best comics EVER produced by Marvel. Can't wait.

[rghanbari]

What a cool idea. I hope they do a Sam Kieth MCP volume soon.

The original art is so far beyond the comics, it's not even funny:

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryRoom.asp?GSub=6724

Seeing a full sized book would be glorious

Seeing any original Simonson is a dream...this is the best any of us can hope for. Can't wait for this book

[jediracer]

people are really willing to pay money for a book full of 30 year old unfinished art?