In September, DC Comics will be publishing a deluxe reprint of Frank Miller's 1983-4 comic series Ronin.Here's hoping that the oversized, super-deluxe edition restores the line of dialogue which was in the final panel of page 48 of chapter six, and which seems to have been absent from printings of the reprint volume for the last decade or so (see comparison of original and reprint, above).
As with the single digit '5' that was missing from the final chapter of printings of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four following an error in the 1951 edition (it's what Winston is 'almost unconsciously tracing with his finger in the dust on the table'), it's a small omission, but one which seriously detracts from the meaning of the tale's ending.
All images are, of course, utterly (c) copyright Frank Miller 1983, 2008. No infringement is intended, I'm just an eagle-eyed reader.
14 comments:
I'm here to help with the chocolate situation. I can probably take on the darker stuff all on my own. I mean... if I have to.
All help is welcomed! Chocolate is evil and it must be removed from the face of the earth!
J
Yay for Frankie! There's a good interview with him in my mate Joel's book 'Studio Space' just out (shameless plug).
Had a look at this, and it was interesting, but the fact it was artists and not writers meant it went back on the shelf in my preferred comic shop, 'Gosh!'... um, it was just artists, wasn't it? I may have just embarrassed myself.
J
My first printing tpb copy of Ronin has the dialogue in it. Must be after the first edition...
Jason
Ah, thanks for pointing that out Jason (I did wonder if it was a mistake all along, or just in some editions - hence I was slightly more cagey in my phrasing than Rich on LITG!).
J
Is the Absolute out & does it have the correction, now?
Pretty sure the Absolute is out - I think I saw it in my LCS the other day - but I haven't bought it nor seen if it's corrected (no display copies in the shop, they were all still shrink-wrapped), I'm afraid.
J
Yeah, it's out.
And I bought it.
Saw it online, damn you internet. Just couldn't resist. Even if the words are missing, it's DOUBLE the pages of the TP edition, and I bought it for half cover!
I'll let you know in a week what the status on the words is!
That's a very good deal!
I reckon the format will certainly show the art off (okay, maybe not the pages which are mainly black in some of the middle chapters), and the additional material should be interesting.
J
I received my Absolutes today! The words have been reinstated in their full glory! Well worth (half ^_^) the cover-price, even if the words hadn't been in it.
Good stuff! You'd hope they could get it all right for that price (or even half of it)!
J
Guess everyone's learned from that idiotic thing with Alan Moore & Captain Britain (until the next screw-up, of course).
Also, the (dutch-language) comics-forum I frequent has people wondering if Miller left out those words on purpose. For someone as vocal & strong about what he's written (and I know censoring isn't the same as editing, but still), it would seem odd to me that he made the 'mistake' of adding too much words & finally erasing them AFTER the 1st edition of the TPB...
Yeah, I think you're right - if FM had removed it on purpose, I'd imagine he would have said something about it in interviews or the like.
Agree about screw-ups, it seems a recent issue of DC's Ambush Bug went out with one page lacking all its dialogue captions and balloons!
J
Post a Comment