TPB or Albums?: The Debate Continues

[Danehog@aol.com]

In a message dated 3/13/2003 2:11:17 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
deanmary at worldnet.att.net writes:

>I think if the artwork is presented
>in a size bigger than standard comic book size (ala album format) the
>detailed art looks too big to me and I don't appreciate it as much as
>when it is in a smaller size.  

Really? I think that comic book art--ANY comic book art--just generally looks 
better the bigger it gets. The idea of extremely large panels and backgrounds 
just really appeals to me, especially in Barks' style, since it was always so 
incredibly obvious as to where the Ducks WERE.

He put incredible detail into the SURROUNDINGS of the Ducks. Not necessairly 
the backgrounds themselves, but the entire "community" surrounding the Ducks. 
That especially fits well for a large-sized book--i.e., the album format.

>Of course I agree that size can hurt the
>enjoyment of detailed artwork as well.  I don't think Don Rosa's >artwork
>would look at all right in a digest the size of the current Archie
>digests.

Agreed. I really don't like that size at all, unless the artist has a 
particularly clean style, and the lettering is readable. A perfect example of 
"pocket books" done RIGHT would be the Astro Boy trade paperback series Dark 
Horse is doing. It doesn't pain me to read comic book stories in that format 
when it comes to Astro Boy, particularly to the clean style Hayao Miyazaki 
uses.

>I think the "take along" format overall will be OK though.
>One, it is kind of a compromise between the size of a "regular" comic
>book and the size of Archie digests (or for the matter this size of
>Gladstone I digests).

Right. I like the fact that it's a bit bigger than the Archie digests, simply 
for the sake of readability. And they're sure to stand out a bit more, also, 
if they're placed in the same grocery lines. (It especially helps that the 
Disney characters are much more recognizable to the children of today!)

>Two, I don't think Gemstone is planning on
>putting stories in these that have very detailed art.  I imagine they
>will save those for the regular size comics and (hopefully) for TPB's

Hopefully. I haven't seen any art of the stories appearing in the premiere 
issue; does anyone know if it's particularly detailed?

>Another reason I am not a huge fan of the album format is they to me
>at least seem awkward and unwieldy to read.  Of course perhaps a lot >of 
this comes down to being used to the regular comic size so much >that that is 
just what I am most naturally comfortable with.

I read a lot of comic books as well, but frankly, the transition doesn't 
bother me at all. I really like the large size, and they stack well on a 
bookshelf.

>If I have a choice between buying 12 monthly issues or 2
>TPB's a year containing 6 issues each, I would prefer to just have the >2 
TPB's.

I'm just the opposite. I just like the concept of a "pamphlet" that I can 
pick up every few months. It's less intelligence financially, but I just 
enjoy that format more.

>That indeed is what I do with a couple of Marvel titles that
>have TPB's printed very shortly after the individual comics are out.

The only Marvel book I read is The Fantastic Four--do they regularly put out 
TPB reprints of the issues? I like the book, but I've been thinking of 
switching to TPBs if they do exist...

Sure, I like the "pamphlet" format more, but I'm a casual FF reader.

>Why so many comic book companies
>seem to think every story has to be a multiple issue storyline I guess
>is a complaint for another mailing list! :)

This works OCCASIONALLY, but it's unfortunate that most comics now have to do 
this constantly--almost always. What's worse is that the story-lines spread 
out through multiple books. Sure, this increases the complexity of 
story-lines, but it just doesn't work.

This world needs more one-shot comics.
-- 
Thanks for reading this nonsense,

Dane Martin
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