List of All Limited Edition Art Books From Dark Horse

If you lot're like some of the ComicsAlliance staff, yous're a fetishist for expensive hardcover books that are available just in absurdly express numbers and packaged inexquisite slipcases and loaded with supplemental material and artwork. With the gift-giving season rapidly winding downward, people like u.s. are looking for those last-infinitesimal gifts that are and so expensive and then impressively large that they could never actually seem like you totally forgot to get your shopping (or blogging) washed in a timely and responsible mode. The best sort of gift along those lines is of course the deluxe edition comic or art book, and I've put together a list of some great ones that you tin even so find at your local comics stores and online booksellers before the clock runs out on the season.

Note ON PRICES: We have included the listing prices for each item. Because of vacation sales, you will very likely find discounts at your local comics shops, Amazon and elsewhere.

Absolute Editions from DC Comics & Vertigo

Listing price: Unremarkably $99 per volume

A perennial holiday favorite: comic book perennials! Few comic volume packages lucifer the luxury of DC's famous Absolute Editions, which reprint beloved stories in a pristine, oversized format with thick, heavy paper and a handsome slipcase. The holidays is the best fourth dimension to buy these books for your friends and loved ones or put them on your ain wish lists, every bit near booksellers volition offer the loftier-priced volumes (usually $99 per book) at a seasonal disbelieve. The selection is far across what's reflected in the images higher up, of form.
'Judge Dredd: The Complete Carlos Ezquerra' Limited Editions

List prices: $125 - $495

IDW collects the original piece of work of Judge Dredd creators in the most cheering format imaginable. This is available in three variations (click the link to larn all the details). merely some of the features include a custom-designed slipcase, mounted signature page signed byCarlos Ezquerra andJohn Wagner, hardcover portfolio containing twelve exclusive lithographs, cover in metallic ink, vellum overlay of the championship page, brand new endpages designed to mirror the style of the slipcase and portfolio, is stamped with the IDW Limited Red Foil Imprint, and a blood-red satin ribbon bookmark.
Marvel Comics Omnibus Volumes

Listing price: Varies

In that location'southward no meliorate way to read the almost essential Marvel comics titles than in the publisher'south loftier quality omnibus editions, reprinting a vast variety of stories from the Silver Age to the present. The majority of Ed Brubaker'south lauded and bestselling Captain America run is bachelor in this oversized hardcover format, as is Walt Simonson's legendary piece of work on Thor. But in addition to those high profile books, Marvel also reprints fan-favorite titles similar The Immortal Iron Fist and X-Statix in this extremely cool way. Marvel's vast collection of motorbus volumes are the best way to introduce someone to a series or graphic symbol they've never read earlier, so check out what's available.
IDW Artist Editions

Listing price: $100-$150

When it comes to prestige, nothing beats the amazing Artist'south Edition serial from IDW Publishing. Each contains a consummate story by one of comics' most beloved masters, and is made from high resolution scans of the creative person's original artwork -- including blue lines, hand-written notes and other artifacts unique to the actual page the artist worked on. Naturally, each volume is reproduced at the same size of the original artwork.
Hellboy and B.P.R.D. Hardcovers

List price: $34.99 - $49.95

Take information technology from me, you haven't read Hellboy until y'all've read it in the Library edition format. The cloth hardcover invokes the feeling some kind of ancient tome, and the crisp, oversized pages bring Mignola and his collaborators' ever brilliant work to life in a way single issues and trade paperbacks just can't. Recommended for reading past candlelight in a study total of books and trophies from your adventures.
Scott Pilgrim Box Prepare and Evil Editions

Listing toll: $72 (box set), $24.99 (color), $100 (Evil Editions)

While it seems unlikely that ComicsAlliance readers haven't collected all vi volumes of Bryan Lee O'Malley's indie comics opus, we wouldn't want you to forget what a handsome gift Oni Press' boxset makes for any friends and loved ones y'all'd like to introduce to comics. It's difficult to imagine a friendlier welcome to the medium than Scott Pilgrim, especially now that Nathan Fairbairn has been colorizing them in new hardcover volumes — also available in limited "Evil Editions" with loads of exclusives for each book, such every bit the one seen below (look effectually for these, they sell out quick but tin be picked up used).
Steve Rude: Artist in Motion

List price: $39.95 / $59.95 (Express Edition)

A must-have for fans of ComicsAlliance's Best Art Ever (This Calendar week) feature,Artist in Motionfeatures 200 pages of impossibly gorgeous artwork by the co-creator of Nexus. The book demonstrates Rude's unmatched abilities and exquisite techniques in various media (including blitheness) and offers more than than enough pretty pictures to justify the purchase, just Artist In Motion too comes with extremely personal insights into Rude'southward life, shedding light on why the artist has found himself at the fringes of the comic volume industry.
Parker: The Martini Edition

List cost: $75.00

This luxurious 9″ x 13″, 334-page slipcased hardcover exceeds the size of even DC's mighty Absolute editions, but mimics the gorgeous production techniques of the 1960s, where the story/contents/book is set. TooParker: The Outfit andParker: The Hunter — two of my all-time favorite graphic novels, I should add — the Martini Edition comes with a massive assortment of supplementary artwork by Darwyn Cooke and a brand new eight-page story about Richard Stark's legendary score-settler.
Gahan Wilson: L Years of Playboy Cartoons - Collector'south Edition

List price: $175

Over 1000 cartoons drawn by the main of the macabre in i incredible, beautifully designed 3-volume slipcased hardcover set, with an exclusive letterpress print, facsimiles of Gahan'southward holiday cards to Hugh Hefner, die cuts, embossing, and a plexiglass window in the slipcase, and introductions by Neil Gaiman (read it hither) and Hugh Hefner.
The Love and Rockets Drove

List Price: $84.99

This indie comics mainstay has been going for nearly 30 years, makingLove and Rockets every bit intimidating to some new readers as even the densest superhero mythologies. Luckily, Fantagraphics has made the Los Bros Hernandez saga about a massive cast of startlingly lifelike characters digestible in the grade of affordable reprint volumes published in chronological society. I can tell yous from personal experience that even one of these books makes a fantastic present, just to give the souvenir of the completeLove and Rockets is to provide your friend or loved ane with a reading experience richer than virtually any other. Y'all can buy the private volumes from Amazon or comics shops, but this convenient set up is bachelor exclusively from Fantagraphics.
The Fine art of Jaime Hernandez

List rice: $forty.00

Just what practise you get for the seasoned Love and Rockets reader? Abrams Comics Art'sThe Fine art of Jaime Hernandez is a fantastic gift. Often available for far less than the listing toll, this volume details for art lovers just how Hernandez created the images and stories that have enthralled readers and his fellow cartoonists for thirty years.
Fine art Books from DC Comics & Vertigo

Listing cost: Varies

Jim Lee, Alex Ross, Brian Bolland, Adam Hughes, James Jean, JG Jones and Dave McKean are amongst the artists whose DC Comics/Vertigo catalogues accept proven so pop and manifestly lovely that the publisher has seen fit to offering them up in these high quality hardcovers. Each features insightful commentary from the artists alongside unobstructed reproductions of some of their most famous and non-and then-famous DC work. These books make great gifts for the superhero or Vertigo reader who wishes to delve much more deeply into the earth of illustration.
Transformers Deluxe Editions from IDW Limite

List price: $325

Short of an actual transforming vehicle, it's hard to imagine a bigger and more than expensive souvenir for the Transformers fan than these collections of the IDW comic books. Available in several variations but limited to as few as Ten COPIES, some of the features include custom-designed tray case printed in silver metallic ink, original hand-drawn artwork, mounted signature folio signed by v Transformers creators including Su, Musso, Matere, Furman and Guidi, sectional-to-IDW Express cover in silverish metallic ink, vellum overlay of the title folio, and brand-new endpages designed to mirror the style of the slipcase and portfolio.
The Marvel Art of Joe Quesada

List price: $49.99

For the last decade, Joe Quesada has guided Marvel and its characters back to prominence as the publisher's Editor-in-Chief and subsequently Primary Creative Officer, just before his time as an executive he was simply, purely a comic book artist. Plain dedicated to his work at Marvel, this book, which features commentary by Quesada, documents the kind of vision that helped redefine one of America's nigh storied comic book houses.
The Complete Peanuts Collections

Cost: $28.95 per volume, $49.99 per slipcase set

Charlie Dark-brown and the Peanuts gang are often associated with the holiday season (also with Halloween, and that counts), then in that location's no meliorate time to requite to yourself or your loved ones one or all of Fantagraphics' hardcover collections of Charles Schulz's beloved drawing strip. Reprinted in chronological order with the highest production values, whatsoever one of these books would make an auspicious addition to any bookshelf.
Art Books from Dynamite Entertainment

List cost: Varies

While known primarily for its robust line of licensed series and growing slate of originals, Dynamite Entertainment has quietly been releasing a series of very fine comic volume art books.The Art of Howard Chaykin serves as much equally a folio-turner of a biography as it does a showcase of the legendary creator's innovative work. The Alex Ross book presents an eoeuvre of lurid adventurers and forgotten relics of the Gilded Age of comics that volition be entirely new to anyone whose Ross appreciation is limited to his DC and Curiosity work. And the Sean Phillips book goes deep into the career of one of contemporary masters.
Deluxe Edition Comics past Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips

List prices: Varies

Arguably amid mainstream comics' virtually acclaimed duos, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips have collaborated on hit after hit includingSleeper, Criminal, Incognito, Fatale and, back in print for the first time since (I think) the 1990s,Scene of the Crime (with Michael Lark). Helpfully, near of their work together has been collected in especially handsome volumes that make fantastic gifts for the longtime fan or new reader who wishes to get lost in the immersive worlds of these most gifted comic book creators.
Krazy & Ignatz: The Complete Dominicus Strips 1916-1924

Listing toll: $95.00

Hailed by some of the greatest cartoonist of the century, George Herriman'south work has been compiled ever so lovingly by the good people at Fantagraphics into a serial of volumes that whatsoever comics devotee would exist proud to take on his or her shelf. Spotlighted here is Krazy & Ignatz: The Complete Sunday Strips 1916-1924, a limited edition hardcover, covering the first nine years of Herriman'southward newspaper strip. Numerous other editions are available from the Fantagraphics store.
'My Little Pony: Return of Queen of Chrysalis' Limited Editions

Listing price: $350

Believe it or not, some of the virtually exclusive and expensive items in our palatial edition gift guide are My Little Pony comics from IDW Limited. Whatsoever publisher would be proud to offering an object as precious as the variations of this packet, which include original sketch plates and sketch cards, custom-designed tray case, hardcover portfolio and sectional cover all themed around Pinkie Pie, mounted signature page signed by Katie Melt & Andy Price, Rainbow Dash lithograph featuring artwork by Eisner Nominee Sara Richard, and other variations depending upon which 1 you go. For fans of My Little Pony, there could be no grander souvenir.
The Milo Manara Libraries

Price: $59.99

As far as I'g concerned, Tumblr proved its worth by providing fans of Italian principal Milo Manara with an outlet to share images from his many cute works, precisely none of which I had read until a couple of years ago. These ongoing hardcover volumes from Dark Horse, collecting some of Manara's nearly famous piece of work likeIndian Summerbesides as his erotica comics, would make fantastic gifts for anyone who's a fan of excellent comic volume artwork from abroad. For more than on this set, bank check out this very special episode of Let's Be Friends Again starring former CA contributors David Brothers and David Uzumeri.
Palatial Edition Comics from Vertigo

Listing prices: Varies

The many creator-owned series from Vertigo offer a special gift-giving possibility: a complete, finite serial from beginning to end. Lauded titles such every bit100 Bullets,Preacher,Y: The Last Man andFables (which is ongoing) are available in this slightly oversized and loftier quality format, which reprints ii or three trade paperbacks' worth of material in each volume.
The Complete Calvin and Hobbes

List prices: $175 (hardcover), $100 (softcover)

1 of the best and nearly popular paper comic strips of all time, Beak Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes is honored in this uncommonly elegant set from Andrews McMeel. Three hardcover books coming in at nearly 1500 pages — comprising every Calvin and Hobbes strip that was ever syndicated — makes for a vacation gift that won't be before long forgotten, if just because it will have until side by side year to finish reading it. At present bachelor in a less expensive paperback edition.
The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame: The Master of 'Bara' Manga

List cost: $29.95

Available: Comic book shops, Amazon

One of this year's most acclaimed collections of classic work, The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame compiles ten English editions of short stories dating from the late 1990s to 2012, including an original story commissioned by comic book historian and graphic designer Fleck Kidd. A legend in undercover comics and gay comics in item, Tagame's work is violent, visceral and provocative, and makes a fine gift for the discerning fan of erotic comics.
G.I. Joe: The Complete Drove Limited Editions

Listing price: $125 - $450

This is almost getting silly at present, IDW. Simply here y'all've got the total run of the originalReal American Hero,Special Missions, andYearbooktales in a massive hardcover. Available in several variations (click link for details), some of the features include custom-designed slipcase, mounted signature folio signed byLarry Hama &Herb Trimpe, due eastxclusive canvas cover just available through this IDW Express release, vellum title-folio overlay, new end pages, stamped with the IDW Limited reddish foil Banner, and a red satin ribbon bookmark.
'Nausicaä of the Valley of the Air current' Box Fix

List price: $threescore

Studio Ghibli founder Hayao Miyazaki'due south scenic manga offers even more epic story and artwork than his classic blithe film, and it'south finally bachelor in a beautiful box set from Viz. This collection has been in demand for so long that at present that it's finally here, we tin can be certain it'll go out of print before you lot can say "Teto." Seriously, you lot want this.
Jack Kirby Omnibus Editions from DC Comics

List prices: Varies

If you didn't know, DC Comics has for the last several years been diligently remastering and reprinting virtually all of Jack Kirby'southward classic piece of work for the visitor, including a chronological presentation of the lauded Quaternary World saga in four volumes. The DC drove of Kirby omnibuses celebrates a peculiarly equitable period of the artist'southward comics career, when he worked on more favorable terms with his publisher, resulting in some of the greatest ever superhero and adventure comics ever fabricated.
Art Books from Make Studio Printing

Listing price: Varies

Phil Noto, Humberto Ramos, Bill Pressing, J. Scott Campbell, Terry Dodson, Shane Glines, Mark Brooks, Frank Cho, Pascal Campion, Brandon Peterson, Robert Valley, Darwyn Cooke and Arthur Adams are just some of the artists who've produced art books through Alberto Ruiz'due south Brand Studio Press. Anyone who enjoys our Best Art Always (This Calendar week) feature owes information technology to themselves to inspect the Make Studio drove, where you'll likely find several potential gifts for your aesthetically-minded friends.
Art Books from Essential Sequential

List cost: Varies

Tim Sale, Eric Canete, Paolo Rivera, Andrew Robinson, Dan Panosian and Mindy Lee are amidst the artists who've produced art books through Essential Sequential, the outfit which also represents and sells artwork and wares from Marker Chiarello, Dave Johnson, and Matteo Scalera, among others. Anyone who enjoys our Best Fine art E'er (This Week) feature owes it to themselves to inspect the Essential Sequential collection, where you lot'll likely find several potential gifts for your aesthetically-minded friends.
Deluxe Edition Comics from Humanoids

List prices: Varies

From the classic collaborations of Moebius and Jodorowsky to the sexy fantasy worlds of Terry Dodson and all sorts of crazy eurocomics y'all've never fifty-fifty heard of in-between, it's tough to vanquish Humanoids for deluxe presentation. With some books measuring equally large as 12"x16", the French publisher'southward catalog celebrates its typically gorgeous comics by making them beautiful objects in their own rights.
Fear Agent Library Edition Volume 1

List price: $49.99

This is an item from my actual wishlist, a massive and particularly lovely looking edition of Fearfulness Agent, the highly regarded sci-fi/action/hazard series created by Rick Remender, Tony Moore and Jerome Opeña years before they were Marvel Comics headliners. This massive 12.4" 10 8.iii" volume collects fifteen issues of the series forth with supplemental shorts, pin-ups and behind-the-scenes textile, and I can't await to read it.
AKIRA Collections

List price: $24.99 per volume

Available from: Your local comics shop, Amazon

With Warner Bros'. ominous AKIRA adaptation seemingly lost to the painful places of our retention, now is a safe time to invest in Kodansha's essential drove of phonebook-sized reprints of this most beloved manga serial. Reading AKIRA will make you a better person.
Fine art Books from Archie Comics

Listing prices: $29.99 each

Available from: Your local comics shop, Amazon

These competitively priced and affectionately designed hardcovers chart the aesthetic journey of some of comics near pop characters, through covers and pages of pin-ups, comics and mode features by classic creators including Dan DeCarlo all the fashion through modern day master Dan Parent. The books were overseen by Craig Yoe, whose piece of work on archival comics textile and essays and art books likeUndercover Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman's Co-Creator Joe Shuster, take made his name a seal of true quality.
Graphic Novels from Meridian Shelf

List toll: Varies

Elevation Shelf has in print palatial editions of some of its well-nigh contempo and its nigh famous publications available in some very overnice packages. The winner of Eisner, Harvey and Ignatz awards, Craig Thompson'due southBlankets is out in a deluxe hardcover format that makes a nifty gift; and while the hardcover edition of Jeff Lemire'south excellentEssex Canton saga is out of print, Superlative Shelf offers a handsome softcover edition that volition surely become your loved one'southward new favorite graphic novel. Be sure to check out the Top Shelf store for more handsome editions of their large catalogue of perennials.
'Pogo: The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips Vol. i-2' Box Set

List price: $69.99

Fantagraphics' designers may take outdone themselves with this, a boxed set of the kickoff and 2nd volumes ofPogo - The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips. Packed in a sturdy custom box designed especially for this set, it'southward the perfect souvenir book detail for fans of Walt Kelly'due south legendary cartoon, sense of humour and wordplay.
'Take a chance Time' Limited Edition Hardcovers

List price: Varies

A deluxe, oversized presentation of the all-ages comic book hit based on the animated series, theseAdventure Fourth dimension hardcovers were previously just available at comic conventions. A presumably limited stock is on auction at Boom!'s website and would make excellent gifts for any devotee of the series.
The 6th Gun Volume 1, Gunslinger Edition

List toll: $120

This is a particularly impressive, oversized edition of the starting time 11 bug of the acclaimed Oni Printing western-horror series, limited to 1,000 copies and shipping with a specially-designed coffin box, faux leather and gold foil cover, three total-color art prints, and is tip-in print signed and numbered by creators Cullen Bunn, Brian Hurtt, and Nib Crabtree.
The Walking Expressionless Motorbus Volumes

Price: $100

Available from: Your local comics store, Amazon

Prototype'southward most popular and addictive zombie seriesThe Walking Expressionless is also bachelor in the deluxe format. These oversized double-decker volumes collect more than than 20 issues of survival inside a handsome slipcase. These are limited editions and tin can exist hard to observe, only at that place'southward really no better gift for the defendedWalking Dead fan.