With only a few days left to shop for that perfect gift for the comic book lover in your life, here’s our third and final entry in our annual Holiday Gift Guide: Comic Book Compilations list. It’s meant to help you with your gift-giving decision to making.
If you missed any of the previous entries, worry not. Here’s part one and here’s part two.
To make things even easier at this late hour, we’ve broadened the scope a bit to also include a select few art books by individuals who have at least one foot set firmly in the comic book world. For any science fiction or fantasy or advertising art fans in your life, these particular selections would make choice gifts.
Let’s get at it!
The Ballad of Halo Jones: Full Color Omnibus
Before Swamp Thing. Before Watchmen. Before From Hell, Promethea, Tom Strong, Lost Girls and The League of Extraordinary gentlemen, there was legendary comic book writer Alan Moore’s The Ballad of Halo Jones.
Joined by acclaimed British artist, Ian Gibson, Moore’s sci-fi feminist romp, The Ballad of Halo Jones was first published in 1984 within the pages of 2000AD magazine. It told the story of the titular 50th century teenager, an everywoman, who escapes the confines and boredom of her home and station in order to live life amongst the stars, adventuring everywhere as anything – from an intergalactic stewardess to a soldier engaged interstellar war.
As the tagline compellingly states: Where did she go? Out. What did she do? Everything.
The three books that make up The Balled of Halo Jones: Full Color Omnibus hardcover edition have been painstakingly restored and are, as the title suggests, coloured for the very first time. There’s plenty of bonus content as well, adding to the interest of readers and comic book historians and aficionados on the early work of an author whose narrative powers were just burgeoning, and an artist whose imaginative visual powers was allowed to run rampant!
You can catch a video backgrounder on The Ballad of Halo Jones directly below.
Monster-Sized Hellboy – Hardcover
Stretch before lifting and bend at the knees – the Monster-Sized Hellboy hardcover is one monster of a book!
Clocking in at a massive 1,512 pages and well over thirteen pounds, the oversized tome collects all of the stories and graphic novels that were previously contained within the four Hellboy Omnibus volumes. Those were big books in and of themselves!
Everyone knows Hellboy – or should. He’s one of the biggest and most successful independently-created characters that has made the pop culture leap across monthly comic book pages to animation to films to books and video games. Whew!
Created and written by fan favourite Mike Mignola, Monster-Sized Hellboy, published by the wonderful Dark Horse Comics, sees Hellboy (a hellish demon found at birth and raised by humans), alongside the rest of his team from the Bureau for Paranormal Research, investigate the evils and horrors that lurk in arcane shadows. Here, Mignola is joined by a plethora or artists, including Duncan Fegredo, in the tales Seed of Destruction, Wake the Devil, The Chained Coffin, The Right Hand of Doom, B.P.R.D. and the complete Hellboy in Hell, among many, many others.
It’s all here!
For fans of horror, mystery, the esoteric or just adventure, the Monster-Sized Hellboy would make a perfectly monstrous holiday treat for you or someone special in your life.
Thalamus: The Art of Dave McKean Slipcased Set-Hardcover
If you’re looking for a handsome art book with a comic book bent this holiday season, look no further than the oversized and extra weighty two-volume, slip-cased hardcover set: Thalamus: The Art of Dave McKean.
If you’re like me, you were first exposed to McKean’s beautiful and haunting artwork via his cover designs and interior art for late 1980’s comic book titles such as John Constantine: Hellblazer, The Sandman and Batman: Arkham Asylum. With illustration, painting, sculpture and photography, he absolutely changed the way a comic could be visually conceived, paving new ground and breaking through old barriers.
Published by Dark Horse Comics, Thalamus: The Art of Dave McKean is a 608-page joyful and eye-opening tour of McKean’s oeuvre and his truly poetic art. Not only is his work remarkably striking, but it’s visual narration is a deep and compelling dive into allegory, symbolism and the subconscious. Each image showcases the artist as a true storyteller. Indeed, examples of his career contained within this book run the gamut from his more mainstream comic book work and his partnerships with other writers, to his own authored tales such as the wonderous Cages, Black Dog and Raptor. The publication also showcases his more commercial art-related work including posters for concerts and films alongside his album artwork for various musical acts.
If you love art or know someone who does, Thalamus: The Art of Dave McKean is the book we’ve all been waiting for. It’s a perfect, fulsome and timely representation of the work and influence Dave McKean has had over a near four-decades long career in visual storytelling.
Genius, Illustrated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth – Paperback
Alex Toth was an artist who influenced so many of us as children – whether it was from his impeccable and often imitated design work in animation or his visually dynamic comic book storytelling.
Genius, Illustrated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth is a 352-page softcover book, written and compiled by Dean Mullaney and Bruce Canwell and published by IDW, detailing the legendary creator’s artistic achievements working with DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Red Circle and Warren along with animation houses such as Hanna Barbara, Ruby-Spears and many others. Released earlier this year, it’s the second book in a series dedicated to Toth, following the illustrated biography, 2022’s paperback edition of Genius Isolated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth, and seamlessly leads into the recently released hardcover version of Genius Animated: The Cartoon Art of Alex Toth.
From Space Ghost to Hot Wheels comics; from Super Friends to The Herculoids; from westerns to war to sci-fi to love stories, Toth was a master of the visual medium and one of the greatest illustrators that the cartoon and comic book industries have ever had.
Genius, Illustrated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth is a treasure trove of Toth background story alongside his drawings, sketches, doodles, ad art and illustrated pieces. It makes a perfect (and perfectly affordable) gift for any lover of the visual medium.
So, there you have it. A fulsome list of great comic books and graphic novels and art books that were released in 2023 and would make a great gift for a friend or loved one this holiday season.
One last note before we collectively head off to our local comic stores and book shops to complete our shopping escapades: Boxing Day is just around the bend. Any one of these entries would look great…in your own hands and on your own shelves.
Best wishes to you and yours over the holiday season and, as much as you’re looking after others, don’t forget to look after yourselves.