Trends we can do without: Collecting every Comic Book in a Trade Paperback

[Emerald Archer]

I was just looking at the solicits for Marvel and was struck by the fact that for awhile now, Marvel is basically trading, or Digesting, every thing they publish, sometimes within 3 weeks of the series finishing. For example, Rogue, X-Men: The End, Hulk & Thing: Hard Knocks, Sabertooth and Marvel Age Fantastic Four. Now, granted, DC does some very similar stuff, especially with JLA, but Marvel is just nuts.

I remember when GOOD stories or arcs got Traded. Hulk and Thing??? I mean, how many people actually bought it? The other thing (no pun intended) is how much this policy might be hurting the actual sales of the regular books. Some people will only buy the trades, waiting for the the whole story line to be collected.

I just don't get it, it seems to me that a lot of questionable product is being collected, when a lot of stories from the past could be Traded instead.


EA

[Cyber E.]

I'd like to see some older stories getting released in TPB format, instead of having to wait for the Essential or Masterwork editions, but I think it is good that Marvel is releasing their lesser-profile stuff just as much as their higher-profile work. I'm more likely to read something I usually wouldn't, get the complete story and a reasonable price tag instead of costly monthlies, which are written for trade format anyway.

That's just me, anyway.

[Condiment King]

I don't see the problem at all. Obviously, stuff like Marvel Age products are pretty much COMPLETELY geared towards the digests. You see the Marvel Age digests in with manga. Titles like Marvel Age Fantastic Four having very similiar style of art to that of manga. Plus its cheap and comes out fairly early.

You have to see that there is a rhyme and reason to printing everything in trade paperback. Marvel's system is infinitely better than DC's because they rarely skip issues and trades come out fairly quickly. Its always a safety net to fall back on. But if you are an actual comic fan like most on this board, you aren't going to wait 6 months for the next Daredevil trade, you are going to want to buy the comic each month. Those that aren't as devoted will see most of them collected within other books in book stores at a reasonable price and buy it. Easy to find, no need to amass different parts to an arc or "keeping up" with a title.

Plus overall, the collections are nice. Very good for storage space. Some might have extras like Fantastic Four Vol 1 had an extra issue of Fantastic Four at the end or the first Ultimate Spider-Man hardcover had the first Spider-Man appearance at the end. Fantastic Four Vol 1 featured commentary from Waid / Weiringo at the end with their intentions for the title. Vol 2 had all the material from the "Director's Cut".

I definitely think Marvel's approach is good. DC trades only go to the most hyped (not necessarily connotating to best) and are barebones, sometimes not even having the covers somewhere.

[Emerald Archer]

I guess I'm still wondering why Marvel feels the need to Trade everything they Publish? Why collect things like Hulk & Thing or Rogue?

The funniest thing was 3 months ago when Marvel released the first trade for Marvel Age Spider-Man. It had issues 1-4 in it. The funny this is, at the time it was released Issue 4 had yet to hit the streets, so the Digest beat the actual issue by 2 weeks!

As for DC. I don't have a problem with ow they release their trades. Yes they skip issues. but for the most part they aren't issues hat are central to the story line. As for covers being absent, doesn't really bother me. The problem with DC trades is when they trade a long involved story line, like Our Worlds at War, or No Man's Land, they did indeed cut out some issues to make the story line manageable. But at the same time I don't see them rushing out a Trade of Cinnamon El Ciclo, or Richard Dragon. I think the problem is that if their s to much "noise" out there, Trades that deserve to get noticed don't, Like Fallen Angel and Gotham Central. If the market is flooded with lots of low quality product, a lot of the deserving stuff won't get noticed. Trades use to be for special event, exceptional stories. Now they are to collect anything and everything in a never ending attempt to make more money off of weak product.

[Jor-El]

I agree about Marvel's TPB policy. Over at DC, we can't even get the Dark Flash storyline traded, nor can we get Geoff John's real first storyarc "Wonderland" which sets the scene for so many subsequent plots in Johns's Flash. I'd also like to see some more of the good Loeb Superman traded, especially the Arkham/Emperor lot (do I remember seeing that's on its way?)

There are so many good things out there to trade instead of storylines that just finished being released.

[Stu]

The more TPB's the better. Generally, the stories are written for TPBs, so it makes perfect sense to have the majority of titles have the issues collected in some way.

Plus, if you are trying to get into a new series, the paperbacks are invaluable. For example, my brother wanted to get into Hulk, so he went to the store, and bought 3 Hulk TPBs, now he collects them when they reach trade. If he wanted to read Flash, he's got to use ebay, and find all the damn single issues.

Some of it is annoying. A lot of writers use the TPB approach to literally waste time. Stuff like Ultmate Fantastic Four is annoying to read in single issue form, because everything moves along too slowly.

[Ed Liu]

Howdy,

I think Marvel Age was never intended to be a line that survived on monthly comic sales. The goal was always to get them into those manga-sized digests quick and get them in places other than the direct market (i.e. comic shops). Given that, and given that all they're doing is adapting old stories, I wonder less why they're trading them so quickly and more why they bothered with the monthly comics at all.

There were a LOT of comic retailers who were mad at that whole Marvel Age Spider-Man digest edition thing, which is why Marvel Age has gotten the short end of the stick from the direct market. I wonder if the lower MA title count indicates that they're retreating from the strategy, or if they're wisely pulling MA out of the direct market and going straight to the bookstores and Target/Wal-Marts. I've been seeing a growing number of Marvel Age titles at my local Target.

The other really weird thing is that Marvel's trades are often on better paper with cardstock covers and include the original comic covers and no ads, at a price point LESS than the monthlies. The first Captain America & the Falcon TPB collects 4 issues -- buying the monthlies costs $12, while the TPB cost $10. She-Hulk Vol. 1 collects 6 issues -- monthlies cost $18, TPB is $15.

Then Marvel has the nerve to look surprised when monthly sales drop through the floor. It's the MONEY, you crazy fools!!!

If you want to be charitable, you can say that Marvel actually HAS been paying attention to market trends, and is moving from magazine-style publishing to book-style publishing. I think this is something that's going to happen whether we or the comic companies like it or not. I'm just not entirely certain Marvel is going about it in the best way possible.

In some ways, maybe Marvel actually IS taking a page out of DC's playbook, which consistently makes good money (apocryphally the lion's share of their profits) out of Watchmen and Sandman TPBs. Unfortunately, they're doing it in typical Marvel style by flooding the market with product. They're doing the same thing with monthly comic books and they're about to do it in the next few years with licensed movies.

-- Ed/Ace

[Spider-Man]

I like what Marvel is doing with their trades collection. It's helped me pick up alot of their older titles and keep up with some of their new. I read Incredible Hulk strictly in trade format because it's easier and reads much better than the long drawn out monthly installments. Plus they are also releasing a fair share of older material that I have always wanted to read for a good price. Unless I can get the back issues for cheap, getting the trades is also the better option financially. I don't get comics to read once than store away for ever in some box. I read them constantly and these trades make the books last longer. Plus they look pretty good on the shelf.

[halinar]

It's funny looking at all the stuff marvel threw at the wall several months back to see what stuck. It looks like none of it did. Probably for two reasons. 1. Every story is now 6 issues long. I had to drop ultimate FF for this reason. There is no reason some of these stores need to be forced out to 6 issues just to fit in a trade. 2. People are just waiting for the trade and a lot of books are being marked as "limited series" now because they have bombed out.

[Lorendiac]

I was just looking at the solicits for Marvel and was struck by the fact that for awhile now, Marvel is basically trading, or Digesting, every thing they publish, sometimes within 3 weeks of the series finishing. For example, Rogue, X-Men: The End, Hulk & Thing: Hard Knocks, Sabertooth and Marvel Age Fantastic Four. Now, granted, DC does some very similar stuff, especially with JLA, but Marvel is just nuts.

I remember when GOOD stories or arcs got Traded. Hulk and Thing??? I mean, how many people actually bought it? The other thing (no pun intended) is how much this policy might be hurting the actual sales of the regular books. Some people will only buy the trades, waiting for the the whole story line to be collected.

Some rambling off the top of my head before I go offline for Thanksgiving . . .

You remember when it was the Good stories or larger arcs that got Traded? I can't remember that; at least not if you mean there was a time when the Best Storylines always got Traded . . . instead of sometimes, if they were lucky, getting traded sooner or later . . . or maybe not. I still have in my collection various stuff from the 1980s, one company or another, which I think was really, really good . . . and has never been reprinted in TPB to the best of my knowledge. Most of the Wolfman/Perez material on "The New Teen Titans" of the early 1980s, as one example. I believe that fairly recently the storyline about Terra's betrayal of the titans, "The Judas Contract," was Traded . . . but I think the material in that one only starts at a point where Wolfman and Perez had already been working their magic on the monthly title for over three years (and had introduced Terra at least a year before, and then gradually developed her character and her mysterious background in material that hasn't been reprinted in trades).

And as far as that goes, hadn't "Crisis on Infinite Earths" been available only as individual back issues at comics stores for about 14 years or something before DC finally said, "Gee, considering that this famous storyline reshaped our entire Universe and is always being referred to by old-timers discussing the previous history and retconned version with newer fans, maybe it would be a good idea to put it in a trade for readers' convenience if we have nothing better to do this week?" I spent the whole decade of the 1990s wondering when they were going to get a clue on that subject.

If it has to be one or the other, I actually think it's better for Marvel to reprint practically everything in trades than it is for them to only occasionally reprint a little bit here and a little bit there in trades, if they happen to feel like it. Most of those trades I will not feel the overwhelming urge to buy (which is the way I feel about everything you specifically named in your post!), but it's nice to have the option of buying almost anything recent that I DO happen to want in convenient TPB collections.

On hurting the sales of the regular books . . . my basic policy is that it's not my job to spend money on anything just to help the sales of the regular book, or make the writer rich, or whatever. It's my job to spend money on the things I want because they will provide me with good entertainment. If the comics industry insists on publishing things first in skinny monthly installments and then with complete arcs reprinted in trades, then it's the duty of the writer to make me fall so madly in love with his storytelling that I feel the need to buy each issue hot off the presses as it arrives at the local comics shop because I just can't bear to wait several months to buy the entire thing in a package deal.

Very few writers arouse that kind of impatient excitement in me these days, but some do. The others just have to try harder . . . or start publishing everything they do directly as trade paperbacks without going through the intermediate stage of flimsy monthly installments first.

Incidentally, I have friends and relatives who don't spend much time in comics shops, but are willing to read a comic book story if it's well-written and if they can get an entire storyline all at once. Sometimes I give them TPBs (birthdays, Xmas, that sort of thing). I wouldn't dream of handing them ten separate monthly issues that won't even stand upright on a bookshelf and saying, "Merry Christmas! Enjoy yourself!" It seems insulting. Trades end up in their own section at the local Borders, and Barnes & Noble, and so forth, and seem to be more acceptable to the sort of people who buy all sorts of genre fiction to read for entertainment but don't feel like going out of their way to pick up 22-page installments of storylines at a comics shop a mile down the road.

[Emerald Archer]

Well, it was just brought to my attention today that the latest digest of Marvel Age Spider-Man contains Marvel Age Spider-Man #16, which hit the streets last week. Of course the digest has been out for 3 weeks. I think I have to agree with those who say that the only reason for the Marvel Age titles is to have something to publish in Digest form.

Unfortunately now DC is following into the act with Digests of Teen Titans Go!, Justice League, Batman Adventures and Superman Adventures.

I remember when digests use to publish some of the best issues of any given year, the DC Blue Ribbon Digest in particular was always a great read, but these are doing nothing more than retreading stories that are less than a few months old.

[Beyond Batman]

TPB's serve two purposes. Collecting and selling more books. Collector's get to enjoy the addtional art work while casual readers find TPB's more accessable.

Mainly, TPB's is a marketing strategy to sell comics to a broader audience. Let's face it, comic shops aren't the most "user friendly" when it comes to casual readers. Selling TPB's at major retailers like Borders and Barnes & Noble is a way of marketing through new channels. Have you noticed how Borders has a rack dedicated to comics next to their magazine stands now?

Bottomline, TPB's are a way of selling more books. Great for the publishers, good for the customers, bad for the comic shops.

[Spider-Man]

Mainly, TPB's is a marketing strategy to sell comics to a broader audience. Let's face it, comic shops aren't the most "user friendly" when it comes to casual readers. Selling TPB's at major retailers like Borders and Barnes & Noble is a way of marketing through new channels. Have you noticed how Borders has a rack dedicated to comics next to their magazine stands now?

I've noticed the same thing. My local bookstore has a big section dedicated to mange and trades and they get quite a few customers in that area. And it's great to see the comic racks return to the book stores. I love flipping through that thing and picking up the odd DC or Dark Horse comic. I would get the occasional Marvel but with every newsstand comic costing $2.99US I save those for the comic shop visits.

[ManicWebb]

I need Trade Paperbacks for back-issues. I didn't start reading Ultimate X-Men until it was already on its 6th TPB. Do you have any idea how nigh-impossible it would've been to go out and find every back issue of that book up to the "Return of the King" arc? Thanks to TPBs, I can go to Borders and read entire arcs in one sitting.

I'm a more casual reader, anyway, so I can wait months at a time for new Trades to be released. In my opinion, if Marvel ever plans to release a book in TPB form, they should wait for the TPB to hit shelves before canning the book. It's too much work to collect individual issues, and some of us are willing to wait and only buy the trades.

[Spider-Man]

I need Trade Paperbacks for back-issues. I didn't start reading Ultimate X-Men until it was already on its 6th TPB. Do you have any idea how nigh-impossible it would've been to go out and find every back issue of that book up to the "Return of the King" arc? Thanks to TPBs, I can go to Borders and read entire arcs in one sitting.

Exactly. And sometimes it is the better deal. Early issues of books like Ultimate Spider-Man goes for about $30 or $40 a pop and since I'm a comic book reader and not a collecter (I don't even bag my comics) I would rather get a trade and get more for my buck. Marvel is going into overdrive with some of their trade policies but without that I wouldn't have the first nine issues of Peter David's run on The Incredible Hulk.