Look, sometimes we want to go the economical route and get the paperback, dollar-bin back issues, or the Essential/Showcase editions -- and sometimes, for those very special books closest to our hearts, we go ahead and get the super-mega deluxe edition of a comic.

I'm not talking about a nice hardcover edition... I'm talking about the super-premium ones where you'd almost never pay full-price...

So, what you got? Me? Thanks for asking. I gots --

ABSOLUTE EDITIONS

- Watchmen
- Dark Knight (Returns/Strikes Again)
- All-Star Superman
- Planetary Vol. 1 - 2
- Justice
- New Frontier
- Batman: Hush

OMNIBUS

- The Mighty Thor by Walt Simonson
- X-Statix
- Captain Britain
- The Incredible Hulk
- Devil Dinosaur
- Thor by JMS (I don't know why I got this... I had credit at the shop and was Thor-crazy during the movie release)
- Kamandi Vol. 1 - 2
- Jack Kirby's Fourth World Vol. 1 - 4
- OMAC
- The Demon
- Battle Chasers

MARVEL MASTERWORKS / DC ARCHIVES

- The Mighty Thor Vol. 1 - 9
- Fantastic Four Vol. 1 - 10
- Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1 - 12
- The Inhumans
- X-Men Vol. 1 - 2
- Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1 - 8
- Captain Marvel Vol. 3
- Warlock Vol. 2
- The New Teen Titans Vol. 1 - 4

ARTIST EDITIONS

- Wally Wood
- The Rocketeer

Showcases rule, Absolutes drool.

I've got Tarzan: The Jesse Marsh Years Archives Vol. 1-2 and Vol. 1 of the recent Steve Canyon strips.

I counted last night; I have 21 Marvel Omnibuses. I didn't count the DC ones or Absolutes. I was just waiting for the PS3 to update (since it has to do it every fucking time I turn it on) so I could work out, and they were on the shelf there. I bet I have at least the same number of DC ones though. Also the new Fantagraphics Carl Barks library, which I have all of so far, and will purchase every one of them.

The thing about it is I would never have bought ANY of them (well, maybe the Barks) at full price; Amazon is phenomenal for this stuff.

When I get home tonight I'll try and remember to go do a quick inventory and post exactly what I have.

Same here. My overall collection is probably 3 to 4 times larger than it would be if I had to pay full retail.

Omnibuses, Absolutes and Deluxe:

Avengers 1
Kirby Captain America
Captain America Reborn
Daredevil by Bendis
Daredevil by Brubaker and Lark 1-2
Devil Dinosaur
Eternals
Tomb of Dracula 1
Tomb of Dracula 2
Tomb of Dracula 3
Fantastic Four 1
Fantastic Four 2
Howard the Duck
The Incredible Hulk 1
The nvincible Iron Man 1
Man-Thing
The Amazing Spider-Man 1
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Mighty Thor 1
Daredevil by Frank Miller 1
Daredevil by Frank Miller 2
Fantastic Four by Byrne 1
Marvels
Mighty Thor by Simonson 1
Ultimates 1-2
The X-Men 1
The X-Men 2
Uncanny X-Men 1
X-Men Fall of the Mutants
X-Men: Inferno
X-Men by Claremont and Lee 1
X-Men by Claremont and Lee 2
X-Statix
X-Men Dark Phoenix Anniversary Edition
X-Men: Extinction Agenda
X-Men: Mutant Massacre
New X-Men
New Teen Titans 1
New Teen Titans 2
Flash by Johns 1
Flash by Johns 2
Hawkman by Johns 1
Absolute Justice by Alex Ross
Jack Kirby's Demon
Jack Kirby's Fourth World 1- 4
Jack Kirby's Omac
Jack Kirby Omibus 1
Steve Ditko Omnibus 1 - 2
The Creeper by Steve Ditko
Starman Omnibus 1-6
Absolute Sandman 1-4
House of Secrets
Sleeper
Promethea 1-3
Batman: Hush
Deadman
100 Bullets 1-7
Fables 1-6
Death by Gaiman
Books of Magic
Y the Last Man Complete
Watchman
Black Orchid
Absolute Planetary 1-2
Complete Ex Machina
Tom Strong 1-2
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Hellboy 1-5
B.P.R.D. 1-4
Bone one volume color edition
Madman Gargantua
Incognito
Criminal 1-2
Judge Dredd by Bolland
Cages

Archives:

Action Heroes 1-2, Adam Strange1-3, Aquaman1, Atom1-2, Brave & Bold 1, Challengers of the Unknown 1-2, Dark Knight 1, Doom Patrol 1-5, Dynamic Duo1-2, Enemy Ace 1-2, The Flash 1-6, Green Lantern 1-7, Hawkman 1-2, Justice League 1-10, Kamandi 1-2, Legion of Super-Heroes 1-13, Lois Lane 1, Metal Men 1, Sgt. Rock 1-2, Shazam! 1-2, Shazam! Family 1, Supergirl 1-2, Superman 1, Superman: Man of Tomorrow 1-2, New Teen Titans 1-4,

Tarzan Archives 1-3

Masterworks:

The Avengers 5-12, Captain America 4-5, Captain Marvel 1-4, Daredevil 1-6, Dr. Strange 1-5, The Inhumans 1-2, Iron Man 3-4, Sub-Mariner 1, Silver Surfer 1-2, Thor 4, Warlock, 1-2, X-Men 1-6, Uncanny X-Men 1-8

Plus a few others probably.

This make take some doing for me to figure it out. And they're not all in the same place:

Omnibuseses

Amazing Spider-man 1, 2
FF 1, 2
Hulk 1
Uncanny X-Men 1
Captain Britain
Ultimates 1, 2
Man-Thing

All the EC's that have come out (about 14 of them or so)
The coveted EC picto-fiction library (4 volumes)

All the Spirit Archives (filled in thanks to Stephen)
Absolute Watchmen
Absolute Sandman

DC "bowtie editions":
Kamandi 1, 2
Steve Ditko Omnibus 1, 2
The Creeper by Steve Ditko

DC Archives ( and very similar things):
Action Heroes 2
Roots of the Swamp Thing ( that's a deluxe Wein/Wrightson archive)
Sgt. Rock 1-4

Marvel Masterworks
Deathlok
Nick Fury 1-2
X-Men 7

Creepy Archives (first 4 or 5).
Eerie Archives (I think 2)

Alan Moore Swamp Thing hardcovers, 1-5

Crime Does Not Pay Archives 1-3

Fantagraphics Carl Barks 1-4 (2 Uncle Scrooges, 2 Donald Ducks)

Prince Valiant Archives from Fantagraphics 1-2

Simon and Kirby Crime from Titan Books

The entire run of The 'Nam in custom bound volumes 1-4

I give up. A few more things here and there, but that's mostly it.

No Omni, Arcis, or Absos.
Showcases only, have about haklf of them with a goal of all.

I tend to focus on collecting the originals, but I have picked up a lot of the various collections over the years.

This makes me sad in my tummy.

?

I have only X-Men 7, the awesome one with Steve Englehart's Beast saga from Amazing Adventures. And this is the one you turned your nose up at.

Please don't yell at me. I only have so much money and I promised myself that I would keep buy the New 52 trades until the first storylines come to an end.

I hereby call truce, if you will not yell at me for only buying number 7.

What's the basics of the Beast story? Villain? Artist? Gil Kane? What other stories are included in this volume?

High five.

89 Masterworks, almost all the Silver Age + stuff.
Flash Archives 1-4
Teen Titans Archives 1-4
Batman Illustrated by Neal Adams 1-3
3 DC Comics Library
Kamandi Omnibus vol 1
Y The Last Man Deluxe 1-5
Fables Deluxe 1-6
All Astro City hardcovers
Marvel Fantastic Firsts limited slipcase hardcover
Very Best of the X-Men limited slipcase hardcover
Green Lantern/Green Arrow slipcase hardcover
Daredevil by Bendis HC vol 1-6
60 Marvel Premiere HC's
Atlantis Attacks Omnibus
Evolutionary War Omnibus
Amazing Spider-Man volume 1 Omnibus
Captain America by Jack Kirby Omnibus
Captain America by Brubaker vol 1 Omnibus
Daredevil Companion by Frank Miller Omnibus
Fantastic Four by Byrne Omnibus
Silver Surfer Omnibus
Fall of the Mutants Omnibus
Uncanny X-Men by Byrne/Claremont omnibus
EC Comics library Vault of Horror slipcase
EC Comics library Weird Science slipcase
Absolute Dark Knight
Absolute kingdom Come
Absolute Crisis on Infinite Earths
Absolute JLA/Avengers

I think you could make a decent argument that this story was one of the dividing lines for the end of the Silver Age.

1971. Gerry Conway is given Amazing Adventures. At the time, the trend at Marvel was towards horror (Tomb of Dracula would come out right after). The X-Men characters are in the ditch. So he decides to write a series of stories about Hank McCoy trying to cure himself, and accidently transforming himself into the furry version of the beast. What's cool about it is the way they're written (at first) kind of like schlocky horror tales from the 1950's or something. It's got all that "you" this "you" that -- kind of like Man-Thing, which Conway would come out with a year later. The art is kind of rough, but kind of cool in a rough way. It has a Man-Thing feel to it --



After one issue, they go right to Steve Englehart and Mike Ploog. Hank is stuck this way, but makes a rubber mask to supposedly look just like his old self (it fools everybody!).

After that, in typical Bronze Age fashion, it's a bunch of meet-ups where he fights other heroes. The artist switches all around, with Tom Sutton doing a lot. It's just one of those little corners of the Marvel Universe that I love -- the Beast turned furry for some twisted Bronze Age reason and they decided to keep it that way forever.

Probably like it because I have a soft spot for whenever they genre-bend with the superheroes.

Thanks, Jay. Me likey. I will add it to my shopping list.

Got a look at things, so here goes:

Marvel Omnibuses:
FF 1, 2
Byrne FF
Simonson Thor
Daredevil by Miller (both)
Amazing Spider-Man 1, 2
Michelinie/McFarlane Spider-Man
Untold Tales of Spider-Man
Invincible Iron Man 1, 2
Michelinie/Layton Iron Man
Devil Dinosaur
Amazing Fantasy
Ultimates
Astonishing X-Men
Ultimate Marvel Team-Up (not an Omnibus in name, but the same size/format)
Brubaker's Cap 1-3

DC Omnibus/Absolutes:
Kingdom Come
Dini/Ross Superheroes
Hush
Watchmen
New Frontier
Geoff Johns Hawkman
Geoff Johns Teen Titans
New Teen Titans 1, 2, and soon 3
Batman Archives 1
Complete (then) Miller Batman HC
All the current Batman and Superman collections of silver/bronze age stuff so far (Aparo, Colon, Alan Davis, Don Newton, Marshall Rogers, and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez)
The complete Jack Kirby Fourth World 1-4

Other:
Fantagraphics complete Segar Popeye (6 volumes)
The Carl Barks stuff
Indiana Jones DH Omnibuses (5 of them)
Joe Kubert Tarzan 1

And that's not including any of my standard size hardcovers, trade paperbacks, or the Essentials and Absolutes. I have a pic of the latter two and a few random trades on the same shelves. Coming up...

Pardon my dust.

Oh yeah, forgot I had Tarzan by Kubert Archives Vol. 1 and the Hawkman Archives Vol. 1 - 2, also by Kubert.