Comic Books Or Tpbs?

[Hans]

For some books, specifically bimonthlies or ones that have a very erratic shipping schedule, I'll sometimes wait to get the full story in issue form before reading. More often than not, though, I break down and read them as I buy them anyway.

 

[Aristotle]

I'm a comic book man. I believe that what makes the medium unique and better at doing what it does than other mediums is its short, serialized format. You want a 120-page book? Read a novel, it'll be better. The visual/literary combination format works best in short bursts, even if those short bursts are tied together. The biggest charm of the medium is its format.

I'm not opposed to graphic novels, but there's a glut of them on the market. And for budgetary concerns, I'm not opposed to TPBs either, but I don't like the way a comic can fail because people only buy the TPBs (Jonah Hex is permanently on the borderline of being cancelled because of this.) I think the better solution is to take advantage of the fact that, as Chuck Dixon pointed out recently, comic books are cheaper to produce than they ever have been. I know this isn't a popular position, but let's go back to the old cheaper paper and cheaper printing, jack the prices back down, and make comics for everybody again. Maybe TPBs could be for the higher-quality paper and printing or something.

 

[Hellstormer]

Well I'm always bummed when I series I got, gets put into trade a week later for 3/4 the price.

 

[Metallx]

I buy them as they come out. Who has that kind of patience to wait? The only problem with this is the ones with complex storylines, at times it is hard to remember, what had happened before.

 

[Ziggyman]

TPB's are pretty awesome...

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I'm a comic book man. I believe that what makes the medium unique and better at doing what it does than other mediums is its short, serialized format. You want a 120-page book? Read a novel, it'll be better. The visual/literary combination format works best in short bursts, even if those short bursts are tied together. The biggest charm of the medium is its format.

I'm not opposed to graphic novels, but there's a glut of them on the market. And for budgetary concerns, I'm not opposed to TPBs either, but I don't like the way a comic can fail because people only buy the TPBs (Jonah Hex is permanently on the borderline of being cancelled because of this.) I think the better solution is to take advantage of the fact that, as Chuck Dixon pointed out recently, comic books are cheaper to produce than they ever have been. I know this isn't a popular position, but let's go back to the old cheaper paper and cheaper printing, jack the prices back down, and make comics for everybody again. Maybe TPBs could be for the higher-quality paper and printing or something.

I don't have any numbers to show or anything, but I remember reading someone in the industry saying that printing is so cheap at this point that even switching back to the lower-quality paper wouldn't produce much of a price drop. I think most of the price probably comes from paying the talent, but that's just speculation on my part.

 

[RogueDK]

Lately, for me, TPBs are the way to go; I seem to keep track of those better than trying to keep up with a monthly.

Cuts down on the waiting as well. Just read on through with a trade.

 

[Comics N' Toons]

WHAT IN YOUR OPINION IS A LARGE COLLECTION OF TPB's?

25-50?
50-75?
75-100?
100+ ???????????????