Polar Bear
04-03-2008, 09:56 AM
Here's what Paul Levitz said on Newsarama:
I think the details have all been announced in various places, but the essence is that in recent years the Archives sales have slowed down as we’ve gotten most of the key issues in print, and fans interested in older material have been overwhelmed by the choice of good stuff available. It’s been almost 20 years since the Archives began, and the world has changed. When I was in fandom, I could fit all the books about or reprinting classic comic books on a single bookshelf and have room left over. Now, happily, you can fill a room with them.
So we’re taking a few steps to revitalize and change the program: increasing the discount available to retailers who buy them on a non-returnable basis, offering up some of our existing inventory as promotional copies. narrowing the number of new volumes per year, and taking advantage of the changes in scanning technology to go to versions of the original pages that are more direct scans rather than reconstructed ones that were intended to recreate the original color process (think the material in our Chronicle Plastic Man history rather than in Plastic Man Archives).
Filling in the gap, we’re adding more high end hardcovers of classic DC material, but selected for significant runs or stories rather than with the completeness of the Archives. The Len & Berni Swamp Thing hardcover that Bill requested will be coming as part of this line.
Glad to see they're not dropping them altogether.
What's a Chronicle Plastic Man history?
And when will they do Rex, the Wonder Dog?
I think the details have all been announced in various places, but the essence is that in recent years the Archives sales have slowed down as we’ve gotten most of the key issues in print, and fans interested in older material have been overwhelmed by the choice of good stuff available. It’s been almost 20 years since the Archives began, and the world has changed. When I was in fandom, I could fit all the books about or reprinting classic comic books on a single bookshelf and have room left over. Now, happily, you can fill a room with them.
So we’re taking a few steps to revitalize and change the program: increasing the discount available to retailers who buy them on a non-returnable basis, offering up some of our existing inventory as promotional copies. narrowing the number of new volumes per year, and taking advantage of the changes in scanning technology to go to versions of the original pages that are more direct scans rather than reconstructed ones that were intended to recreate the original color process (think the material in our Chronicle Plastic Man history rather than in Plastic Man Archives).
Filling in the gap, we’re adding more high end hardcovers of classic DC material, but selected for significant runs or stories rather than with the completeness of the Archives. The Len & Berni Swamp Thing hardcover that Bill requested will be coming as part of this line.
Glad to see they're not dropping them altogether.
What's a Chronicle Plastic Man history?
And when will they do Rex, the Wonder Dog?