The first six issues of the acclaimed Black Widow series by Mark Waid and Chris Samnee is given the award-winning Artist’s Edition treatment. Every cover, page, and layout is scanned from the original art.
Collecting the first six issues of the acclaimed Black Widow series, penciled and inked by Chris Samnee, and co-written with frequent collaborator Mark Waid. All pages have been scanned from the original art and are presented the same size as drawn. This volume will include a number of layouts by Samnee that show his creative process. As with all Artist’s Editions, this book appears to be in Black and white, but is scanned and printed in color, the better to see the subtle nuances that make original art unique.
- IDW Publishing, July 02, 2024
- ISBN 978-1-68405-711-5
- 12″ x 17″, 192 pages, hardcover
- $150 USD
- Order online: Amazon, Things From Another World, Walt’s Comic Shop, Forbidden Planet
As with all AE format material (Artist’s Editions, Artifact Editions, Gallery Editions, Art Editions, Studio Editions, etc.), this is a collection of classic comic material and I’ll be reviewing the book and not the story. For a complete list of all current and announced editions, with review links, please visit our Index. Also, see What is an Artist’s Edition and our Artist Index. This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
This is the second Samnee Artist’s Edition and feels completely different than the previous volume. This is a more classic representation of the material, with the six issues presented in order, with covers, and then the page layouts, followed by character and promo designs, and closed out with a biography. Samnee’s art appears much more evolved in his artistic journey, working blacks as silhouettes, outlines, backgrounds, atmosphere, tension. Along the way there is a two-dimensionality, or perhaps a flatness, which comes across and is brought to life by the colours of the finished comic, but we see the step before that.
It’s interesting Samnee doesn’t leave any space for word balloons or text boxes, filling every page. I can see why the decision was made not to add the word balloons digitally. Yet he took the time to add all the word balloons in the page layouts, knowing where the art would be.
The scans are wonderful, with no visual issues. Being a fairly recent work, the pages are all white, with each having the title, issue number, and page along the top along with Samnee’s signature and completion date. The inks are full of gradients, playing multiple roles and used at various densities. Some excellent use of graphite pencils here and there, and notes that are very faint, almost erased, that may be pencil. Little items that could have been. I didn’t spot any correction fluid.
I enjoyed the design, giving where it was needed. The tables of contents are dossier-like in their font and hard rectangular shapes. Interesting spreading the colophon across two pages and using the same image from pencil rough to finished ink, playing off colour usage. Then working that similarly for each chapter divider. Enlargements work well with no visual artifacts, as do the black widows appearing throughout.
Production is excellent: a sewn binding of a heavy matte paper with a minimal gloss, approximately 160gsm. The binding is tight, with no pages lying flat for me. The book comes shrink wrapped in a cardboard case with a colour sticker showing the cover, price, and ISBN. Oddly my copy wasn’t shrink wrapped but was new, but confirmed with others their copies were shrink wrapped.
Introductions for art books are a difficult task, and Waid as Samnee’s partner doesn’t pull back the curtain too far. Half of it is their pitch for the book, and the rest is admiration. We do get to know this was done in the Marvel method, with Samnee working it out on the page and Waid adding dialogue.
