Trades over monthlies? NO WAY!
I believe that JUST buying trades hurts the industry... it means fewer new issues are sold and as a result the cover prices go up causing more readers to drop more books which iin turn causes marginal books like She-Hulk or Runaways to get canned because people HAVE to have their X books.
The cost of the trade is usually the same as the single issues anyway.
Then there's the addition aspect. The actual act of reading through a varied number of comics on Wednesday IS my actual fix... what I'm addicted to. I also like the fun of the comic shop every wednesday! It's like Christmas once a week!!!
And LASTLY (and IMO the most important reason...) THE FUN!!!! Take a book like Batman the Long Halloween... the very foundation and concept of the book hinged on readers GUESSING who Holiday was... there was rampant speculation, rumours, Wizard did an odds on favorite to be Holiday... and it was FUN to guess... because you had to wait the TORTUREOUS 30ish days for the next issue and see if that month gave any new hints to the identity of Holiday. Now imagine you get the whole thing, flip to the end and know who the killer is. Even if you don't the suspense is GONE. (Insert Identity Crisis here or any such book.)
You lose the fun... not to mention the difficulty of trying to avoid spoilers on a message board as you wait several months for the book to come out in trade... where's the fun in that????
There are several instances where I will buy trades. If it's an older series that would be hard or annoying to track down. I got all of Sin City in trade, all of Preacher and all of Sandman because I really missed the boat on them (ESPECIALLY Preacher!) and it would have been cost prohibitive to get the monthlies.
Speaking of cost... Trades or the Archive/Masterworks are also the only way I'll EVER get Amazing Fantasy 15 and all the early Spidey's and Fantastic Four's and so on, so I'll get them in that format. Otherwise it's all new monthlies for me!
The cost of the trade is usually the same as the single issues anyway.
Then there's the addition aspect. The actual act of reading through a varied number of comics on Wednesday IS my actual fix... what I'm addicted to. I also like the fun of the comic shop every wednesday! It's like Christmas once a week!!!
And LASTLY (and IMO the most important reason...) THE FUN!!!! Take a book like Batman the Long Halloween... the very foundation and concept of the book hinged on readers GUESSING who Holiday was... there was rampant speculation, rumours, Wizard did an odds on favorite to be Holiday... and it was FUN to guess... because you had to wait the TORTUREOUS 30ish days for the next issue and see if that month gave any new hints to the identity of Holiday. Now imagine you get the whole thing, flip to the end and know who the killer is. Even if you don't the suspense is GONE. (Insert Identity Crisis here or any such book.)
You lose the fun... not to mention the difficulty of trying to avoid spoilers on a message board as you wait several months for the book to come out in trade... where's the fun in that????
There are several instances where I will buy trades. If it's an older series that would be hard or annoying to track down. I got all of Sin City in trade, all of Preacher and all of Sandman because I really missed the boat on them (ESPECIALLY Preacher!) and it would have been cost prohibitive to get the monthlies.
Speaking of cost... Trades or the Archive/Masterworks are also the only way I'll EVER get Amazing Fantasy 15 and all the early Spidey's and Fantastic Four's and so on, so I'll get them in that format. Otherwise it's all new monthlies for me!
posted by He Said... She Said at
11:11 AM
7 Comments:
Monthlies are the only way to go. I love following a story from month to month. I've read a trade or two and it just doesn't seem as exciting as having to wait 30 days to see what happens.
By
Velcro, at 7:10 AM
Buying trades encourages looking to trades for profit, which increases bookstore penetration (and thus potential audience). Trades stay in print longer than monthlies, which increases long-term profit for a book that might be barely remaining published based on monthly sales.
And for the same or reduced cost, you get paper of decent quality (usually as good as the individual issues, at bare minimum), no ads, and a package that is more durable and more easily stored than a bunch of single issues. For anything I care to read at a later date, I get trades. For things I'm just grabbing for light entertainment (Firestorm, Manhunter, Cable & Deadpool), I get monthlies exclusively. (If I'm reading something in monthlies and then decide I want a bookshelf copy, I'll get the trade as well.)
By
Derek B. Haas, at 8:13 AM
Thanks for posting guys.
I do buy some trades as I said, but I don't think I could ever switch. I'd miss the excitement of that FINAL ISSUE of a series like Long Halloween too much!
By
He Said... She Said, at 9:25 PM
Sill lovin' the monthlies right now and I know all about that thursday fix (am based in the UK so we don't get ours 'till the Thursday). The only way to really support a title that you love is to buy it every month.
Though this another argument, the one thing that really concerns me right now is the number of comic writers who are writing for the trades. Both Bendis and Ellis are really guilty of this in recent months. Pacing for the trades is fine but not if it creates single issues that fail to satisfy at all on their own merits.
Kudos on the Blog. It's good stuff.
By
birrellesque, at 3:57 PM
"Kudos on the Blog. It's good stuff."
Thanks!
It's mainly ramblings as they pop into my head! LOL
By
He Said... She Said, at 11:13 PM
Hey, liked your thoughts, and while I agree with most of what you said, I think there are a couple of good reasons to buy trades.
1 - They take up far less space than monthlies, and can fit neatly on a bookshelf.
2 - Most of them are cheaper. For example: Runaways digest is only $7.99.
3 - All monthlies are now written with the "arc" format in mind. I have a lot of trouble remembering what the hell happened 4 months ago in a story than I do remembering what happened 20 minutes ago in the same story. Trades allow us to read the stories all at once and eliminate having to remember everything over six months.
Those things aside, I still buy about 30-40 monthlies a month. So make of that what you will.
By
Ryan Murray, at 8:11 AM
Hey Ryan, thanks for posting!
Regarding you comment:
"1 - They take up far less space than monthlies, and can fit neatly on a bookshelf."
There are benefits to the long boxes too... your shelf can only stand out from against the wall and you can't put anything in front of it... whereas you can stack those long boxes lengthwise and 2 deep for extra room!
How many trades do you buy a month?
By
He Said... She Said, at 10:34 AM
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