Tales of Syzpense #40
Turning the Calendar page, the Spinner Rack Spotlight, WonderCon plans, and the latest Syzygy releases.
Turn the Marvel Page
Last year, I talked about a book I was doing for Charlie Kochman at Abrams ComicArts, an oversize hardcover collection of these very unique and cool Marvel calendars from my childhood. A book I’d long wanted to make happen, since not only were these calendar so special for all the added visual flair every page and entry had, but also because these seven calendars featured some amazing Marvel art that, for the most part, hadn’t been seen since.
We pulled the book together over time, with me writing the book’s preface and introductory pages for each of the calendar years included (1975 through 1981); Designer Shawn Lee (and Abrams’ designer Shawn Dahl) were designing the book into something even more special than the original calendars; Roy Thomas, the writer/creator of these calendars back in 1975, was on board to provide the introduction, with Charlie Kochman and Lydia Nguyen were handling editorial. (Along with a cadre of other folk who helped along the way, but that list is long and mighty and will be included in the book itself so everyone can know that they were all of immense help to me as this came together).
We finalized the cleaned-up pieces — original colors cleaned and restored but not updated or altered, they all maintain their intended look — added an extensive gallery of supplemental art, and had the book nearly ready to go. It was set for release either end of last year or first quarter of 2024. It was available for pre-order at assorted booksellers, and it would arrive, most likely after the holiday, sporting this cover (which is the 1975 calendar cover courtesy of John Romita):
And then, as can happen, the book slipped off the schedule. Which meant the ability to pre-order the book was taken down, those pre-orders in some cases cancelled while the revised release date was being worked out.
Along the way, I was able to locate some supplemental pieces that I really wanted to include but hadn’t been able to track down — hand-drawn prelim artwork and calendar grids and letters and memos and all these cool process pieces that seemed lost to history, until a few of the aforementioned helpful individuals helped me correct that.
So while I never love when a book slips past its intended release date, the book will now be out ahead of the holiday, and it will be better for the added time with those great pieces. I’ll share some of them along the way. But until then, the good news now is that the book is back on the schedule, its revised release date locked down, and the book available for pre-order once again, too. Here’s a bit more about the book and some other late 2024 releases, and here’s the book back up on the Abrams ComicArts site, too.
So, I’m happy. It’s a great book, and of considerable size, too — a 13” x 13” hardcover re-presentation of some really special work from a special time in Marvel’s history. All involved did a really nice job taking what we assembled and making it into something even more cool than I hoped.
Best of all, childhood Chris would be thrilled to know that these beloved artifacts, which somehow survived the decades despite multiple moves and stayed in my collection, will now not only be put together inside a nice book but that the kid who loved those calendars actually grew up to get to work on the book. Nice when that can happen.
Incidentally, that same kid, little me, is going to be happy all over again since in the intervening year or two since this book came to pass, I signed deals to re-present additional material that I loved from my earliest days of reading comics. I can’t say more about those just yet but since the arrangement for two more books just got finalized this week, well, I’m excited to at least hint at other things to come.
The details of the first of those books will also be released soon enough. After the turn of just a few more calendar pages.
7174ADFOC
Ashley Wood’s latest, 7174AD #1 - a 100-page anthology of assorted Ashworks, arrives in the middle of next month. It’s Final Order Cut-Off date in this coming Monday, March 25. And rather than again show the covers and handful of interior pages, I thought I’d share a number of the ads Image created on our behalf, since they all look great. I’m especially taken with the “which on is you?” ad. Fun stuff, and if you want to see these images and a whole lot more in the issue itself, just let your retailer to know to pull one for you before they finalize their orders on Monday.
And while you’re at it, if you want a bi of rare non-Syzygy work from Ashley, he’s got a beautiful story in DC’s Batman: The Brave and the Bold, in a story written by Zac Atkinson. Here’s Ash’s cover and an unlettered page from the story, too:
SYZMISC
The covers for all five issues of our series The Cabinet have been released now, so I don’t have to wait any longer to show them all in a lineup. I’ve been eager to show them off for some time since they’re so nice, both the colorful series of covers by co-creator Chiara Raimondi, and the connected images by Marguerite Sauvage:
In April, our Tales of Syzpense, Vol. 1 trade paperback will be released. Advance copies arrived a week ago and the book looks great. Hope you agree when you see it.
And then in May, the collected edition of A Haunted Girl will be released, and we’ve been in the midst of finalizing the package this week. The comics were good on their own but the collected edition is going to be something special. Here’s what to look for when it arrives:
Misc and That
I must’ve been Mad to contribute a couple more birthday celebrations to 13thDimension, but I did: this March 13 celebration of the late but still-great Al Jaffee; and also a celebration of Al’s fellow Mad Magazine artist Mort Drucker today, too.
And for anyone attending Anaheim’s WonderCon over Easter weekend, I’ll be roaming the convention hall on Friday, March 29 only. I’m doing one panel, this one, where we’ll be discussing PUG Worldwide’s coming Conan the Barbarian Colossal Edition art book for which I contributed the text bits about the included artists around Ian Chalgren’s beautifully designed pages. Which maybe means I’m dangerously close to becoming Roy Thomas, with all this assorted archival work. Which would be okay by me… I knew a lifetime of reading comics was actually eventually going to be considered “research” and not “an obsession.”
John Barber (editor-in-chief, Pan-Universal Galactic Worldwide), Chris Butera (editor, Heroic Signatures), Nate Murray (publisher, Pan-Universal Galactic Worldwide), and Chris Ryall (publisher, Syzygy Publishing) share the process behind creating mighty tomes of classic comic art featuring Robert E. Howard’s sword-swinging adventurer with Conan the Barbarian—Colossal Edition. Learn what goes into assembling and reproducing works by some of the greatest chroniclers of the Hyborian Age in exquisite detail, capturing every thew, every sword, every drop of blood and bead of sweat, by Crom!
Spotlight on: the Spinner Rack
Last week, I saw someone post this image to demonstrate how the cover art for this Spider-Man Treasury Edition was an homage to Paul McCartney’s classic Band on the Run album photo, which was a fun reminder about this image, but it also served to remind me of that classic comic-cover trope, the “spotlight” cover. Of which there have been many. In fact, a spotlight of one kind or another has appeared on so many Spider-Man covers that his title alone could likely fill a spinner rack. I didn’t run all of them below but did want to share a couple that included his “Spider spotlight” image — projected from his belt, no less — since I have always loved that silly light.
That said, should I end this week’s newsletter with yet a few more spotlight covers, including one more Spidey image after all? I think I will…
No problem. I preordered 4 copies!
Thank you for the update on the calendar project! I’m sure it is worth the wait.