Taschen’s art books have come up in a couple of other threads around here – one unrelated, the other related but where my request for a thread title change fell on deaf ears – so I figured a separate thread might be worthwhile due to their publishing so many lavish oversized ‘XXL’ hardcover omnibus-style reproductions and other comics-adjacent books. A substantial portion of my own library consists of art/design/advertising books from Taschen (and a few similar publishers) bought over the course of thirty-plus years. They’ve always been great reference/inspiration books throughout my career.

The main reason for this post is to note that the company does two 50% Sales every year, in February and September, with the next one apparently starting next Wednesday, Sept. 3. They don’t discount their entire catalog in these events, but there’s always a good mix reduced.

The XXL books in particular are generally pricey, but drop to $100 in the half-price sale. At the moment I’m having difficulty with the site on this phone (not sure if it’s me), but these unboxing/review videos should give a better idea about what makes the Marvel books (and a lot of Taschen books in general) so unique. They also have a great books on Frazetta and Fantasy Artists in this range, and those and also available in smaller, more budget friendly sizes which also go on sale. A couple of the big Marvel books are also now available in smaller sizes closer to their Marvel omni counterparts, only with far more bonus content.








Taschen has also started dipping into the EC Comics library. I’m hoping to get my hands on both of these at some point but they might be too new to be included in the next week’s sale:





Taschen also recently released a Donald Duck XXL volume as a companion piece to an earlier Mickey Mouse edition (which I believe is only available in the smaller size now):


I know a few folks here already have some of these (I’m up to to six at the moment) and have vouched for the quality in other threads. Because the biggest ones are priced accordingly, these sales are pretty much the best time to order them. For what it’s worth, Amazon has been known to price match (which could mean savings on shipping), and Target will occasionally drop select titles to half price, which beats their more commonly B2G1 pricing.

Oh man, the Frazetta and EC books are right in my wheelhouse, very tempting! Like I don't already own plenty of books on both of them.

I wonder if Marvel will keep licensing to Taschen since Marvel is dipping their toes into large hardcover reproductions very close in nature to Taschen's work.

I suspect Taschen might keep producing these, although it’s interesting that they haven’t really announced much since the XXL Hulk book, and apparently people were expecting the next couple of reduced-size XL versions of a couple of these to be announced by now. They’ve done two so far, and a couple of others turned up as preorders on Amazon but then went off sale. I think where Taschen beats Marvel in these presentations is in the contextual material that prefaces the comics, which is kinda their specialty. Not that Marvel doesn’t do that in various lines, but I think Taschen can provide a larger pop cultural framework as befitting their nature as an ‘art book’ publisher. Also, the faux-newsprint paper used to reproduce the original ‘interior’ pages of the comics within the XXL editions (with original coloring) is something I’m not sure Marvel might bother with. I read somewhere that the original plan was to do four XXL editions of many of the characters/teams to cover the early runs, but I’m not sure if that’s still the plan. There may also be other factors involved in the printing and costing of books in general thanks to certain situations being inflicted on your country and the world by certain people.

The Taschen sale is now on. As always, it's not everything, but a sizeable portion of their catalog. Just the sale titles are here: https://www.taschen.com/en/books/sale/

Amazon and Target haven't matched yet. Presumably they will, although both don't always have the same titles in stock.

Of the Marvel / EC - style XXL books mentioned earlier, these are on sale. Most are 50% off or more, except FF and Silver Surfer:

- Avengers 1 XXL - $100
- Avengers 2 XXL - $100
- Fantastic Four 1 XXL - $119
- Silver Surfer XXL - $129
- Spider-Man 1 XXL - $100
- Spider-Man 2 XXL - $100
- History of EC - $90
- Masterpieces of Fantasy Art XXL - $90
- Frazetta XXL - $100 (the smaller version is $15, and there's also a Frazetta pouch for 75% off)

No deals on X-Men, Hulk, Donald Duck, or Weird Science, so those might turn up in the February sale.

Also, the Marvel Age of Comics is a nicely illustrated smaller edition for $15.

I already have all those in that list that I want which are both Spider-Man volumes, History of EC, Fantasy Art and Frazetta. I even have that smaller Marvel Age Of Comics which I recommend. Great book for the price.

I think I am done on these unless they release another Spider-Man volume. They take up so much room and I am good with just reading the other stuff digitally at this point. I am running out of room, money and most importantly, time to read everything I already have.

That is a great price on that EC book. Not sure why it is $10 less than the others but it is just as good in quality. Wonder if they had trouble moving them?

And what the fuck do you do with a Frazetta pouch?

It makes me laugh that their book stands to hold these giant monstrosities works of art are as much or more than a lot of the books.

ps. There is also an excellent and fairly comprehensive book for the films of Alfred Hitchcock I recommend for just 20 bucks.

The Silver Surfer for $70 is awfully tempting.


Doh, learned I misread the sale price and it is $130 on sale, actually a good thing as it is much less tempting now, lol! 😅

*Sigh* I'm in for the History of EC book, maybe the big Frazetta one as well, like I don't already have enough Frazetta books (or EC books for that matter!).

Had to double-check the price list in my previous post, but it was correct at $129 for the Surfer book (perhaps sadly). Taschen has a weird way of displaying their pricing during these sales, with the savings boldfaced in red, right under the sale price (with list price crossed out), so it looks like the red price is the deal. I've often looked at the red price and gotten stoked (especially if it seems like more than 50%), only to realize at checkout that I misread the prices.

Well, a Frazetta / EC collection might not be complete without books that cut off the circulation in your lower extremities while reading! Hopefully you're at least able to take advantage of your US workplace to get around the somewhat pricey shipping to Canada which doesn't include potential export/customs fees that are baked in at checkout by some US retailers shipping here now, like Amazon US and Shout Factory. You can always tell them at the border that the books are your lunchtime reading material – gigantic lunchtime reading material – and they always cross the border with you, and maybe they won't pull you into secondary.

Regarding shipping to Canada, in case any other Canucks are reading this, the sale pricing including shipping and even potential duties (Canada's retaliatory tariffs were recently dropped, so I assume that might be an incentive in importing that US residents don't have right now ordering from outside their country) is still cheaper than ordering the books from Amazon Canada or Chapters/Indigo where, for example, the prices for most of the XXL books are in the $260 - $275 CDN range, plus tax, and they're never on sale in this country.

I ended up with History of EC Comics, Fantastic Four, and Avengers 2. I swore to myself that I'd only get the first volumes of the Marvel titles, but blew that by ordering Spider-Man 1 and 2 in the February sale, along with Avengers 1. I'd prefer not to make that a habit as I'm collecting these more as art / art history books than, say, omnibus collections or trade paperbacks to simply read and or sell/trade. I wish the FF volume was $100 like the others, but I'm a bit hesitant to hold off for a future sale because that one was unavailable at the site for the last few months, so I'm not sure what the story is there. I'm curious if the higher sale price was possibly due to increased printing and importing costs for new print runs. Might be something to keep in mind with the others in future sales, just in case $120 becomes more common (still not a bad price considering the size and quality of these things).

It's worth noting that Taschen's sales are always 'while stocks last', and some titles do sell out their allotted stock. I learned that the hard way in the last sale when History of EC Comics (can remember if it was $90 or $100) sold out well before the sale ended and disappeared from my cart. Just something to keep in mind, especially with that one at more than 50% off.

Yep, I'll have them sent to my office in the US and shouldn't have a problem bring a book back to Canada (especially now that the retaliatory tariffs were dropped this week). I can't imagine what it would cost to ship these monstrosities to Canada and don't want to find out!

On an order of three, it worked out to about $41 (so about $13-ish per book). That's still cheaper than buying here, and since my preferred decades-long habit of freely crossing the border without hassle is on hiatus for the time being, I could kinda make it make sense for now. My only concern is the fact that Canada Customs seems to have become much more giddy about slapping duties on nearly everything that isn't letter mail-sized under the umbrella of this tariff war bullshit, whereas in the past I think they tended to let a lot more parcels through with no add-on costs. Fun times with all the finger-crossing.

The dropping of the retaliatory tariffs does have me a little more tempted to try crossing again to pick up parcels/groceries/stuff in the US, and I've got friends who've been over a couple of times since the new reich seized power and they say they weren't hassled, no phone checks, etc. I guess I'll need to read up more on what the general consensus is among casual Canadian day-trippers in the days/weeks ahead.

I decided to be a bit "frugal" and just ordered the EC book, I've been wanting that one for awhile now. It was still showing as regular price on Amazon.com so I ordered it from Taschen directly, I couldn't beat that price! I just hope that it has a good strong binding, that's always my worry with heavy, hardcover books.

I haven't done a US grocery run since all the tariff BS, but now that the retaliatory tariffs are done I'll have to give it a try, I'll even get a six pack of beer with my groceries and cross my fingers!

Taschen seems to have a solid reputation in this regard, and especially on these weighty XXL books, and some of the videos above show the binding up close. I don’t read mine regularly for lengthy periods, but they do get flipped through often enough and I don’t anticipate any problems. At the moment, they’re mostly still stored flat in their boxes, which may actually help, but eventually I’ll get them onto the shelves as the fall cleaning/organizing sets in.

I got my EC book today, damn is it a beast of a book! Kind of cool that the shipping box itself is printed with B&W images of the book. At first I was worried because the front of the box has a big tear and dent at the bottom, but thankfully the book inside is flawless. Can't wait to dig into it tonight! Thanks again for the heads up on the sale, Brian.

Next one’s in February. Just sayin’ . . .

The Marvel boxes are printed like that too. It’s a nice bonus. The downside is that Taschen uses them as shipping boxes so they inevitably end up dinged here and there, whereas Amazon and Target – in my experience, anyway – ship them in even bigger boxes still, which keeps everything pristine. But, no matching from them this time so we get what we gets. My three arrived a couple of days ago, each separately in those boxes, wrapped in plastic. There was a customs fee, of course, but it worked out to about $16CDN extra per book, so each was still considerably under the $270-ish plus tax I’d have to pay up here.

They’re definitely beasts, though. Extended lap reading could be dangerous.

Ok, sixteen bucks extra each ain't too bad considering how much the books cost. In my humble opinion, books should be exempt from all taxes and duties, but what can ya do?

This is truly a "coffee table book" as the only way I can comfortably read it is to lay it out on my coffee table and pull up a chair. If I read it on my lap, my legs would probably lose some circulation in no time.

Not sure if anyone here is into the old Disney comics, but a new Taschen XXL edition of Carl Barks’ Donald Duck comics was released recently after some delay. It’s similar to the Marvel Books in that it mixes paper stocks to approximate the ‘feel’ of the old comics, with a lot of supplemental material up front. I wasn’t really into these kinds of books (or the reprints or whatever) as a kid, but as a pop culture art history buff, this version is tempting, or maybe the eventual standard edition down the road.



Also, just a heads up that one of Taschen’s two annual 50% (ish) off sales should be happening in February. I’m hoping to get my hands on the Weird Science, Hulk, and X-Men books, none of which were discounted in September.

That Barks book above won’t be reduced until at least September or even next February, and their other XXL History of Donald Duck book was in the September sale, but could turn up in the next one.

They also released this scaled-down ‘45th Anniversary’ edition of the EC Comics behemoth which apparently has a condensed version of the history from the larger book (with far fewer images) and the cover gallery. Not sure if it’s been out long enough to be discounted, but it’s possible.
https://www.taschen.com/en/books/com...50-54-45th-ed/

All comics-related books:
https://www.taschen.com/en/books/comics/

Finally, you’ll notice a new edition to the XXL range in that full list, coming in May: Hal Foster’s Tarzan: The Complete Sunday Comics 1931 - 1937. I’m not familiar with those, but the Google tells me they’re pretty significant historically and Foster’s art is impressive for the era.
https://www.taschen.com/en/books/com...ics-1931-1937/

Thanks for the heads up on the upcoming sale and the Barks book. I've been a fan of the Carl Barks duck books since I was a teen, I still have a bunch of old issues of Barks Uncle Scrooge and Walt Disney's Comics & Stories in what remains of my vintage comic book collection, and bought some of the Fantagraphics hardcover Barks reprints (I even have a single volume of the Russ Cochran/Bruce Hamilton hardcover B&W reprints from the 80s, that I bought decades ago at Silver Snail).

Darn it, I hate seeing these things because I get these crazy urges that I must have them!! I'm a casual Barks fan, always appreciating his style since I was a kid (he was the good duck artist!), and have had a few Donald/Scrooge comics. I picked a Donald Duck/Barks book a few years ago because of somebody posting something. Gotta admit that Barks stories are always fun. Will I get this monster book?? Not sure, but I'm very tempted. One drawback is the size. How the heck do people read things this big??

It makes it tough for toilet reading. Try holding one and wiping! It must be why my arms are so muscular.

They aren’t light, so ideally you might want to sit at a table or desk to read them flat (or propped up a little on something). We’ve joked in here about avoiding lap reading if you don’t want to lose circulation in your legs or other unmentionables, but a few pages at a time while seated is probably manageable (and possibly a good workout as Spiderbite says ). I’ve occasionally stuck a throw pillow under one on my lap if I want to read on the couch.

On the plus side, there’s lots of time to decide as it’s really unlikely the Barks book will be in a 50% sale until at least next year.

I will say that though they may be unwieldy, the sheer size of the artwork is fantastic and makes you really appreciate it, if you are an artwork whore like I am.

For books that size, I read them on a table, and prop up the side with less pages on something in order to avoid excess stress on the spine.

Just a heads up that the Taschen Sale runs Feb. 5-8, so starting Thursday this week. Their email says ‘up to 75% off,’ but I recall only a few books being that steeply discounted last time.

The sale’s up now.

Nice to see WEIRD SCIENCE XXL in the mix. The HISTORY OF EC COMICS is more than half-off at $90 again, which is a decent price for such a monster book. The first DONALD DUCK book, though not the Barks edition, made the cut as well but at less than half price. No luck for me with the X-MEN and HULK XXL books, so maybe next time, but definitely in for WEIRD SCIENCE at least.

Overall sale selections:
http://​​​​​​​https://www.taschen.com/en/books/sale/

Comic sale selections:
https://www.taschen.com/en/books/sal...nt=60&offset=0

Just a personal recommendation but the ALL-AMERICAN ADS books form a great ‘marketing history’ series. I’ve had the 30’s to 80’s books for a good 15 years or more in previous editions, but they must sell pretty well to keep them in print even longer than that, and $20 on sale is solid value. Most are over 600 pages, with a small introduction and then tons of vintage ads in multiple product categories, with some beautiful hand-drawn and hand-painted art in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s editions.

https://www.taschen.com/en/collection/all-american-ads/