This is the case where a definitive edition should had look a lot better. Better scanning, larger format, and why not a complete story in one volume? DH is not doing us a special favour with this kind of print job. Pity.

En realidad la nueva edición solo esta restaurada por Villarubia según las indicaciones que le dio en su día Richard Corben ...no es que tenga nuevos colores.

Might be worth it for that one improved panel! (English editions were the same as your German one, in regards to balloon placement.) If it weren't for the blurriness you mentioned, that is. Glad to hear an honest, slightly skeptical review. The fact that Den is back in print after three decades may be the overwhelming selling point for most folks. I love the naked covers on these but not the dustjackets; the border-heavy design carries through to the interiors, to dull effect. Dynamic range seems like a hard thing to get right on reprintings, keeping the lights light to allow the art to breathe… I do like the improvements you pointed out. But I somehow have three editions of this already; I can't bring myself to buy another.

@earlgrey862

9 ай бұрын

yeah, the Corben editions turn out to be kind of a pile of confusion: each one has its strong and its weak parts and vice versa… so one has to decide which flaws are the easiest to ignore.

I also don't know the process of preparing this material for printing today, but I compared this comic with the first issues of Heavy Metal. There are differences here too, even though Heavy Metal is just a comic book magazine. Fortunately, it's worst at the beginning, then, I think, it gets much better and it doesn't differ much from that edition. Perhaps it's the availability of the original pages, some technical problems, etc. I think that the next volumes will be simply good. Murky World, as Corben's latest comic, looks very good. By the way, Liberatore's Ranx, reissued after many years, doesn't look the best either. I compared the original edition from Glenat with the current one and there are really big differences, I was dissappointed with this collective edition, but it turned out to be the quality of the materials. I'm glad I managed to buy individual volumes.

@earlgrey862

9 ай бұрын

I could add the new Druillet-editions which I compared quite thoroughly on this channel with older books … often to the disadvantage of the new edition.

The older edition you have is miles better IMHO..

I would dare to say that the older version might have been purposedly sharpened either by the original digitisers (in the early 1990s you already had scanners) or by the german publishers. Either way the best versions of Corben's artwork should be found in the franco-belgian market, specially through Delerium that is publishing 2 limited extra large editions of all Den works through KissKiss Bank Bank crowdfunding...

@earlgrey862

9 ай бұрын

I would doubt the sharpening theory, because in these particular panels everything looks better: not only the lines but textures as well. And you're probably right about the French versions, because they usually are the best - au contraire to my Francais ... so I'll stick with my German and English versions.

...Corben war ein wahrer Meister der neunten Kunst. Wurde lange schon Zeit, dass seine Werke auch nach Deutschland kommen. Splitter haut nächstes Jahr eine fette zweiteilige DEN und eine tolle Murky World Ausgabe raus...dazu noch die Sachen von Crepax...genial. Fehlt nur noch Druillet und ich bin glücklich. Danke für die Einblicke und ein neues Panellogy. Das war nen guter Start in den Tag!

@earlgrey862

9 ай бұрын

Nachdem Splitter aber schon die Farben bei Creepy und/oder Mutantenwelt (hab das schon verdrängt) mehr oder weniger verkackt hat, wäre ich da vorsichtig. Aber vermutlich werden die auch die von Villarubia überarbeiteten Versionen nutzen, insofern wird das vermutlich nicht schlechter als dieser DEN hier, der wiederum zumindest nicht viel schlechter in der Repro ist als der alte Carlsen-DEN.

@DerReverendMAT

9 ай бұрын

....oh gut zu wissen oder auch nicht, jetzt bin ich im Vergleichsmodus und laufe Gefahr mir noch die Originale zu kaufen.....😅

@earlgrey862

9 ай бұрын

naja, oder eben die alten Carlsen Softcover (auch wenn die nicht so schön hardcoverig daher kommen & z.T. auch aus dem Leim gehen… allerdings gibt‘s jetzt bestimmt viele, die auf Ebay verkloppt werden). In meinem dritten Corbenvideo hatte ich meine Sammlung an Corben vorgestellt, da bekommst Du ein paar Einblicke.

HAHAHA the end is so funny 😅

Den has a number because there are going to be multiple Den volumes. I think 4-5!

@earlgrey862

9 ай бұрын

yes, okay, makes sense... even though: why not place the "1" directly behind "Den" then?

I had been looking for a complete Den for a few years now, I came here with the hope I might finally be able to buy the complete series I first saw in Heavy Metal years and years ago but this seems to not be it. Too bad,

@groove2519

9 ай бұрын

Not so fast! If you read Den serialized in Heavy Metal, it was probably this volume (Neverwhere) or the next, Muvovum, which is coming out soon-in December. For my money, this is the better book, but if not, it would at least make a good companion to the sequel. There were at least three more Den installments after that, but the style evolved, and they weren't serialized in Heavy Metal. The later ones were published as comics. Other Corben works serialized in Heavy Metal: Bloodstar, The Bodyssey, and (much later) Murky World.

Murky World was a must-buy and I enjoyed the read more than I was expecting to. I probably won’t need any of the Den volumes as, like you, I had them already. The first Den volume is sold out anyway. I’m curious to know what will come after Den. Thanks for your thoughts on the new edition, Earl.

I have noticed a lot of people think that Den is the first book in Dark Horse's Corben series. Uuuuh, don't like that blurry softness...i constantly suspect modern colorists don't pay close attention to the results on physical paper...which should be an obvious part of the job in my estimate.

@earlgrey862

9 ай бұрын

quite frankly: some panels look like they've scanned the stuff not properly or from some inferior copy ... I don't know. It's quite unfortunate, esp. since Mr.Villarubia obviously has put his heart into the project.

@billcrabtree8700

9 ай бұрын

I don’t think you can blame a colorist for blurry artwork, unless Villarubia was in charge of the scanning himself. Regardless, it’s a massive disappointment. I have to wonder whether it was just not noticed by anyone involved, or if it was just the limitations of what was available to them as far as the original artwork etc. I’m tempted to ask Daniel Chabon about it.

@earlgrey862

9 ай бұрын

oh, I would have sent them my German copy if they had asked me 🤣

@rewanji

9 ай бұрын

Yes, it is a shame if indeed that is the case. Nowadays there is no excuse for bad or rushed scanning given the technological progresses in the last decades. Furthermore a concise and meticulous post production work should have detected any issues in the printing, I wonder if other international versions (based on the same artwork) suffer from the same problems?…

@comicartchannel

9 ай бұрын

​@@earlgrey862I believe they may not have been able to get good reproductions of all the line art which results in the inconsistency. Many of the pages used scans of the original art. Unfortunately, all of it couldn't be located iirc.

I like this edition, but I don't have others except for the Heavy Metal magazines. It is disappointing that this one isn't perfect, though, because Viallarubia loves the material, AND they had all of the original art to scan for this restoration. Corben kept all of the original art for Den 1, and the family still has it. It was used for this restoration. So, I'm curious as to why there is blurriness and other issues.

@earlgrey862

9 ай бұрын

exactly my thoughts… thanks! and yes, this book isn‘t clearly worse than my old book - but it‘s definitely not an improvement all pros and cons considered.

What's with the new caption boxes? They needed to tidy up the lettering? I prefer the old version where the text was over the art.

Yup, I have an english version, first volume of Den published by Catalan (1984) and noticed the same thing right away. It's very disappointing :( Curious what Jose Villarubia has to say about this, he is quite active on facebook and I was tempted to ask him but haven't done this yet.

@earlgrey862

9 ай бұрын

yeah, would be very interesting to get his opinion about how the book actually turned out.