Also, if Bolland feels better about changing the colours, then so be it.

No, it's a story by itself. It doesn't really tie into any other Batman stories at all... and Batman isn't even in it, really. It's very good though.

Although, I'm surprised to hear that that's been coloured as well, since it was originally intended to be presented in black and white...

Judging by the pages above, I'm a bit torn. I love the recolored look and understand it's artistic choice by highlighting the green and red. But I also love the original version since those colors are amazing...

There's a story Bolland did for "Batman Black & White" which is colorized; as far as I understand, it's a quasi-sequel to 'Killing Joke'.

I think the old coloring had problems, I think the new coloring has problems, but I lean towards the new.

Also, I thought the Richard Donner 'Superman II' completely ruined Zod's character, and that alone made the new version a net-negative for me (even though the "morning after" scene involving Brando's head rolling his eyes at Lois-in-S-shirt was the best thing in any Superman movie ever).

I think The Man Who Laughs, another egregious example of DC catering to the collector market’s worst OCD traits, at least threw in some new pages.

I agree with you about The Killing Joke, but The Man Who Laughs is completely different. Firstly, the prestige format jobby is out of print and fetching high prices on eBay now and Secondly, they've put some other related issues in the book to bulk it out to a decent size. The Man Who Laughs is on my Buy list when it comes out in TPB.

An example of reworking being done badly (to my mind, at least) is in the recolored collected version of Batman: Year One. There’s a great splash page at the end of part 3, where Jim Gordon is sitting on the edge of his bed, holding his gun while his pregnant wife is asleep on the bed. In the original, the bedsheets were a pale yellow. But in the collected edition, Richmond Lewis put a pattern on the bedsheet, so when I look at that page, I don’t see Jim Gordon, I see that damn stupid peacock Richmond Lewis put in.

Yeah - I agree with you on that one. I loved the colouring in the original, but the patterns on duvets and wallpaper in the TPB just provides an annoying distraction. That said it's still one of the most beautiful books I own.

I go back & forth on these things. Sometimes you'll get cool things like the Donner Superman II cut, sometimes you'll get abominations like the Star Wars Special Olympics Editions. I think the artist should always have the right to control the work as he/she sees fit, but it is nice to see the original version remain available.

An example of reworking being done badly (to my mind, at least) is in the recolored collected version of Batman: Year One. There's a great splash page at the end of part 3, where Jim Gordon is sitting on the edge of his bed, holding his gun while his pregnant wife is asleep on the bed. In the original, the bedsheets were a pale yellow. But in the collected edition, Richmond Lewis put a pattern on the bedsheet, so when I look at that page, I don't see Jim Gordon, I see that damn stupid peacock Richmond Lewis put in.

Oh, and Richmond Lewis is a woman. David Mazzuchelli's wife, as a matter of fact.

The annoying part of it for me is that it's ramping up this new trend of the overpriced hardcover. This is a book that Alan Moore himself has shrugged off as a lesser work, that's almost never been unavailable as far as I know, that just got reprinted AGAIN last year, and now here's a new edition that offers... what? Is there anything besides the recoloring? I think The Man Who Laughs, another egregious example of DC catering to the collector market's worst OCD traits, at least threw in some new pages.

Oh well. My gut feeling about the whole enterprise is that if fans want to spend their money on this sort of thing, it's stupid of DC not to take it. I'm just sort of appalled at the idea of a page count that used to barely rate a 50% increase or so in the newsstand price in an 'Annual' format is now suddenly saleable as a high-end hardcover. For God's sake, how much disposable income is out there to cut up on this sort of thing?

If it hadn't been for this, and me reading an interview where Bolland mentioned being unhappy with it, it never would have crossed my mind it needed fixing.
I won't be shelling out cash for this (already got the damn thing twice!).

New versions are funny though, I hated the Star Wars ones - it was always a nostalgia watch, so changing it to make it kewl kinda took away any reason to watch it (except for Billy Dee!) - but Apocalypse Now Redux is a much better film than the original - by adding more, it seems to go faster, and the slip into insanity is more noticeable.

As for the Killing Joke remix, I'd have to see more than just three pages to pass judgment.

That said, even in a flashback, I'd have made the initial "reveal" of Joker pop out a bit more, to reflect how disconnected he is from the "real" world.

But still, as long as both versions exist, I'm good with it. It's like the new dvd release of The Mist, which has the movie both in full color, as seen in theatres, and entirely in black and white, to better suggest the atmosphere of a '50s horror flick - you get the choice. And it's not like The Killing Joke has been in short supply over the years, so everyone's had a shot at the first, "colorized" version...

Example: I would have bought the Kill Bill DVDs a long time ago, but I just can't bring myself to do it because they're always going to release a newer, better version.

I don't want to buy something if I'm not sure it's the finished product. And once stuff like this starts happening, I have more doubts and a sense of higher risk with each purchase. When my risk is higher, either your prices will drop, or my purchases will.

His work is not in the book, and although he may have some contractual protection in the event of something like this, I doubt he's getting anything from this.

That sucks if he went from a regular source of residuals on The Killing Joke to nothing on the new, improved version that will be the only one in print.