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Author	Topic: The DC Superstars--tpb the 70s
Silver Age Adam Member	posted February 28, 2003 01:58 PM This thread got me thinking. What about a monthly book, which serves as a sort of a time capsule? Let's say starting in the 70's, DC collects all the Superman titles plus Flash, Green Lantern, and Aquaman and publishes one month's worth in one volume? DC also collects Batman, Justice League, Hawkman, Detective and publishes one month's worth of those stories? With two TPBs a buyer could read every super hero comic published in January of 1970. Next month do the same for February of 1970. (Okay, it would probably take 5 TPBs to really capture every single title DC published!) This is kind of like what the Manga books do now in Japan. They're huge and packed with different stories, and they come out monthly. Of course that stuff is new material... Anyway, what do you guys think? ------------------ I INVITE YOU TO SUPPORT OPERATION EMERALD STORM!! Send your extra comic books to our troops fighting in the Persian Gulf!! Emerald Storm c/o The American Red Cross 2700 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90057 Attn: Gwendolyn Parrish IP: Logged
India Ink Member	posted February 28, 2003 03:05 PM This is like my ideal dream tradepaperback series. When I think back to specific epochs that I loved, it's the entire experience I remember of buying all these comics in a week or a month. When I was younger, before I got my paper route, I couldn't often afford everything I wanted. I would stare at the Direct Currents or the house ads and just dream about what if I could have all these comics. Wow! to have a tradepaperback coverdated January, 1971 or July, 1977. That would be perfection. IP: Logged
CMCINTYRE3600 Member	posted February 28, 2003 03:42 PM It would be really cool. I don't know if I could afford it on a monthly basis, but it does sound cool, and if DC would try it, I'd try my best to keep up (of course, I don't think they ever would. but I do like the idea). Chris IP: Logged
datalore Member	posted February 28, 2003 04:52 PM And, if we started with October, 1967...sigh.... (Of course, I'd also look for the May, 1971 volume as well...) While I don't think this could ever happen, it would be nice... IP: Logged
India Ink Member	posted February 28, 2003 05:02 PM With DC reprinting so much Schwartz material in various archives, there will be enough usable restored pages that the cost of creating a tpb of one month out of the sixties (and eventually the early seventies) would not be prohibitive . I dare say it's possible now that we could have a tpb of super-heroes from one month in 1964. My favourite coverdate months were usually summer months. July 1967, June 1971, September 1972, August 1974... IP: Logged
dcexplosion78 Member	posted February 28, 2003 06:39 PM These are all great ideas. It is bizarre that they didn't do more Green Arrow collections during the Kevin Smith run (at least Grell GA monthly)... what a wasted opportunity. It'll be a while before GA is as successful. IP: Logged
India Ink Member	posted February 28, 2003 11:14 PM True. That one month in which Smith's Green Arrow debuted brought the white heat of attention to G.A. One store in my area had ordered in hundreds of copies of no. 1 and they did up a big window display filled with everything Green Arrow they could find. Seventies and eighties related books could have been swept up in the crush of fanboys anxious to give away their coin for any and all Ollie Queen tie-ins. IP: Logged
GreatBear Member	posted March 01, 2003 02:06 AM SIGH As much as we all who read here would like such a reprint series, apparently the Millenium reprint series in 2000 didn't do that well. That probably means no comic format reprint to speak of - I know the "lost annuals" still get published occasionally. I'd enjoy more TPB's like Crisis on Multiple Earths. IP: Logged
James Friel Member	posted March 01, 2003 02:55 AM I'm afraid I agree. The thought that there might be a significant number of people out there who'd be interested in reading everything (or even a large percentage) that was published in any given month several decades ago seems unlikely even to me, and I'm notoriously optimistic about things like this. Damn shame, too. I'd love to have something like this for any period between the late '30s and the early '60s. IP: Logged
Hack Member	posted March 01, 2003 09:11 AM quote: Originally posted by GreatBear: SIGH As much as we all who read here would like such a reprint series, apparently the Millenium reprint series in 2000 didn't do that well. That probably means no comic format reprint to speak of - I know the "lost annuals" still get published occasionally. I'd enjoy more TPB's like Crisis on Multiple Earths. Sales (or lack there of...) of the Millennium reprints really disappointed me. Regardless, count me among those all for a monthly reprint title--especially if it was a sort of "That 70's DC Comic." IP: Logged
Osgood Peabody Member	posted March 01, 2003 10:33 AM It might be a more daunting task than you realize to encapsulate all of DC's monthly output into one volume. See for yourself - the DC index site owner is in the process of building a "time machine" so you can view all DC covers for a given month. He's now up to 1954: http://www.dcindexes.com/covers/index.htm?x=2 A sampling of one month's output from the early '50s would feature some 30 eclectic titles ranging from Our Army at War to Peter Porkchops, Big Town to Buzzy, Western Comics to Strange Adventures, Girl's Love Stories to The Adventures of Rex the Wonder Dog!!! IP: Logged
Steven Utley Member	posted March 01, 2003 11:19 AM Some time back, greene made a swell suggestion, for a series of trade paperbacks, each showcasing a particular year in DC publishing history. The series would skip around, so that one volume of THE BEST OF DC COMICS might feature prime material originally published in 1946 and the next, 1967, and the next after that, 1953. While I do love the Archive editions and am glad to get such things as the SUPERMAN/BATMAN IN THE FIFTIES, SIXTIES, and SEVENTIES collections (even though they're never quite the books I think they should be), I'd like more grab-bags along the lines of THE GREATEST 1950s STORIES EVER TOLD and PULP FICTION LIBRARY: MYSTERY IN SPACE -- more and better. Alas, not everyone loves variety. IP: Logged
James Friel Member	posted March 01, 2003 02:21 PM That is indeed a swell suggestion. Of course, we'd all have the same probems with the content of these volumes that we do with the Greatest Stories and the various decades collections, but still, I'd really love it. And somehow a "Best of" collection for a given year seems much more marketable than a complete reprinting of a given month. IP: Logged
Steven Utley Member	posted March 01, 2003 06:31 PM The advantage a "Year's Best" series would have over THE GREATEST 1950s STORIES EVER TOLD and those Superman/Batman books is that each volume would concentrate on the DC output of twelve months rather than have to represent ten years' worth. A much more leisurely approach, and in the long term a vastly more comprehensive one. IP: Logged
James Friel Member	posted March 01, 2003 07:14 PM Let's start with 1958. IP: Logged
Steven Utley Member	posted March 01, 2003 08:40 PM Nineteen fifty-eight is Batman in "Doom in Dinosaur Hall," Adam Strange in SHOWCASE, Jack Kirby and Wally Wood in CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN, Gil Kane and Carmine Infantino in REX THE WONDER DOG and ALL-STAR WESTERN, prime Sheldon Mayer ... lead me to it. IP: Logged
India Ink Member	posted March 02, 2003 04:48 PM Hm, I seem to remember posting this idea myself a while back. My idea, though, was to do a three-fold approach. 1 Year's Best for the just passed year (eg. 2003). 1 Year's Best (from 1979 - 1986) selected from the digest Year's Best editions, but restored to full dimension in a tpb--however-- reprinting the same story selections, and some of the extras from those digests. 1 Year's Best of a random year prior to 1979. By releasing all three, the volumes of older material would get some attention along with the newer material. The digest material (in full size) is sort of between and betwixt the two, as much of this material bridges the gap between old DC and new DC. IP: Logged
James Friel Member	posted March 03, 2003 03:06 AM If this were ever undertaken, I'd hope that a complete run of samplers for every year from 1940 onward would be the eventual objective, if it's a success. As the archives reprint more stuff, it should become manageable, though I'd hope that even the 1940s and 1960s volumes would always feature some un-archived material. ------------------ My country, right or wrong--when right, to be kept right; when wrong, to be put right. Henry Clay IP: Logged
CMCINTYRE3600 Member	posted March 05, 2003 11:44 AM quote: Originally posted by India Ink: Hm, I seem to remember posting this idea myself a while back. My idea, though, was to do a three-fold approach. 1 Year's Best for the just passed year (eg. 2003). 1 Year's Best (from 1979 - 1986) selected from the digest Year's Best editions, but restored to full dimension in a tpb--however-- reprinting the same story selections, and some of the extras from those digests. 1 Year's Best of a random year prior to 1979. By releasing all three, the volumes of older material would get some attention along with the newer material. The digest material (in full size) is sort of between and betwixt the two, as much of this material bridges the gap between old DC and new DC. The problem with this is that modern comics do not lend them selves well to anthologizing. One or even two issue stories are few and far between nowadays. So what exactly could you include in the Best Of 2002, for example? You may want, for example, Bruce Wayne: Murderer? represented, since it was, many of us feel, a well done series. So how does that get represented? Do you just have one chapter from a larger story in there. Great idea you have, but not so practical. Chris IP: Logged
India Ink Member	posted March 05, 2003 06:35 PM They were already coming up against this problem in the Year's Best DC Digests. There was always a text page recounting other stories that didn't make it into the book--sometimes because they were extended stories. I think I suggested that they do just five stories for the current era. The rest of the book would be filled with text recounting storylines, and covers from those comics. In every arc there's always one issue that stands out. A simple text prologue would catch up the reader. This would have the additional advantage of sparking interest in ongoing storylines. Readers might go out and actually buy back issue, or start reading the ongoing series. Or if the story was taken from an arc that's already collected in tpb form, then readers might decide to buy those books after sampling the material in the Year's Best. As an example, let's say there was a Year's Best that included Busiek's Astro City. Well there would be a little text piece (by Busiek?) followed by the first chapter from "Tarnished Angel" followed by an ad for the whole book. IP: Logged
James Friel Member	posted March 05, 2003 10:42 PM I really can't imagine myself being interested in a Year's Best collection of current (or post-Crisis) material. And I really hate the idea of products that are designed as sales tools for other products--if there's synergy there, fine, but don't force it. IP: Logged

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