good starting point for nokolai dante graphic novels

[AntonyCatton]

im wanting to get into nikolai dante ( thanks to seeing the fantastic art on bendatti vendetta by John Burns) but im confussed by all the novels around.
whats a good jumping on novel?
any help would be most welcome.

[Emperor]

Pretty simple really, start at the first one and work through:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Dante#Collected_editions

The early stories aren't as polished and well-rounded as the later ones but all the foundation work is done there and you'll get a lot more out of it with that under your belt. It isn't a chore as it is all good stuff.

[The Adventurer]

Yeah. Start at the beginning. Its an epic, so coming in the middle can be a little unsatisfying. The first collection has two versions and two titles. The DC/Rebellion edition is called The Romanov Dynasty. The Simon & Schuster edition is called Too Cool Too Kill. The contents are the same. The S&S edition is of higher quality overall.

[TordelBack]

Yup, volumes 1- 10 in that order.  Incidentally, take it slow and savour the experience.  I didn't enjoy the beginning when it ran originally, but on reading it in a collection it works well - the second volume, The Romanov Dynasty, is where it all really kicks off for me, but you need to start with volume 1 to fully appreciate it.  It's a hugely satisfying saga, only growing more so as it goes on.  We'll not see its like again.

[The Adventurer]

Yup, volumes 1- 10 in that order.  Incidentally, take it slow and savour the experience.  I didn't enjoy the beginning when it ran originally, but on reading it in a collection it works well - the second volume, The Romanov Dynasty, is where it all really kicks off for me, but you need to start with volume 1 to fully appreciate it.  It's a hugely satisfying saga, only growing more so as it goes on.  We'll not see its like again.

He means, The Great Game. The Great Game is the second volume.

[TordelBack]

He means, The Great Game. The Great Game is the second volume.

Indeed, Adventurer is correct.  Romanov Dynasty is the second story, but in the first collection. D'oh!

[Cactus]

Is volume 3, the Courtship of Jena Makarov, still out of print?

[glassstanley]

Is volume 3, the Courtship of Jena Makarov, still out of print?

Yes. I was very lucky when I bought my copy. Amazon marketplace had a few copies going for silly money. 2000ad online were still selling it for the cover price.

[W. R. Logan]

Whilst not wanting to pre guess the schedule but you'd have to have brains of fried mince not to look at collecting the entire Dante in order once it's finished.

[BPP]

I'd add that picking them up in batches of 2 also helps - the first book isn't the surest in terms of art but by the middle of book 2 you know you are onto a classic. And then of course books 3 & 4 sit together very nicely..

[AntonyCatton]

I've just got hold of a copy of Romanov dynasty,but ive seen on amazon and places a romanov dynasty pt2.is this the same book just a newer printing as I suspect mines an older printing(different cover and a big 2000AD Sign in the top corner).any help would be great as I don't want to buy the same book twice.

[The Adventurer]

I've just got hold of a copy of Romanov dynasty,but ive seen on amazon and places a romanov dynasty pt2.is this the same book just a newer printing as I suspect mines an older printing(different cover and a big 2000AD Sign in the top corner).any help would be great as I don't want to buy the same book twice.

Got a scanner or camera? Seeing the cover might help us narrow down what you seen to have.

[radiator]

Sounds like what you have is the old 1998 Hamlyn edition of The Romanov Dynasty (a company called Hamlyn used to publish 2000ad graphic novels back in the 1990s). It has better repro and full-size artwork, but only collects the stories drawn by Simon Fraser, so misses out quite a few, most notably The Gulag Apocalyptic which is quite an important story.



What you want is the Rebellion/DC edition (which has this cover):



OR Too Cool to Kill, which has this cover:



Ignore all that stuff about part 2 (a lot of sites like Amazon still wrongly list various editions of The Romanov Dynasty and The Great Game as 'v1/v2' etc). This is an error - and a hangover from the days when there were plans to collect Nikolai Dante in a series of Euro hardbacks, splitting longer stories over multiple volumes.

[TordelBack]

Frustratingly I had the Hamlyn The Romanov Dynasty volume (from the much-missed Chapters' Abbey Street basement), and for all its glorious cover and large-format pages I didn't even know there was a 'Gulag Archipelago' story for years!  As I worked through subsequent volumes and eventually caught up with myself in the progs circa 'The Courtship of Jena Makarov', I wondered just when the mysterious origin of the Huntsman rifle would be explained... until I stumbled across the Rebellion edition in the library one day and was not amused. 

[The Adventurer]

I bet all that stuff with the White Army in Sword of the Tzar and Amerika was a bit confusing too.

EDIT: Opps, you said Courtship, not Wedding. I'm dumb.