If you’re anything like me (and let’s face it, if you’re frequenting this website, it means we probably share a lot in common) you’re neck deep in holiday shopping.
Whether it’s actually pulling the trigger on gifts, perusing storefront windows for ideas (hot chocolate in hand, of course), or just compiling lists to be actioned at a later date, we’re all in the mood to buy right now.
The best thing about the action at this time of year is that you’re most likely not just shopping for others. Boxing Day is near, too, and that means looking after yourself and your own flights of fancy.
In terms of comic book publications, there’s lots of fancy out there!
So, whether you’re looking to buy that great comic book gift for a friend or loved one, or you’re anxious for some self-love, in the best annual tradition, Biff Bam Pop! aims to help you on your shopping journey.
Here, then, is part one of our Comic Book Compilation Gift Guide:
The Sandman Mystery Theatre Compendium 1
If you’re looking for a noir-flavoured mystery story mixed with golden-age super heroics amidst a backdrop of pre-World War II New York City tropes, The Sandman Mystery Theatre Compendium 1 is your book.
Released earlier this year, Biff Bam Pop’s weekly The Wednesday Run column covered the 984-page tome that compiles the first twenty-six issues of the early 90’s monthly Vertigo Comics series along with its first annual. You can read that column’s installment right here.
Written by Matt Wagner and Steven T. Seagle and illustrated by Guy Davis, The Sandman Mystery Theatre Compendium 1 shows us the pulp-inspired adventures of the first character to be called “The Sandman” – a slightly pudgy but absolutely heroic millionaire named Wesley Dodds and his break-the-stereotype girlfriend, the gorgeous Dian Belmont.
It’s juicy, compelling storytelling that takes readers on a wonderful and thrilling ride through dark alleys and grimy warehouses and dirty politics during a time of deep social anxiety and human evils. For anywhere between $35 and $60 (depending upon where and what country you’re shopping in), it’s perfect reading for a lover of crime comics, the pulps, or off-the-beaten-path superhero adventuring.
The Phantom Stranger Omnibus
No one really knows who the Phantom Stranger really is. But you might just be able to find out!
Conceived and released upon a teen and tween public in love with the supernatural in the early 1950’s and featured in various publications over the last half century, the character has been written as a mysterious dark arts investigator, a mystic, a straight-ahead superhero in the Justice League, a fallen angel and as the Wandering Jew. His true origin has always been shrouded in secrecy.
Still, the Phantom Stranger has always been a beloved, if cult-favourite character within the pantheon of DC Comics superheroes. Fans had been anxiously awaiting the release of the 1,248-page Phantom Stanger Omnibus, a hardcover collection of his first and early exploits all the way up through the 1980’s of his various comic book publications. This site covered the book earlier this year, right here.
The Phantom Stanger Omnibus is a trip through the history of mid-to-late twentieth-century comic book publishing as much as it is a celebration of one of the most enigmatic – and important – characters you’re ever to come across. The book is perfect for DC Comics fans and lovers of comic book history and the supernatural genre, not to mention fans of some of the artists that helped define the look and mannerisms of the character, legends such as Carmine Infantino and Neal Adams.
You can find the mammoth tome at better comic book shop or bookstore shelves for around $80.
Swamp Thing: Green Hell
Speaking of mystery, history and even the horror genre, earlier this year, DC Comics published the long-awaited hardcover compilation of Swamp Thing: Green Hell, a story that was published in three fairly infrequent installments over the previous two years under their darker, more mature, Black Label publishing umbrella.
Ahead of our time (or, at least knowing we’d circle back to the series at this time of year) The Wednesday Run had a column focusing on the release. You can read that particular installment right here. Like the previous entry in this column, Swamp Thing is another beloved character somewhat relegated to the comic book fringes, but a mainstay cult favourite. This story takes place in a not-tied-to-continuity future where a desolate earth must lean on the Avatar of the Green once more in order to save human existence from a horrific monstrosity.
Written and illustrated by fan favourites Jeff Lemire and Doug Manhke, the riveting 152-page hardcover graphic novel Swamp Thing: Green Hell is full of blood and dismemberment and action and horrors beyond anything you’ve seen before. It makes for fantastic holiday reading for anyone who likes a shot of that kind of stuff in-between sips of family eggnog.
For about $20, it’s a perfect gift for anyone who loves monsters. And, you know, blood.
The Mysteries
So many have waited so long for this book.
Not a comic book at all, but an illustrated short story, The Mysteries is a new tale written and illustrated by Bill Watterson, creator of the beloved newspaper comic book strip, Calvin and Hobbes. It’s his first new work in what seems like forever. Teamed with his artistic colleague on the project, the caricaturist, John Kascht, forever is an apt place to begin discussing the hardcover book, just released a few short months ago.
The Mysteries is a fable for grownups. It’s a short story about a long-ago kingdom afflicted by unexplainable calamities where the King and his Knights attempt to find the source of their misfortune.
Beyond the captivating story itself, the wonderful book is also a tale of two very different artists in Watterson and Kascht and how they go about the merging of their very disparate processes to create something utterly unique. You can watch a short video on their working relationship directly below.
The Mysteries is inspired reading for anyone who enjoys fairy tales or the artwork of Watterson and Kascht and can be found for under $20 at your local book shop.
That’s it for this first installment of the Biff Bam Pop! Holiday Gift Guide 2023: Comic Book Compilations. There’s enough here that should bring you from your holiday lists and window shopping to inside the comic book and book shop stores!
We’ll be back in a few days with part two of our guide to comic book compilations – see you all then!
