xmiyux

Is anyone else reading this? I didn't get too into the original one and just recently picked up the trade of this new series and wow do i love it. Snatched up the back issues on ebay and voraciously ripped through what is out now (up to issue #12) and i recommend other people give it a peek. Killer series.

Now my followup question is did anyone actively read the original Catwoman series? I'm curious if it is worth trying to snag all the back issues (there are something like 96 of them) and as far as i know they weren't collected in trades. Any ideas?

Sessa17

I help run a comic book store so I can give you some help. I never read Catwoman before the relaunch, I don't even like Catwoman but I am a HUGE fan of Dawyn Cooke so I gave the new series a try & I 'm beyone amazed at how good it is. Issue #12 was incredible. Do yourself a favor, if you like this new series you HAVE to get the prestige format book Selina's Big Score it is actually 1000 times better than the regular seris. It's a 96 page hardcover book written & drawn by Darwyn Cooke that is a prequeal to the current series. It explains A LOT of stuff that is happening in the current series & is extremely well written, it's read a lot like the movie Lock, Stock, 2 Smoking Barrels.

Also don't waster your time with hunting down back issues of the original series. There is a reason why the book was relaunched. It was terrible & is NOTHING, I mean NOTHING like the current series.

xmiyux

I actually saw Selinas Big Score at my local comic shop but it was shrinkwrapped so i couldn't get a look at the art... I also didn't know how it fit in the timeline of the current series - well that and the fact the hardbacks are so ridiculously expensive. Any idea on when it might be released soft? And does the hardback have any extra art or anything that might be left out of a softback release?

xmiyux

Well with very little prodding you convinced me. Yesterday i picked up the Selinas Big Score - one reason is that it has some extra art in the back that i was afraid might not make it into any softcover release. So thanks for the recommendation, it is a killer book.

Sessa17

Glad you liked it, it's actually probably one of the best comic book stories I think I ever read, & the art is amazing & if you have been following the series it's even better b.c it explains a lot (such as where Selena got all her money from). The splash page of Slam Bradley standing in the rain is AMAZING. Also good call getting it as DC announced it is sold out & out of print. It's an original graphic novel so you will never see it in soft cover.

xmiyux

Wow, that is so cool that i actually got it then. My luck in comics normally runs more like i go to get it just after it sells out. I guess it was xmiyux's big score as well.

areacode212

Yes, Brubaker's Catwoman is just awesome...it's easily DC's best non-Vertigo title. If you like Darwyn Cooke, I recommend getting the issue of Tangled Web that he wrote earlier in the year...it's one of my favorite comics of 2002.

And think Selina's Big Score (which did rule, and was worth every penny) will make it into softcover eventually. Other hardcovers like JLA: Earth 2 have come out in TPB format, so there's a good chance this one will, too.

Josh-da-man

You probably shouldn't bother.

The previous Catwoman series was pretty much just another superheroish/Batman-family title. I've seen a few issues and there isn't a whole to recommend, especially if you're a fan of the current Ed Brubaker series. The two series are very different creatures.

If you're curious, I'd suggest pulling a few random issues out of a quarter bin and sampling them first.

xmiyux

Yeah, that has been the general consensus of the people i've talked to about it. There was someone selling a lot of the first 63 issues of the original Catwoman series on ebay and for some reason i spaced in missed the auction totally. It looked to be a good deal since he was starting at 9.99 and never got a single bid. Unfortunately when i realized i missed it and emailed him after the fact to see if he was going to relist or if he'd consider just working out a deal directly with me he never responded - either way i think the only way i'll end up checking out the series is if i can get a run of the originals pretty cheap since the shop near me sells all back issues at at least 3$ a pop.

Now for recommendations, can anyone recommend something in a similar vein to the new Catwoman series? I'd be particularly interested in the kind of heist stories like Selinas Big Score was.

areacode212

I'm not sure if you have them, but a few months before the current Catwoman series started, Detective Comics ran a four-part Slam Bradley backup feature as kind of a prequel to the series. I believe they're reprinted in the new Catwoman TPB, but I recommend getting the original issues (because before Catwoman, Detective was DC's best non-Vertigo series, IMO).

Also, Selina's Big Score is tied in with that storyline.

xmiyux

Yes, i have the trade they issued (Dark End of the Street i believe) which collects the four issues with Slam Bradley along with the first four issues of Catwoman. I don't have the individual issues from the Detectives series but i have all the Catwoman individuals as well.

Any other series you guys can think of that kind of has that theme of crime capers like Selinas Big Score did?

sinned

Every time I saw CATWOMAN in Waldenbooks, I was always turned off by the fact that it was printed on cheap newspaper quality paper. I'm wondering, if I get it from the direct market (i.e. comic shop) is the paper better? (as in similar to JLA?)

Josh-da-man

I don't know. Probably not.

DC has been using really crappy paper for quite a while now. The quality of the paper really varies from title to title, and even then, occasionally month-to-month on individual titles.

I suspect that there's little difference between the newstand and direct market versions. I get some DC comics from comic shops -- Vertigo mainly -- and the quality of the paper is poor.