I think that now is a better time than ever to get into comic books. Despite the declining sales numbers on the monthly titles (arguably even after the sales explosion caused by the New 52), it seems like the Big Two are devoting a lot more time and effort into collecting their back catalogues. If you are interested in an old comic, it’s more likely than ever that you’ll be able to find it collected.
The past few years have been something of a treasure trove for fans, and for those new to the world of comic books. Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing has been collected in hardcover for the first time. All of James Robinson’s Starman is finally available, after years of incomplete trades. Neil Gaiman’s Sandman is available in Absolute Editions. The Marvel Omnibus program is turning up all manner of surprises – there’s a surreal Rick Remender Punisher Omnibus in the works, and Hickman’s Secret Warriors is being collected. Y: The Last Man and Ex Machina are both completed in deluxe hardcovers, and 100 Bullets is going the same way.
Even older comics are being lovingly restored. To celebrate the release of The Dark Knight Rises, DC is pumping out hardcovers collecting the work of respected artists. There’s Legends of the Dark Knight: Marshall Rogers, Tales of the Batman: Gene Colan, Vol. 1 and even Tales of the Batman: Don Newton, Volume 1 already released. Legends of the Dark Knight: Jim Aparo is on the way, collecting the artist’s run on The Brave and the Bold. So, with all this celebrating going on, I feel kinda bad to be the one to ask it, but why the hell can’t DC comics put covers in their hardcovers?
Tales of the Batman: Gene Colan contained the issue covers punctuating the stories in question, but – for some reason – Legends of the Dark Knight: Marshall Rogers shunted them to the back of the book as a gallery. Tales of the Batman: Don Newton doesn’t use the covers to punctuate the stories either. I have to admit, I find this approach incredibly frustrating when reading a collected edition.
Indeed, it’s not the first time that DC have attempted something similar. While the Vertigo trades of Y: The Last Man included the covers between the individual issues, Ex Machina simply ran the issues all together, collecting the covers at the end of the final couple of collections. However, I can understand why Ex Machina might be considered to read well that way. It is, after all, a book with extended story arcs and you could treat the individual issues as chapters in that story.
However, even if such arguments were persuasive, I like the idea of using covers to “break up” those chapters. When I put down a collected edition, I like to know where I stopped – the covers are a way of doing that. More than that, though, they help with pacing. Given the serial nature of monthly comic books, issues tend to end on cliffhangers or a dramatic beat. Including a cover lets the reader know that it’s a break in the story, that the last page was a cliffhanger rather than just a thrilling story beat. There is a difference – and several of the pages in Ex Machina read quite differently if you know there’s a break between them and the ones following.
Still, while one could make an excuse for modern comic books, that doesn’t really work for earlier editions. Most of the stories in Legends of the Dark Knight: Marshall Rogers were illustrated before trade paperbacks became popular. Even if one does follow the “chapter” argument, the book contains at least three larger stories (Strange Apparitions, Legends of the Dark Knight: Siege and Dark Knight Detective) as well as some smaller one-shots. None of these are broken up in the book itself, making it read quite disjointedly – it’s often difficult to tell when you’re moved from one to the other. Indeed, the covers from Rogers’ Siege arc aren’t even included at all.
It makes even less sense with something like Tales of the Batman: Don Newton, which is a more disjointed collection of done-in-one’s and smaller stories without the same sort of over-arching thematic and plot elements as Rogers’ and Engelhart’s Strange Apparitions. These were written before the idea of a trade paperback became popular, so the writing doesn’t facilitate this sort of editing.
I can’t understand why DC wouldn’t include the covers where they fit originally. After all, there are several blank pages in the collections, so it isn’t for lack of space. Even if it were, I would gladly pay a little bit more in order to get a higher-quality product. Besides, the Legends of the Dark Knight: Marshall Rogers collection contains most of the covers, just towards the back of the book. So I don’t think space is the primary issue here.
Is it an attempt by editorial to sell these collections as “graphic novels”, rather than comic books? Is it an attempt to trick unwary customers into believing that the collection is all one story? I can’t believe that customers would be so easily fooled, and the back of the book does list the issues contained. Are they worried that these cover might put readers off, or throw them out of the story? They don’t put off the readers of Grant Morrison’s Batman books, being published at the moment. These are books that are so popular that they are being reprinted in multiple formats.
I want to love DC’s collected editions, but the fact is that their collections of earlier material still lag in quality behind those produced by Marvel. It isn’t just the issue of the covers, though that is probably my own biggest issue. It’s the fact that they still use glued binding, instead of sewn binding – it’s this that made the gutter-loss on the New 52 omnibus so frustrating, and will probably be just as bad on the Infinite Crisis collection. Even on smaller books (New Teen Titans Omnibus or The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Omnibus) it’s still a problem. I can only imagine how tough the upcoming Invisibles Omnibus will be to read. I think collectors would be willing to pay a little more to get a better product in the end. After all, pretty much all of Marvel’s omnibus collections go out of print phenomenally fast.
The irony is, of course, that DC actually have a better track record with trade paperbacks. Watchmen is really the book that proved the trade paperback market was truly viable, and the company has a huge number of “evergreen” titles in its back catalogue. Despite producing higher quality products, Marvel are still at a disadvantage, even later.
Still, I can’t help but observe that I’d be a lot more excited about DC’s efforts with their back catalogue if they put a bit more care into it.
Interesting article and some great points. I agree with you on the binding; some two-page spreads in Batman: The Black Mask were murdered by “gutter-loss.” Pity.
Don’t agree with you, though, on the covers; I like having covers at the end of the book. My anecdotal experience is that DC usually puts the covers between the “chapters” (issues) and I don’t like it; I’d rather take my own reading breaks in the book and imagine the collection more like a graphic novel.
Or, if integrating the covers is necessary (after all, novels say “Chapter” in big letters), what really drives me crazy is DC including issue credits in each collected issue of late. We know who wrote the book — it says so in the first pages — and these repeating credits (especially when credits at the end of one book and the beginning of another run against each other) absolutely take me out of the book. My big pet peeve right now.
Thanks, CE!
I don’t know – I can understand leaving the covers out of newer editions so story arcs read as one single story. I’d still rather they were included, if only for pacing purposes. However, when it comes to classic stories, where these are very definitely individual stories (with many different authors working on the “Legends of the Dark Knight” books that are grouped by artist, for example), I think they should be left in.
But yes, DC definitely needs to work on their binding – especially if they want bigger books, as the line seems to be moving towards. Marvel sew their omnibuses, and it’s almost perfect, but I can’t imagine how difficult it will be to read Infinite Crisis with glued binding, or Grant Morrison’s Invisibles with glued binding.