Joseph4th

October 13, 2010 2:44 pm

Late books mean lost sales and you’d think they would do whatever they could get those sales numbers up. What I wonder about, is that now that pretty much most books are written with 6-8 issue story arcs, why don’t the publishers front-load them? By this I mean, not publish the first issue of the story arc until the last one is being printed. When they announce the way they were going to be doing Amazing Spider-man a few years ago, I thought that was exactly what they meant they were going to do. Since they were going to have different teams taking turns doing the stories, I thought for sure that they would have them working somewhat in tandem so that they had everything ready to go way ahead of time.

 

I know it can’t be done for everything, it would be really difficult for the publisher to hold out on a 12-issue story like Watchmen until the 12^th issue was done, but surely they could hold back until 4-6 of them were ready to go.  There is the initial financial obligation to get started, paying the team for several issues before the books even go to market, but the publishers gets a lot out of the deal. They get a much better handle on their schedule; they know that the book will come out on said date because they already have it ready to do. Their marketing can be much more solid and tied together with other books, events and other media like movie releases.

 

Comics are pretty short when you compare them to novels and some people already have trouble remember where they left off a month later when the next issue comes out. 2 months later or more and a lot of people may not even remember they were even reading your book. This is one of the reasons I finally gave up. I am now one of those guys who waits for the trade.

 

Just thinking outloud.

August 9, 2010 4:53 pm I decided enough with the single issues after moving to Australia and back. Damn those white boxes, damn them to hell!  Errr, sorry. Anyway, I like the trades so much better. I get pretty much a whole story at once, they sit nicely on the shelf, easy to get to so I can reread them, and I don't care if they aren't in pristine mint condition.

August 9, 2010 1:21 pm

I just had this happen yesterday. I have just started dating a girl and somehow she got me talking about Sandman. So yesterday, I bought her the first three trades. However, when I gave them to her I got worried. First, I was worried that she might think the first trade was a little too occult and that the artwork may be too cartoony to be taken seriously. I also just this second realized I forgot the “The Dinner” story in there, which I still think is the most horrific mainstream comic issue to date.

 I’ve always felt the second trade, “The Doll House” was great for pulling people in and told her she had to at least read that one before judging the series.  However, I’m also a little worried that it’s about serial killers and building on top of the occult stuff from the first trade, it doesn’t seem too much like a good idea to be giving this to a woman you’ve just started seeing.

So then there is the third trade, which has “Night of 1000 Cats” and the Midsummer’s Night Dream stories. How can you go wrong with those? I should tell her to read that one first… Oh wait, the first story is about Calliope who is sold from one man to another, locked in a room naked and repeatedly raped.

Now, I’ve actually given these Sandman trades to lots of other women before and it has always worked out great, but that was when I was younger and much better looking. It was the long hair, which has been gone for a number of years now; I don’t like to talk about it.  In the end, I bit the bullet and just gave them to her. Girls love Neil, right? Why should I worry?

June 2, 2010 1:13 pm

Yes yes yes!!!

 

(man, that is one nasty hicky!) 

March 11, 2010 2:12 pm

I didn't order any of them for two reasons. One, I much rather have the softcover trades. I feel more comfortable reading and re-reading them, lending them out, and just not worried about keeping them in mint condition. I'm used to be one of THOSE guys who had billions of those white boxed full of bagged and boarded comics and I've only recently started 'waiting for the trade.' I just keep saying to myself, "I know they won't be worth anything in the future. I should just enjoy and share them now!"

The second reason is that I knew that it was a mistake and I just didn't feel comfortable taking advantage of Amazon. They were very good to me during the five years I was in Australia where I had no problem getting books and DVDs shipped to me where other vendors gave me lots of problems.

Of course I now kinda wish I did, because I would love to have gotten the $25 certificate. Oh well, I guess I got $25 worth of Karma.