JLA GRANT MORRISON OMNIBUS weighs in at 8 pounds, 1504 pages, and a list price of $150. I didn’t know the JLA GRANT MORRISON OMNIBUS existed until I read about in on Rick Robinson’s blog. You can read what he said about it here.
The artwork and color is fabulous! But the stories of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern and all the other members of the Justice League of America are fun to read. And at over 1500 pages, there are a lot of stories!
I had to rest the JLA GRANT MORRISON OMNIBUS on the Dining Room table to read it. The weight is too much for any lap! But the experience of reading JLA GRANT MORRISON OMNIBUS was terrific! If you have a friend who loves comic books and graphic novels, JLA GRANT MORRISON OMNIBUS would make a perfect gift! Did you read comic books when you were a kid? What was your favorite? GRADE: A
Morrison is one of the most widely-respected comics scripters who don’t write “straight” prose to any notable degree. I picked up some Rachel Pollack DOOM PATROL issues for Very cheap somewhere on a whim, having enjoyed her short fiction, and noted the letter-column whining that her good stories weren’t up to Morrison’s initial relaunch stories. That put me onto him.
My favorite comics, when I began reading in the earliest ’70s, were the horror comics…even the hero/anti-hero comics I’d tend to like and pick up had either a horror element or close enough (The Spectre, Challengers of the Unknown and Batman from DC, Werewolf-by-Night and to some extent the Hulk and Sub-Mariner from Marvel)…but the magazines I’d automatically pick up ran to WEIRD WAR TALES from DC (and the occasional WEIRD WESTERN or the “giant” 100-page THE WITCHING HOUR, at least half-filled with 1950s DC horror comics reprints), TOMB OF DARKNESS (1950s Timely horror comics reprinted by Marvel), and the occasional GHOST MANOR from Charlton or TWILIGHT ZONE from Gold Key. Also the humor comics, mostly MAD (and the collections) and the odd PLOP! (DC’s nearly horrific humor title) and NATIONAL LAMPOON (which had its horrific aspects, as well as cheering amounts of women in the nude when I was 9yo).
Todd, my favorite comic book series was THE FLASH. GREEN LANTERN was a close second. I was also a fan of ADAM STRANGE. BATMAN was fun for a while then got silly when the TV program achieved “Hit” status. I read a few MARVEL COMICS. I had the first issue of FANTATASTIC FOUR. My favorite MARVEL character was IRON MAN. I enjoyed SPIDER-MAN. And the HULK. Then my mom “cleaned” my closet while I was at summer camp and I came home to find all my comics were gone. I switched to paperbacks after that tragedy.
Over the years, I’ve heard and read of this “Mom threw out my comics” thing over and over. It almost seemed like an urban legend instead reality. But I know it’s real because it happened to people I know. So the question is why? Why did mothers of our generation throw away our stuff, and specifically our comics?
Rick, comic books, like newspapers, were considered disposable consumables. People, especially Mothers, thought newspapers and comics should be read and then disposed of. Like you, I know several people–including myself–who fell prey to mothers “clearing out” their comic book collections. I remember showing my mother what a mint copy of FANTASTIC FOUR #1 was selling for. “If you hadn’t thrown that comic away, I could have bought you a new car with the proceeds of its sale!!!”
$150! I’ll pass on this. I read a lot of comics as a kid. Superman, Batman (my favorite), Blackhawk. This was the late fifties so horror comics had pretty much disappeared by then. At a Goodwill or Salvation Army (I can’t remember which) I found and bought a large stack of Uncle Scrooge comics that I ended up loving.. I pretty much gave up comics at about the age of twelve except for Mad magazine. I have read a few graphic novels in recent years such as Sandman, Maus, American Splendor and Watchmen but that’s about it.
Steve, I forgot about BLACKHAWKS. Loved that WHEEL OF DEATH! I read MAD sporadically. Same with UNCLE SCROOGE and ARCHIE.
I read them in the early fifties, mostly the usual suspects, but then real books took over and the comics were left behind.
Michael, I read comic books in the late 1950s and early 1960s, but–like you–made the transition to paperbacks (mostly SF) and Real Books.
I always thought paperbacks WERE real books…
Rick, wrong. In the 1950s and 1960s, paperbacks were consider “unreal” books. Libraries refused to buy paperbacks until the 1970s. That’s why the Kelley Collection is worth so much: no libraries bought/preserved those early paperbacks.
I see, it’s a matter of definition, by libraries, apparently. Prose printed on paper, bound, with a spine = book in my opinion, regardless of what the snooty libraries said.
Rick, libraries of that era discriminated against paperbacks…and comic books, too, for that matter. Now, universities like SUNY at Buffalo are building paperback and comic book and graphic novel collections.
Perfect gift? I don’t give any of my friends $150 presents!
I like these giant collections. My twitchy finger wants to order a lot of them, but so far I’ve kept it under control. I’m currently reading the first Savage Sword of Conan omnibus and the first of two collections of The Books of Magic, started by Neil Gaiman but mostly by John Ney Reiber. Really enjoying both. That first Conan is out of print already, I think. If you want them, you have to grab them early. My twitchy finger really wants the Thor by Jason Aaron collection; I’ll have to decide soon.
I’ll plug my supplier for these and other collections, like the Marvel Essential paperback line of 500-page collections. Cheapgraphicnovels.com prices competitively with Amazon, often beating them, and packages their orders very well, instead of just throwing them into a box.
Jeff, AMAZON has JLA GRANT MORRISON OMNIBUS for about $80. I bought a bunch of MARVEL ESSENTIALS and DC COMICS collections at a book outlet store that sadly closed during the Pandemic.
@ Jeff, I’ll have to check them out.
My brother was the big comic book guy, and was into Marvel as far back as the ’60s. I read various comics but didn’t have a favorite. Even then, I preferred books
I never Didn’t read prose. HUMPTY DUMPTY and CHILDREN’S DIGEST and all my other young-readers’ magazines mixed prose and graphic stories, as did, after, the newspapers…I pretty much gave up on MAD, and had given up on standard comics…but I was still happily reading collections of POGO and Jules FEIFFER/SICK, SICK, SICK and DOONESBURY as I could find them…by age 13, and was grabbing up as many fiction magazines as I could find and afford. A few of which also had some cartoon content, obviously not least THE NEW YORKER and in those days, PLAYBOY (I might get a clerk to sell me NATIONAL LAMPOON, but I had to depend on my father’s issues of PLAYBOY).
As did, after all, the papers…trying to do several tasks at once…
Todd, I can multi-task, but I’d rather focus on one activity until I finish it. The same with books: I just want to read one book at a time. I have friends who are read multiple books at a time and that would just drive me mad!
Todd, I didn’t get interested in PLAYBOY and other “Men’s Magazines” until the mid-1960s. But, I soon tired of them.
I read a lot of comics as a kid. And so did my kids. My favorites, predictably, were Archie and company, Little Lulu. Nancy and Sluggo and some of the JLA comics. Never read Marvel, not sure why.
Patti, DC Comics seemed to be better distributed in the 1960s than MARVEL comics. I never really got into graphic novels, but I have friends who spend thousands of dollars collecting them.
In the late 50s I only had access to the Walt Disney comics – if you can call them that way.
Only once in a while friends showed me stuff like Superman or Batman – not really interested …
Around 1960 I really started reading SF and later as a student MAD (had a subscription for many years when i made money and got a credit card) – to show me the “American Way of Life”.
I also stayed away from all those Superman movies etc.
Wolf, I read WALT DISNEY comics–mostly UNCLE SCROOGE–but I preferred superheroes at that age. Disney comics seemed like “kid stuff.” Loved MAD during the 1960s. Then, more or less, moved on.
I did buy comic books when I was young, but don’t remember a specific favourite. I think the Classic Comics based on great novels cost an extra five cents when they came out. I think the only comics I still have are a couple based on baseball players that a friend gave me years ago. A couple of weeks ago I bought a book titled The Comics A Complete Collection by Brian Walker in a thrift store for $3.60. It’s a massive book of 675 pages on newspaper comics and brought back memories of many comics that I had forgotten such as Joe Palooka, King of the Royal Mounted and Steve Canyon. It’s a keeper.
Kent, I remember buying comic books for 10 cents. Then they went up to 12 cents. I read some CLASSIC COMICS but preferred DC and MARVEL.
I read comics sporadically as a kid but when I was in my early twenties I discovered comics fandom and dove in head first! I produced fanzines, attended conventions, and became a BNF (Big Name Fan)! It didn’t last long! A recession and personal penury forced me to sell off my collection and I never went back! I could buy several houses with what those comics are worth today! Imagine, I didn’t buy an Action #1 because I thought $300 was highway robbery!
Bob, I know Art Scott is selling off much of his comic book collection for Big Bucks! Yes, back in the day $300 for ACTION #1 was pricey. But today: “An issue of ‘Action Comics #1’ sold for US $3.25 million in a private sale via ComicConnect.com, an online auction and consignment company.”
Thanks for the ping back, George!
That JLA Omnibus was a chore to read, wasn’t it? As a kid (remember, I was born in 1945), I read the Disney comics, Mickey Mouse and Friends (in which he was often a sleuth) which included Gyro Gearloose, Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge . At one time I had a subscription to the Mickey Mouse, it came rolled in a tube and I never could get those flat. I also occasionally got a copy of Casper.
Later, I bought Batman and Detective Comics, which is also a Batman comic. I also liked The Flash before he started moving through time with super speed. As for Marvel, I liked Fantastic Four and The Avengers. Later, I really enjoyed Iron Man.
Much later, you may recall, I worked briefly for Crossgen Comics as a web guy. I liked most of their comics a lot.
Rick, it took me three days to read the whole 1504 pages of JLA GRANT MORRISON OMNIBUS. But, it was a labor of love. I was always a big fan of the Justice League of America!
When Justice League of America first came out, it immediately jumped to the #1 spot on my personal favorites list.
I had tremendous access to comics when I was a kid. My grandfather was a plumber, and one of his customers had boxes of comics. My grandfather would borrow a box and bring them to his house, and whenever I was over (which was very often) I would go and read them. All of them. This was when not many superheroes were being published except Superman and Batman, but so much else. I read westerns and war comics and romance comics and Classics Illustrated and whatever else there was. There were also kids comics, Disney and Richie Rich and Casper…the Fox and the Crow…Sugar and Spike. Even then I recognized that Little Lulu was pretty much better than anything except Uncle Scrooge. I’d read and reread them, and then after a while that box went back and a new one showed up. What could be better?
Jeff, you had a comic book paradise as a kid! My friends and I would share our comic books so although I didn’t buy Richie Rich or Casper, I got to read them while my friends read my copies of THE FLASH and GREEN LANTERN.
When I was a kid I read mostly Archie and company, Little Lulu. Nancy and Sluggo, Katy Keene, and some superhero comics. When my son was younger we frequented a local comic shop regularly for years and read a lot of stuff, Archie, superhero comics (DC and Marvel) , Dark Horse … Concrete, Usagi Yojimbo. And the The Tick, Flaming Carrot. etc. We still buy some now and then, just not as much.
Tracy, I had forgotten all about Nancy and Sluggo! Thanks for jogging my memory!