Marvel Premiere Classic was a series of hardcover comic book collected editions, that reproduced Marvel Comics storylines.[1]
Marvel's Associate Editor of Special Projects Mark Beazley, promised: "definitive collection(s) of the stories along with as much behind the scenes extras as we can possibly dig up".[2] Between 2006 and August 2013, 107 volumes were released, with a goal to "compile selected storylines from ... five decades of Marvel history".[3]
Each book featured a standard cover and a numbered "limited-print, numbered variant" for the comic book direct market.[2][4][5] These variants were only available in comic shops, or via specialist retailers. They sported a matching trade dress design, and a number on the back to indicate how many copies were printed.
The first release, Kraven's Last Hunt, debuted in the August 2006 graphic novel chart at No.18, with approximately 3,500 copies sold.[6]
Volume 94, Deathlok: The Living Nightmare Of Michael Collins, had the smallest print run, with only 315 copies produced.
The Avengers has the most releases, with 17, then X-Men with 15. Spider-Man was the most-collected non-team book, with 10.
DC Comics' had an equivalent line, the DC Comics Classics Library, which launched in 2009. Only nine hardbacks were released, before cancellation a year later
Marvel's own series was cancelled in August 2012 with the 106th volume.[7] One final book - X-Factor: Phalanx Covenant - was solicited in February 2013 for an August release.[8]
The 10.5 x 7.25in (26.67 x 18.42cm) Premiere Hardcover format size was gradually phased out entirely by Marvel, with a great number of books liquidated across the summer of 2012.[9]
In September 2013, Marvel launched the Epic Collection line, with a collected edition paperback released once or twice a month.
The company's next attempt to collect storylines, on a regular basis, in hardcover, was the Gallery Editions format, which launched in 2019.
Releases
See also
References
- Spider-Man: Kraven's Last Hunt Gets Premiere HC Treatment Marvel, 12 July 2006, retrieved 6 October 2024^
- Spider-Man: Kraven's Last Hunt HC Preview IGN, 23 August 2006, retrieved 12 November 2024^
- Marvel Comics ends Premiere Classic line