posted March 22, 2003 06:58 PM               

First, they quickly repackage their series as TPBs, each collecting about six issues of a title. Obviously they don't publish more than two TPBs per year but the titles do come out promptly.

Second, they republish the TPBs in a smaller, "travel-sized" format, about 6' by 9' inches ("squint-sized") selling for about $7 (I can't remember if the price point is $6.95 or $7.95).

Third, they have two monthly anthology titles, Edge and Forge, that recently switched formats from TPB-size to the traveler editions. These titles contain between them individual episodes of most, if not all, of the regular series being published by CrossGen.

Wouldn't it be nice if DC re-issued some of its trades in this travel-sized format? They could market them to supermarkets and convenience stores as well as to bookstores. I think they would compare favorably to the "digest"-sized comics published by Archie, for example. And a $7 price would make them a bargain for parents buying comics for their kids and they would be financially appealing to wholesalers and retailers, too.

DC could also replicate the approach of Edge and Forge. They could publish titles that included episodes of their most popular series, or those series that have some thematic link. (A compendium of JLA/JSA/Teen Titans/JLAdventures, for example, in a title called, say, "All-Star Comics.") There are enough Superman and Batman titles being published monthly that a monthly compendium of either/both Superman and Batman would also work.