posted December 20, 2002 05:15 PM               

1-All-Star from the '70s (including Huntress stories and Power Girl in Showcase) has come up a lot. No decision has been made but the demand has been noted.

2- All Star #1-2 has not been forgotten. There are plans. Same with Big All-American and Comics Cavalcade.

3- Simon & Kirby's library of material is always under discussion. Once we see how well Challengers does, we'll plan the next step.

4- Invasion? Charlton? Funny you should mention them.

Charlton! Woo hoo!!! He said "Funny you should mention Charlton!"

posted December 20, 2002 06:47 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Bob Greenberger:

Charlton? Funny you should mention them.

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That is just plain cruel. Any specifics? I'd love to see archived collections of Ditko's Charlton work.

Thanks, too, for being so good-natured about these questions.

posted December 20, 2002 08:24 PM               

First off I was severly disappointed with the quality of the JLA/JSA trade paperback. Any chance it will ever receive better printing on better paper stock? Alex Ross is good, but I'd have prefered better paper.

Second: I'd like to ask that the paper stock on the Titans/Trigon trade be at least as good as the series. Please at the very least go with baxter on this.

Third: With George Perez in the spot light next year I'd love to see the Perez Justice League stories collected. You could even throw in a reprinting of all the Perez covers and the Perez post cards. Once again on nice paper.

Last: I know the Cancelled Comics Calvacade has been discused, but how about a Captain Comet Archives? It could collect the Secret Society of Super Villians series, it's two Cancelled Comics Calvacade issues, the DC Special issue, the Super Team Family issue, the DC Comics Presents issue and the Annual.

posted December 20, 2002 10:07 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Bob Greenberger:

All-Star from the '70s (including Huntress stories and Power Girl in Showcase) has come up a lot. No decision has been made but the demand has been noted.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Bob Greenberger:

As the guy who bought the Phantom Stranger origin from Alan, trust me, I remember the story well. If I recall, Paul Levitz had the notion of four different origins from four creators as the hook, and the package worked out well.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Bob Greenberger:

Strange Sports Stories are fondly remembered for their quirkiness as well as their poor sales. Right after science fiction, we seem to have a lot of trouble selling sports-oriented material.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Bob Greenberger:

All Star #1-2 has not been forgotten. There are plans. Same with Big All-American and Comics Cavalcade.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Bob Greenberger:

Invasion? Charlton? Funny you should mention them.

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How about a Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Archive for Christmas? There shouldn't be any problem with liscensning fees.

posted December 20, 2002 10:23 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by jlaavenger:

First off I was severly disappointed with the quality of the JLA/JSA trade paperback. Any chance it will ever receive better printing on better paper stock? Alex Ross is good, but I'd have prefered better paper.

Second: I'd like to ask that the paper stock on the Titans/Trigon trade be at least as good as the series. Please at the very least go with baxter on this.

Third: With George Perez in the spot light next year I'd love to see the Perez Justice League stories collected. You could even throw in a reprinting of all the Perez covers and the Perez post cards. Once again on nice paper.

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Amen, especially on the matter of paper quality: DC practically invented the current trade paperback phenomenon, and I would certainly be willing to pay a little extra for the quality of paper that Marvel uses in its trades.

posted December 20, 2002 10:47 PM               

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Bob Greenberger:
All-Star from the '70s (including Huntress stories and Power Girl in Showcase) has come up a lot. No decision has been made but the demand has been noted.

Personally, I think the inclusion of any of the Huntress or PG solo material (except perhaps the Huntress origin story) would dilute the collections to the point that I might consider simply making do with the original comics, which I still own. Put me down as a vote against.

Strange Sports Stories are fondly remembered for their quirkiness as well as their poor sales. Right after science fiction, we seem to have a lot of trouble selling sports-oriented material.

Does this mean that science fiction is unlikely to be tried soon? More to my point, I guess, why is Adam Strange not considerd a mainstream DC superhero rather than a science fiction character--the sf elements in the character's premise are no more prominent than they are for Green Lantern or Superman, among a slew of others.

Scribbly keeps coming up and as I have said before, while we all love it, no one believes there are enough people out there to make this economically viable today.

Has any thought been given to doing this (or other strips that have very intense but narrow bases of support) as a higher-priced package? I realize that DC only sees about 40% of any retail adjustment, but a $60 or even a $75 price tag would make a real difference in your breakeven point.

The trade paperbacks that seem to be collecting things in sequence do so as long as they sell and the creative team on the monthly gets support from said collections. We've skipped on Mark Waid's Flash, Judd Winnick's Green Lantern and will do so again on other titles....

I hope (and presume) that you don't mean to say that material becomes less attractive for collecting when a creative team changes. Personally, speaking as someone who avoids buying monthly comics as much as I can, a current creative team is something I'm seldom aware of.

Similarly, when we start something in sequence, we make an editorial commitment to it. Therefore, it's not likely we would leapfrog the numbering. That's one reason behind starting Dynamic Duo Archives as opposed to skipping ahead from Batman Vol. 4 to, say, Vol. 19.

Does this imply that DC is not committed (to the extent that commitments exist in such a chancy game) to filling the gap between the two lines?

All Star #1-2 has not been forgotten. There are plans. Same with Big All-American and Comics Cavalcade.

...don't get me wrong, there's been a lot of talk on starting the Silver Age Superman Archives, but there are only so many slots....

Great news here on both counts.

[b]All of our books work in page counts divisible by 16 given the way the presses work. Once we count up the story pages, we round up to the next available 16. With the pages left, we figure out what's needed for the front matter and the remaining pages are used for the covers. Wehre possible, they will appear full size and sometimes, they get ganged up. To make the pages attractive, the designer may choose to run them at differing angles.

I'm puzzled. I consider the covers to be an integral part of the work. Why wouldn't the story pages plus covers be the base number the editors worked from in the first place?

Simon & Kirby's library of material is always under discussion. Once we see how well Challengers does, we'll plan the next step.

Invasion? Charlton? Funny you should mention them.

More great news--or at least hopeful implications....

We do a sales catalogue for the mass market bookstores, incouding Amazon, that comes out 2-3 times a year. It's from those catalogues that Amazon can post its information...

posted December 20, 2002 10:57 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Bob Greenberger:
Canceled Comics Cavalcade is a cult item with limited appeal beyond diehard comics fans. Much of the material collected in those volumes does not necessarily represent DC's best work from that decade. It's not something we've ever seriously considered.

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posted December 21, 2002 12:33 AM               

-Steve

posted December 21, 2002 06:55 AM            

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Again, the same holds true for Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. Much as Geoff's popularity has increased, we do not think collecting this 14-issue run would work.

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posted December 21, 2002 07:00 AM               

I just thought I'd voice some support for the current DC tpb paperstock, so you don't think everyone is against it. I like my tpbs printed on real paper, not that razor-thin, slick, film-like stuff some of Marvel's are printed on. The light glares of that stuff too much, and some coloring jobs, esp. older ones, look garrish. And it wrinkles way too easily.

The only DC tpb I have that is disappointing paper-quality-wise (leaving out the quickie tpbs from a decade ago like the Death of Superman which are printed on greying newprint) is the "Golden Age" tpb, where some of the fine detail in the art was lost because the color looked muddy on the paper used. Other than that, I think the new Swamp Thing re-issue looks amazing (and I own all the original issues). I buy a lot of tpbs and DCs always look best to me.

posted December 21, 2002 10:48 AM               

That said, if any titles ever get so far, I think the CCC material should be included.

posted December 21, 2002 11:04 AM            

Add me to the chorus of folks appreciative of your active presence on the boards.

Add me also to the list of folks with -- you guessed it -- questions and suggesstions:

1) HELLBLAZER: RAKE AT THE GATES OF HELL tpb -- As this storyline (in "Hellblazer" # 78-83) is by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, it would seem to be a natural as they are currently very popular. Also, it was the last of their run and would nicely cap off the other three Ennis-Dillon tpbs already out. The current popularity of "Hellblazer" as a title seems to be another factor.

2) The rest of STARMAN by James Robinson

Again, Mr. Greenberger, thanks for posting here regularly.

Later,

Steve

posted December 21, 2002 11:22 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by DStepp:
In Bob's defense, that eBay link is meaningless. In the first place, that is a collector item and in no way implies there are a couple of 1000 people like minded enought to pay some ridiculous price. Second, that item is probably not being purchased for it's contents but it's rarity, which is something DC cannot duplicate. They are stuck with only the contents.

That said, if any titles ever get so far, I think the CCC material should be included.

D.

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Correct me if I'm wrong (I may misunderstand your post), but the Ebay link is not for the Actual CCC, but someone's attempt at a reprint (which to me means it's in no way a true collectible...unless you're just considering the rarity of what's being reprinted). If there are people willing to pay over $200 for a reprint of CCC, it seems like a ton more would be willing to pay $50 for a quality reprint.

Maybe it's just that I'm a huge fan of the Bronze Age, but I would love to have those Kamandi, Creeper, SSoSV, Deadman, etc. stories in an affordable hardbound form.

posted December 21, 2002 04:18 PM               

In general, I'll always prefer a matte finish paper for comics over a slick one, regardless of the actual paper quality, unless it's so thin as to be translucent.

posted December 23, 2002 09:07 AM               

Yes, we're talking about collecting George's JLA and Wonder Woman material. However, given his detailed work, we have to make sure the film is intact and complete. If not, then we need to address how best to restore the work without ruining the look of the artwork which does george and the reader a disservice. And obviously, we'll be looking for an optimal marketing opportunity to release such collections.

Rudolph is very much a licensed character and although we explore this every few years, we never seem to settle the matter.

As for filling the gaps in Archive runs, I never said we were going to stop the Batman or Dark Knight Archives in favor of Dynamic Duo. Instead, this implies we might be slowing down collecting the GA material since we will eventually get to a period of lesser work that has met with critical distain. Mixing those volumes in with a much better loved era makes financial sense to me.

Covers are very important to the overall mix, but should a collection have 185 story pages, 5 covers and a minimum of 3 pages of front matter, that's 193 pages. The next signatur eup makes it 208 pages and raises the issue of how to fill the remainign pages and by going up a signature does that also mean the price has to increase? We look at these issues closely before making a decision.

Hawkman: Endless Flight, collecting issues #1-6 and the Secret Files lead will be out in just a few months. As for Archives, no announcements have been made although demand has been noted.

Seven Soliders of Victory has often come up as the successor to All Star but no decision have been reached.

Hellblazer: Rake at the Gates of Hell is forthcming. How's that for an early Christmas present?

posted December 23, 2002 09:14 AM               

------------------
Rock a little,

posted December 23, 2002 12:24 PM            

Thanks for the good news re: HELLBLAZER: RAKE AT THE GATES OF HELL.

Later,

posted December 23, 2002 12:43 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Bob Greenberger:
Yes, we're talking about collecting George's JLA and Wonder Woman material. However, given his detailed work, we have to make sure the film is intact and complete. If not, then we need to address how best to restore the work without ruining the look of the artwork which does george and the reader a disservice. And obviously, we'll be looking for an optimal marketing opportunity to release such collections.

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