While I love, love, love trade paperbacks - I just put three new bookshelves in my garage to accomodate DC softcover trades alone - I look at what you bought and feel a little tinge of regret. Years ago I got it into my head to collect defunct "universes" - spent ages tracking down every Milestone, !mpact, Ultraverse, New Universe, Atari Force, etc. Along the way, I got full runs of ROM, Warlord, Fourth World books, Marvel Conan, Transformers, GI Joe, Crystar (ok, that one wasn't hard to complete). Anyway, point of the story is, tracking down the stuff was always a load of fun. Finding the deals (I do OK, but I ain't rich by any stretch) and knowing when to walk away...the joy of collecting. Wandering into a comic store in a different city and looking for that one issue that you're missing...Plus, I read some darn fine books. Some of those early Ultraverse...wow.
Then, Dark Horse started reprinting Conans...All the Transformers books came back into print, same with Joe. Milestone, now, and Warlord. You kids have it too easy. And I'm only 37.
I love trades, but they truly will be the death of the hobby.
I'm gonna go and dig out that First Issue Specal #8 I found at a flea market now (yes, it does happen) and sigh. Then I'm gonna go out and buy that damn Showcase, because I MUST HAVE IT.
i think trades reinvigorated my interest in the hobby (comic collecting)!
comic collecting is fun and all but the stress and hassle of going to the store every week gets to me sometimes. especially nowadays that comics are more mainstream with tons of new fans,collectors and genres. add that in addition to the old timers like myself (36...sigh) and you've got one overcrowded weekly clusterfuck!
collected trades, and the relative quickness in which they are printed lately, pretty much guarantees i can find the issues/storylines of almost any series i'm interested in collected in one or several neatly compartmentalized volumes, all easily storeable on a bookshelf instead of the bag/board/ cardboard longbox/stuffed in the back of my overcrowded apt. closet.
plus, all the omnibus sized new trades of old school stuff reintroduces it all to both new fans and old timers. i haven't bought them yet but i'm dying to get my hands on those luke cage and power man and iron fist trades from marvel. loved those titles as a kid. still got a pretty sizable run of the original issues but it'd be nice to have the entire run in those few accesible volumes.
my only beef about trades might be that i do prefer the soft cover over hard covers. i like the flexible feel of a comic book so i prefer soft covers. the popularity of trades means that most companies print hard covers first, making the wait for soft cover all the more longer.
There is definitely a pleasure to be found in hunting and finding back issues--a lot of my favorite comics readings experiences have resulted from finding something in a back issue or discount bin.
There's something to be said about reading books like that too...out of order, with weeks, months or years between each installment...when your imagination fills in blanks or makes connections for you.
That said, I've been reading random issues of Icon and Warlord for a long time now, and am glad to finally be able to read 'em straight through (Hopefully they keep the Icon trades coming).
Both have a nice, comic book-y paper stock too.
Lurker,
Yeah, they've started a while ago. I think just Icon and Static so far...with a Hardware announced or solicited so far. I hope they do well enough to keep 'em coming out.
David,
Heh. I was thinking I'd much rather read Impact trades than the new Red Circle books DC's been putting out.
Don't spoil it, but did you read the end of School Rumble already...? In Japanese, or did another publisher publish it previously...?
Two posts tomorrow night. Promise.
I love Icon.
ReplyDeleteWhile I love, love, love trade paperbacks - I just put three new bookshelves in my garage to accomodate DC softcover trades alone - I look at what you bought and feel a little tinge of regret. Years ago I got it into my head to collect defunct "universes" - spent ages tracking down every Milestone, !mpact, Ultraverse, New Universe, Atari Force, etc. Along the way, I got full runs of ROM, Warlord, Fourth World books, Marvel Conan, Transformers, GI Joe, Crystar (ok, that one wasn't hard to complete). Anyway, point of the story is, tracking down the stuff was always a load of fun. Finding the deals (I do OK, but I ain't rich by any stretch) and knowing when to walk away...the joy of collecting. Wandering into a comic store in a different city and looking for that one issue that you're missing...Plus, I read some darn fine books. Some of those early Ultraverse...wow.
ReplyDeleteThen, Dark Horse started reprinting Conans...All the Transformers books came back into print, same with Joe. Milestone, now, and Warlord. You kids have it too easy. And I'm only 37.
I love trades, but they truly will be the death of the hobby.
I'm gonna go and dig out that First Issue Specal #8 I found at a flea market now (yes, it does happen) and sigh. Then I'm gonna go out and buy that damn Showcase, because I MUST HAVE IT.
Oh, the new Milestone trades have started coming out already? Cool...
ReplyDeletei think trades reinvigorated my interest in the hobby (comic collecting)!
ReplyDeletecomic collecting is fun and all but the stress and hassle of going to the store every week gets to me sometimes. especially nowadays that comics are more mainstream with tons of new fans,collectors and genres. add that in addition to the old timers like myself (36...sigh) and you've got one overcrowded weekly clusterfuck!
collected trades, and the relative quickness in which they are printed lately, pretty much guarantees i can find the issues/storylines of almost any series i'm interested in collected in one or several neatly compartmentalized volumes, all easily storeable on a bookshelf instead of the bag/board/ cardboard longbox/stuffed in the back of my overcrowded apt. closet.
plus, all the omnibus sized new trades of old school stuff reintroduces it all to both new fans and old timers. i haven't bought them yet but i'm dying to get my hands on those luke cage and power man and iron fist trades from marvel. loved those titles as a kid. still got a pretty sizable run of the original issues but it'd be nice to have the entire run in those few accesible volumes.
my only beef about trades might be that i do prefer the soft cover over hard covers. i like the flexible feel of a comic book so i prefer soft covers. the popularity of trades means that most companies print hard covers first, making the wait for soft cover all the more longer.
p.s. warlord looks like a lost village people member...
ReplyDeletethe cop, the construction worker, the indian, etc, etc...and the warlord.
Wonder if DC will ever do !mpact trades. I really enjoyed The Comet up until Waid pulled the "Actually an alien" twist.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait until Caleb gets to the final chapter of School Rumble and makes a single post consisting of eleven paragraphs of swearing.
Randal,
ReplyDeleteThere is definitely a pleasure to be found in hunting and finding back issues--a lot of my favorite comics readings experiences have resulted from finding something in a back issue or discount bin.
There's something to be said about reading books like that too...out of order, with weeks, months or years between each installment...when your imagination fills in blanks or makes connections for you.
That said, I've been reading random issues of Icon and Warlord for a long time now, and am glad to finally be able to read 'em straight through (Hopefully they keep the Icon trades coming).
Both have a nice, comic book-y paper stock too.
Lurker,
Yeah, they've started a while ago. I think just Icon and Static so far...with a Hardware announced or solicited so far. I hope they do well enough to keep 'em coming out.
David,
Heh. I was thinking I'd much rather read Impact trades than the new Red Circle books DC's been putting out.
Don't spoil it, but did you read the end of School Rumble already...? In Japanese, or did another publisher publish it previously...?