Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by retailer Steve Bennett of Mary Alice Wilson's Dark Star Books in
No matter how noxious a trend is you can be sure of one thing; by the time clueless middle-aged guys try to jump on the bandwagon it will have already passed them by. Case in point -- the special zombie cover of the current issue of
While on the subject of zombies I've spent entirely too much space here writing about a TV series pilot that never made the CBS fall schedule (though recently there was talk about it being picked up as a midseason replacement), Babylon Fields. It was about the living dead who rose from their graves not to consume human brains but find emotional closure from their loved ones. On the other hand, I've written so much about it I'd be remiss if I didn't let you know over on the TV Week Website, James Hibbards devoted his October 15th column to the show and imbedded in it were several clips from the pilot revealing (a) the zombies, though certainly worse for wear didn't look much like the Night of The Living Dead variety, (b) the program was also a police procedural (in one clip a zombie asks a cop to help solve his murder and (c) yes, zombies apparently 'do it.'
Now as you probably know from reading previous columns, I've never been exactly what you'd call an early adopter of new trends and one I never thought I'd fall for was recent superhero material being put out in hardcover. Instead of just another format it seemed, to me, like another easy revenue stream for publishers trying to sell ever increasing amounts of merchandise to an ever shrinking audience. I mean, if only 'x' number of fans buy 'x' numbers of these volumes per year, well it's hard to ignore that kind of money and if the shills... er... customers keep buying hardcover copies of Marvel Zombies why should the publisher EVER bring out a trade paperback version?
As a retailer I saw these hardcovers as a special order item, like statues of those really weird blockhead toy things rather than something that would sell rapidly off the shelves. Now, at least for us, things like the DC Absolute Editions and Archives and Marvel Masterworks will probably always be specialty items, but as the year progressed and I checked the sales figures, it's become clear at Dark Star there hasn't been near the amount of sales resistance against hardcovers I had anticipated.
It's understandable; generally for only a few dollars more than you'd pay for a trade paperback edition you get a handsome, well made volume with good paper and even better binding. I myself have succumbed to their charms; it was pretty hard resisting Marvel's Agents of Atlas hardcover; I mean sure I wanted to do my part to support a great, quirky series (in hopes they'd make more), but on a purely fiscal level it's quite a bargain. For $24.95 you not only got the entire miniseries but ancillary material as well as reprints of the characters' appearances from the 50s. Or Volume 1 of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's All-Star Superman; at first I had quibbles about the slimness of the tome and how quickly it had been solicited.
But on quality alone these weren't just my favorite superhero comics of the year, they were among my favorite comics, full stop, period, plus when I thought about how often I found myself wanting to reread a certain issue and was unable to find it in my long boxes, well, it was well worth the price.
With this in mind I recently did something extreme; I bought a copy of the special hardcover, slipcover (rather expensive) edition of JLA/Avengers. Mostly I did it out of frustration; I foolishly sold my copies of the individual issues back to the store when they were (theoretically) worth (relatively) big bucks and now I'm unable to find a copy of #3 for love or money. Sure I could have gone the way of eBay but well, see the first sentence of paragraph four of this column*. And since it doesn't look like Marvel and DC are going to kiss, make up and put out a trade paperback collection any time soon...
OK, I used my employee discount so the sticker shock wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been, but...all such concerns faded away when it actually arrived only a week after I placed my order. I have to admit I geeked. It's a sincerely beautiful thing deserving this kind of format.
Because in many ways it presents the death of the superhero comic book as we know it.
I'll explain why next time.
* I may end up buying something online this year for the first time after all if Amazon America ever gets copies of the Beano Annual 2008 (which features a major throw down between Billy the Cat and General Jumbo).
The opinions expressed in this Talk Back article are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.