This listing offers the complete Promethea series in 3 oversized Hardcover volumes, Books 1, 2, 3 of the Promethea Deluxe 20th Anniversary Edition, all 3 books are new and sealed - brand new!   I'll also include a free CD of JHW3 original art and Alan Moore interviews (see bottom of description).  Cover price is $130!

You will get every issue of the series in these hardcover books including the 2-sided, double-bi-fold poster of #32 included in the 3rd HC volume (see the 12th and 13th photos - these are from my own copy, opened and enjoyed, but you will get a new/sealed copy with this lot!) - the double-sided poster is 13 3/4" by 20 1/2"!  Plus issue 1 has a complete script, issue 2 has an extensive art gallery, and issue 3 has other appearances of Promethea in the America's Best Comics line!  Also, as you see in the 14th photo (again, my opened copy), under the dust jacket covers you get the beautiful reproductions of the slipcase covers of the Absolute Promethea series (those bigger books are very hard to find, long out of print).

USPS Media Mail shipping within the USA is $10.00 for this hardcover set, or $20 for Priority Mail shipping, within the USA.

See my perfect seller feedback and bid with confidence.



So, the business details set aside, let me say more about this great series. Here you will get a beautiful presentation of the complete story by the Wizard of Northampton, Alan Moore, and by the incredible art staff of artist JH Williams, cover designer and letterer Todd Klein, inker Mick Gray, and colorist Jeremy Cox. Same crew for all issues (except near the end J. H. Williams III took over inking duties on the multi-media art in the Apocalypse section), this series is a labor of love.  This is fueled by Moore's insights on magic, art, language. The combined result of these ideas and these immensely talented artists is really stunning! Whenever I reread the series I feel like it's an art party with a wizard that I'm lucky to attend! This series is often described as Moore's most personal  - no other series provides more direct revelation of his insights about magic - here, Moore gives us art's fiercest spark, Promethea! And from #12: “This is the promised time of Earth’s ascent to realms sublime. Imagination’s endless dance is mankind’s jeweled inheritance.”

Check out this video at YouTube   163Cb1bAW7U

- it describes some of Moore's central themes, grounded in hermeticism, with occasional references to his works like Marvelman (Miracleman) and Watchmen, but especially fully presented in Promethea!

Here are a few clips from Moore himself, indicating the humble beginnings that really took off starting at issue #12, when Promethea decides she must learn more about magic:

"With Promethea, when I was coming up with the initial titles for ABC Comics, I thought, well, I want a comic with a strong female character. I'd also like to have a comic where I can release some of the steam of my magical researches." - Alan Moore in interview

"As far as I can remember, the original idea behind Promethea was to come up with something that worked as a mainstream superhero character, maybe looked a bit like Wonder Woman or Doctor Strange in a weak light, and which would enable me to explore the magical concepts that I was interested in before a mainstream comics audience that may never have encountered these ideas before (and may very possibly never have wanted to). It seemed to make sense that we should start at the shallow end, with inflatable arm-bands, so as not to alienate the readership from the very outset (the plan was to wait for about twelve issues and then alienate them). [...] Eventually I decided that the only thing to do would be to at least attempt it and let the chips fall as they may: as it turns out we have lost several thousand readers over the course of this saga, not as many as I'd expected, and the ones that remain are either dedicated and firm in their resolve, or else have had their cerebral cortex so badly damaged by the last four or five issues that they are no longer capable of formulating a complaint, or any other sort of sentence for that matter.

"And speaking for me and Jim and Mick and Jeromy and Todd, I think we're all rather smug about how well the piece had turned out artistically. The strict kaballistic colour schemes, as an example, while they looked very dubious and unworkable on paper, have turned up some beautiful and often startling effects in practice. Issue 23, the issue dedicated to Kether, the godhead of the kaballistic system, had a magical palette of four colours, these colours being "White", "Brilliant White", "White-flecked-with-gold", and most unhelpful of all, "Brilliance". Despite how hopeless this sounded, we decided to stick to our guns and attempt the issue using only white and gold, and apparently the first few coloured pages do indeed look celestially beautiful." - Alan Moore from an interview in Eddie Campbell's publication Egomania #2

More from Moore on why he put so much energy into this:

"I wanted to be able to do an occult comic that didn't portray the occult as a dark, scary place, because theat's not my experience of it. I don't thinks it's the experience of many occultists. Why would we want to be occultists if that meant that we had to spend our lives in a dark, scary place? Utilizing my occult experiences, I could see a way that it would be possible to do a new kind of occult comic, that was more psychedelic, that was more sophisticated, more experimental, more ecstatic and exuberant. In Jim and Mick and Jeremy I've obviously found people who were exactly right for the book, that have shared my vision of it, and have added their own bits to that vision. So Promethea is about as perfect an expression of the occult as I could imagine doing in a mainstream super-hero comic book" - Alan Moore in The Extraordinary Works of Alan Moore, pg 188.

and this: "I would prefer to keep my actual opinions about magic confined to Promethea, and God knows some of the readership have trouble with that, so I would prefer it if magic didn't obviously permeate all of my work" - Alan Moore in Heroes and Monsters: The Unofficial Companion to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, pg. 238


A quote from JHW3: Todd [Klein] is the main person responsible for the great cover ideas. He suggests an idea to everyone and we go from there. He designs it all. The main thing I want to see with the covers to Promethea is that we tribute them in some way to another artist or artistic style.

And here is a review of the topics and influences of the various cover designs by Klein and art by Williams (starting at issue 3):

Issue #1 "The Radiant Heavenly City"

Issue #2 "The Judgment of Solomon"

Issue #3 "Misty Magic Land" - according to designer Todd Klein, "inspired by the famously surreal newspaper strip Little Nemo In Slumberland by Winsor McCay"

Issue #4 "A Faerie Romance" - "after Morris"

Issue #5 "No Man's Land" - "after Leyendecker"

Issue #6 "A Warrior Princess" - "after Brundage"

Issue #7 "Rocks and Hard Places" - cover inspired by romance comics from the mid-20th century

Issue #8 "Guys and Dolls" - "thank you Terry Gilliam"

Issue #9 "Bringing Down the Temple" - stained glass window

Issue #10 "Sex, Stars and Serpents" - riff on the cover to The Beatles' album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, by Peter Blake

Issue #11 "Pseunami" - according to designer Todd Klein, "wide-screen horror films of the 1950s-60s"

Issue #12 "Metaphore" - "after MacLean" referencing psychedelic poster art queen Bonnie MacLean

Issue #13 "The Fields We Know" - "after Parrish" (Maxfield Parrish)

Issue #14 "Moon River" - "attempting Virgil Finlay"

Issue #15 "Mercury Rising" - "thanks Escher"

Issue #16 "Love and the Law" - "thanks Peter Max"

Issue #17 "Gold" - "after Dali"

Issue #18 "Life on Mars" - "after Frazetta"

Issue #19 "Fatherland" - "for love of Van Gogh"

Issue #20 "The Stars are But Thistles" - "after Richard Upton Pickman" (a fictional painter created by H. P. Lovecraft)

Issue #23 "The Serpent and the Dove" - "inspired by Mucha"

Issue #25 "A Higher Court" - "inspired by McCay"

Issue #27 "When It Blows Its Stacks" - "thanks to Ross Andru," specifically the 1976 comic Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man

Issue #29 "Valley of the Dolls" - "with admiration for Warhol"

Issue #31 "The Radiant Heavenly City" - according to Williams, "an imitation of the tarot card 'The Judgement/The Aeon'"

Issue #32 "Wrap Party" / "Universe" - credited to Williams and Klein "after the end"



Along with the writing and the immense love of art displayed in those great covers, it's also true that JH Williams III let loose, with more than half the pages of the 32 issues presented in 2-page splash pages, a number of the Kabbalah Quest pages (issues 14 to 23) have 4 to 6 page sequences that tie together. And in one case (#12), representing Sophie and Promethea's entry into the study of magic, the entire issue is one long, connecting panel that even connects up the left side of first page with the right side of the last page - to be viewed in it's natural form it should be pasted on a huge cylinder! Jaw-dropping stuff, seriously!

I have included pics of a number of those great splash panels that JH Williams III made for this series, to give you a taste!

Also, as a FREE bonus (not part of the sale - just let me know and I can leave it out if you don't want it) I will include a CD loaded with high resolution images of JH Williams' art on Promethea (original pages, as shown in the last images, plus the art for trade paperbacks and Absolute hardcovers, statue and figure studies, etc.) and various Alan Moore interviews. It's all out there on the WWW but I'm just saving you the bandwidth as a gift. Just let me know if you don't want me to include it.