It should be collected / It should be in print

Seems like the appropriate thread to post this, if everyone hasn't already seen it.

http://www.comicsbeat.com/2011/12/29/how-alan-moore-killed-a-1963-reprint-for-all-time/

since it links to a Bissette post from April 7, 2010, this is hardly breaking news

Actually, the Mark Millar / Phil Hester / Kim DeMulder Swamp Thing would be great as well, a lot of really fine horror in there.

These Nemesis volumes are definitive, and seem to be kept constantly in print in the UK:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=nemesis+the+warlock

Nemesis was one of the titles I wrote about in this ESSENTIAL new book:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/1001-Comic-Books-Must-Before/dp/1844036987/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325840021&sr=8-1

Those Nemesis volumes are just seeing print in the States - Vol 1 was out in September and Vol 2 this spring.

Cool to hear you're in that book Ward! Another reason for me to pick it up.

Thank you - I only wrote abt 15 entries, and I'm not on a royalty! If you can get past the whole dumb title/'concept', it prob is the best single volume comics guide that I know of, especially when it comes to non-North American strips (as you might expect from something edited by Paul G).

The dumb title/concept always kept me away, but i will check it out with your approval/contribution.

Forks, knowing a little of yr tastes I think you wld find it especially useful

okeydoke. i will snag this at the strand next time i'm there.

ah, wait: i was confusing your book with this:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/000-Comic-Books-Must-Read/dp/0896899217/ref=pd_sim_b_2/275-9379208-6653742
i will look for the dredd cover.

or, i guess, cap for the american edition

yeesh, Tony Isabella? oh forks.

not a fan of the CBG i see

ewing was rating that 1001 comic books thing on tumblr recently

Meanwhile, while cancelling all this TPBs that would probably have the shelf life of years, they think it's a wise decision to reboot their supehero universe and publish 52 new titles for the dwindling single issue market. I just don't get it.

I'm not entirely sure about this: TPBs go to bookshops. As I understand it, bookshops have a right to return stock, and so if you print 10,000 copies of something and it sells twelve you end up with 9,988 copies of it on hand, costing you money to keep around. Whereas I think it at least used to be the case that stuff ordered from Diamond became your responsibility to deal with. So as long as you can get a high enough initial order to meet margins you're fine*. -- this obviously has awful knock-on effects, and making margins every month with ever-diminishing returns is a bad place for any publisher to be in. But bear in mind that for one thing, comic book publishers tend to display almost no business acumen at all ever, and two, the comic-book market largely exists to establish and prolong copyright on properties for licensing in other areas ie. movies, videogames. -- Arkham City shipped 4.6 million copies in its week of release, which surely translates into more money for DC than the entire Batman comics line will make all year**.

*DC currently has a return option on a lot of books, apparently, but I don't know how common or long-term that is
**Ten of the 52 52 first issues sold over 100,000 copies to retailers. This is (surely) going to be DC's biggest sales week of the year, and I'd be amazed if that made 4.6 million copies of the entire line put together

it should be noted that the above is very speculative and i have no actual knowledge in re this stuff

That's about right, I reckon. And maybe it's a gamble that will pay off for the companies as IP holders (not as publishing companies in and of themselves, but we're ultimately looking at two different kinds of things here). Diamond is non-returnable, captive audience stuff. it's great if you run your numbers right and guess demand correctly. It is, however, AWFUL for getting new readers.

But getting new readers of comics may not be their primary focus. And why would it, if you can keep the characters alive and financially kicking in other media.

Note that this is an observation, and nothing I'm particularly happy with.

I'm not entirely sure about this: TPBs go to bookshops. As I understand it, bookshops have a right to return stock, and so if you print 10,000 copies of something and it sells twelve you end up with 9,988 copies of it on hand, costing you money to keep around.

This may be true, but at least here in Finland most of the stores that sell TPBs are comic books stores or other specialist stores with large comic book sections that, in my experience, don't seem to have too many volumes of any particular item in stock. If they sell those few volumes, they can order more with other TPBs they order from the same publisher. And I've seen many TPBs that were released years ago on their shelves (and not all of them were steady sellers like Sandman or JLA), so it doesn't look they try to return them immediately if they don't manage to sell them within a few months. But maybe that is different in the US?

Also, there's the online market, which I thinks count for more and more when it comes to selling TPBs and other collected editions. (Especially in areas that don't have a specialist comic books store.) If you got to Amazon and look for any TPB that was released within the last 5 years, most of the times you find several online bookstores that sells new copies of that book. So when it comes to online book sellers, it looks like it makes sense to sell TPBs for at least a couple of years.

Also, if DC keeps putting out one or two collections of a series, then cancelling any further collections (which it what they've done with many series), that's gonna discourage people from buying any further collections of some other series by DC, because they fear the same thing might happen happen again. I do realize that committing to collect a full series is always a financial gamble, but surely there are many comic book readers like me who are much more likely to purchase TPBs if they know they'll be able to read the whole series from the beginning to the end. (Of course this applies only to finite series that have a beginning an end, like Suicide Squad or Shade, not to titles like Superman or Batman.)

Also, if DC keeps putting out one or two collections of a series, then cancelling any further collections (which it what they've done with many series), that's gonna discourage people from buying any further collections of some other series by DC, because they fear the same thing might happen happen again.

^ this has been me several times

ie getting burned, several times, and then not starting, several other times

yeah i know nothing about the market in finland to be quite fair so

i suspect that the great bulk of tpb sales came from, like, borders and b&n, which is one reason to stop putting them out. (no. of chain bookstores in the states & the uk vs. no. of comic shops in the states and the uk)

i suspect a lot of the online bookstores are remainder places / places with other bulk acquisition policies, and a lot of warehouse space

but there's a limit to how much i can defend this argt without access to the actual numbers on in what venues these things sell, and i don't have those, and you know who does have those? the guys who decided to stop selling them

Wow. Dynamite have acquired The Shadow and are publishing the Howard Chaykin mini first. It's probably worth buying just to encourage them to publish the Andy Helfer and Billy The Sink/Kyle Baker series.

Yeah, I saw that yesterday. It is indeed required reading for everyone here. It might not be AMERICAN FLAGG, but it is really very good. Keep in mind this came out the same year that DARK KNIGHT did. Now, which of these two really took more chances?

are they doing the Chaykin in a book or re-issuing as single issues, at overblown prices?

I'd rebuy the Helfer in any format if it meant that they pick up where Conde Nast killed it

As a collection.

Presumably they're going to be scanning the 80s issues for the reprints - can't imagine Chaykin would have held onto his originals on a WFH piece, and DC are unlikely to want to supply them with negatives, if they even still have them. Have Dynamite ever done an archival project from print sources before? (I have never even looked at anything they've published.)

Corto Maltese

― Fox Force Five Punchline (sexyDancer), Tuesday, March 17, 2009 10:49 AM (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

How To Destroy A Comics Classic

To avoid making the text in the new edition so small it was illegible, the layout of the panels on each page was reformatted by moving about 1/3 of each page onto the next page.

Can't believe anyone would still be doing this sort of thing.

Ugh! That came in the mail the other day but I haven't cracked the spine. Shameful. I was so excited to finally get some Corto in English after all these years. Back to Amazon it goes.

Huh. I guess someone felt the need to throw down a challenge to the awfulness throne of those Checker Supreme collections.

the previous english language edition of ballad of the salt seas, published by collins harvell in the uk, is the one to seek out - p gd translation, no resizing or adding colour

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hbSKO-g301o/T1PDkt7OCcI/AAAAAAAAAD8/8JIZ4WSXzPs/s1600/harvill+ballad.jpg

sorry

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hbSKO-g301o/T1PDkt7OCcI/AAAAAAAAAD8/8JIZ4WSXzPs/s1600/harvill+ballad.jpg

It's such a pain to find any of the Maltese books! I have Fable Of Venice but that's it. Pre-ordered this because I wanted to support getting the stories out here in nice editions. Didn't have any expectation they would butcher it to hell.

Between $35-60 on ebay for the old editions is absurd.

I've never read any Corto Maltese and shit like this is why.

I found Fable Of Venice on clearance at Atomic Books back in the day and instantly fell in love with Pratt's linework and the Corto character. Have kept my eyes peeled ever since for more of it.

I'm quietly seething over here.

the earlier NBM translations are generally p poor, tho they don't fuck w/ the layouts etc

basic plot and decent art is better than nothing, or whatever you want to call this current thing.

Ugh. What the fuck? Returning my copy as well; there's no excuse for that.

That's a damn shame about Ballad of the Salt Sea, I was hoping you English-speakers would finally get to appreciate Pratt's work in its full glory. I haven't liked the way Cinebook has shrinked many of the of European comics they've translated into half size, but at least they didn't mess with the original layouts! Does it really cost so much more to print these books in Euro size that these publishers would risk alienating a lot of their potential customers?

I gotta say about the colours in the English edition, though: I think they are the original colours that were added to most of the European reprints of Corto Maltese years ago, presumably with Pratt's blessing (though they weren't done by Pratt). IIRC a couple of the latter CM books even came out in colour to begin with, not in black and white. (The Secret Rose would be kinda weird to read without colour, as it plays a significant role in the story.) Though most of Pratt's work certainly looks better in the original black and white.

Publisher is now saying the revisions are based on Pratt approved revisions done for the Italian market before his death. The plan was to make a more mass market digest sized version available. This includes moving one whole line of panels, cropping some images, etc.

Still sending it back.

but at least they didn't mess with the original layouts!

insert my standard bemoaning of the terrible clunky computer lettering making Cinebooks unreadable due to damaging eyeflow

It's a bit clunky, but I wouldn't call it unreadable, I've definitely seen worse examples. And with Thorgal, at least, I think they were trying to imitate the original French lettering which is also a bit clunky:

http://www.heimdallr.org/pictures/thorgal_thrall.jpg http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/IMG_0007.jpg

Publisher is now saying the revisions are based on Pratt approved revisions done for the Italian market before his death. The plan was to make a more mass market digest sized version available.

This seems like a weird excuse; in Italy, there may've been the need to produce a mass market digest version of CM, but I can't imagine these books being a mass market product in the English-speaking world. The people who buy them are probably mostly art comic buffs, who would be willing to pay a little extra to get a better looking product.

My thoughts exactly. If I had a choice, I'd pay more for an archival version. As is, I'll keep my scan of the last proper edition (dodgy translation or no) and they won't see a penny.

Shame, really.

some good news:

Pat Mills ‏ @PatMillsComics

DC Comics confirm Marshal Law omnibus Spring 2013. All ML stories except crossovers. Sorry for delays. Sounds like it's finally happening!

It's a bit clunky, but I wouldn't call it unreadable, I've definitely seen worse examples.

Lucky Luke is the one I've bemoaned on here for years. It's bad enough to be the difference between me buying every one they've printed, and buying none.

As with Tintin, it's completely bemusing WHY they'd reletter it on computer anyway, since there have been wonderful, fluidly-lettered translations around for decades.

BTW if those are both Thorgal and you're trying to illustrate your argument, I strenuously disagree. First one is beautiful, second one is terrible.

Well, of course a computer font is gonna look less beautiful, but my point was that when it comes to readability, the originals are not necessary that much better. I'm not familiar with Cinebook's editions of Lucky Luke, though.

Anyway, back on the thread subject: why the heck hasn't the second Seaguy mini been collected like the first one? Is DC waiting for Morrison to do the third mini before collecting it all? (Which might take years.) It's kinda irritating for people like me, who live in a country where floppies are not easily available, so we have to wait for the TPB.

Is DC waiting for

apparently yeah

also they are generally not keen on it iirc

Maybe not, but they've collected pretty much everything else Morrison has ever done for them. Surely they recognize his books have a readymade audience?

DC: Your Home Of Sensible Business Decisions!