Limited Collectors Edition C-43 'Christmas With the Super-Heroes' Facsimile Edition

The fan favorite tabloid treasury returns in this facsimile edition! 5 holiday classics presented in oversized fashion with remastered art and color.

• A pair of Scrooges seek to force Santa to privatize or face a total cease of magical operations. Meanwhile Lois and Clark are leading a toy drive sponsored by the Daily Planet and those two haters of Christmas have decided to put the newspaper out of the toy  business as well. Enter the Man of Steel to save Christmas not just for Metropolis, but all the children of the world!
• On Christmas Eve, Batman gets summoned by the Bat-Signal to sing Christmas carols with Commissioner Gordon and the GCPD.
• Set during World War II, Wonder Woman is assisted by a Douglas Fir of all things, in uncovering a Nazi spy ring near the Canadian border on a snowy Christmas Eve.
• The House of Mystery's Cain spins a tale about a holiday intruder in true DC horror fashion in 'Night Prowler!'.
• Set during his spandex wearing days, the Sandman and his sidekick Sandy stumble across a mob scheme involving a department store Santa.

All 5 stories were reprints. Amazingly enough, I had only previously read the Batman story. Written by Denny O'Neil with art by Neal Adams, I've read this story previously in several retrospectives on the amazing work these two did in the 70s for DC. I've probably also read the House of Mystery story and just don't recall as I have several HOM omnibuses. But as for the other 3 stories, they were brand new to me!

The Superman story is from a comic book titled Superman's Christmas Adventure. It is something that I wasn't aware of until I got this. The story is pretty long which has me wondering if I got all the material from that book or if there's more that I am going to want to add to my ever-growing Christmas comic collection. (Turns out, I don't!)

I'm also wondering about the Wonder Woman story. This month, DC is re-releasing a facsimile edition of a classic 1940s Christmas issue of Sensation Comics. I know that my favorite LCS has a copy on order for me. I'm just wondering if the story from this 1975 reprint is from that issue or not. It doesn't make sense to me that DC would release the same story in the same month in 2 different facsimiles. But if so, unless there is a lot more holiday material in it, I don't want to spend money on the same thing in 2 different formats.

Speaking of money, this recreation saved me some mega bucks. It unfortunately doesn't come with a mid-70s cover price of $1.00. However, $12.99 new was a much better price to pay than asking prices of anywhere between $60 and $100 that I have seen online and in the wild. Besides, this WAS a reprint of Christmas reprints. I didn't have to have the original. I just wanted a copy to call my own. But did somebody trim the cover to this book wrong? The filler material is a good 1/10 of an inch larger than the cover on both the top and the bottom. That doesn't seem up to specs to me...

Featuring Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Len Wein, William Moulton Marston and many other comic book legends, this brought back so many memories of when my parents would give me with a Christmas themed comic book or two to read on Christmas Eve in anticipation of St. Nick.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

The Sandman: Overture Deluxe Edition

   It's 1917 and Morpheus, the Sandman, is on a most desperate mission. A sentient star has gone insane and is threatening the very existence of the universe. Normally, to a member of the eternal Endless, a problem such as the end of a plane of existence is no big loss. But the cause of this crisis is purely Dream's fault and he must act quickly to correct the situation. Morpheus' mission will be perilous and take him to the very edge of Night and the through countless annuals of Time. But the Sandman will not be going at it alone, as he is joined by the feline concept of Dreams and a young girl named Hope.

    The Sandman: Overture is both a sequel to the multi-award winning Vertigo series The Sandman by Neil Gaiman. But it's also a prequel to the direct events that occur just prior to the very first page of Sandman #1, January 1989. It's for this very reason that I think Neil Gaiman is the Lewis Carrol of the Modern Age.

   Gaiman's works put your average concept of reality and spin it on its ear. Up is down, yet in reverse down might not always be up. Though it's all based to quote Obi-Wan Kenobi 'on a certain point of view,' every twist and turn in a Gaiman story have a rhyme behind its reasonings. Thankfully, Gaiman doesn't seem to be as obsessed mathematics like Carrol is. But then again, maybe he is and I just don't know it!

   I love Gaiman! I may not understand every little concept he's trying to put into place with his works, but I never find myself at the end going 'what in the hell did I just read?' He's also one of the very few writers that I don't mind taking a break from to research the themes and symbolism of his works nor does it frustrate or bore me to read his stuff over and over. It's like re-watching an episode of the Simpsons, as you always find something new, even if you've seen it a hundred times prior. Thus, I'm going to violate my own personal reading rule and I'm going to give Gaiman's original The Sandman another read. 

   Obviously, this graphic novel is the perfect starting point. Featuring covers by Dave McKean, coloring by Dave Stewart, and lettering by Todd Klein, along with series creator and writer Gaiman, Overture isn't a reboot but a revival. The only difference is the inclusion of new (to the Sandman) artist JH Williams III (Batwoman) but to be honest, I couldn't tell. I felt like Williams had been the only Sandman artist with how seamless and timeless he made the art in the miniseries. OH, and be sure to read all of the 'direct's cut' material in the back of this edition.  Every article is worth the read!

   A true masterpiece that can only be improved through multiple readings.

   Worth Consuming

   Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.