First off, I want to thank Margie for her support in this, on a bunch of different levels. Things have been increasingly stressful at her office, between organizational conflicts and a Huge, Massive, Critically Important Project that she’s been thrown into, and it would have been very easy for her to say, “Dave, I can’t afford to watch after Katherine all day (and probably most of Sunday) while you do this silly thing.”
Instead, she just said, “Cool,” made sure I had snacks and stuff available, and urged me (repeatedly) to get to sleep early last night.
She’s swell.
The main focus this Blogathon is review of graphic novels and trade paperbacks. Despite the ongoing publication of monthly comics (“pamphlets,” as they are sometimes disparagingly known), a lot of the money and focus (and surely shelf space in book stores) goes to TPBs. They let you read a bigger chunk of story, obviously, and they stack on a bookshelf.
They’ve also, it’s said, warped the creative process by encouraging comics creators to write stories around 6-issue “arcs” that will then go into a standard-length TPB. I suppose that’s warping along the same lines of encouraging comics creators to write stories that end in a cliff-hanger ever 32 pages (“Oops, sorry, pal, we just reduced the page-count this month — lose two pages”).
The biggest advantage that TPBs have over monthly comics is that they are much more easily reread. Normal comics accumulate like dirt, and keeping them safely stored (bagged, boarded, boxed, whatever, let alone slabbed) makes them hard to reread. TPBs, on the other hand, sit on the book shelf, and can be pulled down at any time for rereading. And I do.
A major problem facing the comics industry is that monthly comics remain the standard bread and butter. But those comics then go into TPBs, which many people prefer to buy. If folks know that this particular Amazing Spider-Man comic is going to be showing up in a TPB in 6 months or so, some are disincented to buy the monthly comic (why buy the same material twice?). Which makes the series circulation drop. Which makes the likelihood of a TPB actually decrease.
Which do I do? Sometimes both — read the monthly ongoing comic, and, if I really enjoyed it, buy the TPB collection when it comes out so that I can more easily read it over and over again. Occasionally I’ll wait just for the TPB, if I feel I can. That runs the risk of having the book cancelled before the last few (or more) issues get published, but that’s just the way it is.
More often, of course, I read a monthly comic and never consider getting the TPB. Just not worth it. Fair entertainment, but not something I’m going to go back to any time soon.
I do end up with a lot of TPBs, though, since I read a lot of comics (we’ll get back to that anon). So I’m going to be reviewing them.
I used to do a lot of comics reviews. I’ve slacked off over the last year or so, for reasons I can’t name. But when I heard that the Blogathon was coming back, I was … well, disincented to do any more comics reviews, so as to save material for the ‘thon. See? It really does happen that way.
The specific format has changed over time, but here’s the basics for my “grading”:
Review code format (each is ranked 1-5, mediocre to faboo):
[writing / art / suited for a new reader to jump on? / suited for hooking a non-comics reader?]
Those are the two most important questions about any particular comic or trade — is it written well, does it have good art — coupled with two important functional questions:
- If you’ve not been reading this title before, would this be a good jumping-on point? This isn’t a quality question, but more of a buying guide sort of thing. Cerebus might have been the most wonderful comic of all time (it wasn’t, but for argument’s sake), but coming in on issue #499 would probably have been difficult, given all that had come before. Creators can finesse around this somewhat by including “what has come before” and cast info at the beginning of the book.
If you are a comics reader, consider this ranking if I inspire you to pick up a comic.
- If you are are a comic book reader, would this be accessible to or enjoyable for you? This question can be translated more crudely as, “Is this a spandex slugfest?” Comics do come in a lot of varieties other than the biff-bam-pow type. Folks who don’t read about super-heroes … usually don’t want to read about super-heroes and their super-heroics. This ranking can be used as an inspiration on whether to give the book it references to someone who just isn’t “into” comics, or who thinks they are all about super-heroes battering and blasting each other. The recommendations might include some super-hero books, if their appeal is broad enough, but will likely focus on other types of titles.
I’ll also try to provide info on the creators, as well as an Amazon link to go and buy the thing for yourself if you want.
Ah, yes — I guess you could argue that this means I’m being mercenary. Over the last two years, though, I’ve made a total of $20-odd on Amazon references. I’d love to make more, but I don’t count on it. I’m just too lazy at this point to change the way I code the links.
And, of course, there are many other good sources of comics online (or even, gasp, at your local comics store) to buy these from. Don’t feel you have to do it via Amazon.
But it is convenient … heh, heh, heh.
No reviews this time, it looks like. I’ll get started on them next post.