Comments on: Rainy Tuesday LinkBlogging: Out of Print Books, Digital DRM, Webcomics.com, and Good Advice

By: The Comics Code Is Dead: A History and Recent News » Comics Worth Reading

The Comics Code Is Dead: A History and Recent News » Comics Worth Reading — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 12:55:31 +0000

[...] books that don’t sell well.” He also speculates that more DC trade paperbacks may be going out of print. [...]

By: Bob Harras Named DC Comics Editor-in-Chief, Latest in Major Company Changes: A Summation » Comics Worth Reading

Tue, 28 Sep 2010 21:19:32 +0000

[...] costs low” is the primary motivation. Plus, some fans complain about key titles being out of print. Still, again, what I want is obviously not what the company wants, and what I see as a detriment [...]

By: Wacky World LinkBlogging: Using Comics to Quit, More on DC OGNs, Two Fun Bad Reviews » Comics Worth Reading

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 00:01:19 +0000

[...] will be widely available? It’s not like a comic that might sell out in a week. If DC is treating it as one (the way Marvel infamously handles its books, similar to periodicals), then that’s another [...]

By: Johanna

Johanna — Wed, 12 May 2010 17:54:08 +0000

Collected — do you have a real name? — I like the idea of One True Continuity Library, but as soon as something like that happened, someone would change it so they could plug the next big event as “Everything You Know Has Changed!” And there are so many reasons to collect a story beyond story — like work from a particular artist.

I also dream of the entire collection available digitally. I was a big customer of the CD-Rom collections for that reason.

Brian, well, that explains that then. I suspect your experience was widely shared — and thanks for confirming it.

By: Brian Hibbs

Brian Hibbs — Wed, 12 May 2010 17:32:48 +0000

It is weird, I wouldn’t really call ANY of those OOP books as “key” — and, looking at my sales history, they all sold really badly (in fact, I had to cull most of them when we went 366 days without a sale on them)

-B

By: collectededitions

collectededitions — Wed, 12 May 2010 16:08:13 +0000

One of my hopes for the DC Comics Classics Library collections and these one dollar “Graphic Novels You Should Read” issues has been that DC would begin to build a dedicated back catalog — that is, these are the collections you should read to understand the DC Universe, and once you read them, you’re all set. Of course, neither DC nor Marvel’s universes are that cohesive; and the DC Library books like Superman: Kryptonite Nevermore and Batman: The Annuals are more curiosity pieces than a “library” per se.

I agree wholeheartedly that in the “collect everything” era, back catalogs can quickly become unwieldy; maybe what we need to see from publishers is more recognition that “this is important, this is not” and then have those books perennially in print. Of course, saying “yes Superman: Secret Origin, no Superman: Birthright” risks effectively killing Birthright sales; better to be vague on the subject and let the market make the decision.

The answer in considering this does seem to be digital collections. Despite my personal tastes, it’s impractical to think that every DC or Marvel collection is worth the company’s money to remain in print; but digitizing their collections requires just a front-end investment (not insubstantial, I recognize) and can then be available in perpetuity. I’m surprised to see DC dragging its feet on a digital solution — favoring single issues over collections I understand, but not this. I’d like to think DC’s being vague because they have something in the works, but there’s unfortunately no scuttlebutt to support that.

Thanks for the link over, Johanna; glad you enjoyed the post.

By: Jacel

Jacel — Wed, 12 May 2010 14:27:21 +0000

Charging for owning digital comics in different formats (not even different resolution quality) is like having to buy a new printed issues when you wanted to switch between storing them in short boxes or long boxes.

By: Maddy

Maddy — Wed, 12 May 2010 05:53:16 +0000

Man, I would kill for an omnibus version of No Man’s Land. Or a digital download of the whole damn thing, because as it stands, the trade paperbacks do leave out sections of that storyline.

It’s such a great series, I really wish it was given more recognition.

By: Suzene

Suzene — Tue, 11 May 2010 23:04:22 +0000

And yet DC also has no plans to make their back-catalog available for digital purchase. With all the hand-wringing that goes on about digital comics taking away from the brick and mortar stores, the fact that digital distribution has the potential to keep one’s older stories eternally in-print does tend to get drowned out. Marvel’s digital subscription service is clunky as hell, but at least it’s a baby-step in the right direction so far as that kind of long-term planning goes.

By: Caroline

Caroline — Tue, 11 May 2010 21:04:10 +0000

My favorite DC rant is Question-related. During the ’52′ crossover, when the Vic Sage Question showed up as Renee’s mentor, people ALL OVER THE PLACE were asking, ‘What is with this guy?’ Try to guess whether the classic — I mean freaking classic — Denny O’Neil ‘Question’ series was in print at that point. I mean, I don’t know everything that goes into putting out a trade, and I don’t know how much far in advance DC decided on using that storyline, but 52 took a year to come out. You’d think they could have got started on the TPB collection before it ended. I’m actually pretty sure the 52 TPB’s were out before the Question reprints started.