Yesterday, we highlighted a number of horror, science fiction, detective and all-round heroic comic book softcover compilations that you could (and should!) gift your friend or loved one this holiday season. If you missed it, worry not. You can scroll down this site’s main landing page and find it, or you locate it right here.
Today, we’re continuing that list of great graphic fiction, upping the ante (and in some cases, the costs) a little bit with a plethora or hardcover volumes for that hardcover book-on-a-shelf lover in your life.
Behold: it’s the Biff Bam Pop! Holiday Gift Guide 2015: Comic Book Collections Part 2!
Follow me after the jump for all of the page-flipping action!
The Sandman: Overture Deluxe Edition
Have you read The Sandman? If not, for shame! Vertigo Comics, the mature imprint of DC Comics, is the house that The Sandman built in the late nineteen eighties and early nineteen nineties.
Every so often, author Neil Gaiman returns to his most famous comic book creation, penning a new story for a new artist(s). This time, twenty-five years since the debut, he brings us back to the story that leads us directly into the very first issue of The Sandman. And this time, he’s bringing artist extraordinaire J.W. Williams III with him.
For decades, we’ve all been wondering: how did Morpheus, the Sandman, become so weak as to be captured by a minor magician dealing in the black arts? What was he doing? Neil Gaiman has known all along, and The Sandman: Overture finally tells that tale. The Sandman: Overture Deluxe Edition hardcover is a compilation of the six-issue mini series, published approximately every other month over the last year and a half. We highlighted the first issue here. Although we already know Morpheus’ family (Death, Desire, Despair, Delirium, Destruction and Destiny), here we also get to meet his Mom and Dad for the very first time!
The story is absolutely magical, and the art is the best you are likely to see in this medium. All together, it’s breathtaking fiction – and something that should be given this holiday season.
Whether you’ve read The Sandman before – or are new to the series, The Sandman: Overture Deluxe Edition makes for a wonderful gift. You’ll find it at your local comic book shop, bookstore or at Amazon.com for only $14.99.
The Multiversity Deluxe Edition
The Multiversity was acclaimed writer Grant Morrison’s final take on the DC Universe before departing for other publishing shores. He had been working on the story for a long, long time, trying to encapsulate every variation of the multiple decades of DC Comics publishing under one as-easy-to-follow-umbrella as possible.
What he came up with owes as much to quantum physics and superstring theory as it does fiction.
Collected as a hardcover, The Multiversity Deluxe Edition contains the entire 448 pages of the crazed, thought-provoking, meta-tourism mini series that takes readers across the various worlds that make up the DC Universe. It’s absolutely nerve-wracking, action-packed, confounding, and special – and something that any lover of superhero stories (especially DC superhero stories) will love. The story “Pax Americana” (that takes place within a version of DC’s Watchmen universe) is a personal favourite. It’s one of the best single comic book stories you’ll ever read.
Once again, your local comic book shop or bookstore will have The Multiversity Deluxe Edition or you can purchase it for $28.42 at Amazon.com.
Shazam!: A Celebration of 75 Years
The wisdom of Solomon. The strength of Hercules. The stamina of Atlas. The power of Zeus. The courage of Achilles. The Speed of Mercury.
SHAZAM!
Created in 1939 under the Fawcett Comics publishing banner, Captain Marvel is one of the world’s longest-running superheroes and 2015 is his 75th anniversary. What better way to celebrate our heroic pop culture heritage than with a hardcover compendium commemorating the character?
Shazam!: A Celebration of 75 Years is 400 pages in length and every bit worth its price tag. Here, you’ll find some of the hero’s greatest stories from nearly every decade. Discover how twelve year-old Billy Batson, a homeless newsboy, discovers an old wizard’s lair in an abandoned subway tunnel and is bequeathed with the power of SHAZAM!, becoming the heroic Captain Marvel! It’s a great time to bone up on the character before you see him in a film, like, possibly, Justice League. Well, maybe Justice League Part 2. (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is tipped to play Captain Marvel’s arch nemesis, Black Adam.)
Shazam!: A Celebration of 75 Years is perfect for any lover of superhero fiction or pop culture historian or any mix of the two. Of course, you’ll find the book at your local comic book shop or bookstore or at Amazon.com for $27.19.
Only What’s Necessary: Charles M. Schulz and the Art of Peanuts
Everyone loves Charlie Brown and Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts gang!
With Only What’s Necessary: Charles M. Schulz and the Art of Peanuts, author Chipp Kidd delves into the archives of the Charles M. Schultz Museum and Research Centre, reproducing some of the best examples (and there are lots of them) of the Peanuts newspaper strip. All of the art here is photographed from the original art and features some rare and never-before-published original art and development work.
It’s always fascinating to see inside the mind of a genius, and that’s what Only What’s Necessary: Charles M. Schulz and the Art of Peanuts gives us. If you know a lover of Charlie Brown or sequential art or newspaper comics, they will love to see this book wrapped up as a gift for them this year.
You might be able to find a copy of the 304-page hardcover at your local comic book shop but you’re far more likely to find it a nearby bookstore. Or, there’s Amazon.com where you can purchase it for $22.
The Art of Horror: An Illustrated History
I love the niche pop culture of the 1940’s, 1950’s, 1960’s and 1970’s. Ah heck! I love it even today: horror, science fiction and pulpy noir. The stuff is brilliant to behold and it speaks so much of the time it was created within.
It’s not a “comic book” per se, but The Art of Horror: An Illustrated History is one of those perfect books that showcase great artists and their works while shedding light on the cultural implications of the decade those works were created. In this hardcover, you’ll find imagery from book dust jackets, pulp magazines, movie posters, comic books and even modern day digital renderings. Each chapter is dedicated to a different type of horror: vampires, werewolves, zombies, demons, serial killers and aliens – along with quotes and editorials from artists, writers and filmmakers.
You local bookstore should have the 260-page The Art of Horror: An Illustrated History in stock. If it doesn’t, you can find it on Amazon.com for $25.60. It’s the perfect gift and a must-have for any lover of art or pop culture historian that deals within the realm of horror.
So, that’s it for the Biff Bam Pop! Holiday Gift Guide 2015: Comic Book Collections Part 2. Later this week we’ll showcase our final installment – with some pricey, but absolutely breathtaking, must-have comic book collections. Great gifts for those that you really, really love!
