The Epic Collections are similar to the Marvel Essentials titles Marvel has published over the past several years, but in full color. Volumes reprinting Amazing Spider-Man, Avengers, Captain America, Fantastic Four, Iron Man and Thor are planned, and perhaps others.
While the books themselves will be complete and chronological, they may not be published sequentially, says David Gabriel,Marvel senior vice president of sales.
"This will be like starting a giant puzzle on your shelves (for those that like this sort of thing). So for example Iron Man Epic Collection 'Vol. 10' appears one month telling the stories from 1982, the next volume might be 'Vol. 5' presenting the stories from Iron Man #47-67, and so on across our biggest character lines."
Gabriel says they're planning about 20 volumes for each line, and that no existing reprint lines will be affected by the new initiative. The first releases are listed at approximately 450 pages, and Gabriel says they'll initially be released at about once a month, though that could change depending on response. List price ranges from $34.99 to $39.99.I prefer the Marvel Omnibus series due to the oversized art and inclusion of letter pages and house ads, etc., so I figure I'll stick with that line.
It'll be nice to see some of this material in color in relatively affordable editions, but it does seem like Marvel is going to the well quite bit with all these re-prints, in multiple formats, so many times over the past decade or so.
Since they want fans to keep re-buying the same stuff over and over, I'd like to see a regular reprint title -- standard floppy -- ala Marvel's Greatest Comics on the stands each month. That would really scratch the nostalgia itch.
To not release these titles sequentially makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Whose stupid idea was that?
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