The Multiversity Collection: February 2014 Titles

From the desk of Matthew Meylikhov: Here’s a complete shocker: I’m a huge fan of the Criterion Collection. A continuing source of joy in my life, the Criterion Collection produce some of my favorite DVDs in existence, whether it be the unbeatable release of my all-time favorite film Le Samourai or any number of other high quality releases. To that end, I’ve always wanted to have something like it on our site as a recurring monthly column, something with a similar ideal in which we’d hypothesize collections of some of our favorite comics that we want to buy and recommend some comic classics all at once. So to those wondering what was coming to replace Friday Recommendation, this is for you.

Once a month, we’ll be releasing a list of fictional Multiversity Collection releases. A small group of staff will pick books that they believe are essential for every comic book collection, give you a short reason as to why and then create what we feel would be the ultimate release edition of that book. With that in mind, every one of these articles will start with the following note:

1. None of these books are actually books that are in production, nor will they ever be in production. We don’t produce books, just articles.
2. This is all very much and incredibly unsubtly based on the Criterion Collection, which actually produces high quality DVDs and Blu-rays of fine films that you can buy. If you haven’t already checked them out in the past, you should really check out their selection now.

So, with that in mind, we bring you the first wave of the Multiversity Collection.

The Multiversity Collection is dedicated to gathering the greatest comics from around the world and publishing them in editions of the highest artistic quality, with supplemental features that enhance the appreciation of the art of comics.

Previous months: May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December, January

#45: Casanova I-III by Matt Fraction, Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon

Collection curated by Matthew Meylikhov

“Casanova” has always been a critical darling, but it’s also perhaps one of the most important modern comics — a book which seeks to redefine itself as much as it attempts to push the boundaries of what we typically find in your average comic. “Casanova” is almost a living, breathing entity, fully reflecting the continuously changing world even though a clear path is in place. It’s the most powerful thing that Matt Fraction has ever written, and the most vibrant and dynamic thing that Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba have illustrated.

“Casanova” is a spy story, but it’s also not. “Casanova” is a sci-fi thriller, but it’s also not. “Casanova” is smooth jazz in the form of comics, and we’re all so terrible excited to feature it in the Multiversity Collection.

Special Features

• A brand new introduction by Michael Chabon, author of Casanova IV’s back-up comic
• “The Wizard Buys a Hat,” a full documentary about the creation of “Casanova,” it’s initial time at Image as a slimline comic, the reprints at Marvel’s Icon and more
• Every backmatter material from the Casanova Icon reprints, both in terms of the essays and the letters
• A full set of process pages showing how the comic was reprinted in color from the initial release
• An exclusive tease for the next set of volumes of Casanova

#46: FF by Matt Fraction, Mike Allred, Lee Allred and Laura Allred

Collection curated by Brian Salvatore

Matt Fraction, Mike Allred, Lee Allred, Joe Quinones, and Laura Allred combined on a book that carved out a niche that was built on what came before, but took things in such a new direction that the tone felt perfect, new and exciting.

Following up on Jonathan Hickman’s scientific, both in tone and in subject, “FF,” the Fraction/Allred volume of the book felt like summer camp after a tough, but rewarding, school year.  The “replacement” Fantastic Four of Ant-Man (Scott Lang), She-Hulk, Miss Thing and Medusa were an odd, but compelling, team, and their handling of the Future Foundation was based out of love, necessity, and healing.

Plus, pool parties, inter-dimensional field trips, time travel, kids, the Yancy St. Gang, and more!

Special Features

• The Baxter Building Atlas: A guide to New York’s greatest building, featuring schematics, a floor by floor examination, including a peek into some of the restricted science areas.
• The Video: The complete video, introduced in “FF” #1, of the members of the Future Foundation discussing what exactly it is!
• Future Foundation T-Shirt: Jealous of the snazzy black and white duds the FF get to wear?  Not anymore!
• The Gear Sings The FF!: Mike Allred’s band, The Gear, recorded a special 7″ featuring the hit “Pool Party” b/w “The FF Theme (Instrumental)”

#47: The Alison Bechdel Collection

Collection curated by Vince Ostrowski

When Alison Bechdel found her cartooning niche with her independent newspaper comic strip “Dykes to Watch Out For”, no one could have known the depths of her personality that she would eventually share with her audience. What began as a humorous series of one-off strips eventually became a prescient and multi-faceted world all its own. So many of the LGBT-friendly themes that Bechdel and her cast set out to explore are still politically and socially important issues of today. Certain strips that were published in the 1980’s still ring very true today, as if they were only in yesterday’s papers.   In 2006, Bechdel would give us “Fun Home” – a deeply personal, structurally diverse and layered autobiography of her personal development filtered through everyday life at their family funeral home business. A deeply-personal “tragicomic” in the most literal sense of the word. 2012’s “Are You My Mother?” acts as a reflective mirror to the self-discovery in “Fun Home”, taking a clinical and deeply psychological, though no less personal, approach to really getting to know oneself. The Multiversity Collection is proud to celebrate self-realization by including Bechdel’s small, but potent bibliography in its entirety.

Special Features

• The Annotated “Fun Home” & The Annotated “Are You My Mother?” – each book comes with elegantly-organized annotations in the meticulous way that only Alison Bechdel can. The annotations unravel the many literary references, locations, and other assorted minutia that went in to creating these seminal autobiographical works.
• The Complete “Dykes to Watch Out For” – remastered and presented completely and chronologically in a hardcover yearbook-style tome. Includes a foreword written by Bechdel recalling the early years of her strip.
• A DVD recording of the original production of the Fun Home musical that ran in New York City from September 2013 to January 2014.
• Passing the Bechdel Test – a 160-page hardcover volume with quotes, essays, and studies regarding the famous Bechdel Test and its influence on art and the creative process in modern times. Authors, scholars, and illustrators examine gender and sexual roles in fiction, with an in-depth look at all sides of the argument.

#48: Runaways by Brian K Vaughan, Adrian Alphona, Takeshi Miyazawa, Mike Norton, Skottie Young, Jo Chen, Marcos Martin et al

Collection curated by Colin Bell

Heralded as “one of the best original concepts from Marvel in thirty years” upon its release over a decade ago, Runaways was the story of six teenagers on the fringes of the Marvel Universe (which in 2003 was the West Coast) as they discovered their parents were time-travelling, mutant, alien, mad scientist, crime-lord, magic supervillains and set out to defeat them with the aid of a telepathically linked dinosaur. IT WAS GREAT. And now that writer Brian K Vaughan and artist Adrian Alphona are back in the spotlight with Saga and Ms Marvel respectively, what better time to revisit the series that made their names in this lovely, leatherbound volume? Containing Runaways (Vol 1) #1 – 18, Runaways (Vol 2) #1-24, and X-Men/Runaways FCBD special; this tome collects all of Vaughan and Alphona’s run on the title they created.

Special Features

• Brian K Vaughan’s original pitch for the series.
• PAGES AND PAGES of Adrian Alphona character sketches
• A gallery of Jo Chen and Marcos Martin’s unlettered covers, complete with commentary from the artists on how they created them.
• Iron Man 3 writer Drew Pearce’s unabridged script for the (as yet) unfilmed Runaways movie.
• “Teenage Wasteland”: a retrospective essay acknowledging the legacy of Runaways, delving into the myriad of teenaged Marvel hero team titles that followed, including – but not limited to – interviews with the creators of the following titles: Young Avengers, The Losers, Secret Warriors, Young X-Men, Young Allies, Avengers Academy, Generation Hope, Vengeance and Avengers Arena!