Promethea Absolute forthcoming

This is uber artist J.H. Williams III cover (uncolored presently as is probably obvious) for the Absolute Promethea Volume One that's coming out in September. J.H. (also known as Jim) told me that there looked to be a good chance that this was going to happen, so I was happy to see confirmation of this two weeks ago. There'll be three Absolute volumes collecting all thirty-two issues of Promethea.

As many people who know me or read my blog, Alan Moore is my favorite writer and I think Promethea is one of his very best creations (I wouldn't get a tattoo of just any character!). Promethea, besides being a great vehicle for Alan Moore's word, idea, and character wizardry, is as great as it is because Moore had the superlative artistry accompaniment of J.H. Williams III. Jim (J.H.) is one of those artists who always challenges himself to find new ways to interpret a page which made him the perfect artist for Promethea, because the very nature of Promethea is about changing perceptions of "what is reality?".

This past week I've been re-reading Promethea and presently I'm on issue 18 (end of the third collection), which is just over the half way point in the series. Re-reading Promethea is highly enjoyable because it just gets better and better and if you've already read the whole series, you know that everything comes together beautifully. Promethea is about as far from being the conventional comic that you could read (not much in the way of good guys slugging bad guys), but don't let that scare you away from reading this book as it is a rich, immersive experience mostly about how stories shape us and the world (Proemthea is the living embodiment of the imagination, like Sandman is the embodiment of dreams).

A favorite passage from Promethea #15: "Mathematics is a language. A human invention, a fiction... and yet it creates such elegant form. It creates splendor. It creates truth." "How could humans perceive gods...abstract essences...without clothing them in imagery, stories, pictures...or picture-stories, for that matter."

I'd go so far as saying that the Absolute editions were creating just for Promethea, to showcase its multi-layered splendor. The Absolute editions that DC does are like the Criterion deluxe editions movie studios do for some of their top shelf movies, designed to showcase the best of the best and certainly Promethea is amongst the best creations in the comic book medium.