Last week I expressed my distaste for Ed Brubaker's decision to not include any extras in his Criminal Trade paperbacks. A few folks were kind enough to reply to this on my Font of Wisdom Message board and they respectfully disagreed with me.  Floppies do benefit from the monthly format...the cliffhanger, the Wednesday trip to the LCS, etc. But the thing is, so many books today are written for the trade and just frankly read better in that format.  The Millar/Hitch Ultimates reads way better as a trade than it did in the "monthly." Which, with Hitch, was damn near yearly. I still haven't read volume 2 of that series. I completely lost interest with all those delays. How about getting a friend to read comics? Are you going to hand them an issue of Powers or are you going to hand them the "Who Killed Retro Girl" trade? Bendis, by the way, does a great job of packing his trades with fun stuff. Powers has one of the best letters pages in comics and he even reprints them in the insanely well-done Powers hardcovers. You're getting the full Powers experience with that hardcover and it's worth every penny. Take out those extras and you're missing out on some really fun stuff. Powers is another book that reads much better in trade format. I was loving the current story arc in Powers but it's been so damn long since the last issue I can't remember what I loved about it. So, again, I'm off to trade waiting. At least that wait will pay-off with a complete storyline. One argument I heard about the no extras in the Criminal trade is because the Icon imprint doesn't market the book for the writers so they have to do everything they can to get folks to buy the monthlies. Look, I sympathize with their plight but honestly... you're getting your creator-owned book distributed by Marvel Comics. These aren't grass roots mini comics they're hand stapling on the kitchen table. One email and they've got a preview on Newsarama. They've got prime space in Previews every month. Go talk to creators doing real independent comics and see how fast they'll switch marketing strategies. It could be worse, guys.  Anyway, getting back to the no-extras in Criminal trade paperbacks, basically what I'm trying to say is why not give people everything today's comic has to offer? Criminal is going to sit on the shelves of dozens of Barnes and Noble and Borders bookstores across the country. Every day people who haven't read a comic in ages and who haven't read a comic ever will pass by the book and while they'll get a really well done comic, they'll be missing out on all the extra stuff they can find in a comic shop. Throw new readers all you've got. Show them the essays, the letters pages covered with fan devotion, show them the sketching process by the artist, and show them the scripts that the artists transformed into amazing art. Show new readers soup to nuts what goes into today's comic book. Even long time fans will love to see it. When I tell people I'm a comic book letterer, you'd be amazed how many people say: "There are people who draw the balloons?" Seriously. They must think the balloons form out of thin air. Maybe there are little elves making them. Either way they are always surprised to hear all the hard work that the writer, penciler, inker, colorist and letterer put into a comic book. Trade paperbacks are a way to show people this and I guarantee they'll be astounded. So that was my round about way of telling Brubaker to throw some extras in the trade. I'll see ya'll next week. Thanks for reading. Font You! -Randy |
If you missed last week's column, then what the hell were you doing? Just kiddin', basically I picked up the latest issue of Criminal and really enjoyed it. The comic was a good read and I really loved the extras in the back.