Each year in Scoop we try to offer suggestions for your Christmas or Hannukah shopping lists, and we keep it to ones that we can honestly and enthusiastically recommend. These selections are from Gemstone President J.C. Vaughn

Origins of Marvel Comics: The 50th Anniversary Edition
Gallery 13; $50

Editor Chris Ryall – a creative force in his own rite – is the former Publisher and President of IDW Publishing. He’s also a superfan when it comes to Marvel Comics of the 1970s and ‘80s (just ask him about Rom), and it’s hard to think of a better person to spearhead the 50th anniversary edition of Fireside Books’ Origins of Marvel Comics.

What Ryall has done with this already important book is a tremendous service to fans, historians, and collectors. Stan Lee’s original text was – as it’s been described – self-deprecating hype. Ryall’s additional material gives it a tremendous injection of context. 

Coming just 13 years after the launch of Fantastic Four #1, Origins was the first hardcover and trade paperback that collected Marvel material, namely the origin stories for the FF, Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, Thor, and Doctor Strange – and it served as the gateway drug for many budding collectors in that era. The origin stories were paired with more recent (at the time) adventures of the same characters.

While the tales contained in the volume were nowhere near as pricey as they are today, they were already beyond reach for newer, entry level fans. In 1974, that year’s edition of The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide noted the prices of each of the issues included in the book: Fantastic Four #1 ($70) and #55 ($1), Incredible Hulk #1 ($30) and #118 (40¢), Amazing Fantasy #15 ($40), Amazing Spider-Man #72 (40¢), Journey into Mystery #83 ($20), Thor #143 (40¢), and Strange Tales #110 ($3), #115 ($2), and #155 (60¢). Adding them up – if you could find them – only brought a total of $167.40 (in 1974 dollars), but Origins carried only a $6.95 cover price for the softcover.

It was a bargain that also came with the perceived legitimacy of being in the form of a book rather than an individual comic. And it was a hit. Origins spawned Son of Origins, Bring on the Bad Guys, and a whole line of Marvel collections for Simon & Shuster’s Fireside imprint.

The new deluxe, collector’s edition of the Origins of Marvel Comics includes a new Alex Ross take on the original cover, essays by Ryall, Tom Brevoort, Ross, and Larry Lieber, as well as an interview with Fireside editor Linda Sunshine. The book also includes a look at the marketing efforts for the original version, artist bios, and Ray Bradbury’s Los Angeles Times review of the volume from 1974, among the material crammed into its pages.

For fans of the original version, and for Marvel fans in general, it’s a tremendous way to make a landmark anniversary.

DC Versus Marvel Omnibus
$150; DC Comics

After a couple of decades of DC and Marvel not playing well together – okay, to be fair, they didn’t play together at all – we get a heavy, hard-hitting reminder that they have done so in the past and when they do, it’s a wonderful thing for superhero fans.

In an age when franchises crossing over is not at all uncommon, it’s hard for younger readers to know how simultaneously impossible and incredible it was in 1976 when Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man #1 first arrived on newsstands. However much it seemed like a dream, it started what became a semi-regular thing.

The earliest editions were done in the Treasury format (and kudos to the production people on this book for not making the material look forced into the Omnibus size) before they switched to a traditional comic book format with Marvel and DC Present: Featuring the Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans #1.

This new, long overdue collection includes Marvel Treasury Edition #28, DC Special Series #27, Batman/Punisher: Lake of Fire #1, Punisher/Batman: Deadly Knights #1, Darkseid vs. Galactus: The Hunger #1, Spider-Man and Batman #1, Green Lantern/Silver Surfer: Unholy Alliances #1, Silver Surfer/Superman #1, Batman/Captain America #1, Daredevil/Batman #1, Batman/Spider-Man #1, Superman/Fantastic Four #1, Incredible Hulk vs. Superman #1, and Batman/Daredevil #1.

Some of them are great (both Superman and Spider-Man team-ups, the X-Men – New Teen Titans, Superman/Fantastic Four and Incredible Hulk vs. Superman lead the way), some are merely fun, but all of them are enjoyable.

There’s a good bit of bonus material included in this compilation as well. Very enjoyable.

Geiger – Volume One
Image Comics; $9.99

Before comic book readers became aware that writer Geof Johns and friends were building the Ghost Machine universe, he, artist Gary Frank, and colorist Brad Anderson introduced their first creator-owned Geiger to fans in a six-issue series from Image.

In the wastelands of an Earth ravaged by nuclear war years earlier, survivors must contend with “nightcrawlers” (dangerous, mutated creatures), the “Organ People” (who capture the relatively healthy as transplant donors), scarcity of resources, and more. Against this backdrop stands Geiger, “John Glow” or “the Meltdown Man.”

Johns and company have created a world that is compelling and populated it with characters that are equally intriguing. In the grand tradition of great comic books, the anticipation of each new issue begins the moment one finishes reading the previous one.

Since the robust launch of the Ghost Machine imprint, there’s now another Geiger series, but this collection is a great way to get into the story from the beginning. There is a more expensive hardcover collection which folks who are already fans may very well want to pick up. If, though, you’re just trying Geiger on for size, it’s hard to beat that $9.99 trade paperback.

Kelly Green: The Complete Collection
Classic Comics Press; $59.95

If you’re a crime comics fan and are looking for an off-beat post-holiday gift for yourself, check out Kelly Green: The Complete Collection. Originally issued by Dargaud International Publishing as a series of graphic albums in the early 1980s, the title character was the creation of writer Leonard Starr (Mary Perkins On Stage, Little Orphan Annie) and artist Stan Drake (The Heart of Juliet Jones, Blondie). In the first of the graphic novels, The Go-Between, we meet Kelly Green, a cop’s widow, who takes on the role of a go-between, walking the line separating the straight and criminal worlds. The first story is a little bit clunky, but it sets up the series very well.

This volume also includes One, Two, Three, Die..., The Million Dollar Hit, and The Blood Tapes, comprising the other three stories previously published in English.

It also includes, for the first time in English, The Comic Con Heist, which is set at the 14th San Diego Comic-Con and features cameos by Jack Kirby, Milton Caniff, Will Eisner, Burne Hogarth, and even convention founder Shel Dorf. It is well and truly steeped in the love of comics.

Stan Drake’s work on Kelly Green is as beautiful as his fans would expect, and he and Leonard Starr delivered a strong female protagonist well ahead of the curve for mainstream comics in that day. The work is engaging – it’s presented in black and white and really benefits from that – and really enjoyable. It would be worth the cover price just for The Comic Con Heist.

The oversized (8-1/2” x 11”), 272-page hardcover includes a 16-page color gallery at the end of the book.

Kill Shakespeare: First Folio
Gemstone Publishing; $29.99

I liked this book so much that I wanted publish it, but never imagined that I’d get the chance to do so. And then the opportunity came up. This trade paperback is beautifully produced, with “French Flaps” on the cover to give it extra staying power. I’m psyched to have published it and very happy to recommend it to you.

Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Anthony Del Col and writer Conor McCreery created Kill Shakespeare, a series that The New York Times dubbed, "dark fun." Now it’s back in this First Folio edition that includes the first two original volumes originally published by IDW.

The story combines all of Shakespeare’s greatest heroes and villains, including Hamlet, Juliet, Othello, Lady Macbeth, Richard III, and more.

A grieving Hamlet flees his home but is soon attacked by pirates at sea. He washes ashore on the mysterious land of Illyria and is discovered by Richard III and Lady Macbeth, who offer the Dane an impossible bargain: track down and kill an evil wizard to retrieve a source of power that can bring Hamlet’s father back from the dead. The name of that wizard? William Shakespeare.

This is a fantastic introduction to the world they’ve created.

In addition to the soft cover edition, there’s also a signed, limited hardcover.

J.C. joined Gemstone Publishing in 1995 and has worked in a variety of positions, including presently serving as the company’s President. He created and co-authored The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide To Lost Universes, has written comic books such as Al Capone, Vampire, and Shi: Gatecrasher. He has also contributed to a wide array of publications.