The Excalibur: The Sword is Drawn Epic Collection receives a new printing this July, bringing the original Excalibur collection back to comic shops everywhere.
The Sword is Drawn (originally released as an Epic Collection in 2017) contains some of the early UK appearances of Captain Britain in Mighty World of Marvel #7, 14-15 and Captain Britain #1-2, before incorporating the hero into Chris Claremont, Alan Davis, and Paul Neary’s 1988 Excalibur: The Sword Is Drawn prestige format one-shot.
The success of the one-shot (and anything that Claremont touched involving mutants in the 80’s) lead to the ongoing Excalibur series in the same year. The Epic Collection contains the first eleven issues of that series, as well as a follow-up one shot (Mojo Mayhem featuring the X-Babies), and an eight part feature in Marvel’s anthology title of the day, Marvel Comics Presents (in issues #31-38 by Michael Higgins, Erik Larsen, and Terry Austin).
The collection ends with the prologue to one of Claremont’s longest running storylines of his career (14 issues if you count the prologue and epilogue) entitled “The Cross-Time Caper”, which was last collected in an Epic Collection edition in 2018.
The Sword is Drawn also contains work by Steve Craddock, Ron Lim, Marshall Rogers, Arthur Adams, Herb Trimpe, Joe Rubinstein, Mark Farmer, Bob Wiacek, and Fred Kida.
The volume weighs in at 496 pages with a suggested retail price of $44.99.
Look for the latest printing in stores on July 20, bearing the cover of the original Excalibur #1 by Davis and Neary.
