posted February 04, 2003 08:10 PM               

Working in the comic industry, you've got to know a large majority of comic fans are obsessive freaks who need everything. Case in point- there was a 4 page thread on the bat boards going nuts over the hush hardcover, because of TWO extra pages, both of which are said to be inconsequential and jsut filling blank pages. Those complaining are willing to buy the collection, soley for TWO extra pages.

posted February 04, 2003 10:03 PM               

How's the Aquaman Archives been working out, saleswise?

I want to know, because:

A. I want a second Aquaman volume, and

B. I'd like to see other DC backups get an Archive. Particularly, I like Lee Elias's Green Arrow, the early Martian Manhunters from Detective, and Captain Comet. Some of the Tommy Tomorrow strips are quite fun as well. And, I believe Congorilla could be done in one.

posted February 04, 2003 11:11 PM            

any more fables or y the last man trades planned for 2003? these books continue to sell well so i'd hope it's a possibility.

you mentioned before about perez's teen titans stuff being collected in archive in possibly 2004,so no golden age titans material planned?also would it not be profitable for dc to release a collection of it's 1985 edition of who's who? i know you later had some involvement in this project

posted February 04, 2003 11:23 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by bluedevil2002:

Well, between CC and Arkham/Joker, there are 3-4 issues that deal with the beginning of the President Lex subplot. It would be a shame to skip those issues, since they set up the groundwork for the later Pres. Lex stories.

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posted February 04, 2003 11:24 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by segaboi24:
Bob

any more fables or y the last man trades planned for 2003? these books continue to sell well so i'd hope it's a possibility.

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posted February 04, 2003 11:37 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by bluedevil2002:

Re: Hush - it's actually four new pages plus a two page origin exclusive to the DC website.

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Oh, i thought it was two new pages plus a two page origin exclusive to the website (4 total new pages, but 2 of which can be viewed on the web)

posted February 05, 2003 02:14 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by gothcityfan:

While im not that extreme, i do feel complete arcs should be collected. Two examples which bother me most; 5 nml volumes instead of 6, and batman #604 not being in a fugitive trade It was among the bets bat issues ever (not hyperbole), and most integral in the arc to bat's realization he is also bruce wayne. The original #604 didnt have a fugitive label due to it not having clues to the killer, but that didnt stop other unlabeled parts from being collected.

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If I'm remembering the plot of 604 correctly (isthis the one where Batman speaks with the cop who handled his parent's murder case?), I'm betting it WILL be collected -- but only when Brubaker writes a followup story arc. I don't think we've seen the last of that plot, and it will be more appropriate in that trade, rather the the fugitive story.

posted February 05, 2003 02:22 AM            

quote:

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Denny O'Neil did an arc back in 2000 (the first one after NML) about Batman and Green Arrow. I've been led to believe that it was a sequel of sorts to an earlier arc he did in Legends of the DC Universe #7-9 featuring Green Lantern and Green Arrow. Is there a chance of those two arcs getting the trade treatment? LOTDCU #7-9, LOTDK #127-131.

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posted February 05, 2003 02:54 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Rob Staeger:

If I'm remembering the plot of 604 correctly (isthis the one where Batman speaks with the cop who handled his parent's murder case?), I'm betting it WILL be collected

Rob

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You're close, but no, you're talking about batman #603 (which was even better than 604), which is already collected in fugitive volume 2.

Batman #604 was the story guest starring catwoman where bats jumps in the path of bullets meant for a mobster, taking them nearly point blank and not getting out of the way. Catwoman asks him why would he risk his life and endure that pain for a lowlife thug. Thats when bats remembers who he truly is; Bruce Wayne, son of Thomas Wayne, who forged him into the man he is, a man who values human life over all else, and not just a mask.

Too bad ppl reading the tpb will miss this story. Not only is it great, but if i read only the tpb, i'd be scratching my head, wondering, when did bats decide everything he said in murderer is wrong.

I really wonder who's responsible for all this. I've got to think with dc's recent poor job's of collecting all the relevant parts of major bat stories, most ppl reading bats tpb's will eventually get frustrated and stop reading them for what they perceive to be poor storytelling, which is in actuality poor collecting. I know it certainly happened to me, and lucky for dc, i went to the montlies isntead of dropping bats altogether.

I truly can not understand the value of a collection if it requires the reader to come on a message board and ask numerous questions to clear up issues not covered in the collection. I can only wonder how all the readers who dont know of/ arent willing to join the message board, how they feel.

Another thing i cant understand is, whats the purpose of a collection if numerous ppl pop up literally every couple of wks asking for a story arc checklist, since the collection is horribly truncated? I thought one of the points of collections was that ppl wouldnt have to go scavenger hunting for hard to find issues b/c they're not reprinted. This problem is hardly solved by reprinting "some" of the story.

I dont know about you, but i remember when tpb's were reprints, not cliff notes. Size is an issue? Heh, i remember when faithfully, and COMPLETELY reprinting the material was an issue. Return of the Superman is one huge trade, but if commisioned today, it probably would be split in two, and have some parts cut, horribly confusing the reader and forcing them to come on a message board asking what happened here? Knigtfall was split into two huge trades itself. What do both of these examples have in common? Both were reprinted in their entirety.

posted February 05, 2003 03:07 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by gothcityfan:

I truly can not understand the value of a collection if it requires the reader to come on a message board and ask numerous questions to clear up issues not covered in the collection. I can only wonder how all the readers who dont know of/ arent willing to join the message board, how they feel.

Another thing i cant understand is, whats the purpose of a collection if numerous ppl pop up literally every couple of wks asking for a story arc checklist, since the collection is horribly truncated? I thought one of the points of collections was that ppl wouldnt have to go scavenger hunting for hard to find issues b/c they're not reprinted. This problem is hardly solved by reprinting "some" of the story.

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Btw, just ask any regular on the bat boards, and theyll verify what i posted in the above quote. Literally every two wks someone pops by asking for a nml or fugitive checklist, b/c they "heard" the collections dont collect everything.

Or how about the people always showing up completely confused by the murderer/fugitve tpb's since dc basically took a story built up for almost 2 yrs (ive explained how on the original questions thread) in three titles, and dc only collects the six month "meat" of the story. No room for the so called "filler" in tpb, while dc's lowest selling adult male hero, flash has everyone of his stories reprinted (both batman and 'tec easily outsell flash, and gk too possibly).

posted February 05, 2003 05:07 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by tocoelho:
Bob,

What about a Zatanna "Quest for Zatara" TPB supporting Paul Dini's Zatanna for Vertigo?

I think this could work!

Best regards,

Tocoelho

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Following the same format,

Bob,

What about a Shazam "Monster Society of Evil" TPB (or 2 just like DC did for Superman: OWaW)supporting Jeff Smith's MONSTER SOCIETY OF EVIL 4-shot?

I think this could work!

Best regards,

posted February 05, 2003 07:50 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Ruiner:
That [Daredevil] run [#20-25] is dramatically different from the rest of those TPBs. I liked it but I understand why Marvel left it out.

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I realize that, but I don't care if it's part of the TPB series, I just want to read it!

posted February 05, 2003 07:59 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Ruiner:
I think it'd be better if they lumped those four issues with actual Lex issues after Emp. Joker. Unless they're doing a Prsident Lex "prelude" TPB

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posted February 05, 2003 08:47 AM               

quote:

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Origionaly posted by vze2 from Q for Bob G #1

Not everything is collected. So let's say that a comic comes out that you really want. Will it be collected or not? Can you predict with certainty? I can't.

Now here's the problem. I buy very few of the best-selling comics and a reasonbly large number of lesser-selling titles. Some of these lesser comics are critically-acclaimed and get collections, but others are not.

Let's take Doom Patrol as an example because I like it. My latest order form is soliciting for issue 19. So far, we have no trade (correct me if I'm wrong and I'll find another example).

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This is a good point. However if the big seven were being collected reliably, I would be more likely to pick up a comic like Doom Patrol, if I knew that I would be able to get Flash, Wonder Woman, Superman, etc. with timely trades. I don't collect these characters, but I want to read their stories. The only DC books I have a burning desire to read on a monthly basis are the main Bat books, and GL. I collect these two and have long runs going back to the 60's.

This is exactly what I do with Marvel. I collect Spiderman, and the FF, so I pickup the main Spider books plus Ultimate Spidey, and Waids FF monthly, and get everything else in trades. This allows me to buy some of Marvels lesser known titles that aren't getting trade support like Spidergirl, Black Panther, and Captain Marvel. I wasn't picking up those books before the current Marvel trade policy came into effect, and if it wasn't for the fact that I know that they will keep putting out trades for Daredevil, Hulk, and Alias, I still wouldn't be reading them. I would be missing out on some great stories and Marvel would be missing out on my money.

posted February 05, 2003 09:44 AM               

OK, from the top:

We have no plans to increase the pricing for the Archives. Our minimum number of pages for a $49.95 archive is 208 and the maximum seems to 256. The 160-page, $39.95 CHALLENGERS experiment will be interesting to see but should not be seen as a harbinger of dramatic changes.

I'd have to go through the books to figure out when the ads were dropped, sorry.

The AQUAMAN book is still out there and too new for us to get a read on sales. Initial orders were okay but now we need to see re-order sales velocity before we commit to a second volume.

Sure, there's a chance GRIP or either VERTIGO POP mini is collected, just nothing approved as of now.

EMPEROR JOKER was an interesting storyline but not well-received enough, it seems to collect.

Gothcityfan, with four Superman titles a month plus crossover issues to Supergirl, Superboy, etc. it's virtually impossible to collect all the issues in sequence. First of all, sales demand isn't there. Second of all, not every story works as well as hoped and isn't worthy of collection. When we inaugurated the numerical Superman collections, we wanted to put our best material out there to show casual readers a reinvigorated Man of Steel. That forces us to be selective. We think vol 4 (CRITICAL CONDITION) and vol. 5 (PRES. LEX) merit that.

As for how these threads are selected, we work with the editorial teams to make sure we're all comfortable with the approach. PRES. LEX, for example, had bits and pieces spread for months and we picked up 2-pages here, 4-page there in order to weave together a good story. One of my biggest choices involved pages that actually set up OWAW but chose to keep them since they were important to one of the complete stories.

For the Batman volumes, we do the same thing and of course not everyone will be happy. Heck, I was a little miffed to assemble FUGITIVE 1-2 and suddenly discover the story was over and Sasha was still in jail. Then I read DETECTIVE 773-775, and saw more with David Cain in BATMAN so I approached Matt Idelson and we realized we needed one more collection to close out the story. Look for a third and final volume in September.

As seen in previous pages, not every issue of FLASH or GL has been collected and people castigate us for that as well.

Someone assumed I meant the "breather" stories between major Bat-arcs were not good enough to collect. I did not say that. What is said was they were tougher to collect. Why? As I have repeatedly stated here, the bookstore buyers (representing a growing percentage of our business) prefer story arcs. So one-offs here and there or mini-arcs get tougher to collect. Impossible? No. Just tougher.

Yes, there will be second volumes for both FABLES and Y this year.

Why not WARLORD? We cannot possibly keep everything in print, Mike, so when sales petered out, we let the book go out of print. Should we do something new with the character, we'll try again.

WHO'S WHO has some gorgeous art and snappy writing, but so much of it is currently out of date it would only serve to confuse some people. Me, I'm hoping for something brand new A-Z. And yeah, I had something to do with it--I was hired in Jan. 1984 to work on it and CRISIS, and a career blossomed.

I'll look into the DARK GENESIS question but my guess is that the rest of ST got the advisory and since they were designed to look alike, this was to avoid confusion.

Whew.

posted February 05, 2003 09:54 AM               

------------------
Rock a little,

posted February 05, 2003 11:34 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Bob Greenberger:

EMPEROR JOKER was an interesting storyline but not well-received enough, it seems to collect.

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That's too bad.

quote:

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Originally posted by Bob Greenberger:

For the Batman volumes, we do the same thing and of course not everyone will be happy. Heck, I was a little miffed to assemble FUGITIVE 1-2 and suddenly discover the story was over and Sasha was still in jail. Then I read DETECTIVE 773-775, and saw more with David Cain in BATMAN so I approached Matt Idelson and we realized we needed one more collection to close out the story. Look for a third and final volume in September.

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posted February 05, 2003 11:34 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Bob Greenberger:
For the Batman volumes, we do the same thing and of course not everyone will be happy. Heck, I was a little miffed to assemble FUGITIVE 1-2 and suddenly discover the story was over and Sasha was still in jail. Then I read DETECTIVE 773-775, and saw more with David Cain in BATMAN so I approached Matt Idelson and we realized we needed one more collection to close out the story. Look for a third and final volume in September.

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I don't suppose it would be too late to sneak BATMAN # 604 in there, would it? Although I think it quite relevant to Batman's overall character development in FUGITIVE--it spells out the key lesson about the identity he denied himself in Vol. 2--it is a stand-alone story and might be able to fit somewhere after its original placement.

quote:

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Originally posted by Bob Greenberger:
Someone assumed I meant the "breather" stories between major Bat-arcs were not good enough to collect. I did not say that. What is said was they were tougher to collect. Why? As I have repeatedly stated here, the bookstore buyers (representing a growing percentage of our business) prefer story arcs. So one-offs here and there or mini-arcs get tougher to collect. Impossible? No. Just tougher.

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I understand where you're coming from. I hope the Bat-office can move past the incessant crossovers for the most part to allow for more fully fleshed-out storylines within each individual title. And, thanks to Loeb/Lee, they appear to be doing that for the time being. As of right now, Ed Brubaker is in the middle of his inaugural six-issue storyline in 'TEC, which, as I noted elsewhere, would likely make for an convenient collection. (All in due time, though, I imagine.)

quote:

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Originally posted by Bob Greenberger:
WHO'S WHO has some gorgeous art and snappy writing, but so much of it is currently out of date it would only serve to confuse some people. Me, I'm hoping for something brand new A-Z.

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