Elektra by Frank Miller & Bill Sienkiewicz Omnibus

Script by Frank Miller, art by Bill Sienkiewicz (Elektra Assassin), Frank Miller & Lynn Varley (Elektra Lives Again). All material is ©Marvel Comics. For a complete list of  all books reviewed in this blog, please visit the index page.

Originally published in November 2008 by Marvel with ISBN: 978-0-7851-2777-2, my copy is one of the March 2016 second edition (ISBN: 978-0-7851-9556-6, 11 x 7.5 inches or 28 x 19 cm, 400 pages, insane cover price of $100). As far as I know, the content should be exactly the same. This book, edited by Mark D. Beazley and designed by Tom Marvelli & Patrick McGrath, is printed on thin glossy paper and features an illustrated jacket.

The 2008 edition has also been published with a DM variant cover (again with a different ISBN: 978-0-7851-3136-6):

The inner book comes with an illustrated hardcover from both frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz. Second and third of covers are not illustrated (plain white). There are pictures below for size comparison with issue #4 of Elektra Assassin original series, Love and War Omnibus, and Elektra Assassin original Epic/Graphitti Designs edition. Another picture is here to show the binding (the book has been printed in China). Notice that the paper used in this reprint is thinner than the one use in Love and War omnibus, but the book can be handled more easily (i.e. it stays open flat by himself on a table).

it is bigger than Elektra Assassin ...

... but smaller than Elektra Lives Again

After the credits page, and table of content, we found the two independent shorts stories from Bizarre Adventures #28 and What If...? #35, along their respective covers. Both stories have been already collected in Daredevil Visionaries: Frank Miller Vol 3. Notice that in this omnibus, page 14 is cropped from the initial page (see corresponding picture below, and thanks to banky from the CBR community for spotting this printing error), and it was already the case for the first print (page 8, thanks to Suriel from the CBR board this time).

an unsourced introduction

background illustration from Elektra Lives Again endpapers

left hand side, Daredevil Visionaries Vol 3, and right hand side, same page but cropped in this omnibus

Then we move on to the Elektra Assassin section,  featuring the Mary Jo Duffy'introduction from the 1987 editions (TPB and Graphitti Designs). In this omnibus edition, and just like in the latest HC editions of Elektra Assassin, each reprinted issues are introduced by their full page virgin cover (and all eight covers are stunning). There is a picture below that shows the art size difference with the original comics, and the differences in color tones.

left, this omnibus edition, and to the right the original comics interior (issue #4)

Bill Sienkiewicz in Frank Miller's mode

Elektra Lives Again section begins with a 2008 exclusive introduction written by Ralph Macchio, latest editor of the comic back in 1991. Illustrations used for the original opening pages of the Epic Comics regular edition are included in this omnibus, but the exclusive illustration used for the Graphitti Designs signature page is not reprinted here.

One of the picture below shows the art size difference with the original hardcover (lots of blank space in this omnibus due to the original uncommon image ratio), and the differences in color tones mainly due to the difference in paper stock.

left hand side: original comic, right hand side: this omnibus

If one has to find a highlight in this omnibus (in comparison with previous single editions), it is probably its 28 pages extra section. It begins with unrelated material, i.e. The Elektra Saga covers (all four) and six associated pinups.

four of the six Elektra Saga pinups

Five additional pages for issue #1 of Elektra Saga, and a three-panel new sequence for issue #3 are reproduced in this omnibus. The fifth new page is also included in its original art form.

fifth additional page from issue #1

Then we move to Elektra Assassin extra section which contains basically all following material already included in the Elektra Assassin latest hardcover edition:

• poster and preliminary sketch for a 1985 poster ()
• Graphitti Designs illustrated jacket cover and back cover, and signature page
• 1987 and 2000 TPB covers
• Love & War HC 2003 cover
• Elektra #2 cover from the 2001 series

Exclusive to this omnibus edition (first and second printing) are:

• two pages of Bill Sienkiewicz studies on the character (courtesy of Erik Knight)
• a one page notes for the prison sequence by Frank Miller

In the first printing, another page of the bonus section was advertised as "Elektra Assassin unused page", but appeared to be in fact an original art page from Bill Sienkiewicz's Stray Toasters (issue #3, page 35).

picture courtesy of Brewman from the CBR community (page recognized by Banky)

In this 2016 second print, this page was replaced by three original art pages from Elektra Assassin #4 (sadly printed in big thumbnails form).