Watchmen Artifact Edition, IDW

 

One thing that you can say about San Diego's Comic-Con International is that it provides plenty of unique opportunities to meet with your favorite creators, and definitely a lot of pricey pieces of merchandise to remember those occasions. This time, though, IDW Publishing may have topped it with their new "Artifact Edition" of Watchmen, the classic 1986 story by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. Similar to the publisher's line of Artist's Editions, the 12" x 17" hardcover, published in cooperation with DC Comics, will feature over 100 story pages from Watchmen, reprinted from the original artwork at full size, with numerous extras. An extremely limited run of 25 copies is being produced specifically for Comic-Con.

This SDCC-exclusive limited edition Artifact Edition will be sold for $500, or roughly the cost of fifteen complete runs of Punisher 2099.

Of course, while $500 is a pretty serious chunk of change (one and a half PlayStation 4s or one eighth of a foam replica of the Batcave's giant penny for your house, minus shipping), it's actually not a bad deal, mainly because the offer also includes dinner.

Or, well, a specific dinner, "An Evening With Dave Gibbons," to be held on Thursday, July 24 after the first day of Comic-Con, where the artist will personally sign and sketch in all 25 copies of the limited Artifact Edition, complete with a photographer on hand to document everything for posterity (and eBay). So really, that's dinner, the signed hardcover, a sketch from Dave Gibbons, and the San Diego equivalent of a prom picture. All things considered, five hundo actually sounds about right.

Gibbons will also be on-hand all weekend at IDW's booth to sign a less-limited edition version of the Comic-Con-exclusive Artifact Edition that normal humans can afford, but keep in mind that those signings will not include any fine food or beverages, other than what you bring from the convention center food court, and which they would probably prefer that you don't eat right there at the booth for obvious reasons. Plan accordingly.

Tickets for the Evening With Dave Gibbons went on sale today at IDW's website.

 

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