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Monday, December 19, 2011

The DC Vault

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The DC Vault was a mammoth, hands-on volume compilation released in 2008, chronicling the history of the company from its pre-history all the way up through the 21st Century.

I really wanted to talk about this book at the time of its release, but getting a hold of appropriate scans (read: the Aquaman stuff!) was kind of impossible...but I never gave up, so here we go!

Sadly, Aquaman doesn't get a lot of space, but to be fair when you're covering 75 years of history in less than 200 pages, not everyone is going to be properly represented (despite Arthur's prominence on the cover). But there are some fun little pieces of obscura, stuff we'd normally never get to see as well as the historical markers:
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This was a postcard DC sent out in the late 1960s to readers who wrote fan mail (in this case, Li'l Pau Levitz...yes, that Paul Levitz). Its representative of Aquaman's significant place in the DC line-up at the time that he is one of the handful of characters chosen to represent the company.

For a DC fan, The DC Vault (written by former Aquaman writer Martin Pasko) is like being sent back in time to the DC offices and being allowed to run amok in the files (a dream I've had, many times). Of course, I wish the book was five times as long, but I guess that's what Taschen was for.

The DC Vault is still available on Amazon of course, so if you're interested in picking up a copy, use this handy (and lucrative for the Shrine) link to do it!


4 comments:

Jorge PR said...

I think I'm missing somthing. I don't see Aquaqman in the poscard; all I see is Sups, Batman, WW, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Flash and Atom. Where's Aquaman?

rob! said...

Jorge-

He's on the back, between Binky and Sgt. Rock.

Jorge PR said...

You mean the one in the upper picture? But that guy has a tie and doesn't look like Aquaman. Maybe I'm wrong though.

rob! said...

Jorge-

That's not a tie, its just a dark spot on A-man's tunic, drawn by Jim Aparo.