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The repackaging strategy that works so well to sell multiple versions of films on DVD, packed with more "extras," also works with comic books. Lately, DC Comics has gone back to the well by reissuing best-selling backlist titles in bigger-than-ever Absolute editions, ready for die-hard fans' coffee tables. DC's not alone. Marvel's entire 40-issue run of Grant Morrison's New X-Men is collected in a 900-plus-page hardcover Omnibus edition.

Two handsome, oversized, slip-cased new Absolute volumes showcase DC's diversity. The New Frontier, first published in 2003 and 2004, is an Eisner Award-winning superhero tale imagining the early trajectory of six key DC superstars in the years before they formed the Justice League. The Sandman (Vol. 1) collects the first 20 issues of the breakout fantasy-horror series DC imprint Vertigo Comics published in the early Nineties, set in a world almost entirely tangential to any capes, masks or tights. Three later Absolute editions will complete the entire Sandman run.

The New Frontier is essentially the work of one man, Darwyn Cooke, who writes and illustrates a love letter to the Silver Age of comics and 1950s design. His storytelling ambition might be a surprise to readers whose familiarity with superheroes is limited to, say, Superman Returns on the big screen. Here, Superman and Wonder Woman act as agents of the federal government, advancing U.S. interests in the Pacific Theater. The sole survivor of Mars, green-skinned shapeshifter J'onn J'onzz, negotiates American xenophobia while passing as a human. A pacifistic ex-Korean war vet channels his post-traumatic stress into a daredevil career as a test pilot, while a Southern black man survives a lynching to become a force of vengeance against the KKK. Cooke's art is deceptively simple, and Cooke also boasts design skills that few of today's artists can match (Chris Ware being an obvious exception). New Frontier can be slow to advance its plot, but the whole damn thing looks so good, it's a joy to be swept along.

While Frontier is the work of a singular auteur, Sandman was far more collaborative. There's no dispute, however, that Sandman owes its reputation to writer Neil Gaiman, who's gone on to a successful career as a novelist. Gaiman's vision brings these pages to life, though his words are not always matched in visual scope by his artists. Gaiman impressively builds the fantasy world of Dream, the immortal being who rules our sleeping fantasies. While the original Sandman colorist gave the impression that he used a kid's collection of five tempera paints and some mud, the Absolute edition brings salvation from a new color artist. Extras such as Gaiman's full script to a superb chapter -- the World Fantasy Award-winning "A Midsummer Night's Dream" -- and Charles Vess's original penciled pages give a fascinating glimpse into the creative process of comic-book building. It's extras like these and the engrossing, visually enthralling comics in both these massive books that make them worth the fairly steep price of admission.