Announcement: ASSEMBLED! 2 now on Amazon.com!! (Read 2,388 times)
Van Plexico Administrator Vanlactus member is offline
Joined: Oct 2005 Gender: Male Posts: 665 Location: St. Louis Karma: 22
ASSEMBLED! 2 now on Amazon.com!! « Thread Started on Jul 14, 2009, 8:03pm »
Greetings, all,
After a nearly two-year wait... ASSEMBLED! 2 is now on sale!
Sequel to the very successful ASSEMBLED! and an intensive examination of all things Avengers, this book focuses on the "Big Three"-- Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America-- plus the "big two" villains, Ultron and Kang!
Additional chapters look at the recent IRON MAN movie, plus YOUNG AVENGERS, AVENGERS FOREVER and more. Introduction by Marvel Executive Editor Tom Brevoort. The Jarvis Heads combine insightful analysis with humor and sometimes surprising opinions for a total package that will both inform and entertain.
ASSEMBLED! 2 was written by the Jarvis Heads of AvengersAssemble.net, created and edited by Van Allen Plexico, and with an introduction by Tom Brevoort. Cover by Anthony Schiavino; book design by Danny Wall; Asst. Editor Joe Crowe.
Profits from the sale of this book benefit the HERO Initiative charity for retired comics professionals.
I'm holding off on issuing the official press release until we get the deal with Diamond Distributors set up; most comics shops will only order via them. But Amazon has the book listed now, and eligible for free shipping, at:
"But you know as well as I, patriotism is a word; and one that generally comes to mean either my country, right or wrong, which is infamous, or my country is always right, which is imbecile." --Patrick O'Brian
Joined: Nov 2005 Gender: Male Posts: 2,791 Location: England / Italy Karma: 101
Re: ASSEMBLED! 2 now on Amazon.com!! « Reply #7 on Jul 27, 2009, 3:55pm »
I'm half-way through it! Going more slowly than what I would have hoped, because of a sudden (swine?) flu, but enjoying every word of it.
It flows very well, even better than the first one. Each essay is an easy read, and yet manages to send its points through. There is a fair amount of history of the Marvel Universe, and one can see that the writers know what they are talking about, especially when referencing things that happened across different books or back in the Silver Age.
I particularly liked Sharkar's essay, a very funny-and-yet-true account on Cap and his contradictions. Rob Clough's and David Medinnus' essays are also particularly nice, and I appreciated Tom Breevort's honesty in the introduction.
Finally, I don't know if it was Van's editing or if a few essays were resubmitted more recently, but the book is very up to date, mentioning Dark Reign a few times. Considering most of it was written in 2007, this was an appreciated surprise.
On the down side, not much to say so far. A couple of essays have such a strong difference in opinion that on one hand it makes one appreciate that the MU universe is no longer black and white, but on the other somewhat undermines the point discussed. Also one essay seems to struggle a little bit with the final paragraph, suddenly changing tone.
On a more technical note, there are a few typos here and there. Nothing that makes it difficult to understand the essays, but they could be fixed for a second edition or reprint. It's all small things anyway (brackets that close without having been opened previously, words missing a letter, Cap being called "Thor" once, words repeated twice in a row and so on).
PS: Up until now, I hadn't realized that the cover of the first Assembled! was essentially the torso portion of Cap's costume This one is Iron Man's, so we can hope for Thor's for A3?
Van Plexico Administrator Vanlactus member is offline
Joined: Oct 2005 Gender: Male Posts: 665 Location: St. Louis Karma: 22
Re: ASSEMBLED! 2 now on Amazon.com!! « Reply #8 on Jul 27, 2009, 8:03pm »
Thanks for the review, Shiryu.
Glad there's so much positive to be said about it.
I'm disappointed to learn of the typos and other flaws. In particular, I've learned that the Thor chapter by Karen was a bit over-zealously edited down, back when we were desperately trying to shorten the book (before dividing it in half). I truly hate that and I'm working on a solution or two.
It seems that no matter how many times you read over a book (or think you have), and how many other sets of eyes look it over, you always end up with errors and typos and even big mistakes here and there. I'm rarely if ever satisfied with a book I've written or produced, and I've had doubts and worries about this one for some time, given the long lag in time between soliciting the chapters and finally being able to publish the book.
I only hope readers will enjoy it for what is there and not be too disappointed by its various weaknesses.
Joe Crowe was responsible for pointing out that we needed to update some of the material for the passage of time since 2007, and he added a great deal of the revised/updated chapter endings that brought the book more fully into 2009. For that and a lot of other things I owe him a big "Thank you."
We will be moving forward with ASSEMBLED! 3 very soon-- hopefully much, much sooner than with A2!
If others have thoughts on the book, I'd love to see/hear them here. I'm fully aware of some of its shortcomings and just now learning of others. But I do hope there's enough there to make it worth your money and your while. Thanks.
"But you know as well as I, patriotism is a word; and one that generally comes to mean either my country, right or wrong, which is infamous, or my country is always right, which is imbecile." --Patrick O'Brian
Joined: Nov 2005 Gender: Male Posts: 2,791 Location: England / Italy Karma: 101
Re: ASSEMBLED! 2 now on Amazon.com!! « Reply #9 on Jul 31, 2009, 5:37am »
I finished reading it last night. I think I liked this second part even more than the first one, the Thor section for me was possibly the best for the big 3, even a bit better than Cap's in a way. Part 3 was probably the most informative, especially the list/review of Marvel Novels, about which I knew almost nothing.
There are a few typos in this half of the book too, but not as many (only 3 or 4 I think), and I can see what you mean with Tana's essay having been excessively edited in some places, but more in general this part of the book flows very well too.
There is something a little strange at the beginning, I noticed that Woodside's biography blurb is there, but he doesn't have any essay in the book (I understand his work will be in A3). You may want to make sure that he still has a bio in A3, in case it was moved to the wrong file.
Re: ASSEMBLED! 2 now on Amazon.com!! « Reply #10 on Aug 2, 2009, 10:15pm »
A mixed bag for me. There were some articles I really liked, others, not so much. I appreciate the effort and passion shown so I am not going to pick out those that I thought were weak. I still have about 25 pages to go, so I haven't read the last few essays.
However, I will say that I much prefer the essays that look at the team and the heroes in the macro view. I think a few of the articles suffered in that they just felt like bulleted lists of events as opposed to an attempt to look at the big picture and provide commentary or analysis. (Hope that makes sense).
The only reason I say this is that IF Part 3 is not to press yet, it might be something for the authors to keep in mind. Remember that most of the audience for the book already knows the majority of WHAT happened. At least I am more interested in how those events fit together or how the book changed to reflect different eras/authors/artists/social issues/etc.
Re: ASSEMBLED! 2 now on Amazon.com!! « Reply #11 on Aug 4, 2009, 10:22pm »
As someone not as familiar with the history of these characters outside of what occurred in the Avengers book, I actually appreciated the background. Overall, I found this an even more enjoyable read than the first one (and I really liked the first one). Can't wait for round three!
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This one is Iron Man's, so we can hope for Thor's for A3?
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