posted January 16, 2003 07:01 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Bob Greenberger:
Extending the $19.95 idea to all Vol. 1s is interesting.

Yep, a Legion collection is long overdue and Ihope to correct that in 2003.

While I agree ATLANTIS CHRONICLES should be collected, it has sadly become a joke at Collected Editions, poking fun at me for my diehard lobbying. It had been surveyed some time in the past and didn't quite measure up. In today's new market, I would think it has a chance to satisfy fans and find new readers through bookstores who don't need to know the continuity to appreciate the fantasy. I keep hoping....

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Well, some good news and some not-so-good ones... Id love to see JLA Archives (and Legion Archives too) vol 1 at $19.95!

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N. Franco
aka Thanagarian

posted January 16, 2003 07:04 AM               

See Bob, collecting this series would be a good move.

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N. Franco
aka Thanagarian

posted January 16, 2003 07:07 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by morpheus27@aol.com:
Trades

The Geoff Johns run on Flash has been fresh and exciting. I'm all in favor of collecting his run, but there's quite a few great stories by Mark Waid, the previous fresh and exciting writer for Flash, that have not been collected. Namely Chain Lightning, and the buildup for it, as well as his concluding story arc. This year perhaps, or next?

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Id love to see this, but Bob already said that DC wouldnt be collecting the rest of Waid's Flash issues...

quote:

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Originally posted by morpheus27@aol.com:
Swamp Thing by Rick Veitch. "Director's Cut" once the Alan Moore run is done. Want to see the time travel story end the way it was supposed to.

Ditto The Question by Denny O'Neil and Denys Cowan.

DC seems to have a good relationship with Scott McCloud. Any chance they might like to pick up from the fall of Kitchen Sink and reprint Zot! Never did release that 4th volume.

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Love to see these things...

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N. Franco
aka Thanagarian

posted January 16, 2003 07:18 AM               

I think we should bleed eBay dry before DC starts devoting even minor resources to other distractions.

posted January 16, 2003 07:19 AM               

Any chances on collection (or putting it back on print) JSA The Liberty File? And what about Secret Society of Super Heroes (Chaykin and Tichsman)?

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N. Franco
aka Thanagarian

posted January 16, 2003 10:16 AM               

And Cole, you'll be happy to know the flying heroes cover you mentioned is actually the wallpaper on my office computer, so I think of the issue often.

ABC books will be collected as soon as we produce enough issues. Trust us, we'd be remiss if we didn't make Alan's work available to everyone.

Which brings me to the business model that keeps trades affordable. The monthly titles spend lots of bucks on the talent, our collections spend little on new material. Without the monthly books, the trades would become the original titles and they'd be much higher priced. Just as the anthologies in Europe allow for their albums, we do the same here.

Kingb, what usual places do you find your collections? Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Booksamillion, etc., all carry our books as they're released.

MOSAIC? Hmmm, hadn't thought about that one. We'll just have to see. Speaking o GL, just got in my first bound copy of EMERALD DAWN yesterday and boy, it's a handsome package. I'm a proud editor.

As for JSA: Liberty Files, that's more likely to be packaged with the sequel, which comes out this spring. SECRET SOCIETY was waiting for its sequel, which looks like it'll never happen. These days, a 96-pager seems too thin a collection so this may not happen. But, as I've learned around here, never say never.

posted January 16, 2003 10:32 AM               

I have been able to occasionally order Archives through work (at a public library). Strangely, our distributor is able to get "traditional" books within two weeks. And the rare times that I've ordered a trade paperback it has arrived within a month. Archives, however, can take up to 6 or 7 months (and counting...).

Thanks again,

posted January 16, 2003 12:29 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Bob Greenberger:

Kingb, what usual places do you find your collections? Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Booksamillion, etc., all carry our books as they're released.

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posted January 16, 2003 01:16 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Bob Greenberger:
Kingb, what usual places do you find your collections? Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Booksamillion, etc., all carry our books as they're released.

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Many times, Bob, online sources do have Archives up for pre-order, but some times they do not. Still waiting on Amazon to list Aquaman and until they do, I no buy. Same with Enemy Ace, which took months for them to inventory. If you have any power to find out if it's possible to get Archives inventory up more efficiently, it would be a great blessing to all of us who budget for that. Trust me, they don't carry books "as they're released" as you assume.

posted January 16, 2003 01:57 PM               

Bob--any chance you could give a rundown of the contents of the upcoming Batman: Dames & Demons (i think?) collection? I saw info about it on one of the news sites, but the page count didn't seem to match up with what's in the Batman Adventures Annuals and Special. I may very well have misread it, too.

Also, are there any plans to re-release the hard cover vol. 1s of the Tom Strong and League/Gentlemen?

posted January 16, 2003 01:57 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by GaryUK:
I ordered the Dynamic Duo archive last year from Amazon, but I got a message from them recently to say that it's been cancelled and subsequently my order was cancelled. I checked their website and found that it was still there. I just re-ordered the book, but a few days later was given the same message form Amazon and the order was cancelled. Anyone else experienced this?
Weird! :/

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posted January 16, 2003 02:47 PM               

No questions this time, just a big thanks for answering when your schedule permits. It's extremely rewarding to check back here often and have new stuff to discover because of you.

posted January 16, 2003 02:51 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by James Friel:
Kingb, do you know where your library orders their comic-related books?
If they're using a local general-interest bookstore or if they have an account with Warner themselves, the timing is likely to be the same as if you were getting the stuff through Amazon.
If, however, they have a relationship with a good local comic shop, or order from one of the big shops that has a national library services program, they might get better service.

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posted January 16, 2003 03:03 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by kingb:
...I guess the guestion really is, "will things always be this way?"

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That, I guess, would be a question that would have to be answered by the national distribtor that sells each individual publisher's output to the distributor that your library uses (I presume that since it's a company with a broad mix, it must be someone like Ingram).
Warner's service to the bookstore market on DC products, for instance, is spotty compared to what we who shop in direct-sales outlets are used to.
Warner's attitude toward DC seems to me to be pretty casual.
Last year, for example, the first three archives (GA GL #2, Flash #3, Doom Patrol #1), which had come out in January, February and March in the comic shops, all came from Warner to bookstores in early March. The Doom Patrol volume was, in fact, a week ahead of Diamond's release.
W.W.Norton, on the other hand, seems to give Fantagraphics product very good service.
Harper gets Bongo Comics books out fast too--no surprise, it's all Rupert Murdoch.
Not sure about Marvel's and Dark Horse's bookstore distribution, but I don't think it's much better than DC's (better as in faster--DC's overall coverage is very good).

posted January 16, 2003 04:07 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by kingb:
I've had a similar experience with amazon. That's one reason that I took to ordering more Archives through work. However, instead of having my orders cancelled...they just take an eon to show up...

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posted January 16, 2003 05:57 PM            

I knew a librarian once who ordered everything from Baker & Taylor. This included many very expensive reference books from GALE, a MAJOR publisher of reference material. Months later, the money was still tied up and the books hadn't been received.

posted January 16, 2003 06:44 PM               

To be honest, I buy trades usually to replace comics that I already have in monthly form (so that I can sell them), or to try series that I may have missed out on (i.e., Transmetropolitan, Preacher). The former is more the case nowadays, since I haven't found too much more new stuff out there worth looking at right now (IMO, of course).

I prefer the trade format for most of my favorite comics, for ease of reading and storage, but I also know I won't be able to get them all in TPB, so I still buy some monthlies. Luckily, there's not much out there that appeals to me anymore, so I just buy Doom Patrol, Filth and New X-Men (the latter two of which will actually probably get or already have trade reprints). I love archives but only buy the characters I really enjoy because of the cost, which is the same reason I will NEVER buy one of the hardcover $25-a-pop graphic novels (like JLA/JSA).

Don't know if that makes me a "deadbeat fan" or not, since I don't buy nearly as many comics or toys as I used to, but I do buy what I can afford of what I like. Thank God I broke myself of the need to buy every damn thing on the market a few years ago. Got real useful when I had to unload my Masterworks collection to pay a few mortgage payments last year.

--Rich

posted January 16, 2003 07:30 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by James Friel:
On the other hand, many libraries simply cut an open purchase order and go shopping if they have a local store that's either well enough stocked or flexible enough in its procedures to get them what they need quickly and is willing to give them a 20% discount.
I've had librarians arrive unannounced at both of the stores I work in, brandishing 2 or 3 thousand dollar purchase orders that they needed to spend on comics or science fiction. Kind of makes your day....

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Cool. There are actually a lot of bean-counters who won't allow librarians to do this, but it is by far the smartest solution. Especially if the librarian knows nothing about comics.

The next time this happens, make sure you plug two of my favorites:
George Pratt's Enemy Ace
Viking Prince by Bo Hampton and Lee Maars (sp?).

Also, ask for some library stationary so that you can type up an Archive wish list for the library to send to DC.

posted January 16, 2003 08:16 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by GaryUK:
I ordered the Dynamic Duo archive last year from Amazon, but I got a message from them recently to say that it's been cancelled and subsequently my order was cancelled. I checked their website and found that it was still there. I just re-ordered the book, but a few days later was given the same message form Amazon and the order was cancelled. Anyone else experienced this?
Weird! :/

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same thing happened to me!!