Man, that's one of my favortie parts of the book.
Ian Brill | Email | Homepage | 01.12.06 - 12:08 pm | #

Huge screw up. That contains one of my favorite lines. This is an imaginary story - but aren't they all? Or something very close.
Jim | Email | 01.12.06 - 12:21 pm | #

Yep, major blunder. Glad I didn't pre-order the book. And the more I look at that big blank space the more I think even moving the text to a seperate page was a big mistake.

Does the "Killing Joke" reprint incorporate the full endpapers (the visual gimmick which Moore suggested in his script, as shown on some website)? Not doing that wouldn't be a major blunder, since that was meant for when it was a standalone, but still a high minor.
Bob | 01.12.06 - 12:40 pm | #

Here's a question about a similar situation with Swamp Thing... the last page of the first Alan Moore trade, where Swampy is basking in the sun -- isn't there supposed to be a line of text inside the sun that continues from the previous page? I thought it said something like "...and greet the sun" or some such.
Jeff Wood | Email | 01.12.06 - 12:49 pm | #

Oh, and I seem to remember that that's how the first page looked in the trade reprint edition of "Whatever Happened to...", with the quote in question appearing on the back cover.
Jeff Wood | Email | 01.12.06 - 1:01 pm | #

Bob - no, the endpapers are not there. That is a bit annoying, now that you mention it.

Jeff - "...And meets the sun" is the line, and, yeah, it's been left out of the recent printing of that trade. It's in my original TPB edition.
Mikester | Homepage | 01.12.06 - 1:03 pm | #

everytime i start to think that Alan Moore is being a drama queen with his proclamations of separation from mainstream media, DC goes and screws up like this. way to come across as not giving a toss.
Craig | 01.12.06 - 1:08 pm | #

I forgot about the words being moved in the previous collection.

Sounds like the production department grabbed the story pages from that original collected edition, dropped them in to the new book, and didn't realize what had been moved to the previous facing page was necessary for the story itself.

Sounds like production needs a comic-book-guy in their ranks.

Glad I still have those original issues...but given how nice the caption looked on the splash, and how empty the splash looks with-out- the words I too wonder why they were ever moved at all.

It's all pretty sad. I already had all those stories, but I was looking forward to having them all between two convenient covers.
Garrie Burr | Email | 01.12.06 - 1:12 pm | #

I don't have the issues in front of me so I can't say for sure, but I seem to recall that the prestige format reprint edition had all that text removed too, but included on a different page as the frontspiece.

With the colouring on the second image, it appears that for the tpb they've taken the redone version from the prestige format edition. Have they not included the text on a preceding page?
Dav | Homepage | 01.12.06 - 1:13 pm | #

Wow, didn't know about the "meet the sun" thing (I have the original edition tpb as well). And didn't one edition (I think the b&w reprint) of the "Love & Death" stories lose the pivotal "Just say Uncle" line? You wouldn't think it would be such a hassle just to keep all the words on the page.

For that matter, did they ever restore the Monitor/Crisis pages that they edited out of "Love & Death"?
Bob | 01.12.06 - 1:14 pm | #

Aaand I see that someone's already made the same point. Forget I said anything.
Dav | Homepage | 01.12.06 - 1:14 pm | #

Wow.

DC's Collected Editions Department has been having some major problems lately, including printing pages out of order in recent T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents and Golden Age Hawkman Archives. They've apparently been overextended, and the unfortunate result was the recent firing of Robert Greenberger.

Still, I find it almost unbelievable that they missed this.
C. Elam | Homepage | 01.12.06 - 3:59 pm | #

So I have now bought this Alan Moore collection twice, this time to get "Killing Joke" and "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" under the same covers, and it's screwed up? Crap. Can I get a refund?
Greg Judson | 01.12.06 - 6:47 pm | #

Ha ha... man. That's like leaving out the opening crawl in Star Wars for the dvd...
Jog | Email | Homepage | 01.12.06 - 7:35 pm | #

Or sticking extra text in the "Star Wars" crawl, like, oh, for instance, "Episode IV: A New Hope."
Daniel Taylor | Email | Homepage | 01.12.06 - 8:32 pm | #

Bob - To be honest, I don't know if the Monitor stuff is back in the book. I'm pretty sure it's been kept out, since it doesn't really fit with the rest of the comic, which is a shame.

As for "Just Say Uncle" being left out of the b&w editions...do you mean the British b&w reprint books, or the "Essential Vertigo" series?
Mikester | Homepage | 01.13.06 - 12:43 am | #

Sounds like DC needs a highly qualified archivist to upgrade their archival holdings for the 21st Century comics professional's demands (or, if not demands, mandatory requirements).
Martin Hall | Email | 01.13.06 - 2:05 am | #

It was the "Essential Vertigo" reprint that dropped the dialogue. Not sure about any other editions, but it was really kind of odd. I wonder if they had made an attempt to edit it to conform to the Comics Code before deciding to publish it without, and that's why a copy of the page was lying around without the word balloon.
Bob | 01.13.06 - 10:11 am | #

Thank you, gentlemen. I have therefore just removed this book from my Amazon.com Wish List.
Bully | Email | Homepage | 01.13.06 - 12:36 pm | #

Is it just a rule that most trades of Alan Moore's DC and Marvel work have to be screwed up somehow?
Nik | Email | Homepage | 01.14.06 - 4:08 pm | #