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Too damn cool. I “Absolute”-ly cannot wait for this book to come out (couldn’t resist the terrible pun…)

DC definitely knows how to get me to buy the same comics twice. and 3 times… And I’ll be buying 2 copies each of these. One for me and one for my brother, who also loved this series. Again, too damn cool. And thanks for creating some of the most visually appealing comics around.

Wow! Thank you, Pete H. It thrills me to no end to hear such excitement for this project.

Yes Yes Yes!!! I hope DC doesn’t fuck over the Moore fans with this one the way they did the Absolute Black Dossier!

that was the new i was waiting for. kinda.
I guess the plans you were talking about some time ago, jh (having Jeromy Cox recolor the issues before he was part of the team, you reworking some of the early pages and printing the book with double-sized pages to have each spread in all of its glory) are off the table, but will there be any extra material in it?

Hello ramon
Considering we are not going to try put anything in this book that you would not expect to see in a book, there will be little chance of something going wrong 🙂

Hey there cmeyriat
You are correct, unfortunately. It mainly has to do with cost of producing the book versus what they feel is a safe price tag to charge the fans. The company seems to think that to do it in “widescreen” would mean that they would have to charge a significantly higher price to pay for that kind of production because of the enormous size the book would then be and they really want the books to be as affordable as possible, to keep the price in line with other Absolutes.

As for extras. This first Volume will be kinda of light because of the page count. Here is a basic run down of what this first edition will have…
new slipcase cover printed in gold embossed ink on both sides

new book cover full color that is sort of a wrap cover around both sides with spot varnishing in key places

new transformational chapterhead designs motif by me that will carry throughout to it’s final conclusion at the end of the 3rd volume

new art and design for endpapers by me that will most likely be different for each consecutive volume

Alan’s original introduction that was printed previously where he talks about the fictional history of Promethea

the first 12 issues

the first 13 covers (this includes the variant to issue 1)

and an afterword by someone I’ve asked to do it and hopefully they will agree to do so and therefore cannot discuss who it is until they do
: )

OK, you just made my whole week. PROMETHEA is, to my mind, one of the most sophisticated, magical masterpieces I’ve ever encountered, and that’s no hyperbole. Your artwork for it is sublime, and it’s my favorite thing Moore has ever written. It has completely enriched my life, and I’m thrilled it is getting the royal treatment. Hopefully it will gain a much-deserved wider audience with this release. Wondering if the 2 free-standing posters will be re-released as well?

This is great news !
Too bad that Promethea will not get the “widescreen” Mega Absolute treatment. But the size, the quality paper and a better printing are wonderful news.
I wonder if the online petition (251 signatures) did have any impact.
I’m glad to see that you’re closely associated to production : the chapterheads and the endpapers will be wonders !

Nice to know that you (and Todd?) are involved with the design of this book – I’m sure it will look stunning.

I’ll second the request for a reprint of the full-size poster version of issue #32 (hopefully to be provided as an extra with volume 3).

Has the release schedule been decided for volumes 2-3 yet (and do you know how the remaining issues will be split between them)?

fair enough and thanks for the answer, jh. I never believed in the possibility of the widescreen remastered book anyway so i won’t spoil my pleasure of having a deluxe edition of THE book deserving that treatment if there’s one by thinking “it would be even better if…”.
Nice to know we’ll have at least a few extras in it (and i guess the lower page count in the 2 next volumes will allow more extras)

Hey there Pam
Thank you so much for sharing your sentiments. I really appreciate how much this means to you. As for the posters… we are working diligently to make this the best set of books that costs will allow without the price tag getting too high.

Hey there Rodolphe
All your support for this project has been deeply regarded.

Hey there Rob A
About the posters… see above post…

Basically the issue beakdown for the next 2 will be the Qabalah Quest” issues in volume 2 and “The Armageddon” storyline for the 3rd. I’m not currently too sure what the release schedule will be like. Probably something like 8 to 10 months apart, much like they did with Absolute Sandman. So it won’t break people’s bank accounts.
🙂

Hello again cmeyriat
Yeah, the “widescreen” treatment would be my choice too, but I guess that will have to be the Immateria edition. Unless things change of course…

This is extremely good news! I have a post detailing forthcoming work by Alan Moore in 2009, which I will add this to forthwith.

Thanks, Padraig

Congratulations. It’s well deserved, and I can’t wait to see how good it looks on my shelf.

Thanks, Ray

I’m really excited about these – it’s possibly my favourite work from both you and Alan, and the Absolute Editions are the best way to show that off.

Congratulations, however belated, on co-creating a series that I think in years to come will be regarded as a landmark in Comics fiction.

Hey there Aaron
thank you very much.

Arrrgh!

This will be the THIRD time around for me buying Promethea after getting all the original issues, including the variant #1 and final issue, signed by you and along and also the posters. But this is a must!

I’m a comics shop manager in Toronto and a big fan of your work. This is something of a bittersweet announcement. I’ve been waiting for Promethea to get proper deluxe treatment, but I really think the widescreen format (like what is used for the 300 HC) would have been the way to go with this. Even if it cost $150, I think it would sell better than a $100 “normal” Absolute edition. The fact that these books are so thick will make it more difficult to appreciate the gutterless storytelling in Promethea, as 15% of each page disappears into the shadowy valley between pages.

And just an aesthetic note: I really think these editions would look better if it did not say ABSOLUTE in giant type on the spine/cover (but especially the spine. I think just the name of the series in giant type and then in small under that, “The Absolute Edition” or what have you would be better. I say this because seeing ABSOLUTE WATCHMEN on my shelf all the time makes me cringe a little. It should just say WATCHMEN. I mean, I can tell from the size of it that it is gigantic!

Hey there Josh
Sorry you’re a bit disappointed with the format. I argued this point with the publisher a lot and they just don’t trust that the market would support the widescreen design based upon cost. This is what their marketing research people have to say. Personally I think they are wrong, But it came down to either there be an Absolute version or not. So I had to go with it. I honestly feel that if the series had been a giant seller we wouldn’t even need to discuss this. It would get whatever treatment we wanted. But with the series only having sold marginally well, marketing have a tougher job at justifying requests versus costs.

As for losing art in the middle… I’ve been assured that the book will be sewn binding and therefore be able to crack the book wide open.

As for the logo issue… Yeah it is a bit weird isn’t it? I think this is another format branding thing, that if it says “Absolute” that people will subliminally know this comes from DC versus some other publisher, at least that is what I can determine as a reason. This also adds to the reason that I think I couldn’t get them to agree to a widescreen design treatment, it would no longer look like the other Absolute books. Todd is in charge of designing the font and logo for each edition and most likely come up with something that looks nice.

I appreciate the detailed and forthright reply, Mr Williams. I forgot in my original posting to say that the book cover design and the especially this slipcase design look amazing! Beautiful work.

As a small note, I think that a different trade dress on the 5 Promethea trade paperbacks would help them sell better. I know that design was done to fit with the ABC line, but in my opinion, the typeface and the sheer amount of text on the covers is not so appealing, design-wise. I wonder if DC would consider changing the covers with more design-oriented pieces of yours (such as the slipcase cover above, or even the great series of images you used on the back of the trades), the next time each of the volumes is reprinted.

Hello again Josh
Thanks for the kind words about the new images.

As for new trade designs… most likely the only way this would happen is if the series was to become a huge seller and therefore would need a new expanded presence in the book shops or if there were to be a film adaptation. That would definitely get the series to have more attention and cause the company to want to approach a new trade dress and new images. Unfortunately they would still insist on all of that text, even more so now that Watchmen is a full on media monster, they are going to want to push Alan Moore stuff beyond the breaking point in the public.

IT definitely does feel like DC are shoving as much Alan Moore stuff as they can. The Black Dossier AE was an utter dissapointment, with no extras, yet charging the same price as what it would cost for a copy of Sandman AE. Then there was V for Vendetta AE – was there any demand for this? Swamp thing HC I can understand to a point. Now we have Whatever happened to the man of tommorrow HC

What I was surprised at – no disrespect to Promethea, was that Top Ten was not released in Absolute format first, seeing as that only needed one volume. JH, as far as extras go, will the stories, extras for the various ABC specials be included in the latter Absolute volumes? Also, will there be a focus/feature on the making of Promethea #12. I loved that issue(especially seeing as I won a page of promethea art out of it!)

Lastly, did it ever occur to do a limited run of “Widescreen” books and the rest of the print in regular absolute format, thus pleasing everybody?

Alex

Hey there Alex
From what I think there would most likely be some sort of special format books for Alan’s other ABC work at some point. I also think that Promethea is getting some special treatment for two reasons, 2009 is the 10th anniversary if the series release launch, secondly, it is one of Alan’s most highly regarded works, in terms of content. It clearly is the most personal work out of the line.

As for the extras… the first volume won’t have much, due to it’s length but there plans for the other 2 volumes to be as complete as possible. Our goal is to publish EVERYTHING Promethea in this set.

The widescreen format was never going to get done in any form because of company resistance to it. I still think it would have sold to the audience. I honestly think the company wants to not confuse the branding of that format, that all of the absolute style books can sit side by side is what they are after. So they’ve put things in a box basically and are unwilling to break out of it.

thanks for the response JH!

do you think that there will ever be a chance of seeng a set of Promethea tarot cards? Or is that not a possibility now that Alan has finished with DC?

Yeah, I seriously doubt there will ever be Promethea tarot cards, for the reasons you state.

[…] (via Forbidden Planet International): Continuing the theme of Brits Abroad, over on his blog, artist JH Williams reveals what we’d all been suspecting: there will be an Absolute Promethea […]

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