IDW Publishing (via its IDW Limited line) is collecting the collecting the first five Mars Attacks comics and publishing them in a two special editions complete with exclusive sketch cards by the likes of Charles Hall, Ted Dastick, NAR!, Gary Kezele, Jeff Zapata, and many, many others. Details below. We have details (and images) on the blog today:

IDW Publishing To Publish High End Mars Attacks Comics

I wonder if these will be available to U.K. buyers?

quote:

Originally posted by treksearcher:
I wonder if these will be available to U.K. buyers?

As they're books, I would hope so. IDW certainly appear happy to ship outside the US according to the web site.

One other thing, books aren't subject to VAT

I don't understand Topps coming out with all this high-end stuff. As with Star Wars this is beyond my budget. $400 for a 4 card puzzle sketch sight unseen???

Treksearcher....I asked about this for you and IDW says "Yep, we ship internationally. Europe, Asia, Australia. We offer USPS or UPS International."

John....Technically, this is IDW, not Topps. And to IDW, you are buying the book with the added premium of the cards. To a card collector, it is probably the opposite, but to them, they're working on the book. I know, semantics

There is also a book with a single card available for $125 not too bad for a nice book and quality sketch card.

Harris is correct in that this is an IDW product, not Topps.

That said, we think this is an excellent high-end product that both comic and card collectors will really enjoy.

As has been pointed out, there are two tiers: one that includes a single card and one that includes 4 cards, each with a different price point (125 & 400 respectively). Considering the prices that high quality sketch cards can command, the cost of these two editions didn't seem unreasonable to us.

Also, the sketch cards are official Topps Heritage stock, foil stamped for this edition with IDW LIMITED in either red or blue foil, and produced in extremely limited numbers. So in addition to being great sketch cards, they make fantastic companion pieces to the heritage sketches from last year.

As for those who may not be able to afford this high-end edition, there is always the softcover TPB and sketch cards from the 2012 Heritage Edition readily available for much lower cost.

Overall, we at Topps have enjoyed seeing these new IDW sketch cards come in-- they are really a sight to behold, especially the 4-card puzzle sets. IDW has a real passion and love for Mars Attacks, and it shows.

-A

I wonder if these editions will be offered through Diamond Previews. That's how I get my comics each month, and we get a nice discount on everything since we are pre-ordering (and pre-paying) a couple of months in advance.

Why, that's how I get my copy of a little mag called "Non-Sport Update" all nice and flat in a sturdy box instead of folded over in my PO Box.

Chesspieceface~ Are other IDW Limited projects offered via Previews? If so, I don't see why these wouldn't be as well.

IDW Limited has giant "Artist's Editions" hardcover books that present a collection of a beloved artists penciled/inked comic book pages reproduced from the original art at original size on paper the approximates the surface of the board the art was drawn on.
They are costly to produce and I believe, are made to order. On those, the Previews catalog indicates "Please Inquire", and once you have, the price given is a "Net" price which does not allow the discount. Who knows, perhaps they don't even know the exact price of one until they know how many of them they can pre-sell.

However, the prices for these Mars Attacks books seem to be pretty much set in stone at $125 and $400, so perhaps there's a chance they'll qualify for the pre-order discount, which would bring the less expensive version down to under $90, still pretty expensive, but less than a single box of several popular non-sport titles currently on sale. The sketches in these should all be pretty good, since a hardback book that collects only 5 issues, albeit with 2 signatures and a traycase, really wouldn't normally be sold for more than $75 without the sketch card, so standards for the quality of the sketch art could be perhaps a tad higher than what they were for the Heritage set (not that they were low for that excellent series. I thought every sketch I got from my case was more than worthy of a blank, not always the case with a lot of other sets).

I'm leaning towards getting this book, at least the less expensive version.

quote:

Originally posted by H_Toser:
Chesspieceface~ Are other IDW Limited projects offered via Previews? If so, I don't see why these wouldn't be as well.

From what I have heard, these editions are sold exclusively through IDW Limited.

quote:

Originally posted by Martian Commander:

quote:

Originally posted by H_Toser:
Chesspieceface~ Are other IDW Limited projects offered via Previews? If so, I don't see why these wouldn't be as well.

From what I have heard, these editions are sold exclusively through IDW Limited.

OK, well, there you go. Thank you for letting us know, Martian Commander.

Thanks, M.C.

The artist lineup really is spectacular.

NAR! alone will sell some copies, I'm sure.
And people will be excited to see what Ted Dastick adds to his already classic sketch card run from Heritage.

Plus Hall, Kezele, Pence, even Miran Kim, talk about some fan favorites! All of these people must be in the next Star Wars set with sketches, whenever that comes along, pass it on to Star Wars Topps Leader, Martian Commander!

So there are 450 sketches total from 17 artists. I wonder if they all did roughly the same amount, which would be around 26 or so cards per artist, and that could be 2 puzzles and 18 singles from each, all things being equal.

If not, I'm curious if there are there any artists doing only singles or any doing only puzzles. And while the deluxe edition puzzles are most welcome, it's good that not all of those will come with puzzles since getting cards from four different artists on this list at once wouldn't be too shabby, either.

If someone can assemble a full set of sketch cards, one per artist, and I mean singles, never mind the puzzles, that would be quite an accomplishment!

We have a preview of the 10 sketch cards by Charles Hall that will be included in the red label version of IDW Limited's Mars Attacks hardcover up on the blog today. The cards are truly fantastic.

Previewing Charles Hall’s Mars Attacks Sketch Cards from the IDW Limited Hardcover Editions

quote:

Originally posted by treksearcher:
I wonder if these will be available to U.K. buyers?

Yes. We will ship to the U.K.


Hi all, marketing manager from IDW Limited here.
I'll try and pop in to answer questions on the set, and this site will be given a whole lot of exclusive previews and info in the weeks leading up to the release.

quote:

Originally posted by chesspieceface:
Thanks, M.C.

The artist lineup really is spectacular.

NAR! alone will sell some copies, I'm sure.
And people will be excited to see what Ted Dastick adds to his already classic sketch card run from Heritage.

Plus Hall, Kezele, Pence, even Miran Kim, talk about some fan favorites! All of these people must be in the next Star Wars set with sketches, whenever that comes along, pass it on to Star Wars Topps Leader, Martian Commander!

So there are 450 sketches total from 17 artists. I wonder if they all did roughly the same amount, which would be around 26 or so cards per artist, and that could be 2 puzzles and 18 singles from each, all things being equal.

If not, I'm curious if there are there any artists doing only singles or any doing only puzzles. And while the deluxe edition puzzles are most welcome, it's good that not all of those will come with puzzles since getting cards from four different artists on this list at once wouldn't be too shabby, either.

If someone can assemble a full set of sketch cards, one per artist, and I mean singles, never mind the puzzles, that would be quite an accomplishment!

Artists for this set will either do all their pieces in the Red Label or the Blue. The full list of who's participating in which Label will be available next Monday.

-Nate

quote:

Originally posted by Nate C M:

quote:

Originally posted by treksearcher:
I wonder if these will be available to U.K. buyers?

Yes. We will ship to the U.K.


Hi all, marketing manager from IDW Limited here.
I'll try and pop in to answer questions on the set, and this site will be given a whole lot of exclusive previews and info in the weeks leading up to the release.

Just checked out the web site, states product is sold out pre-sale.

Treksearcher- Yeah, I addressed that at the end of the article. They are not sold out. Nate could explain better then me but it has something to do with the way they code their site. The books haven't gone on sale yet.

quote:

Originally posted by treksearcher:

quote:

Originally posted by Nate C M:

quote:

Originally posted by treksearcher:
I wonder if these will be available to U.K. buyers?

Yes. We will ship to the U.K.


Hi all, marketing manager from IDW Limited here.
I'll try and pop in to answer questions on the set, and this site will be given a whole lot of exclusive previews and info in the weeks leading up to the release.

Just checked out the web site, states product is sold out pre-sale.

Those listings are just placeholders to give you more information about the book. The pre-sale has not begun yet. I'll look into if I can have it read something other than "Sold Out" on the bottom. It's a tech issue.

In other words:
THE BOOK IS NOT SOLD OUT. It's just not available for sale, YET.