Customer Reviews

The Darkness Compendium Edition (Vol. 1)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This beauty is thicker than a dictionary!
Thicker than the "yellow pages"
Thicker than the Bible even!
You'll almost certainly be reading this one at a desk.
And what a price!
You save more than $20 if you buy it here as opposed to your local retailer. Who will charge you around $60.

Questions to ask yourself?
Do you like Garth Ennis?
Do you like Marc Silvestri?
Do you like scantily clad hotties?
Do you like the mafia all suited up with guns blazin'?
Do you like demons ripping pretty much everyone apart?
You haven't bought this yet?

Even after you've read it, you could still use it for stuff like:
- Weight-lifting
- Beating off would-be assailants
- An overly excessive paper-weight
- Filling up a ridiculous portion of your bookshelf
- Or a Booster seat for hobbits, midgets, & dwarves

An excellent, dare-I-say necessary addition to any noteworthy graphic library.
Yes you might need Withchblade #18 & #19 to complete the story in the "Family Ties" arc.
But you're better off just getting the "Wichblade Compendium".
That way, you can also see the first appearance of "The Darkness".

MORAL OF THE STORY:
When you consider the savings, it's unethical not to buy this.

This was the best $37 I've ever spent. On any book in my entire life. For over 1200 pages, it was well worth the money. I was thoroughly delighted with it. It delivered.

My only complaint is that it ended at Darkness #40, with no similiar compendium for subsequent issues. There were some large plot holes that require going to another Non Darkness comics/graphic novel (eg,, witchblade, batman) to find the darkness storyline conclusion. This forces you to go hunt for those issues to find out what happened as they are not contained in the compendium.


All in all, its the best $37 I have ever spent on any book EVER. Totally thrilled.

This is a great collection and my criticism must not be allowed to distract from this. I had not read The Darkness before, having returned to comics after a ten year absence and ordered the compendium on reputation and reveiws alone. The service was great, I was delivered in South Africa on time in pristine condition.

It's hard to comment on this publication without referring to its size. It is huge. While this is a good thing, it is not without its drawbacks. The compendium cannot be read as I would a standard graphic novel in that a degree of discipline is needed. I found myself racing through it missing the artwork and the natural pace a comic has by nature of its original monthly format. While the standard comic can be frustratingly short, nine or ten bound together is a great afternoon's read, taking time to savour each panel. Over 1200 pages is a bit indigestable and I would have perhaps preffered to buy a series of smaller collections to make up the whole. Text close to the spine is difficult to get to without risking the spine and it's not something that would be easily shared with a friend, being a bit unweildy to lend out or have someone help themselves to over a coffee (unless they are a comic enthusiast).

Having said all of this there is still something nice about it being ridiculously huge.

While I am particularly "non-religious", I do find myself questioning the content at times (as enjoyable as it might be). There is a point or two where I was struck than a line was being pushed, such as the offhand killing of an inocent person because its all our hero could come up with on short notice to save himself or the ham-fisted religious references in the Magdelina editions. This is obviously a discomfort I have with the genre itself. Violent dark action/humour would perhaps be less enjoyable if it didn't push the boundry of moral offensiveness. Potential purchasers should know that this one does so more than most and is certainly not for kids.

I am however splitting hairs on what is an excellent collection; the artwork is fantastic, and the humour dark. In my opinion it is the best of the genre.

This book contains a forty issue run of the Darkness series as well as a number of mini series, one-shots and the first issue if the second series. The story is excellent. It is one of those more adult oriented titles that does not "kiddify" the story lines or underestimate the intelligence of the audience. It is, however, more suited to adult readers as there is quite a bit of violence and A LOT of sexual innuendo in the book. The book is one of the heaviest paperbacks around, weighing in at a full three pounds, so it is not a book to read in bed before going to sleep unless you are a weightlifter. It does contain the original full color artwork throughout, albeit without the ads or columns. It is best if you buy this along with the Witchblade compendium, as the two series often cross over so you will get a more complete story. The only compendium with more reading than these Image compendiums are the Marvel 40 year compendiums on computer and these image compendiums are the most complete paper compendiums I've seen. (If one were to try to print out the Marvel disc compendiums the "books" would be about 15,000 pages each).

Ok I am new to The Darkness so I thought the compendium would be a great way to start. The story lines are great and the art work is fantastic. I do, however, have a few complaints. There are two flaws that kept me from giving it five stars. One: there are times that the story line goes way out in left field and you have to have read "witchblade" and "batman" in order to know what is really going on. This was very upsetting and messed up the continuing story line. Second: A lot of the great art work and dialouge was lost in the fold of the book. I'm very careful with all of my graphic novels and refuse to "bend" the pages back far enough to see and read every tender morsel of the story for fear of messing up the book. Overall, the book was well worth the price.

So i recently received my compendium of the darkness.It is quite heave i would say it weighs in about 3 to 5 pounds. The bottom of some of my pages were kinda bent, but who cares the book is in excellent condition. So i never read the darkness comic before until a week ago when i read an issue of the darkness and darkness/pitt. and i immediately thought his powers and jackie were awesome. So i saw how many issues you get with the compendium and im like freaking sweet! And my only complaint is i heard it doesnt come with the batman or the entire witchblade crossover. That dont really matter though the artwork is great and the character of jackie e is great. Im going to continue to buy these compendiums. I stopped buying graphic novels, until now when i read the darkness and saw how much you get in a compendium. Only comic book thats getting my money :).

For those that are out there looking to start a comic book collection or perhaps try to complete. Nothing works better then collection the compendium edition's of comic book series. This one covers the begining the "The Darkness" and throughs in some of the off shoots that where started during the first series of the comic. For those who want to know where "The Darkness" started or for a very well written and drawn comic, this is it. It is not for everyone, because of the sex and violence, but it was for people like my self. The only draw back to this book is the fact that the second and third series of "The Darkness" do not a a Compendium to follow it up with. This is an easy way to collect and contain over fourty comics that could coust more and take a longer time to collect seperetly.

I have just recently gotten into the latest darkness series and have been reading everything I can get my hands on. This was definitely a good buy, it has the entire original Darkness series plus a lot of other side issues. With the low price that amazon is offering it for the real cost comes out to less than a dollar an issue. If all that weren't enough, unlike most compendiums, all the pages are in full color. So not only do you get a great price, you get and awesome series.

This book is two inches tick but point is, it's price on Amazon is so low for all great stories by early Garth Ennis and humour that is rarely present in today's mainstream. Marc Silvestri illustrations too, people!!!

GET IT WHILE SUPPLIES LAST !!!

Bought this collection of comics after playing the video game adaptation and i'm very glad i did. Its got 40+ issues and the story as well as the art is great. Definately worth the money considering how many issues you get.

Only complaints are that some issues are missing so the you'll read the story and miss out on a key event because it was in a crossover or issue not included. Also it is HUGE and because it is so thick and heavy, you have to be quite careful not to open it too much as to not wreck the binding.

Other than those minor things its definately worth the money and i would definately recommend it.