Chronicles of NOVA

The Chronicles of Nova

I am actually around to post! I know – shock horror – well it is a public holiday for me.

When I started binding comics I always knew I didn’t want to start with my ‘magnum opus’ as there are always teething issues with anything. Ask any Action Figure customiser. You have to find the right materials, trust the right people and do your research. Low and behold my early binds were missing a few issues here and there that I didn’t even know about and I didn’t realise that spending an extra $10 bucks making a thicker foil stamp would save everyone a lot of time.

I had a streamlined process in place by the time I got to Usagi Yojimbo Dark Horse issues 1-120 which will always remain my favourite books. The combination of leather covers and the custom made dual foil stamps will always make that one a delight that stands out on my bookshelf.

My Nova project has been ongoing ever since I first started binding. I didn’t know what end point to use as a cut off as the series was ongoing. The Thanos Imperative gave me a pretty logical endpoint (thanks Dan & Andy!!) to finish up on so that aspect took care of itself.

I have the glorious oversized Hardcovers – but they stopped doing the Nova ones. I can’t understand that they just put out issues 1-12 when there are 3 hardcovers worth of material. Anyway, griping over.

I initially also had some trouble in tracking down the original Annihilation comics for a decent price. Why didn’t I just buy a trade of Annihilation and just throw it in there? I just like consistency. I can’t throw a trade willy-nilly into the middle of individual issues. I must have consistency across the whole spectrum of the bind. I also spent a bit of time ensuring the reading order was chronological in terms of Nova’s actual life. I couldn’t fit Secret Avengers in there without ruining the flow of the Abnett and Lanning comics so I placed them in an appendix at the back. Better than excluding them altogether.

Something that also stands out is a lot of the individual issues being signed by the creators when I was living in the UK. Here are some examples. Pretty cool and definitely personalised to me. I ain’t no scalper!

The dynamics of the Nova bind are:

Balck Leather covers with gold foil stamps.

Contents (not entirely in order):

Annihilation Prologue

Annhilation: Nova 1-4

Annihilation 1-6

Nova 1-36

Annihilation Conquest 6

Nova Annual

Thanos Imperative Sourcebook

Thanos Imperative: Ignition

Thanos Imperative 1-6

Thanos Imperative: Devastation

Appendices:

Nova No.1

Secret Avengers 1-4

What-if: Annihilation

A grand total of 65 comics – pretty much everything Nova has been in since Annihilation Prologue bar a few fleeting appearances here and there (e.g. Annihilation Conquest: Prologue etc).

I also chucked in a couple of pages of Sean Chen design sketches as well as a montage of sketches that Adi Granov, Alex Maleev and Kev Walker drew for me.

Interested in hearing peoples thoughts.