A fan on Twitter called Yeollie Hvirus posted this photo of their Cirque Du Freak manga collection, saying how excited they were to almost have the full collection in their hands -- since they own books 11 and 12 already, it means that when the Volume 5 omnibus goes on sale in January, they'll own all twelve books -- hurrah!!!

Looking at this photo reminded me of just how big the ombinus editions actually are. They tower over the original editions, allowing readers to appreciate the art in much finer detail -- you can see way more now that you could when the manga books were originally published, and the art doesn't feel crammed in, as it sometimes did before. If you own all 12 of the originals, it's probably not worth upgrading (unless you're loaded, or can convince people to buy them for you as presents!), but if you missed out on the manga first time round, and are collecting them now, rest assured that the volumes are looking better than they ever did before. The only possible downside is -- will your bookshelf be sturdy enough to support them?!? :-)

Volume 4 of the omnibus series (collecting books 7 and 8) went on sale last week. You can read more about its release, and find out where you can buy it, by clicking here: https://darrenshan.com/news/shanville-monthly