Camelot Falls: Too disjointed?

[Will.S]

Certain books including the Superman books have fallen prey to this trend by having arcs or stories get cut up by in between "filler" and event crossover books like Countdown. Lately Action Comics had to get cut up and has an Annual in the works to finish up the Johns/Donner/Kubert stuff. The same thing happened to Wonder Woman and now Camelot Falls, it's pretty annoying when you're reading the books as monthlies because then you bunch together the stories the numbering will skip and it just messes up the order.

The first trade is out for the first arc of Camelot falls but the stories in the second wavers for 2 issues until we see one more issue and then an annual. The only way to notice them is when you see Carlos Pacheco's name and art on the interiors since you know that Kurt is continuing the story with him.

The books basically go like this....

Camelot Falls: Book 2

Superman #662
Superman #663
Superman #664
Superman #667
Superman Annual #13 (2008)

#668, #689, & #670 are a separate arc called "The Third Kryptonian".

So what do you guys think? Are the 2 issues breaking up an arc on top of the resolution being in an Annual too much or is it not that big of a problem? Personally I think it's just giving us better reasons to just wait for the trades where they'll be collected in the order that they were intended to be rather than the way they've been released.

I understand it when artists fall behind and they delay the issue or whatnot but I'd rather have that than put in some filler (regardless of whether it was good or not) and have a disjointed arc. DC has become pretty lax in that regard and it kind of shows that the editorial planning has gotten much worse.

[Carter Hall]

I voted "yes" on distributing the story better but I still really loved the story all told. I think Kurt Busiek is a great writer and that Carlos Pacheco has really improved as an artist, especially with Superman. I prefered his Superman in this arc far more than in Superman/Batman 14-18 (Absolute Power). He's moved up my list quite a bit. For me, he's now become one of those artists whose books I will consider buying just because he's drawing them.

I think the Busiek/Pacheco teamup was a dynamite combination. I wish they were the regular writer/artist for the forseeable future. I'm not a fan of Renato Guedes and I was really disappointed to hear he'd be drawing Superman next year as the regular artist.

But I digress. Camelot Falls was great stuff. To me, it was a great story, great art, and had a very balanced and in-character Superman, which I really appreciated. Hats off to the creative team!

[MaxofSteel]

I voted "yes" on distributing the story better but I still really loved the story all told. I think Kurt Busiek is a great writer and that Carlos Pacheco has really improved as an artist, especially with Superman. I prefered his Superman in this arc far more than in Superman/Batman 14-18 (Absolute Power). He's moved up my list quite a bit, with some great work on this story.

I think the Busiek/Pacheco teamup was a dynamite combination. I wish they were the regular writer/artist for the forseeable future. I'm not a fan of Renato Guedes and I was really disappointed to hear he'd be drawing Superman next year as the regualr artist.

But I digress. Camelot Falls was great stuff. To me, it was a great story, great art, and had a very balanced and in-character Superman, which I really appreciated. Hats off to the creative team!

Seconded. Completely. :D

[sgt pepper]

Obviously, the release schedule was just stupid, and yes, that made the reading experience disjointed. In fact, I suppose that's the definition of disjointed. No poll needed.
But your poll seems to ask (or at least leaves open the interpretation) whether the story itself is disjointed, and we all know that it was not Busiek's fault and the story (when read together) seems to flow nicely to me.

[Will.S]

But your poll seems to ask (or at least leaves open the interpretation) whether the story itself is disjointed, and we all know that it was not Busiek's fault and the story (when read together) seems to flow nicely to me.
It's more of a question about the release of the story than the story itself. I personally liked it a lot but DC should have had some issues in the can or let Carlos catch up with the title so that it would read better in single issues as a continuous arc.

Plus I think that with Camelot Falls Book 1 it will read better in collected format since you have book 1 and book 2 right there.

[nuclearman]

.. read the annual last night and must admit I enjoyed the run ... I didn't mind that it was a separated because it was one of those story lines that I was enjoying... still would read very well in trade.

[vazel]

I don't have a problem with fillers. But I hate tie-ins. I hate tie-ins even when it doesn't break-up a current arc.