It should be collected / It should be in print

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!

Seaguy is awesome

Yeah, DC has no idea what the fuck they're doing these days. Marvel may have a disproportionate sense of what material is actually worthy of collection (an Atlantis Attacks omnibus? Really?), but they do seem fairly equitable in their apparent pursuit to collect everything they ever published.

It's six of one/half a dozen of the other, because Marvel can't seem to keep anything in print.

Marvel deliberately don't keep anything in print. They are aggressively opposed to the long tail.

Reason #4,287 illustrating that comic book publishers are their own worst enemies.

Reason #4,288: Failure to diversify their fanbase in the event of a fatal outbreak of nerdpox.

wait - second Seaguy mini?! when did that come out

2009

so there are issues that aren't in the TPB? how come I never even saw these

If you decide to look for it it's called Slaves of Mickey Eye.

cbz means the internet will provide

sic, i admire yr high standards re: computer font lettering (def agree that the 2nd Thorgal example is an eyesore), but i guess i'm more of a pragmatist (or a despicable mono-linguist) - cinebooks have now issued almost every goscinny written Lucky Luke, the vast majority previously untranslated, with decent repro (they've kept the original colouring) and unlikely to ever be attempted by any other publisher = a must-buy. i look at any imperfections in the lettering as the equivalent of less-than-optimal subtitles on some rare 'foreign' movie - the price you pay for pursuing a minority taste

yeah, i'm with ward on these in that all the cinebook lukes i've bought are the only ones i've ever seen!

"It's six of one/half a dozen of the other, because Marvel can't seem to keep anything in print."

From what I understand part of the reason DC was better on keeping backstock in print was that it was apart of Time Warner which has an extensive publishing wing with warehouses and distribution system setup etc. and Marvel really didn't, so most of the trades they print get shipped straight to the distributors like Diamond.

that's almost completely wrong. DC actively pursued and carefully cultivated a backlist system, since the early 90s have launched many bookstore-targeted lines, and publish their own books, not cross-licensed to Hachette. mmaaaaaybe they use AOL warehouses though, idk about that. Marvel's backlist could work better if they reprinted books even once, but they publish them like periodicals - to order. Not owning warehouses isn't the problem - a) they could buy or rent them, with money, and b) Diamond is their distributor to the bookstore market, so i) of course they fucking ship their books to them, and ii) Diamond could warehouse them super-efficiently and cost-effectively. But given that Perlmutter's penny-pinching is so legendary that paper-clip usage is monitored in the offices, the tiny outlay on printing and shelving more now against long tail profits over the next ten years is aggressively discouraged.

computer lettering on translations CAN be done sensitively and smoothly - cf Fanta's Tardi line, or Dirk Rehm on D&Q's Dupuy & Berberian

Have to agree with the above. DC has always been forward looking on trades, with some caveats. It's still tricky to manage anything resembling a reading order for say, GREEN LANTERN. But DC was aggressive on getting evergreen titles out early (and they stumbled into WATCHMEN being a perennial, which has its own downsides). Note that DC also printed books that even non-comics readers wanted to read (evidence SANDMAN). Marvel has just a handful of titles that sell outside of already-reading-comics folks. I mean, which SPIDER-MAN book do you send a new reader towards? I love old UNCANNY and FANTASTIC FOUR, but most people will find them impenetrable. Add to that the fact that Marvel is pretty conservative when it comes to breaking new formats, and you have a recipe for some wheel-spinning.

Of course, with every passing day, I get more and more hopeless about seeing the last chapters of SEAGUY. I'm pretty surprised that volume 2 even happened, given the sales of the first.

"I mean, which SPIDER-MAN book do you send a new reader towards?"
If they have no love for Ditko/Romita or any sense of the history? Probably the Brian Michael Bendis Ultimates run tbh

^ forks trying to drive readers away

I dunno. If they have no familiarity with Spider-Man, I'd guess that extended to Marvel on the whole and possibly to mainstream comics or comics history more generally. As such, said new reader might have some trouble getting over the "corny & old-timey" hump with the Lee/Ditko stuff (which I just realized is almost fifty years old). I agree that Bendis isn't necessarily an ideal alternative, but as an alternative, it's a damn sight better than some of the other contenders (e.g. Straczynski's run, which would stand a good chance of driving readers away from comics altogether).

just saying I read some of the start of that and it was terrible comics

Well, that's part of the problem. Comics of the 60s and comics of today, at least in the world of superhero comics are a damn far sight apart from one another. Corniness is a hobgoblin that superhero comics think they've been fleeing for the last thirty years (never knowing that the extreme flavor of the 90s is just as corny, only in a different direction altogether.)

BMB Spiderman is readable and hews closely to canon; it's good trash reading for me. ymmv

So, the Marshal Law omnibus finally has a a release date, and at the moment you can pre-order it on Amazon for 9.59 quids (75% off the official price). I have no idea why it's so cheap, but hey, I'm not complaining...

Very beginning of the punisher unlimited series

Walt Simonson run on FF, all the time bubble shit

A large portion of the OG Punisher series is available as Essentials.

A bunch of it is on MDCU as well.

The Walt Simonson FF run was collected a few years ago in I think 3, maybe 4 volumes of Fantastic Four Visionaries TPBs. No idea if they've slipped back out of print because Marvel is HORRIBLE at managing their back catalog availability. Also all on MDCU, which may be their focus going forward.

A large portion of the OG Punisher series is available as Essentials.

available yes but "in print" is relevant here

a large portion of the OG Punisher series is available as back issues iirc

Guess I shoulda checked that. Yeah, they're super shitty about keeping stuff in print. You'd think they'd at least make more of an effort with the Essentials so they could showcase their classic material.

They literally don't keep anything in print, as Perlmutter won't pay for warehousing. Their collections are printed like periodicals, on initial orders, plus whatever Diamond chooses to stockpile.

I knew they did that with the Omnibi, but...that's just insane as an across-the-board business model for collections.

this is the dude who cuts stationery budgets if he sees paperclips on the floor, and only allows one bathroom per style of genitals for several hundred staff, to save money

Marvel seem to keep most of the Essentials in print (dunno about the Punisher)

Pat Mills is pushing on with reprints from my childhood at a pace I can barely keep up with. The collected Shako came out a couple of weeks ago.

I was looking at that over Amazon, is it worth buying?

Shako, I mean.

Dude, it's a story about a polar bear infected by a secret CIA disease who kills people. He punches a Russian guy in a bar at one point. I also haven't read it since I was 8. Hookjaw is the closest in tone of the reprints to date and I loved that so BRING ON THE THRILL POWER.

My enthusiasm for the 200AD/Battle/Action reprints are entirely based on the 8 year old me. So far I've been about 75% right.