The Fred Hembeck Archives Omnibus is a'comin!!!!

And now the best comics news of the year...!



Over the past several months, our pal Fred Hembeck has been working on a massive tome collecting pretty much all of his superhero 'toons from the past three decades. He was keeping the project semi hush-hush... until somebody spotted it in Amazon's upcoming books listings this past weekend and let the cat out of the bag.

I just want to go record, though, and say that I KNEW ABOUT IT MONTHS AGO!!!! SO THERE!!!! I was waiting until Fred was ready to provide official details and now, apparently, is the time! So, here you go, in Fred's own words:

Come February, 2008, Image Publishing will be gearing up to release THE NEARLY COMPLETE ESSENTIAL HEMBECK ARCHIVES OMNIBUS, featuring over 900 (!) pages of material written and drawn by cartoonist Fred Hembeck (who, in this particular instance of shameless self-promotion, is the actual individual typing in these very words), culled from the past three decades.

And all of this fun stuff will cost you (get ready) LESS THAN TWENTY FIVE BUCKS!!

(A single solitary penny less, true, but still, I'm thinking, a pretty gosh-darn good deal!...)

So, what exactly do we have to offer you in this massive volume?

Well, how about every single Dateline:@#$% strip EVER?

That's how this whole thing started out, y'see--my old buddy (and veteran comics embellisher) Al Gordon's suggested I put together a collection of each and every one of those old cartoons, including all the ones that had never been reprinted in a more permanent format previously. Al then proceeded to get his pal--and Image Publisher--Erik Larsen interested in the notion, and once things got rolling along, Erik encouraged me to expand the scope of the book to include a wide variety of additional material as well, some of which had never been seen before and some of which had turned up only in the most obscure of places.

So, divided into seven sections--each with a specially written explanatory introduction by yours truly--here's a quick rundown of the contents of THE NEARLY COMPLETE ESSENTIAL HEMBECK ARCHIVES OMNIBUS (or TNCEHAO for short, or maybe just THE HEMBECK OMNIBUS...):

Section One: "Little Freddy: Growing Up In The Silver Age of Comics". This is the shortest chapter--12 measly pages--but inasmuch as it best offers an origin story of the tome's main protagonist (again, that'd be me), it seemed like a good jumping off point for any uninitiated readers we manage to rope in.

Section Two: All seven of my early eighties Fantaco books, 276 pages worth: HEMBECK: THE BEST OF DATELINE:@#$%; HEMBECK 1980; ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE BRIDE OF HEMBECK; THE HEMBECK FILES; BAH, HEMBECK; JIMMY OLSEN'S PAL, FRED HEMBECK, and DIAL H FOR HEMBECK. People have been asking me for years for a reprint collection of these long out of print magazines--now, finally, those seven people will get their wish! Hey, we aim to please!...

Section Three: This is a hodge podge section bringing together all the Dateline:@#$% strips that failed to make the cut for the Fantaco collections, as well as ones that were done in the mid-eighties following the final Fantaco collection; work for other fanzines such as THE COMIC READER, COMICS SCENE and the like; some early commissions and spot illos, and all of my contributions to the once annual AMAZING HEROES SWIMSUIT SPECIAL (including The Thing in a thong!)--124 pages of art!

Section Four: A carefully selected 60 pages of material drawn from my four plus years as a member of the legendary comics apa, CAPA-alpha, back in the early eighties, including a few lengthy strips showcasing Cartoon Fred in a manner rarely seen in his other venues! Crazy stuff...

Section Five: Fifteen strips, ranging from a single page all the way up to ten, mostly--but not entirely--featuring original characters. Old favorites like The Dog and Mr. Mumbo Jumbo share these 80 pages with never before seen epics like 1985's 9 pager, "A Date With History" (a time travel farce) and "Chancy Encounter", a three pager done for a never published charity collection from around the turn of the millennium. Lotsa fun here, you betcha!

Section Six: The mid-nineties return of Dateline:@#$%! 210 pages collecting ALL the strips done during that period for THE COMICS BUYERS GUIDE, COMIC BOOK ARTIST, COMIC BOOK PROFILES, a special four pager done for AMAZING HEROES #200, and as many of the quarter page cartoons done especially for the CBG Fan Award winners as I could find!

Section Seven: From the nineties to today, another catch all, 64 page collection of goodies: Holiday cards, sketchbook strips, a few pages of KIDZ, several examples of my Classic Cover Redos, commissioned illos, internet art, and even three pages of nature illustration!

And besides all that, there's a Foreword by none other than Stan Lee, an Introduction by Jim Salicrup, and an Afterword by Al Gordon!! Now I ask you--isn't that worth almost twenty five dollars? (Although to paraphrase Jim S--do NOT attempt to read the whole thing in a single sitting, as your head will most surely explode!!)


You can pre-order the book now for $16.49 now from Amazon. However, Fred adds:

Those of you interested in getting a signed copy will be happy to know that I'll have copies for sale at cover price (plus a yet to be determined Postage and Handling fee), and likewise I'll be offering the option of purchasing a copy including an original, fully-inked, illustration of the character of your choice on an inside page for a fair (but also as yet to be determined) fee--more details as the publication date looms ever closer.

(And if you'd like to check out a larger scan of the book's front cover--as well as an alternate color scheme and the black and white version, follow this link...)

Needless to say, I'm pretty darn excited at the prospect of holding a copy of this massive collection in my sweaty little palms, and I'm sure hoping some of you out there are at least mildly thrilled with the idea as well!

THE NEARLY COMPLETE ESSENTIAL HEMBECK ARCHIVES OMNIBUS--ask for it by name!

And then stop and take a much needed breath...


Having grown up reading Fred's strips in my favorite DC and Marvel titles (yeah, Fred, you are that old... And so am!), this collection should be a blast. Along with the original Batman/Beatles Hembeck piece on my office wall, it'll have pride of place in my collection.

Visit Fred's site to stay up on the latest details.

1 comment:

  1. Seeing these costumes brings up some great nostalgia, but also a little anger. My Dad had kept every 1960's costume us 3 kids ever had in their original boxes in his attic. I had a Frankenstein, Skeleton, Ghost, Lone Ranger and Superman. My brother had a Pirate and a different Ghost. I don't recall what all my sister had. One time when my sister and her family came to visit, my Dad let her 3 kids play with the costumes. They got totally destroyed. Really ticked me off when I found out. Thanks for posting these.

    Dave

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