I don't really care why they released a bunch of dodgy TPBs -- and I don't think it can be argued that they weren't inferior -- I think the release of all those "Best Of This 'n' That" volumes damaged IDW's reputation and probably sold very poorly.
Also not helping IDW's reputation on the reprints are the creators of the reprinted work speaking out online against the omnibus volumes because IDW isn't paying royalties or sending comp copies. Former IDW editor Andrew Steven Harris has said that IDW is under no obligation to pay the creators royalties, but there is clearly a belief on the part of the creators that they should have seen
something which suggests that IDW is not honoring DC's contracts which, legally, they may not have to do.
My LCS started out ordering 2 or 3 copies of each title, but when it became clear I was the ONLY one buying them (because I'm a sad completist) they quickly reduced their order to a single copy for my hold.
IDW announced a few more omnibuses, and then canceled them. It looks like the next on the schedule is a reprint of IDW-created material.
Interestingly, the latest Edward R. Hamilton catalog I received has most of the IDW
Star Trek and
Transformers trades and omnibuses for five or six dollars apiece, which suggests that they're selling poorly in the book market as they're now reaching the remainder supply chain.
That is one thing that always weighed against the IDW TPB reprints (and this goes for their Doctor Who Classics volumes) -- the lack of any kind of framing material, like an intro are articles about the history, etc.
I contacted IDW editor Denton Tipton recently about the possibility of writing an intro to a volume of
Doctor Who Classics (
Voyager could use an intro extolling the brilliance of Steve Parkhouse, who is, in my opinion, one of
Doctor Who's greatest writers, and also the most unheralded), but I suspect he circular filed my missive. His loss.
Maybe it was a popular Andorian style cut, like Shar's dreadlocks?
