Five Comic Collections Of Preposterous Size

“They have to be compensating for something” I thought.

These were my thoughts upon seeing Enormous, a new Image/Shadowline one-shot comic by writer Tim Daniel and artist Mehdi Cheggour. Released during the week of our lord, the San Diego Comic-Con, seeing this treasury edition was akin to seeing one of the tablets of the Ten Commandments hanging off the shelf. Far too large to carry comfortably, It was Herculean by standard comic sizes and a nightmare for the regular “grab-bag” shopper. At 64 pages and kindly oversized it was, If nothing else, a life raft in case the world’s water levels spiked north twenty meters.

Seen Above: The Unstoppable Force

Oversize editions have long been in vogue for comic-collectors and gift-buyers. Promising extras from scripts to scans these editions sometimes border on the insanely elephantine. 

A moratorium on spoilers. You're welcome.

The following graphic novels will make your shelves quake with fear and have you pausing to consider life insurance. By no means would you want to carry these around a convention floor, but damn, they sure look good.

#5) Absolute Editions

These giants travel in packs.

Still smaller than Moore's rage.

Batman. Sandman. Parker: Martini Edition. These titles, typically by DC Comics and its imprint Vertigo (although Image is now catching up) are presented in Absolute” hardcovers with snazzy slipcases and supplementary material to add to their austerity (and weight). These collections lord over most others with 8”x12” of mass-size glory, but some recent “creative” recolours have drawn the ire of comic-purists. 

#4) Jeff Smith’s Bone - 20th Anniversary Edition

I first read Bone the same way most kids did growing up: Scholastic book-orders or samplers in Disney Adventures from the grocery store. While I’m still waiting for that animated feature, Jeff Smith has recently published the 20th Anniversary Edition, or as I affectionally call it: “The Slab”.

30th edition: human bone.

The 1300-page epic is collected in a newly-coloured one volume edition with signed art limited at 2000 copies, a cover gallery, documentary DVD, and a 22k Gold-Plated Coin. While the extras are whopping and great, reading Bone in one binding can border on the near-absurd. Not intended so much for readers as collectors, the Bone 20th Anniversary Edition holds up as a gargantuan accomplishment, the series having had more than 13 printings and reigning in ten Eisner awards.

#3) Hellboy (Library Edition)

For Mike Mignola and his team at Dark Horse Comics the word “Library” comes to mind when describing their oversize formats (while for others it drums up stale smells and kooky-eyed librarians). 

The big red hand of doom.

Clocking in at 9”x12” each volume contains two trade paperbacks worth of comics and has extensive sketch pages as back-up matter. Since the series began in 1993 it has been a cult hit and you have to admit, nowhere will you find this same sort of quality production on a comic with felt covers and gold-stamping -- and face it, a bookmark-string is classy.

#2) Wednesday Comics (DC Anthology)

It smelled strange and confused a lot of people, but the 14”x20” broadsheet format Wednesday Comics was a success because of its creative teams and oversize formatting. Released in the size of an old Sunday newspaper, the weekly twelve-issue series featured fifteen stories by big names in comics; Azzarello, Gibbons, Sook, Arcudi, Busiek, Gaiman, Allread, Pope, Simonson, Palmiotti, Conner, and the Kuberts. Opening the cover, one can’t help but be overwhelmed by the rich colours at play and not long after--

On the tops of many top 10 lists... And shelves.

--its over and you have nowhere to put the damn thing. 

#1) Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland

What’s better than big? Old and Big. First printed in newspaper format between 1905-1910, Little Nemo clocks in at 16”x21” and stands as a comic classic by creator Winsor McCay. Most people will be familiar with Nemo from its 1992 US-release animated film and its equally large financial flop of making back less than half of its budget.

He's big in Japan.

Nemo is a staple in comic history, being referenced in modern classics by Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman and having served as an influence for a whole new generation of comic-lovers with its influence seen in Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are and In the Night Kitchen. It might be hard to find the book in print but realistically at this size it shouldn’t be too hard to see.

Follow @CanuckGoose for more quacks and tweets by Colyn deGraaff