posted January 15, 2003 08:03 PM            

Of course, DC Superstars was actually the title of a DC series in the seventies, which collected reprints or new material of different heroes. And for a while in the seventies there was a distinctive DC bullet which proclaimed DC * THE LINE OF * SUPERSTARS. I remember the original masthead for the Amazing World of DC Comics, which featured the heads of many DC Superstars--including: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel, Tarzan, Green Lantern, Flash, The Shadow, and Swamp Thing.

In the seventies, DC published Rima, the Bible, Justice Inc. There were plans to publish stories of Camelot (illustrated by Nestor Redondo, and Sherlock Holmes--but these never saw publication life.

posted January 16, 2003 07:30 AM               

"As for the "kitsch" collections, our decades books for Superman and Batman did only okay business. If our top guns can only do okay, odds are against lesser lights crammed into books from performing well."

posted January 16, 2003 04:43 PM               

Getting the Warlord material ready for a collection wouldn't be as expensive as getting Golden Age material ready, but it would still probably be cost prohibitive based on the expected sales. People on these boards constantly ask for stuff which couldn't sell enough to warrant an archive to be released in trade paperback form. That makes no sense to me, because I doubt the lower price would attract enough additional buyers to make up for the much-lower profit margins on cheaper tpbs. If DC doesn't think 3,000 people would buy a Warlord Archive, why would they think 8-10,000 would buy a Warlord tpb? Or a Karate Kid one? Or a 70s Shazam one?

posted January 16, 2003 06:36 PM            

On the demand side:
1. A lot of people complain about the high cost of Archives.
2. A lot of people ask for collections of material that I would consider modern.
3. I think that there is a good chance that these people are the same people. Younger people (students) tend to have less money and a higher interest in modern material.

If I'm right, then there is a large group of people who are looking for cheap, modern material.

On the supply side:
1. DC might have to pay for material that it doesn't have in its library. Since DC will be making a profit, a collector who owns Action 37, for example, may not be willing to loan it to DC without some compensation. Golden Age, and possibly some early Silver Age material might not be in their library and will be expensive. Modern material will be in their library and wouldn't be expensive anyway.

2. Reprinting from comics is more difficult and thus more expensive than reprinting from proofs (I'm not sure if this is the correct term). DC is much more likely to be using the proofs (or whatever it is called) than the comics when they are reprinting modern material.

3. Older art is more likely to need expensive restoration.

posted January 16, 2003 06:40 PM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by vze2:
1. A lot of people complain about the high cost of Archives.

---

Comic fans complain about any tpb that's priced higher than $14.99.

posted January 16, 2003 06:40 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by James Friel:
Hmmmmm.
I wonder if the use of the past tense in his answer indicates that we won't be seeing any volume 2s?

---

I hadn't thought of that.

I always thought that these collections were being used to avoid the problem of jumping ahead in the Archives. I've viewed the Green Arrow collection in the same way.

posted January 16, 2003 11:13 PM            

Oh yes, but there's the archive possibility held out as a faint hope. I could do without this faint hope clause.

Other than possibly JLofA and Legion and some Kirby stuff, I'm not going to be paying money for archives of seventies material I already own. If the stuff were packaged in cheap enough softcovers then I'd spring for them, but I'm suitably discouraged that that's ever going to happen.

And I believe I'm representative of most consumers who would be targetted by such seventies archives. Thus any archives would be targetted at people who won't buy them. So there's no point in doing an archive.

There's no point in doing an archive. There's no point in doing a trade. So this material will just exist out of sight for most readers. With any trades or archives there's the side benefit that newer readers might get these--maybe not enough to generate profit alone, but at least they can ride on our coattails and learn about comics that existed before they were born.

So time will pass and more comics creators will die off; their original art will either be destroyed or end up in the vaults of moneyed collectors. And then maybe DC will decide to finally reprint this material in some high-priced package--priced very high because by then the cost of restoring the art will prohibit any lesser format.

posted January 27, 2003 12:15 AM            

When you look at how Marvel packages their seventies material in TPBs they have a way of making the contemporary reader feel that Yes this is something I need to have.

Now the reproduction in the Marvel books is awful I confess, but there's still this buzz about their TPB line.

When DC packages a seventies TPB they make the work seem irrelevalent--Look at this dusty material from a bygone era that has no connection to our present universe, won't you please buy it at an inflated price and laugh at it with us, and by the way we're not even going to bother with giving these books a good cover so just watch them curl up on your shelves.

Packaged in the right way with a connection to an ongoing project at DC (Warlord with a painted cover by Grell attached to a new Warlord graphic novel by Grell; Kamandi with unpublished pencil pages by Kirby and a painted cover by Steve Rude attached to a Kamandi series from Wildstorm written by Kurt Busiek and illustrated by Rude; Secret Society of Super-Villains with a painted cover by Tony Harris attached to events in Power Company, etc.), the DC Superstars line could sell off the shelves.

posted January 27, 2003 02:40 AM               

Warlord, or some other DC title might surprise you.

I think the Black Canary archive was a success because it was something unique, not just another Superman and Batman collection. I myself was interested in reading some of the stories, and couldn't wait for the Ant-Man Essential.

Also, Swamp Thing has been reprinted endlessly, as has Green Lantern/Green Arrow.

posted January 27, 2003 04:20 PM            

And as I've posted before we need a Calculator slim tradepaperback--collecting the Detective stories about the Calculator, by Bob Rozakis, including art by Grell, Rogers, and Austin (the first pairing of Rogers and Austin on Batman).

Putting these collections under an indentifiable imprint (such as "DC Superstars") would lend credibility to future projects, ie. the consumer who bought a DC Superstars presents Warlord or Green Arrow would be more likely to take the chance on a DC Superstars presents "The Calculator Plot."

posted January 27, 2003 08:00 PM               

I beleive I suggested a similar thought on a Kamandi thread awhile ago. Jazzy current covers and editorial - content combining the best reprints with some new material. Something for the nostalgia crowd and the current reader.

I'm going to say something that some will dispute - but hear me out. I'm not talking about the people here on these messages boards but about the general public.

DC is not as "hip" as Marvel because it rarely promotes is secondary characters, and most people are tired of Superman/Batman/Wonder Woman.

posted February 06, 2003 04:10 PM            

Superman & Batman - maybe a World's Finest Super-Sons story from the 70s

Wildcat, Sandman or any Golden Age short stories

DC Presents stories from the 80s

Creeper, Hawk & Dove, Jonny Double from the 60s

Jim Aparo Aquaman stories from Adventure in the 70s

Shazam/Fawcett stories from the 50s

Quality stories from the 40s
out of continuity stories like 70s Huntress

Slam Bradley, Dr. 13, Phantom Stranger shorts

posted February 28, 2003 12:44 PM            

...often, it was said there were stories that just "went to long" to be included...

...well, couldn't a few of them be put in ONE volume and collected?

And, this would be a way to do it!

(I'm also disappointed that we saw no more Green Arrow stuff during Kevin Smith's tenure. Why NOT???)

posted February 28, 2003 01:12 PM            

...what a wonderful way to follow the evolution of comic ideas over time...

For Example:

Superman/Flash races
From Superman 199 and Flash 175 in the 1960s, to World's Finest 198 & 199 in the 1970s, to DC Comics Presents 1 & 2 in the late 1970s...

Batman Rogue's Gallery meetings
Batman 291-294, 400

Green Arrow
Blue Ribbon Digest 23 (Green Arrow from the 1950s to the 1980s...)

Starmen of the Ages
First Issue Special 12, the Adventure Comics in the 470s and Starman 26 & 27 (Will Payton & David Knight vs. the Mist)

Or even jump on "trends"

Green Arrow & "family"
Green Arrow 94-101 (Hal Jordan, Arsenal, Connor all appear, as well as guesting Superman, and then Black Canary holds a memorial with his surviving JLA friends...THIS would have made THE perfect thing to release between GA 15 and 16, transitioning from Kevin to Brad...)

Birds of Prey
(Okay, we got another volume, but MORE should have been out WHILE the show was on...at LEAST a third volume)

Justice League and friends
Maybe Justice League of America 42 (for Metamorpho), Justice League of America 110 (for John Stewart), DC Comics Presents (in the 60s, with Superman and Demon), B&B Batman with Dr. Fate...maybe even Super-Team Family 3 (With Flash, Grodd and the Hawks) so fans of the Justice League cartoon would see these folks in action...