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This may sound dumb to a veteran comic book reader and collector, but what is an omnibus? And how is that different from an absolute?

Also thanks to Jon and Bob's podcast my comic pull list has almost tripled since I began listening. But now due to some financial issues I will be a living example of the forum question about "Comic Budgets.." and "Reducing your pull list. "

Even though I will be getting less comic, I'll keep listening to your great show.

BuffDaddyBill wrote:This may sound dumb to a veteran comic book reader and collector, but what is an omnibus? And how is that different from an absolute?

Also thanks to Jon and Bob's podcast my comic pull list has almost tripled since I began listening. But now due to some financial issues I will be a living example of the forum question about "Comic Budgets.." and "Reducing your pull list. "

Even though I will be getting less comic, I'll keep listening to your great show.

An Omnibus is a name used by Marvel for their upscale huge hardbacks (and by Dark Horse for comparatively tiny trade paperbacks).

An Absolute is the name that DC gives their upscale huge hardbacks.

They are using different terms for branding purposes.

Omnibus is the one you have to watch out for, since the Marvel & Dark Horse interpretations of the term are wildly different.

At some point, big becomes too BIG. The Marvel Omnibus HCs are cool, but putting 30 or so comics under one cover makes them very heavy & unwieldy to read....

The DC Absolutes are similar, fewer issues (usually 12-20, depending on the property), but they are quite large and are also kind of a bear to actually sit & read, but the art does look really nice in the larger format....

DC use the term omnibus for some of their Jack Kriby collections like the Fourth World stuff and The Demon. Which are just thick hard covers really.

Squire wrote:DC use the term omnibus for some of their Jack Kriby collections like the Fourth World stuff and The Demon. Which are just thick hard covers really.

You're right! Forgot about that one..... DC also calls the Starman HC collections "Omnibus"....


So Omnibus is used in 3 ways, different for each of Marvel/DC/Dark Horse!

Omnibus is just a catch all for a large, collected edition. As Bob and others have noted, each publisher has their own definition of what constitutes "large" on the other hand. Caveat Emptor.

The big problem will be when you start getting 50 issue "Absolute Ominbus" collections! lol You will need a crane and a mortgage to obtain these!

(Perhaps an omnibus collection of the 4 Absolute Sandman's???)

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