An Artist’s Edition By Any Other Name [Updated]
[This article was originally published on November 3, 2016. I’m updating it now to reflect the changes in the industry.]
After Scott Dunbier created the “Absolute” format at DC, he brought the “Artist’s Edition” format to IDW.
These amazing and already-legendary books are shot directly from the original art in full color, warts and all, and are reprinted at full size. The logistics and the mechanics that go into making a book like this well justify the higher price tag the books command, which is generally between $100 and $150 for six issues’ worth of comics. (See my review of the “David Mazzuchelli Daredevil: Born Again Artist’s Edition” for an example.)
Publishers love higher price tags, which can often mean better profit margins, though I’m sure they’re not as high as originally projected. The amount of editorial work that has to go into one of these books is intense.
A Quick Description of IDW’s Terminology
IDW has three different lines in this series. “Artist’s Edition” is the headliner books. These are the full-sized books collecting about six comics’ worth of material, reprinted at the original art boards’ size.
The “Artisan Edition” is the budget line of “Artist’s Edition.” It’s the softcover 8″ x 12″ book that reprints the original art, just not at its full size. The price difference is staggering. These books are only $25 or so.
The “Artifact Edition” title is no longer being used. Originally, that was just an “Artist’s Edition” that didn’t include complete stories. It would be a hodgepodge of original art pieces from a given artist’s run on a series.
As the series grew to include books collecting just cover works at full size, they retired that name. “Artist’s Edition” just means it’s full-size now. You’ll have to read each book’s description to see whether it contains full stories or not.
Unintended Consequences (Though Predictable)
IDW’s line was so impressive and so popular that, of course, everyone ripped it off.
Er, I mean, they interpreted the format for their own line and carefully stepped around the name to sound more individualistic.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?
Dynamite has an “Art Edition” for books like Frank Thorne’s Red Sonja. I appreciate this subtle rebranding because it saves me five keystrokes every time I reference it.
Image has published single issues of comics such as “The Walking Dead” #1 at this larger size, under their banner of “Giant-Sized Artist’s Proof Edition.” This is sometimes referred to as an “Artist Proof” edition, which I guess means that no artist can ruin it? Or that it’s slightly alcohol-fueled? They look more like coloring books, just because they’re so relatively thin.
With “Spawn” and, most recently, “The Savage Dragon,” Image is using “Vault Edition” to indicate the oversized hardcover editions with complete issues included. The Spawn edition included the first 7 issues, while the first Dragon book has basically 8 issues’ worth of material. (It’s complicated. Read the details here.)
Titan went with “The Original Art Edition” for the Archie Goodwin/Walter Simonson “Alien: An Illustrated Story” reprint. It’s the only such book Titan has published to date.
Graphitti worked with DC to publish “Gallery Editions” of such books as Frank Miller’s “Ronin” and “The Dark Knight Returns.” You can find their complete list here.
Marvel misses the point with their “Adamantium Edition” line. It’s just a supersized reprinting, from the original color files, and 700+ pages long. This is more Marvel’s attempt to one-up DC’s “Absolute” editions… They’re out of print now, but check Amazon to see which third parties are selling the X-Men editions or the original Wolverine book.
In the meantime, Marvel is happy licensing out its characters to IDW to make “Artist’s Editions”.
Just when you thought they were running out of fancy brand names that sound close to “Artist’s Edition” without being “Artist’s Edition,” Dark Horse jumped into the fray. Not once, but twice!
Dark Horse has a “Curator’s Edition” for books like “Sin City: The Hard Good-Bye” (my review), and a “Gallery Edition” for the Frank Miller/Walter Simonson “Robocop vs. Terminator”, and Stan Sakai’s “Usagi Yojimbo.” I reviewed the second Usagi edition, “The Artist and Other Stories.”
2000 A.D. coined the term “Apex Edition” for its artist-themed reprints, such as “The Art of Mick McMahon” and “The Art of Steve Dillon”.
Fantagraphics has “Studio Edition” for its collections themed by artists like Ed Piskor, Daniel Clowes, and Bill Ward. See the whole catalog here.
Is that it? Am I missing any other publishers doing the same thing? Let me know in the comments below and I’ll add them in!
The Future
Scott Dunbier left IDW about a year ago. He’s starting up his own publishing company named Act 4 and promises more big books. Details are yet to come, but I’m excited about the Darwyn Cooke’s “The Spirit” reprint he’s hinted at, in whatever form it takes. He’s also announced a few other AE-like titles under the moniker “Connoisseur Edition.”
So while we’re not running out of words to label these books with, we do seem to be going in a very French-sounding direction. I’m all for that!
As always, keep an eye on AEIndex.org for all the happenings in this space. It’s an invaluable reference for this material.
[Disclosure: Many of the links above will take you to Amazon if you wish to buy one of those books. This website will get a couple percent to keep it funded, and it won’t cost you a cent extra. Thanks for your support!]
IDW kinda imitated itself with their hardcover RIO collection. Don’t think it was full size but it was printed from the original art and at £45 (and with the exchange rate these days!) or less when I picked it up for over 200 pages was quite the deal.
Rebellion also did an artists edition of the first Zenith ‘phase’ in an Apex Edition (see what they did there) its good value at £65 but even better when they did a clearout when moving warehouses and I managed to pick it up for only £32.50. One of those all time great deals you are so glad you picked up. I don’t think Steve Yeowell is quite at his artist peak in Phase , you need Phase 3 for that, but its bloomin’ great stuff.
Fantagraphics has two Studio Editions in the works for release next year, Hal Foster and Jaime Hernandez. Genesis West has an Original Art Archives of Barry Windsor-Smith’s Red Nails published in 2013. Hermes Press is to release an Archival Edition of Frank Thorne’s Ghita at some point. I maintain a list of all published and upcoming books in the Artist’s Edition format at aeindex.org.
Nitpicker here : Found one typo in this above text : “Artifact Editon”
Also, as a french man, I can’t help but shiver everytime I read the awfully americanised “connoisseur” used instead of the proper french word “connaisseur”, but I guess that’s just me.
Aside from that, honestly, I considered buying this type of book once or twice but always ultimately refrained from it, I’d rather buy one or two good pieces of original art to hang on my wall, rather than repros that don’t add much to the experience. And in any case I don’t consider any artist born before 1950 worthy of this kind of treatment.