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gmp Member |
posted February 17, 2003 11:24 PM
 
To gothcity fan, To say I'm impressed would be an extreme understatement. Thanks for all the hard work, and I'm certain it's going to be used and appreciated on a regular basis. Glenn IP: Logged |
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gothcityfan Member |
posted February 18, 2003 01:41 AM
JANUARY 21-24 --1/21 (Tues)- potential for adam hughes ww cover collection, superman/batman 80 page fascimiles, supergirl in action giant reprints, fascimiles and “lost” annuals in general, blackhawk giant reprint, likelihood of future millenium editions, aztek tpbs, wildstorm/abc/thundercats tpbs, additional Waid/Johns flash tpbs, 70-80s reprints bob would like to see (including phantom stranger, spectre, rima, jsa, suicide squad, ‘mazing man, amethyst), “lost” siegel superman story (mentioned in wizard as greatest story never published, an early superman issue where lois learns the id, etc), determining GA ww vs SA ww (in case SA ww archives ever considered), western reprints, yj reprints, archive page counts, simon/kirby non- marvel work, reviving greatest stories ever told series? Boy, you take a long weekend and see what happens? OK, from the top, somewhere back on page 24... An Adam Hughes WW cover collection sounds need but as you know, we rarely do artist-centric books so this one is doubtful for now. Will we do more Superman and Batman 80-Page facsimiles? Maybe. Our goal was never to put them all back into print. Similarly, we talked about the Supergirl in Action giants but they were kinda close to what might go into an Archives Vol. 2 so we stayed away to keep our options open. When planning the facsimiles and "lost annuals" we look at the overall publishing line. I suggested the SUPERBOY #147 facsimile since it tied in with the release of the next wave of Legion action figures. For the "lost" chocies, we think back to the 1960s and wonder what else could have been featured? This one is usually gut-level thinking that occurs at the planning meeting. Blackhawk Giant? Good idea. Steven Utley keeps asking for a Quality Giant so this fits the bill, to a degree. Given the disappointing Millennium Edition sales, we are not planning a regular reprint series. And we really did let the fan voting pick the winners. It was exciting each month to see what would happen. Aztek comes up in conversation from time to time. It was an underrated, and under-sampled series, if you ask me. Yes, WildStorm handles their trades and the ABC books. Given the popularity, it's likely we'll see THUNDERCATS collections. Given the discussion around here, I need to take a second look at the Waid and early Johns Flash stuff. Should something change, you guys will be the first to know. What would I like to see from the 1970s-80s? Wein/Aparo Phantom Stranger, Fleisher/Aparo Spectre, Redondo's Rima, the JSA stuff as discussed elsewhere, the Suicide Squad (personal preference, natch), 'Mazing Man, Amethyst and I'm sure there's more. The Siegel Superman story is not something I can discuss so let's drop this. I find it hard to find a useful demarcation point between the GA WW and the SA WW. One could argue that when Wonder Girl and Wonder Tot start appearing alongside the Princess we have jumped eras. But that's a tough one. Right now we're not even discussing the option. We'd love to do more westerns and we just might. Well, had YJ stayed around, we might have looked to collect the recent story that ended with #51 or so, leapfrogging from the beginning. It's great stuff and will be fondly remembered. The page counts are usually dictated by the content material For example, do we fill an Archive to logical break point in a continued story, if possible? Yes. Do we have to worry about material availability? Yes. No steadfast rule one way or the other so Dale approaches these one book at a time. Simon & Kirby's non-Marvel titles? Classic stuff, some of which has still not been collected such as Bullseye. I think it's a great idea. Time will tell. As for bringing back the Greatest Stories Ever Told, well, we're approaching those eras differently these days. The main reason is that the bookstore buyers say the majority of their customers prefer getting a big story, not an anthology. And the Batman Vol. 2 was tailored to Batman Returns being in release. There's little likelihood of it coming back to press. ------------------ ------------Bob Greenberger------------
DYNMAIC DUO, where we already had film but needed to recolor it, required work to behgin June 12 for being in store February 5. So, before we begin work, we need to plan and discuss. In the case of LEGION, where there was a serious editorial issue, we need to have that conversation at least a month prior to work beginning. With that in mind, we already need to start planning the first quarter of 2004's Archives. Fortunately, a recent survey and its results should help.... The HUSH hardcover is based on the demand for the individual comics. The first five issues make up a fine arc and stands pretty well on its own. So yes, there is a plan for a second collection with the remaining issues. Jim Lee has designed both covers and is working on the first one now. He did an amazing job on BATMAN HUSH DOUBLE FEATURE's new cover, as you will see on February 26. Supergirl's sales have certainly been fine of late, but too little too late and the book really is done. Have you re-read the JOKER series from the 1970s? It's not high on my list of stuff to put back into print. Sure, collecting all of the Dini/Ross tabloids has come up. Nothing official as of now. RIMA is likely in the public domain and if we were serious about collecting it, we could do a quick search and know for certain. GOLDEN AGE FLASH ARCHIVES is not a dead series, certainl moribund due to slow sales and demand for other GA collections. Adam Strange is a frequent topic for Archiving so cross your fingers. ------------------
CRISIS ON MULTIPLE EARTHS did better than expected so a second volume seems logical, no? As for how we pick our books, it's covered, oh, about 20 pages back. Why ADAM STRANGE? Lots of reasons including the current hot popularity of the brothers Kubert. Expanding on that, we had a mid-course correction meeting yesterday, moving books around the schedule, adding stuff based on sales and demand. It's one reason why I don't reveal month by month plans ahead of solicitation since this happens a lot. I'm personally excited about some of the additions and look forward to jumping on them. WHY I HATE SATURN being taken out of print means there is not enough interest in keeping it in print. No discussions over any ANIMAL MAN collections post-Morrison. We've maintained our Archive look since the line was introduced over a decade ago. With nearly 100 volumes in print, we'd be awfully foolish to change the trade dress. Marvel, when they brought the line back in the late 1990s, found the gold frame too expensive to their way of thinking os had Comicraft do a resdesign. When I got hold of the line, I insisted on a new trade dress befitting a $50 volume. Bill Jemas got intimately involved in the final look and that seems to be sticking. And no, I will not use this forum to get into a trade collection debate between Bill's public statements and my own experiences, beliefs. I....Vampire? Batman: Haunted Gotham? Never say never, but not likely. As stated elsewhere, Ditko's Charlton work keeps coming up in discussion--ideas have been floated. So...we'll see. HUSH is two acts, issues #608-612 and issues #613-619. They work well separately and together and the reasons espoused by others here cover the same thinking we employed. Will there be a combo volume? Mabe, but we'll see how everything sells. (gothcity note: the reasons stated earlier by other posters noted the collection is for people who prefer collections, that wasn’t really the issue, but I digress) DC press conferece? Me? I haven't formally spoken to the press except once since I got back here in May. Where was this? Christmas, Halloween, Valentine's Day...these all sound like good ideas. Let me think on this. Supergirl's story is certainly worthy of collection. We'll see. No doubt, the artist forgot the tiara, the editor missed it and we deemed it not worth the cost of making new film when we did the SINS OF YOUTH collection. ------------------
Replacement jackets is something entirely new to me. We don't print extras so this is a topic to inquire about. Sure, I'd love to see a Wein/Aparo Phantom Stranger collection, but only time will tell. Welcome aboard, monkey. I edit about half the DCU collections, Anton Kawasaki edits the other half, Scott Nybakken handles Vertigo, Dale Crain handles archival stuff and WildStorm does their own work. Logic would dictate collections of Kevin Smith's final GA arc and Brad's "Archer's Quest". Just no annoncements as yet. TPB timing has been discussed throughout these hundreds of questions. In short, retailer feedback indicates a desire for the gap between monthly story ending and collection of said story being released. We're working on it. Softcovers tend to be released after hardcovers are no longer available for sale. A year is a good rule of thumb but not something concrete for every hardcover. Battlechasers moved from Homage to Image so we have no control over collections. Yes, there will be more HELLBLAZER collections with Ennis, Ellis, Azzarello in the mix. TITANS: GAMES was intended as a 96+ page graphic novel that George never finished. He partly never finished it because the story was never to everyone's satisfaction, if I recall. Once the project was shelved, many of the story elements were taken from the GN and used in the monthly. So, when the issue of finishing the book came up at some point, we realized how poorly it would compare with the stories done to date and it was decided by TPTB to keep it shelved. Yeah, we've also thought about collecting The Search for Zatara. Heck, I figure dout the line-up and page count years ago. Since we've never considered any of the Fourth World material for Archives, we've never given the editorial approach any consideration. Should there be a Supergirl collection, it's likely to be the final storyline since it's the only one with some sales heat, some buzz and some serious impact. Superman's Silver Age starts with Action #241. Between Marvel and DC, I was hired to come in and figure out all the volumes required to complete all the GA Batman and Superman titles. Of course, that meant finally figuring out the dividing line between Superman's GA and SA. I did the research, had my own thoughts, got opinions fro Bob Rozakis and Mark Waid and then settled with Paul Levitz. So there. Have a good weekend. ------------------ IP: Logged |
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gothcityfan Member |
posted February 18, 2003 01:52 AM
JANUARY 27-31 ---1/27 (Mon)- Dave Gibbons gl, supergirl tpb’s, jl adventures, reason for inclusion of flash #104 (last GA flash) in the SA volume one flash archives, greatest 1960s stories ever told two volume tpb, alan moore omnibus (tpb of various less famous works), watchmen hc, batman: Hush collections
Well, Super Bowls go, this one wasn't bad. Ads weren't as cool as prevous years and the Hulk's CGI looked unfinished. Now we can get on with anticipation for spring training to begin. You guys know this board stuff far better than me so whenever you think we've grown unwieldly, tell me we're shutting it down and we'll start up another 1000 post thread. The Gibbons GL collection is intriguing but unfortunately, in re-reading the stuff you will see such unfulfilled potential since many fo the threads, like the Predator, were never resolved by Len Wein and Dave Gibbons. Just about all those threads fell to subsequent writers and artists to conclude. As a result, it'd be a pretty collection to look at and a dissatisfying one to read. Supergirl had issues #1-9 collected along with the SHOWCASE intro. And a poster gave you the exact answer: lack of demand. (gothfan note: bob’s referring to why there were no subsequent collections) Editor Stephen Wacker made the recommendations for the JL ADVENTURES collection. Since they were all one-off stories, he picked th eones he thought held up best. Remember, our collections do not usually promise to be all inclusive. We do, though, try and come up with stories we think the fan and the casual reader will enjoy. FLASH #104 was an editorial decision based on showing readers the transition from the Golden Age to the Silver Age. With Barry Allen saying he was inspired by the Flash comics of his youth, it figured showing the readers one would be useful. The Greatest 1960s Stories Ever Told, a two-volume extravaganza that Paul Kupperberg and I had a hand in, was ultimately canceled because at the time the sales on the previous volumes were deemed disappointing. Were we to try the GREATEST line again, who knows how they'd sell. Yeah, the Alan Moore Omnibus thread goes back well into December. It's something we're hoping to produce. There was a WATCHMEN hardcover, even a Graphitti Designs edition if I recall. They sold out and the trade is a perennial best seller. Oh, and to the HUSH debaters: if Jim Lee says there's going to be a 12-issue HUSH collection, who am I to argue? Price will certainly play a large factor in how the bookstore readers react to the two smaller volumes or a large single volume. Contents will also play a role. People who read the first HC might dislike the story and stay away. Others might love it and wait for the combo volume or buy the two smaller HCs to keep their bookshelves consistent. It's very much like Mark Alessi's argument over his formats: some people like 6 oz. sodas or the 2-liter bottle. Something for everyone--no one insists you buy it all. Well, Bob Wayne maybe, but you get the point. ------------------
All Star Archives is committed to running through the GA run of the title. So, we have 19 stories and three volumes as our map-makers have pointed out. Sure, it'd be cool to run something on the unpublished story. Will it be redrawn and finished? I doubt it. Will we run every existing piece of art? Check back in two-three years. As for the timing of the volumes, right now they show up annually but I'm not swearing it will remain so. A Robin Archives has come up but no, it's not a priority in my mind. George Perez is under contract to CrossGen and every page he does for DC beyond that contract really should be for JLA/Avengers so it finally sees print in 2004 or so. Right now we do not have a title for the first volume of his WW collection. (goth note: the page issue was referring to whether george could do a new cover for any tpb of his work) Day of Judgment has been considered for collection but other stuff keeps getting picked ahead of it. Batgirl is a cool character, one of my personal faves, but her first volume of stories would repeat Dynamic Duo Archives so it's not likely to happen. Mabe a few years down the road we can revisit the notion with her back-up stories from 'TEC. ------------------
Give or take a volume, I had Superman in Action pegged at 14, Superman at 21, Dark Knight at 21 and Batman at 17, but economics will ultimately affect page counts as the years roll on. Before we even think of collecting the search for Sindella, I vote for collecting the search for Zatara, a much cooler event. Look, this isn't necessarily the place for this debate but George isn't done with JLA/A. And he's back on his CrossGen monthly assignment. He's just got nights and weekends to work on JLA/A and with what he has left, my gut says it'll be 2004. Miracles do happen, but trust me, it'll be worth waiting for. I have long since passed on my notes for Greatest 1960s Stories Ever Told to successors and they seem to have vanished in the ether. My favorite color is some shade of green. We're not planning a softcover for Greatest Golden Age Stories Ever Told. Sorry. OK, OK, so much for teasing you guys. Yes, Jimmy Olsen will be in color. Right now we have no crossovers scheduled for collection so fans of Millennium, Invason!, Bloodlines, Armageddon 2001, Day of Judgment, et. al. will just have to be patient. Dynamic Duo is on schedule for 2/12. I misspoke a few pages back. ------------------
Should AOLTW sell Warner Books, I doubt it will immediately affect the way we do our bookstore distribution. Of course, I'm not in corporate and have no real way of knowing. Tor 3 is currently pencilled in for the fall. Enemy Ace was a decision reached while I was away and am not sure what led to it. Cool book, though. Sorry, but since we do not have access to all the original Kirby faces, we're going with the printed version. At no time did I talk with the Dude about reinking faces. It's also not cost effective for the company to hire Mike to reink the material. It'll look snazzy with fresh color. And the cover...oooh. (goth note: jack kirby’s original faces for his Jimmy Olsen work was altered, and it was asked whether the reprints could go back to the originals) Speaking of covers, I have to tell you how thrilled I am at all the new covers I've managed to snag. No one here's talked about it but the Alan Davis GL: Emerald Dawn stuff is great. I have a bunch more that I'm very proud of. Right now, the Perez volumes are moving slowly through the system. Until we need the covers, we're not sure which way we're going. Neither JLA or WW are currently on the schedule so we have time to make this work out. Yes, the plot to #4 is approved but there's no way George can do all that's left and still have all 4 come out this year. Neither DC nor Marvel, I suspect, want to wait on a bi-monthly schedule so we need for George to be well into #4 before scheduling the monthly event. Rip Hunter probably is around Sea Devils on the list of SA material to be collected--meaning, it's not high on the list so don't save your pennies quite yet. ------------------
Neal has tweaked some art and recolored five of the eight stories in volume one. The tweaks usually reposition balloons that were improperly placed to begin with. Some faces or musculature has also been adjusted. Neal sees this as a chance to correct mistakes from his youth and since we're showcasing his work, it's appropriate for him to be happy with the results. No decision as yet on the Volume Ones and lower pricing. As for gang printing back to press Archives and bringing the price down, that's not quite possible. The Archives sell at different rates andgo back to press throughout the year to remain available as backlist items. No plans for Eisner/Iger material to be part of the Library. I alreayd suggested to Dale that the JLA Postcards be used a spot art throughout the book, whenever we get to it. (Goth note: this is referring to perez jla postcards of the 80s, and the planned perez jla tpb’s) Superman's modern material? Well, Critical Condition comes out next month (just got my first copy and it looks cool). We'll have President Lex later in the year and eventually catch up to today's stories. Yes, the Flash Vol. 4 is a typo. No such book is approved or scheduled as yet. Animal Man: Deus ex Machina is currently scheduled for the fall. I have no idea about Bill Black's access to the PD Fawcett material and how that impacts our ability to produce the other heroes. Booster Gold and Black Lightning? Well, if your local shops do not stock back issues, try one of the on-line dealers or go to a comic con. Neither is scheduled for a collection. Have a good weekend, everyone. ------------------ IP: Logged |
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gothcityfan Member |
posted February 18, 2003 01:59 AM
FEBRUARY 3-4 (and that folks, is the END of all of bob's answers from the first thread, yup, only about one page on their own) -----2/3 (Mon)- fascimiles/ “lost” annuals, trigon tpb, Perez collections (titans archive, jla/ww tpbs), bop tpbs, superman/muhammed ali, jla: obsidian age, robin tpb, warlord, batman: lodk tpbs, edited arc reprints (a la bm: nml, sm - The facsimiles sell okay and we are committed to 1-2 per year. We also mix in the "lost annuals" and have 3 of those forthcoming, the first of which will be in June. The TRIGON collection is a trade and the next Perez Titans material you see is will be the second volume of the Archives, probably in 2004. Yes, we'll be recoloring his JLA and Wonder Woman books when we get to them. No, George won't be doing new covers, as mentioned earlier. BOP is now entirely dependent upon sales. Should this book perform well, we'll do a third volume. Buy early, buy often. Cool cover on this one, don't you think? We've looked into Superman/Muhammed Ali a few times and as you might imagine, with real people, things can get complicated. Yeah, JLA: Obsidian Age is next, details to be released at month's end. At the recent meeting we had, it was decided to add a ROBIN collection to the schedule. It will not pick up where the last trade left off but instead be something more contemporary. Anton Kawasaki is figuring out the contents right now. WARLORD is not scheduled to return to print. We've done various story arcs from LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT and might do so again. Any suggestions? NO MAN'S LAND, like FUGITIVE or OUR WORLDS AT WAR, was considered too large and unwieldy to collect in their entriety. As a result, the edited versions were assembled. Five volumes was deemed what the readership would sustain and they have sold very well indeed. METAMORPHO and ADAM STRANGE remain towards the top of the Silver Age candidates but no decisions have been made. We'll probably start roughing out the 2004 schedule in the next month or so. ATOM 2 or HAWKMAN 2? Well, I suppose one of them could be out by year end. heh heh heh Batman Year 3 has never been collected that I recall, nor is it scheduled to be. It's been felt that ROBIN YEAR ONE covers that story in greater depth. BATMAN: 10 NIGHTS OF THE BEAST might be considered for going back to press, but not currently. ------------------
Long ago, DC did enter into a deal with Longmeadow Press, the publishing arm of B. Dalton. They did a collection of Joker stories and a compelte Frank Miller Batman collection. Since then, we've prefered handling such porjects ourselves, not only to retain all the revenue, but to give us totaly control over the content, look and price. Marvel's exclusive deal for the Masterwork reprints with B&N must make sense to them financially, although I'm scratching my head at how they can do a 256 page tpb for $12.95 and make a profit. Wish the web site indicated contents or showed the trade dress, but I think we're all assuming these are the first volumes of the various characters. If B&N is publishing these, it's in their best interest to display these for the casual consumer which can only help Marvel and comics in general. Dale selects the best possible image for the Archives covers and when possible, gets someone like Jerry Ordway to come in and reink it for clarity. If we go with a new image, it's for a specific reason as happened with Supergirl and will happen again with a book coming this summer. Pencils came in last week and wow, the guy can still draw! The DC CHALLENGE never comes up as a serious collection suggestion. Despite it featuring some top creators and favorite characters, it just doesn't make sense. The idea behind the project was sound and fun, but it was a side job to everyone and it languished in Dick Giordano's office. At some point, Dick asked me to help him keep it on track and before I knew it, I was editing. One of the first things I had to do was ask Gil Kane to accept an inker on #4. He was gracious and Klaus Janson did a great job. By then, though, Paul Levitz was getting impatient to see this either published or killed. I was told I needed three scripts in a month or the project was dead. Well, thanks to the interest of the talent, issues #6-8 got done in a month and it was a breathless experience. It could not have been done, I should point out, without the early forms of IM and e-mail. I remember working out drafts of #8 with Gerry Conway on MCI Mail and plotting #7 with Paul Kupperberg and Joe Staton (who was up for anything as long as he didn't have to draw horses). By the time we got to #12, Mark Evanier had to flowchart everything and I recall standing in my kitchen having him explain it all and how it was to be broken down for multiple artists. Breathless and fun, yes. A succees? Less so. Our Batman trades seem to work best with complete stories so the last few years there have been big event storylines and then some breather stories and it's those breather stories that make for a tougher collection. The LOTDK suggestions and the Brubaker one have been duly noted. Thanks to all. (goth note: the suggestions referred to are Brubaker’s Dead Reckoning in Tec #777-782. The lodk suggestions were “going sane” “Terror (#137-141)”, “Blink (#156-158)”, “Heat (#46-49)”, batman/ga teamup (#127-131), robin story in #100, and returns to print of Dark Legends and Collected Legends were also suggested) Yeah, we've only pitched one western archive and it was Jonah Hex. No one seems to ready to touch the 1970s yet so we'll see. Onward to 1000. (goth note: posts) ------------------ IP: Logged |
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Mark Billian New Member |
posted February 18, 2003 12:07 PM
Since Bob never seems to directly quote anyone's posts anyway, maybe we could encourage Bob to post his replies in a separate thread like you've created here. Certainly would make it easier to newbies to get all their questions answered without having to read through 40 pages. What do you all think? IP: Logged |
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Not My Real Name Member |
posted February 26, 2003 10:43 PM
Y'know, gothcityfan, judicious bumping would reduce the need for thread duplication. BUMP! ------------------ IP: Logged |
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LarkinJay New Member |
posted February 27, 2003 09:49 AM
gothcityfan, Now I know what your message meant on the thread I started. In all honesty, I didn't know this existed. I had a ton of time on my hands yesterday and remembered someone saying a BG Answer thread should exist. So I did it. There was no intention to show you up or anything. I guess I need to heed my own message and check the board before duplicating subjects Sorry, dude. IP: Logged |
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dylanfan Member |
posted March 06, 2003 12:57 PM
bump ------------------ IP: Logged |
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Not My Real Name Member |
posted March 19, 2003 07:03 PM
bump ------------------ IP: Logged |
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Not My Real Name Member |
posted April 11, 2003 01:45 PM
Noticed a few questions today that referenced this thread. Bump. ------------------ IP: Logged |
, greatest golden age stories sc, jimmy olsen reprints- color or b&w, crossover tpbs (a la day of judgment, millenium, invasion, more), dynamic duo release date 
waw), metamorpho/adam strange archives, atom/hawkman volume 2 archives, batman: year three, batman: ten nights of the beastThis topic is 2 pages long: 1 2 All times are ET (US) | next newest topic | next oldest topic |
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