Michael Golden is regarded as one of the masters of comic art, and his long-out-of-print Micronauts is regarded as the “holy grail” among his many legions of fans. Now, through special arrangement with Marvel Comics and Hasbro, IDW is proud to present Golden’s Micronauts work in the multi-Eisner Award-winning Artist’s Edition format.
This gorgeous edition, prepared with the full cooperation of Michael Golden, will feature six complete issues—Micronauts #3, #7, #8, #9, #11, and #12! Plus, an incredible gallery section crammed full of story pages (something from each issue drawn by Golden), covers, pin-ups and more – over 60 pages worth – making this the one book no Michael Golden fan can afford to miss!!
- IDW Publishing, November 04, 2020
- ISBN 978-1-68405-753-5
- 12″ x 17″, 184 pages
- $150 USD
- Order online: eBay
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.
After some much-needed negotiation, IDW was able to reprint this Marvel/Hasbro material. Six full issues and a whole lot of additional material, including pin-ups, roughs, covers, interiors, promotional art, and more. It’s quite a package. All but twelve pages are scanned from the original art. This is the first Artist’s Edition to be released at the new IDW price point of $150 USD for a 12″ x 17″ book, previously $125 USD from 2013 until now.
Colour appears several times. While a few pages of original art were fully coloured much later by other colourists, and Golden coloured some of the gallery material, it’s the psychedelic colours on the original art that stand out. Here’s an explanation from the table of contents.
Production note: several pages in this book have “color holds,” also known as surprints, a process in which the artist draws images on separate sheets (usually vellum) and the line art is then converted to specific colors for effect in the finished comic. In this book we have scanned the available overlays (at times more than one per page) and digitally incorporated them into the final art, mimicking the colors as originally printed.
Scan quality is quite good. Most pages were clear and well presented: I found softness or a slight blur in some pages from issue 11. Blacks don’t show gradients. A good amount of Zip-A-Tone and correction fluid used throughout. Most margin notes are in blue pencil and appear to be from the editor regarding corrections. Most pages have aged quite well: off-white to mild yellowing. There are quite a few names listed in the Special Thanks section, and while the bulk of the pages came from one collector, different people scanning the pages resulted in the few issues encountered, such as the washed-out cover to issue 17.
The design by Randall Dahlk is a departure from his normal style towards AE format books. It’s quite blocky in a grid-like way, with a muted appearance for the table of contents and colophon. The cover has borders only on the left and right, and the back cover doesn’t bear the signature of the artist, a longstanding IDW format. Also, the cover has no colour and the corporate logos appear on the back cover instead of the front.
Production is great: a sewn binding of heavy matte paper stock. The book creaked and cracked as I opened it and flipped pages and continued to do so whenever it was opened. Most pages lay flat once the center was smoothed, but the glueing where the signatures met was quite aggressive and I couldn’t get those pages to say open. The book comes shrinkwrapped in a cardboard box with a sticker showing the cover image and UPC. This is a new design for the cardboard box. The cover flap long edge is glued to the short edges, forcing you to tip the book out of the box or rip where it’s glued trying to get the book out.
Most of this art came from one collector, like a lot of AE format books. The difficult part of this was getting the license from Hasbro and Marvel, but IDW and Scott Dunbier were able to make it happen.
IDW editor Scott Dunbier reports the book is already sold out at Diamond and IDW has less than 50 copies in their warehouse. If you’re looking for this book grab it while you can.
