At Marvel's Wednesday press conference Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada announced that the publisher would begin a monthly hardcover program in March of 2002.  Unlike the Marvel Masterworks, the new hardcovers will be oversize (somewhere between comic size and 8-1/2' x 11') and they will not be reprinted as hardcovers (though the editorial material will then become available in trade paperback form).  Marvel President Bill Jemas, who had originally been resistant to the idea of hardcover editions, said that he changed his mind based on the success of the Marvel hardcover reprints from DK Publishing and the fact that utilizing an oversize edition would mean that the art would not have to be reduced in size.  Quesada mentioned that he hoped the fact that Marvel would be doing an oversize hardcover edition each month would encourage retailers to find a way to rack the books effectively.  Since Marvel is also committed to a stepped up schedule for new Masterworks editions, the publisher plans to provide retailers with at least two hardcover (one oversize and one Masterwork) editions per month starting in March 2002.

 

Marvel plans to launch the program with three oversize hardcover editions in March.  The complete Origin saga will be available in a 208-page edition that will include bonus material such as sketches and story proposals.  The Origin hardcover will carry a cover price of $34.95 and will ship on March 27.  The first Marvel hardcover in the new oversize line will be the Ultimate Spider-Man book that collects issues 1-13 of the comic in a 352-page volume that will ship on March 13 and sell for $34.95.   The third hardcover edition shipping in March is The Complete Frank Miller Spider-Man which collects all of Miller's work with the wall-crawler including Spectacular Spider-Man #27 and #28, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #14 and #15, Marvel Team-Up Annual #4, and Marvel Team-Up #100. Unlike the other two volumes, the Miller book will not contain any 'extras' in its 216 pages, and it will retail for $29.95.

 

Quesada mentioned that much of the impetus for the oversize hardcover line came from the excellent work done by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale on Daredevil Yellow.  Unfortunately delays in the publishing of that series has meant that it will not be included in the first wave of oversize books that ships in March, though Quesada mentioned that Daredevil Yellow will definitely be reprinted in the oversize hardcover format eventually.  The hardcover editions will be available to both comic shops and bookstores.