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Topic: Untold Legends of the Batman Reprint is a Treasury Edition! Post Reply | Post New Topic
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Peter Hicks
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 30 April 2004
Location: Canada
Posts: 2009
Posted: 29 January 2025 at 1:40am | IP Logged | 1 post reply

Link

Edited by Matt Reed on 29 January 2025 at 2:04am
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Mark Haslett
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 19 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 6591
Posted: 29 January 2025 at 2:04pm | IP Logged | 2 post reply

NOSTALGIA WARNING!!
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Trevor Smith
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 21 September 2006
Location: Canada
Posts: 3566
Posted: 29 January 2025 at 3:26pm | IP Logged | 3 post reply

I don't stay on top of the industry (my only news is from
here), but has there ever been a reason given as to why
there's been no effort made to reprint the entire treasury
line (Marvel and DC both) given the popularity/prices in
the second hand market?
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John Byrne

Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 133860
Posted: 29 January 2025 at 3:57pm | IP Logged | 4 post reply

So there I was at the Chicago Comic Con, and I heard this book was in development. I tracked down the editor and offered my services as penciler. As it happened I had three months coming up in which I could easily fit this job. The editor very happily agreed, and back I went to Calgary to wait for the first script.

The phone rang. It was Paul Levitz, calling to inform me that, sorry, there was no way DC could match my Marvel page rate. Not a problem, said I. This was BATMAN!

So I returned to waiting. And waiting. And waiting. A full month went by before the editor called to tell me they were finally sending me the first script. I was annoyed, but—-BATMAN! So the script arrived and I started work. I was disappointed to find that the “story” was one of my least favorite kinds: page after page of recreating existing panels from old stories but——BATMAN!

While this was going on, Jim Shooter called, not at all happy to have learned I was doing a job for DC. He called me a “quisling”, but suggested a solution. Do the book for Marvel. Write and draw all three issues, and they’d keep them in the drawer until such time as Marvel started publishing the DC characters. Shooter’s Marvel RED and Marvel BLUE scheme. Since I kinda liked the idea of this work seeing print in my lifetime, I told Shooter no, and finished the first issue for DC.

And waited for the second script. And waited. And waited.

Two months went by. The editor called. Sorry for the delay, but he would soon be sending me the first HALF of the second issue. Don’t bother, said I. I’d made it abundantly clear I had a three month window in which I could do this project, and that window was now closed.

A short time later, Levitz called me again. He offered DOUBLE my Marvel rate if I would finish the job. I stood my ground. After all, it wasn’t about money. It was about BATMAN. But now, it was about my reputation as a professional.

Levitz later announced that I would not be finishing (as I recall he blamed “scheduling conflicts”) and that Jim Aparo was being called in to ink my “very loose pencils “. (Terry Austin had been set to ink, and had been sent pages from the first issue. He declared the pencils he’d seen were every bit as tight as what I had been giving him on X-MEN.)

So, my first job for DC came and went, and it was a long time before I worked for them again.

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James Woodcock
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 21 September 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 7951
Posted: 29 January 2025 at 4:09pm | IP Logged | 5 post reply

You really didn’t have a lot of happy times with DC did you.
This, DG using assistants on Man of Steel, the whole debacle of MOS in
general, the X-Men/NTT crossover (which died before it was even
fertilised), that guy who treated your pencils like loose indications of what
should be on the page, & a load of other stuff as well.

I know I’d have blown my top on more than one of those occasions.
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Brian Miller
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 28 July 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 31391
Posted: 29 January 2025 at 4:33pm | IP Logged | 6 post reply

Terry on the project? Wow.

Shooter called you a quisling. That’s hilarious.
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Mark Haslett
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 19 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 6591
Posted: 29 January 2025 at 5:12pm | IP Logged | 7 post reply

The idea of a Byrne/Austin version of those pages is kind of mind-blowing.

I like the results of Aparo in the finished book, but it’s sad how much his
work overpowers what must have been more “Byrne-like” in the pencils.

The JGL cover is amazing!
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John Byrne

Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 133860
Posted: 29 January 2025 at 5:26pm | IP Logged | 8 post reply

Aparo did a beautiful job, but, of course, since he was going to be doing the other two issues he had to make the first match.

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Vinny Valenti
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 17 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 8199
Posted: 29 January 2025 at 5:27pm | IP Logged | 9 post reply

Still so pissed at myself that over 20 years ago I didn't click the Bid button on the very first page that JB ever drew of Batman, and at DC, period.
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Brian Miller
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 28 July 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 31391
Posted: 29 January 2025 at 6:32pm | IP Logged | 10 post reply

When does this come out?
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Trevor Smith
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 21 September 2006
Location: Canada
Posts: 3566
Posted: 29 January 2025 at 8:45pm | IP Logged | 11 post reply

"When does this come out?"

**

From an October article at 13th Dimension:

"$12.99 US | 72 Pages
ON SALE 1/29/25"

Given that that's today, though...
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David Miller
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 16 April 2004
Posts: 3133
Posted: 29 January 2025 at 8:53pm | IP Logged | 12 post reply

I approve of the treasury edition revival.
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