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Which of Scott Dunbier's Artist Edition and Artifact Volumes Do You Like Best?
- We will always have a lot of time for Scott Dunbier. Comic book art dealer-turned-Editor-in-Chief at Wildstorm, before and after they were bought out by DC Comics, he innovated the oversized-slipcased hardcover format for the collection of Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch's The Authority as Absolute Authority. And that bit of wordplay would go on to name the format at DC Comics – and be copied by Marvel, Image, Dark Horse, basically everyone.
Naturally, he was fired by DC Comics over the publication of The Black Dossier.
Finding a home in Special Projects at IDW, he hit upon what would be one of their biggest moneymakers in comic books, the Artist's Edition. Reproducing the original art boards for a comic book as close to the look and original size as, well, the originals. Either a complete story, or selected pages that could be retrieved as the Artifact Editions. Licensing the rights to certain titles from publishers – but now also copies by other major publishers too. If imitation is flattery, Scott Dunbier must be permanently blushing.
Initially intended to have a very limited run and be sold directly to readers at shows, retailers clamoured to be able to sell them, even at the triple-digital price points the books were priced at.
And now Scott Dunbier would like you to vote for your favourites from 2018, from the seventeen editions published that year
Here's a brief reminder:
- Batman: Secrets – Sam Kieth Gallery Edition
- Bill Sienkiewicz's Mutants and Moon Knights… and Assassins… Artifact Edition
- Frank Cho's Savage Wolverine Artist's Edition
- Frank Thorne's Ghita, An Erotic Treasury Archival Edition Volume 1
- Gene Colan's Tomb Of Dracula Artist's Edition
- Jack Kirby's Marvel Heroes And Monsters Artist's Edition
- Jim Starlin's Marvel Cosmic Artifact Edition
- Joe Kubert's Tarzan and the Lion Man Artist's Edition
- John Byrne's X-Men Artifact Edition
- Lone Wolf and Cub Gallery Edition
- P. Craig Russell's Salome and Other Stories Fine Art Edition
- Ross Andru's The Amazing Spider-Man Artist's Edition
- Terry Moore Strangers In Paradise Gallery Edition
- The Prisoner Original Art Edition
- Thicker Than Blood: Collected Artwork Edition
- Walter Simonson's Battlestar Galactica Art Edition
- Will Eisner's A Contract with God Curator's Collection