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Format Wars: Issues Vs. TPBs
Seraven
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I'm uncertain if this topic has been brought up yet, so I've decided to make a thread dedicated to its discussion. I've been thinking a lot about my monthly expenses lately and inevitably came to the conclusion that the majority of my spare money goes towards comic books. Now, I love comic books just as much as the next guy, but I think we can all agree that the price for such a small piece of entertainment (however entertaining it may be) is rather steep. I'm not here to debate that fact, however; I'm here to discuss the formats of the comic book industry itself.
I imagine trade paper-backs are a preference, right? But why? Personally, I find them a lot easier to store and are generally cheaper than their single counterparts. (Keep in mind, I mean they're cheaper if you purchase them from an online outlet, such as Amazon.) With those two points aside--and the obvious advantage of having an entire story arch in front of you without having to wait another month or two for the next part ignored--what exactly makes singles appealing? Maybe I should ask if they are at all?
Do we purchase singles because we want to get our hands on the next part of the story as quickly as possible? Or do we purchase singles because we're collectors and want to harvest the series in its pure, raw form? The more I think about it, the more I see the benefit in collecting the trade paper-backs instead. Does anyone think differently? I understand that shirking the singles hurts the industry, but is it really that selfish a desire? I'm presently on the edge of canceling all of my subscriptions and collecting the trade paper-backs instead, but I can't help but feel really, really guilty.
Also: what's your opinion on online vendors? I would love to support the small businesses and comic shops that rely on my business (and others'), but I can't help but feel like I'm being ripped off royally. I'm not even going to get into the American to Canadian conversion rates here. Does it make me a bad person to want to find entertainment at a cheaper price? I don't exactly make a lot of money, but I could afford to give said shops more business. I suppose this is really more a debate of morals, but who honestly thinks supporting Amazon over a small shop is likened to that of devil worship?
So what's everyone's opinion? I realize this wasn't as narrow a topic as I would have enjoyed it to be, but I think the two issues are inherently intertwined. Feel free to argue for otherwise.
I imagine trade paper-backs are a preference, right? But why? Personally, I find them a lot easier to store and are generally cheaper than their single counterparts. (Keep in mind, I mean they're cheaper if you purchase them from an online outlet, such as Amazon.) With those two points aside--and the obvious advantage of having an entire story arch in front of you without having to wait another month or two for the next part ignored--what exactly makes singles appealing? Maybe I should ask if they are at all?
Do we purchase singles because we want to get our hands on the next part of the story as quickly as possible? Or do we purchase singles because we're collectors and want to harvest the series in its pure, raw form? The more I think about it, the more I see the benefit in collecting the trade paper-backs instead. Does anyone think differently? I understand that shirking the singles hurts the industry, but is it really that selfish a desire? I'm presently on the edge of canceling all of my subscriptions and collecting the trade paper-backs instead, but I can't help but feel really, really guilty.
Also: what's your opinion on online vendors? I would love to support the small businesses and comic shops that rely on my business (and others'), but I can't help but feel like I'm being ripped off royally. I'm not even going to get into the American to Canadian conversion rates here. Does it make me a bad person to want to find entertainment at a cheaper price? I don't exactly make a lot of money, but I could afford to give said shops more business. I suppose this is really more a debate of morals, but who honestly thinks supporting Amazon over a small shop is likened to that of devil worship?
So what's everyone's opinion? I realize this wasn't as narrow a topic as I would have enjoyed it to be, but I think the two issues are inherently intertwined. Feel free to argue for otherwise.
Seraven on
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That's not to say that TPB's aren't pretty cool, specifically because they present one single story arc in a convenient setting (as you said).
I get some Marvel TPB's simply because of the convenience. For example, I have the Iron Man Execute Program TPB because I loved the story arc (not as much as the Extremis arc but still) and it had the variant covers in the back (which by the way make the collector inside of me say YES!).
I just wish it wasn't so expensive.
Same thing with TV, I usually watch a series til I miss an episode or two by mistake then stop watching all together til the DVD comes out.
So yeah, I definitely prefer trades and for the most part that's all I buy now. I don't really collect comics anymore but I still like some of the popular stories so yeah I'll pick up a trade every now and then.
except for Fables. I just enjoy that more in trades
The Comics Single was a perfect little pop paradox: it can be a cheap, disposable piece of entertainment, and yet at the same time it can also serve as a wonderful little piece of art. A good single is something I want to have sitting on my coffee table for people to see, pick up, and read/
-Follow Warren Ellis' lead on Planetary; make every issues a unique object d'art, that people want to pick up and hold and touch, like a record sleeve only with punching. Comics are way radder than EPs, so they should look just as cool. The average Marvel or DC cover is boring, generic and lifeless. Look at how Planetary changed its logo every issue.
-Have you ever seen Corey Lewis' PENG! It's about 90 pages. It's nearly trade-sized, but formatted like a floppy, with cardstock cover. Make more books like that. Comic 'novellas'. (Incidently, I think this is how the new League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is being released.) Slightly bigger and longer, but still floppy enough to be cheaper than a trade. I've got PENG! sitting in a little pile of stellar floppies on our coffee table, along with my favorite issues of SOLO (Cooke, Pope and Allred, in case you're interested), and the Comics Festival Free Comic Book Day issue, because these are all floppies that feel like something more.
-Make more Slimline books. When I pick up an issue of Casanova or Fell, I know I'm getting a complete object, something that exists as its own little piece of pop culture. It's short, it's fun, it's a perfect radio single in comic book form. On the opposite end of PENG!, I'd like to see smaller comics, that deliver done-in-one bursts or energy, for a smaller price-point. Fast, fun, and well-constructed.
-Phonogram's Keiron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie were talking recently about 'comics as magazines'. Do this too. Fill up singles with text and art and pictures. Cram them with information. One of the main reasons that Fell and Casanova and Phonogram are so great is the backmatter in the single issues (which, incidently, is not included in the trades, giving more value to the single issues). Comics needs to get the zine-kids and the webcomics kids together. Why not a monthly music criticism magazine, done as a comic?
-Finally, follow Jeff Smith's example: KEEP THEM IN PRINT. Part of the reason that Bone is so popular is that Smith made damn sure that anybody could start reading it at any time, and the issues were always there to pick up.
Give people a reason to pick up a single issue. Make it something they want to keep and treasure and lend to their freinds. Give them value, and not in the CGC 9.8 'mint-in-bag' sense. I've dropped pretty much every single issue comic that isn't giving me a reason to buy it in the singles, because the trades are so much better economically, and as a nice, solid, THING that I can put on a shelf and show off and pass around to my friends.
I wouldn't be the least bit disappointed if comics were distributed solely through OGNs. No more shitty ads, no more getting half a story, waiting a year, and then getting another part, and no more crusty longboxes filled with comics that need new bags and liners every few years.
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But I get monthlies for the two comics that I want off the presses (ultimate spider-man, deadpool)
For my normal month-to-month titles though, I go to the shop. I love coming home every Wednesday with a pile of books to read.
I do, however, love, buying trades of series that have finished up. Just because I like having a few trades and saying "this is all of it"
Hell fuckin' yeah.
My only exception would be Runaways. Cheap trades are fantastic!
Steam id: skoot LoL id: skoot
I would rather read a story from start to finish without waiting. If I had all the single issues of something I'd still rather read a trade because I'm lazy.
The only time I buy single issues is to check a new series out (which I rarely do) or if it's a miniseries of some kind that I know I'll like I'll buy the single issues.
Otherwise I wait for the trades.
My comic shop offers the exact same deal, actually. I have enjoyed its benefits for several months now, but unfortunately before subscribing to their shop I missed a couple of issues in a series and two mini-series (Immortal Iron Fist #3, Nextwave #11-12, and The Nightly News #2, I'm looking at you) and I still haven't been able to get my hands on them. If only I subscribed earlier... oh well, I'll just pick up the trades.
Other than that, I've mostly taken to buying single issues, though I do have quite a bit of trades for stories I've missed or really love.
For instance, I have all the Ultimate Fantastic Four TPB's, and now buy issues. I only bought the first two for Superman/Batman - then I stopped; not sure why.
Though for some reason, it feels fantastic to have cool singles. My issue 1 Scarlet Spider and Deadpool are some of my most prized posessions. Despite sucking. Bad.
I also hate ads. It's like TV. And I don't know when it was, but I hated when singles changed from the softer paper to the standard stuff they use now.
PokeCode: 3952 3495 1748
I love those things.
I actually have a Daredevil DVD where it does that along with adding sound effects and voice acting. I thought it would be terrible but it was actually great, I'd love to buy some of the others they made (I know there was a Hulk and Ultimate X-Men) but I only saw them that one time.
What am I supposed to do with singles? Take five bagged comics with me to the park or something?
But while the electronic format is certainly even more portable, allowing to take thousands of pages with you in your laptop, I have to draw the line for myself there because reading a book on a screen just doesn't feel like reading book to me, and is much less satisfying.
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You'd pretty much never see a comic shop again, though.
See, that's the big trouble with comics. They're stuck in these little, smelly, independently run shops that barely break even, and are speckled sporadically around the country. A lot of people don't even have a comic shop in their area, so even if they want to get into comics, they can't. And then some of the people that actually find shops go and get driven off by snobbish nerds, sweaty hambeasts, and screeching Yugi-Oh playing munchkins.
Comics are at a weird point right now; they rely on the direct market for a large share of their profits, but the direct market's also the thing that's slowly killing the industry, and keeping it from becoming a mainstream hobby. I believe that within the next ten years we'll either see the slow death of the direct market, or DC and Marvel opening up their own "chain" comic book stores in major cities.
And I say this as a man who loves his local comic shop. Just today I went and picked up a bunch of old Birds of Prey issues (the ones guest-starring Blue Beetle, natch) and just got to geek out as I combed through longboxes and ran across a few weird, obscure little titles in the process. It was a great deal of fun. But to the casual reader, walking into a big store with loli anime wallscrolls on every wall, shelf after shelf of action figures, and rows of musty cardboard boxes packed with comics isn't really appealing.
Of course, I recently saw an article saying that direct market sales only earned $20 million more in profits than trade paperback sales (keeping in mind that comics are a hundred million dollar industry), so maybe in the next couple of years we'll see that gap continue to shrink until TPBs are the predominant form of comics.
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Yeah, I guess I can follow what you say about the shops, but the shop I go to is nothing like that. It's kinda small, yeah, but it's bright, clean, and the guy who owns the place is really friendly. He likes his place to be kid friendly, so you won't have the cheesecake figures and posters all over the place. I'd have no problem at all letting my nephew (7 years old) wander around in there.
Man, where the hell do you live?
PSN: OrneryRooster
Nerd Heaven baby.
But I've also done a fair bit of traveling, and wandered into stores that were absolutely horrible; new issues haphazardly arranged, a piss poor selection of back issues, staffed by assholes and so on. And it's that kind of thing that makes people look at comics and say, "No thanks." Seriously, can you deny there's a certain stigma attached to comics? That didn't just happen. There's a reason for it. Pop culture perpetuates a certain stereotype about comic shops (see: The Simpsons), because that stereotype is often true. It's gotten better in recent years, as sales show, but the fact is that western comic books are still sort of looked at in a weird light, and I think that's due in large part to their distribution avenues. I think if they were something more widely available and seen in places that Joe Average frequents, they might not be looked at as things just for dudes who go into "that one store with the peeling paint and the faded Final Fantasy poster in the window".
I'd love to walk into Wal-Mart and see an Annihilation hardback next to the newest Grisham novel, or a Jonah Hex trade beside some Louis L'Amour books. And there's progress being made there. Target now stocks Superman/Batman trades and a few Ultimate titles. But they put them right under Elmo Goes Poop pop-up books, and that does nothing to break down negative stereotypes.
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If you go into an actual bookstore, they already carry tons of trades.
Anyway, I'm too impatient for trades, but I'd certainly pay $10 or $15 a week for some kind of compilation comic book like Shounen Jump, with chapters of several mainstream books serialized inside. That, I think, might work, at least for those who aren't big on collecting and are budget conscious.
Hell, I just made a large order from Amazon, paying a small fortune on postage and it is STILL SIGNIFICANTLY CHEAPER than walking into a store here and buying the same books. Absolutely crazy.
Lucky I'm not bitter... (you bastards)