i've read a handful of the IDW comics but for various reasons i'm just not making it to the comic book store every month so i'm missing issues. i've picked up the first couple of trade paperback reprints which is great for me and plan on keeping up that way. my question is does anyone know if the current plan is to reprint all the comics in that fashion or will i still be missing some stuff?
A concern I'd have, as a completist, is that too many people holding off on buying individual issues in favour of buying the graphic novel reprint, a month after its mini-series concludes, reduces the sales figures for the comics. When WildStorm let their license lapse, their last few mini-series didn't make it into collections for the USA. eg. the great "Star Trek: Divided We Fall" TNG/DS9 mini-series crossover made it in graphic novel form in Germany ("Symbiose"), but not in English. Fans holding out for US reprint volumes had to scramble to get individual issues after all.
I hear what you're saying Ian but I'd really rather not buy the same comic twice. I personally prefer the trade paperback form having the stories collected. I think IDW does an excellent job with that also. Kevin
I also hear what your saying but if that happens I'll scramble to get the last few issues instead of scrambling every month. Out of the handful I got I already had to settle for one of the comics that had a publicity photo of Wil Wheaton instead of some cool art and I never could find the Klingon language version of one of the Klingon comic. And if I don't make it that month, which was common, I needed to hit 2 or 3 other stores to find a back issue of a missing comic. My favorite memories of looking for ST comics: Asking a clerk if by chance he had a version of the comic that had art of the cover instead of the Wheaton photo and getting a very annoyed response "if you didn't see it i don't have it". Literally being shoved out of the way by some pot bellied middle aged gray haired beard down to his chest guy as he was in a hurry to get the latest of some comic while i was looking over the shelves. Yeah, I was going to make that a regular stop every month... I'm more than happy to wait for the reprints which are easier to find.
^ I've often felt that the main reason why trade paperbacks have become so ubiquitous and popular is because it means people could read comic books without having to actually set foot in a comic shop. The concept of comic stores did wonders for the industry in the 1970s, but the reality of comic stores have done a great deal to keep people away from comic books....
In what way? Just because of the specialization, meaning that fewer comics are to be found in stores frequented by the general public, or is there something bad about the reality of comic stores?
did you read my comment about my experiences in comic book stores? that rude clerk was acting that way AFTER i put about $25 worth of merch on the counter and i asked if he had a different version of something i was intending to buy. something must work for the guy since that store has been there for years but i don't go out of my way to shop there and since it is out of my way, i don't shop there. lots of book stores carry the trade versions of comics so i don't have a problem finding them. there is an awesome comic book store in berkeley but i just don't go there often enough to pick up comics on a monthly or even a bi-monthly basis.
As ronny said, I was using his experience as an example of the way far too many comic shops are run, to wit, badly.
Even the shops that are organized, clean, and well-run attract enough "weirdos" that a good percentage of the general public does not want to shop there.
Oh, sorry. I skimmed over ronny's post since I was surfing during a commercial and the show had come back on, so I missed the gist of it.
The guy ronny is talking about sounds like the guy who ran the comics store I used to frequent in Dover, DE. He was so rude to his customers it was almost performance art - if he hadn't been the only game in town (*and* offered an obscenely good discount), I wouldn't have shopped there myself.
Wow, sounds like I'm pretty lucky. The guy who runs the nearest comic shop has been pretty cool the 3 or 4 times I've been there, but I don't really get to that part of town much so I don't make it there very often. I've also been the only person in there those few times, so I haven't had to deal with any other rude people.
The guy who runs Comic Book Ink. in Tacoma WA is a real customer-service kinda guy, and all of his staff are extremely helpful. The owner knows Brian Michael Bendis, and Bendis pops in every once in a while and signs everything that he wrote that's in stock, knowing that the store will just charge cover price for it.
DJ's Universal Comics in Universal City, CA is like that - the owner, Cat, is an awesomely cool individual who will make sure that all his customers are taken care of, and the occasional writer who stops in (Jeph Loeb and Geoff Johns, quite frequently) occasionally sign their stuff while they're in the store, as well. I miss that store...I just moved across the country, and although there are tons of stores in NYC and NJ, none of them are "my" store, if you know what I mean.
it's not just comic stores that sometimes have issues. check out the yelp reviews for the store in SF that as far as i know has the largest selection of used ST books. http://www.yelp.com/biz/forever-after-books-san-francisco i keep hoping to find another store.