Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities PROMETHEA

Did anyone here, this past week, either buy or see displayed "Promethea" issue 32? It's the final issue of the title, and was originally scheduled to be in stores on 9 February. My own store neither received it nor has it on the schedule for arriving on 16 February.

The final issue creates a bit of a stunt, likely causing delays in printing: All its pages will, if cut apart and reassembled, create a large two-sided poster with its own overall image. And that probably means every page will "bleed" off the cut edges.

You'd really need to buy three copies if you created the posters yourself. One for each side, and a third copy to keep and read intact. Those posters, o'course, are also being sold separately! Greedy l'il Wildstorm buggers {g}

Newsarama had it listed in its shipping delays article as coming out this week (2/16), Grey. There was a special edition of the final issue solicited at the same time as the regular #32, that would unfold into the overall image. But if I remember correctly, it was more expensive to get that one special issue than it would be to buy those three copies of the regular edition! Money-grubbing, indeed!

According to Brian Hibbs' Comix Experience reviews blog, where he also posts the list of comics that arrive each week, the following are on the list of items shipped this week:

PROMETHEA #32
PROMETHEA VARIANT EDITION #32

I stand corrected-- at $50 retail, the variant would buy almost 16 copies of the regular #32... KEE-riipes!

Were you able to find it, Grey? I don't know if it's out, but I'll try to look for it for you on Sunday, when I go to the CBS.

Not yet, but my local store doesn't open for another hour and a half. I never make it down there on Wednesdays. Thanks, and I'll let you know if they have it for me after all.

One current series ("LSH" v5) and a few limited series aren't enough to justify the cost of a pull box. Besides, what would I do with that "Previews" phone book every month?

I almost got a box when "Promethea" and "Sojourn" were around, along with "The Legion," but they're both gone now. Too many titles just don't stay around.

Here's apparently what it looks like cut up into poster form http://www.dvandom.com/images/promethea32.JPG

My retailer said there was supposed to be a poster of the final portrait shipping at the same time as the final issue, but it was delayed.

Very didactic, but pretty, finale for the series.

Wow.

I ran out and got a copy off the shelves. Absolutely gorgeous. I love how it reads equally well as a pamphlet and as the two individual posters. Yes, I ripped this sucker apart and spread it out on my den floor!

Absolutely astounding work. The whole run was. But this... I don't have the words for it. I can't say that I "got" everything Moore discusses in this series, but I have -gotten- alot out of it.

Can't wait to hear what you thought fo the final issue, Grey.

I guess Rich Johnston liked it. From this week's LitG:

I'm not reading that thing with any f***ing Merlot (a bow-by-paraphrased-quote to the little comedy that could, "Sideways," one film I'm rooting for on Oscar Night) ... it'd get too confusing.

It's compelling, what I've read of it, but I couldn't get very far yet, because they printed it with some pages upside down in the booklet form. I don't see why they did that, since anyone managing the (literal) cut-and-paste would slice it all apart anyway.

They did, though, put a note about having done so on the inside front cover. And it's 32 pages plus 4 of cover without ads, for once and last, a bit of a bonus for long-time readers. That also makes it sell for $3.95, along with the cost of having "bleeds" on every edge of every page.

I guess I was hoping the series would end with something more linear, easier to follow ... but it hasn't kept to those limits earlier, to, yes, genius effect, so why should it have started now? The art is compelling and detailed, as always, even when suddenly inverted.

Thanks for the link to the finished two sides of the poster. I wouldn't have had the patience for assembling it all, and my wallet didn't have the strength to bear getting the wall versions.

I skipped the Merlot and went right for the peyote m'self...

An afterthought: I wish now I'd written down the page "numbers" as published. Right now, my one copy is only readable as the two posters. :rolleyes:

Ah, well, I'll figure it out from the copy I actually preordered, and then I'll FULLY dissect this one, so I can read the pamphlet version without pages inverted; It felt kinda dirty to be flipping the book around to look at pictures of naked women... A bit of a flashback to holding a copy of PLAYBOY sideways to flip open the centerfold, I guess.

So, two trades in (12 issues), and I'm blown away and loving Promethea. I just read the tarot issue, and earlier this morning the sex magic issue, and the two of them are two of the best issues I've read in a long time. They are essential Moore. The brilliance of the tarot issue is astonishing: the interpretation, how it's presented, the rhymes...just astounding.

And Williams' art is phenomenal, as he brings an equal degree of brilliance in the art.

As with most Moore comics, I find myself a bit at a loss for words to describe it. Only that I am enjoying these trades immensely, and I plan to continue onwards all the way through in this one sitting.

Love... love... love Promethea. So glad you're reading it Cobie; it's absolutely my all time favorite.

About a year ago, my wife - who is decidedly not a comic book reader - finally agreed to check out a series of my choice on one condition... I had to read the entire series out loud to her, storybook-style.

Suffice to say... I do a mean "Jack Faust" voice (my "Stacia" isn't too shabby, either).

So, how does the infamous last issue read in collected form?

Promethea is wonderful. I said this before in a reply to Teeds (I don't remember which thread, sorry), but Promethea cleansed me of Catholic guilt and helped me to stop worrying about the apocalypse. Lofty claims for a comic book, but there you go!

I've spent a lot of time over the last decade trying to understand secret societies, sacred knowledge, "infamous magicians", conspiracies, and all sorts of alternative history. And in recent years, I've ventured off into exploring concepts of what God might really be, based on recent scientific discoveries.

Little did I know Alan Moore would spell so much of it out for me.

I just finished Promethea's journey through the various realms and pathways, ending with none other than God. It was brilliant. Utterly brilliant.

What a fantastic series. I'm about 9 issues away from the end now.

MAN, Promethea was great! Such a challenging read as to what a comic book can be but without ever losing its clarity and humanity! Morrison is SUCH a wannabe in comparison!

I definitely must re-read this at some point. Its original publication was...spotty...as you can imagine with Williams as the artist. So, as awesome as it was, some of its impact was probably lost in the publication gaps. But even then, it was one of the best comics ever!

Wow... it's been almost ten years(!) since I finished PROMETHEA. So glad to see people are still discovering this fantastic series. I need to revisit it at some point in the not-TOO-far future... Mind-expanding, thought-provoking tour de force by the creators. It capped Moore's work for me, and cemented JHW3's place as one of my must-follow artists.

Lardy says "such a challenging read as to what a comic book can be but without ever losing its clarity and humanity" and that is really a spot-on compliment for Promethea and most of Moore's work. It never loses focus, even when its at its most abstract, and that is something every other single writer struggles with.

I just finished it today at lunch. It was fantastic. Utterly fantastic.

I have a ton to get through before I can even consider any of the other ABC Comics but I think next I'll do Tom Strong. I also may try to pick up the single issues of Tomorrow Stories to read here and there, since I'm told reading them all in a row may be repetitive. But I love a good anthology full of charming short stories, and this seems right up my alley if taken in small doses.

Tomorrow Stories was fun, especially stuff like Hillary Barta's SPLASH BRANNIGAN... I need to doublecheck and make sure I have all of them. The post-Moore TOP TEN and Terra Obscura minis, while great to look at, were definitely missing something. I *did* like TOM STRONG & The PLANET of PERIL.