Mass Market Paperbacks

[Allyn Gibson]

The Liefeld Revolution allowed only for pouches.

There's a part of me that would love to read a Liefeld-esque Star Trek comic...

Speed lines!
Scowly faces!
Blank eyes!
Men with impossibly huge and muscular chests!
Women with waists smaller than a Number Two pencil!
Phaser rifles as big as a car!
Uniform boots missing feet!
Dynamic poses that will put the men, in the words of the Prince Regent, "in danger of seriously disappointing my future Queen!"
Belt pouches!
Thigh pouches!
Arm pouches!
Spock Helmet pouches!
Even the Enterprise (or whatever hero ship is in the story) has pouches!

I'd read it.

 

[Nerys Myk]

There's a part of me that would love to read a Liefeld-esque Star Trek comic...

Speed lines!
Scowly faces!
Blank eyes!
Men with impossibly huge and muscular chests!
Women with waists smaller than a Number Two pencil!
Phaser rifles as big as a car!
Uniform boots missing feet!
Dynamic poses that will put the men, in the words of the Prince Regent, "in danger of seriously disappointing my future Queen!"
Belt pouches!
Thigh pouches!
Arm pouches!
Spock Helmet pouches!
Even the Enterprise (or whatever hero ship is in the story) has pouches!

I'd read it.

And all the characters have the same face.

 

[ace2k]

There's a part of me that would love to read a Liefeld-esque Star Trek comic...

Speed lines!
Scowly faces!
Blank eyes!
Men with impossibly huge and muscular chests!
Women with waists smaller than a Number Two pencil!
Phaser rifles as big as a car!
Uniform boots missing feet!
Dynamic poses that will put the men, in the words of the Prince Regent, "in danger of seriously disappointing my future Queen!"
Belt pouches!
Thigh pouches!
Arm pouches!
Spock Helmet pouches!
Even the Enterprise (or whatever hero ship is in the story) has pouches!

I'd read it.

Don’t forget to obscure the feet in every shot.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Huh??

 

[ICW]

I consider myself fortunate that I was able to amass a near-complete collection of Star Trek novels for dirt cheap. There was a Barnes and Noble in Paramus, NJ, with a unique feature: a massive used book section. I was able to obtain most books (paperback, hardcover, comics, reference books, etc.) for pennies on the dollar. I miss those days, and that particular B&N location shut down.

 

[ace2k]

Huh??

Rob Liefeld was notoriously awful at drawing feet and would often get around it if possible by simply covering them. A quick google of “Rob Liefeld can’t draw feet” shows exactly what I mean.

Props to him for building a successful career nonetheless, though.

 

[David cgc]

Huh??

There were a couple of hilarious articles criticizing Rob Liefeld's quirks around 2010. They're on the Internet Archive ("Does anyone remember when the internet used to be forever?")

The 40 Worst Rob Liefeld Drawings

40 More of the Worst Rob Liefeld Drawings

Read through those, and you'll get all our jokes about excessive storage pouches, wasp-waisted bodybuilders, everyone having dainty ballerina feet when they have them at all, craggy-faced teens, and more.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

everyone having dainty ballerina feet when they have them at all

Sounds like the precise opposite of Mort Walker.

 

[E-DUB]

Sounds like the precise opposite of Mort Walker.

Or perhaps Don Martin.

 

[JD]

I've never understood how he ever had any success as an artist, I've always found his artwork hideous. I guess he had the advantage of it being the '90s.

 

[Bryan Levy]

I've never understood how he ever had any success as an artist, I've always found his artwork hideous. I guess he had the advantage of it being the '90s.

Rob has always reminded me of Kirby. Anatomy as realistic as a Barbie doll, but dynamic as hell.

As for MMPBs, the students at my school constantly make fun of the paperback I have in my back pocket. I carry it around with me to show them that reading is cool. Of course, they think I’m a massive dork.

 

[Procutus]

I carry it around with me to show them that reading is cool.

May you never lose that feeling.

 

[Unicron]

Rob Liefeld was notoriously awful at drawing feet and would often get around it if possible by simply covering them. A quick google of “Rob Liefeld can’t draw feet” shows exactly what I mean.

Props to him for building a successful career nonetheless, though.

It's even funnier when you account for his drawing massive barrel chests on many characters, sometimes with no real sense of anatomical structure. But giving them working feet? Too much work.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

It's even funnier when you account for his drawing massive barrel chests on many characters, sometimes with no real sense of anatomical structure. But giving them working feet? Too much work.

Feet must be difficult. Mike Mignola can't draw them, either.

 

[Miami Vice Admiral]

If you were a Liefeld character would your mouth be open screaming or gritted as hard as possible? Which eye would be lens flaring? And which would contain 90% of your body mass, your chest or your thighs?

 

[Allyn Gibson]

If you were a Liefeld character would your mouth be open screaming or gritted as hard as possible? Which eye would be lens flaring? And which would contain 90% of your body mass, your chest or your thighs?

Yes. Yes. And also yes.

 

[Procutus]

Last night I was in the only remaining Barnes & Noble we have left in our area, and when I walked in I was struck by the vast number of new TBPs that adorned a number of tables at the front of the store. While I've known for some time that mass-markets were on their way out, it was still just a bit jarring to see that many new titles in that format. There are still hard-covers to be sure, be even the new titles rack seemed to be a bit sparse.

Back in the science-fiction section, there are still a few MMs of various classic titles (Tolkien, Dune, a few Heinlein titles, but over all, the shelves were full of TPBs.

And there were only four Star Trek titles. Back when I worked for Waldenbooks, we had two shelves devoted to Trek.

Sadly, times change.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

Last night I was in the only remaining Barnes & Noble we have left in our area, and when I walked in I was struck by the vast number of new TBPs that adorned a number of tables at the front of the store. While I've known for some time that mass-markets were on their way out, it was still just a bit jarring to see that many new titles in that format. There are still hard-covers to be sure, be even the new titles rack seemed to be a bit sparse.

Back in the science-fiction section, there are still a few MMs of various classic titles (Tolkien, Dune, a few Heinlein titles, but over all, the shelves were full of TPBs.

And there were only four Star Trek titles. Back when I worked for Waldenbooks, we had two shelves devoted to Trek.

Sadly, times change.

I'm surprised you only have one Barnes and Noble in your area.

They recently opened up three here locally and the one closest to where I work is set for a major remodel.

You are right about the lack of Star Trek though.

Neither of the two that are closest to me carry the latest SNW hardback and only one had a copy of Greg Cox latest release.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Back when I worked for Waldenbooks, we had two shelves devoted to Trek.

Slackers. When I worked for Crown Books my Manager cultivated the SF section at our store and we had a four foot section dedicated to Star Trek, Star Wars and other media tie ins. (Which probably wasn't to the company plan) The store was well known for it's SF selection. I continued to do so when I became the Manager.

 

[David cgc]

And there were only four Star Trek titles. Back when I worked for Waldenbooks, we had two shelves devoted to Trek.

They're tougher to find now than they used to be, too. For the past few years, every B&N I've gone to only still shelves "Star Wars" by franchise, and have moved all the other tie-in series to alphabetical by author, so you have to know there's not just a new tie-in you're interested in, but who wrote it, or stumble upon it while browsing aimlessly.

I don't understand that decision, myself. Star Trek, Warhammer, Alien, whatever, no offense to the authors, but casual readers are going to be looking for them because they're interested in the series, not because they want the latest John Jackson Miller novel and don't particularly care if it's about Klingons, Jedi, or Batman. I feel like everyone involved should appreciate that they'll move more books if they put all the Star Trek novels together in a row.

I do try to assume people know how to do their jobs, maybe Barnes and Noble did some testing or research and found that only Star Wars books benefit from being shelved together, and people actually buy fewer Star Trek books when they're next to each other.