Marvel Omnibus/Oversized Hardcover Discussion Part V

[Dark Phoenix]

So question for anyone who remembers (I can't seem to find the original article).....
I remember reading a recent statement from someone at Marvel that they would be doing a better job of keeping things in print. Did this apply to Trades only, were omnibus' included or did it not specify?

[merrick97]

BTW I had written a review of the Deathlok Masterworks.

http://www.amazon.com/review/R2BE8SS...wasThisHelpful

Why don't you post the reviews in your signature?

That way people can read them at any time. I think that would be helpful to most people.

[merrick97]

This is really key. Marvel has been cold on 2nd printings of just about everything that wasn't the Astonishing X-Men Omni for years. It seemed they'd just move on with their plans to send material to a new format eventually rather than strike while the iron was hot. If they acknowledge that 2nd prints are on the table for things that sell out in a flash, it gives them an out on printing much shorter first runs of things that could potentially get hot.

There's positives and negatives on this.

As a positive, it positions Marvel to be more reactionary and bust rising aftermarket bubbles on books they could still be making a profit on. Also, the shorter first runs might encourage them to jump to more interesting formats more quickly, as they are with the Waid Daredevil run right now in OHC!

As a negative, this is much more of a periodical-printing mindset. We are definitely going to see minor-league books without a huge following and far below Marvel 2nd/re-print threshhold suddenly become very expensive as fans who missed the initial orders come searching for them.

What is ultimately sad to me is that Marvel thinks something like the Dark Tower Omnibus is a failure they needed to dump below cost. It has been in release a little over a year, but it is classic Stephen King material that will sell to big fans over time. For prestige books like that, Marvel needs to get their heads out of the periodical printing game. This is not Marvel Apes material! It's something they should have had a mind to sell for many years to come as it built positive reviews and word-of-mouth.

I think a true victory for Marvel's new strategy would to be find a NEW FULFILLMENT PARTNER for potential long-term material like licensed properties or evergreen runs like Bendis's DD. Let's get it off of Marvel's palettes so they stop thinking like a periodical company. It's not like every HC of Harry Potter or Hunger Games sold out in the first month of its release - in both instances I bought mine even after the paperback was out! For material like Stephen King or the X-Men, Marvel needs to give their stuff a chance to sell.

I agree with this. They have screwed a lot of people by not offering 2nd printings of things. I have no issue with them making a low initial print run of something and allowing demand to bring them back to a 2nd or 3rd printing.

Right on the freakin money on the Dark Tower omnibus. Marvel SHOULD have sit on it for a little while and allowed word of mouth to get out. Could being owned by Disney have something to do with that mindset?....

[LordJulius]

Did any of you know that there is a "TPB Wiki"? Just came across it by accident. Here's the results for "Omnibus":

http://www.tpbwiki.com/index.php?tit...=Omnibus&go=Go

And here the page for "Marvel Comics":

http://www.tpbwiki.com/index.php?tit...:Marvel_Comics

"Welcome to TPBWiki - a comprehensive guide to comic book trade paperbacks, hardcovers, graphic novels, and other collections. Here you'll find comprehensive information about graphic novels published over the years, including covers (and alternate covers), creative teams (writers and artists), and publication information (cover price, ISBNs, number of pages, and lists of included issues).

TPBWiki is a work in progress, and needs help from you! Editing a wiki is easy and anyone can do it - please visit the Help page for guidelines and markup language help."


That's not a bad idea, actually.

[LordJulius]

Haven't been following this thread too closely over the last few days, so apologies if that has been mentioned before. ToW seems to finally have a Black Friday sale - well, actually it's a 10% off code ("blackfriday12") (my last info was that there was no BF sale on ToW this year). In contrast to CGN, this applies to all books (apart from advance orders) and is valid until the 30th.

[LordJulius]

So question for anyone who remembers (I can't seem to find the original article).....
I remember reading a recent statement from someone at Marvel that they would be doing a better job of keeping things in print. Did this apply to Trades only, were omnibus' included or did it not specify?

"And for both hardcover and paperback, Marvel are planning to keep the books in stock longer."


http://forums.comicbookresources.com...1#post16176063

[Rimmer]

I'd love to believe both Initiative and Academy could make it into Omnis, or even 2 or 3 OHCs each, but I think the sales on both have probably been a bit to soft to get there.

Totally agree, especially on Academy. I've been waiting to see if they'd OHC Academy before buying the smaller HCs, but by now, it's obvious they aren't going to. And omnibusing these? Highly unlikely. YES, they'd fit perfectly, are relatively complete stories that would make a fully readable omnibus, but highly unlikely that's not going to happen due to sales.

Practically none of the initiative characters have been used since, so there's not a lot of "legacy" there to put it in a different form. For Academy, there's always hope that the "Arena" title goes gangbusters and Marvel decides it wants to get some of those characters back out there in prestige formats (same could hold true for Runaways if Arena sells well), but again, I personally think those are all pipe-dreams.

There are so many titles that seem perfect for OHC/Omnibus format, but it never seems to pan out. It's disappointing. I'm not opposed to sitting on the sidelines and waiting for things to get released, being behind on storylines, etc... but you never know what will be released in OHC and what won't (now you can't even discern completely what will be HC vs TPB) so it's a guessing game. And then I think in the end Marvel really loses out. After all this waiting, I've read Academy from my local library, and I don't think I'm even going to buy the actual HCs anymore. I would like to own them, but finances are what they are, and I've read them, so I know what they contain, good stories but not something I HAVE to own. So I think I'm gonna pass. If Marvel would've released them in OHC I'm 100% positive I would own them all.

[LordJulius]

Glued or sewn?

In the MMW forums Jeph York tried to explain when which will be what:

"Oy. You know, you CAN tell from the solicits whether something's going to be glued or sewn, right?

If it's advertised as coming out the same month as the rest of that catalog's stuff (i.e. three months from now), that means it'll be printed in the US and will be glued. If it's advertised as coming out three months AFTER the rest of that catalog's stuff (i.e. SIX months from now), that means it'll be printed in China, and will be sewn..."

"If a book listed in, say, the March 2013 solicits, is listed as "on-sale June 2013" -- three months later than everything else -- that means that book will be sewn. That's your tip-off. You can safely pre-order that book."


"Regardless of whether or not some books printed in the US are sewn, ALL books printed in China are sewn. Which means that if a book is advance-solicted by three extra months, you can be guaranteed that it's China-printed, and therefore sewn -- and can pre-order it with confidence."


http://marvelmasterworksfansite.yuku...3#.ULOV4Gcg8S8

[merrick97]

Glued or sewn?

In the MMW forums Jeph York tried to explain when which will be what:

"Oy. You know, you CAN tell from the solicits whether something's going to be glued or sewn, right?

If it's advertised as coming out the same month as the rest of that catalog's stuff (i.e. three months from now), that means it'll be printed in the US and will be glued. If it's advertised as coming out three months AFTER the rest of that catalog's stuff (i.e. SIX months from now), that means it'll be printed in China, and will be sewn..."

"If a book listed in, say, the March 2013 solicits, is listed as "on-sale June 2013" -- three months later than everything else -- that means that book will be sewn. That's your tip-off. You can safely pre-order that book."


"Regardless of whether or not some books printed in the US are sewn, ALL books printed in China are sewn. Which means that if a book is advance-solicted by three extra months, you can be guaranteed that it's China-printed, and therefore sewn -- and can pre-order it with confidence."


http://marvelmasterworksfansite.yuku...3#.ULOV4Gcg8S8

I should consider adding this to the front page. This is post is helpful to new users.

Thanks Julius!

[LordJulius]

I should consider adding this to the front page. This is post is helpful to new users.

Thanks Julius!

Good idea!

I've had a look at the solicitations for November 2012:

http://marvelousnews.com/index.php?c...8&itemid=15253

- Deadpool: Dead (OHC) - release date:December 26, 2012 --> should be glued (like the recent Deadpool MAX)

- Hulk by Aaron 2 (OHC): release date:January 1, 2013 --> should be glued (and Vol. 1 was, afaik)

- IM Omni by Micheline: release date: February 26, 2013 --> not really three months, but two - and since it's a proper Omni, it should be sewn

- DD by Waid 1 (OHC): release date: February 26, 2013 --> should be sewn

Let's see if that's correct.

http://www.amazon.com/Deadpool-11-Da...=9780785162421

http://www.amazon.com/Incredible-Hul...=9780785161127

http://www.amazon.com/Iron-Michelini...=9780785167129

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/078...=9780785167679

[Dark Phoenix]

"And for both hardcover and paperback, Marvel are planning to keep the books in stock longer."


http://forums.comicbookresources.com...1#post16176063

Thank you Lord Julius...I wonder if this should be interpreted as a new willingness to reprint as opposed to large print runs?

[DrGregatron]

http://www.amazon.com/review/R11VOQW...wasThisHelpful

Here is my review of the Untold Tales of Spider-man Omnibus.

Because many of these books a potential buyer will never see in person before buying, unless you have a LCS with a nice selection of books, it's nice to have a detailed description of what your huge wad of cash is going to buy you. You did a good job here and I liked that you included a description of the book in the last paragraph of your review. That other reviewer for this book, Toban Frost, also did a great job. You might read his review and see what he's done.

Something that was hinted at by both you guys was that Untold Tales was an experiment by Marvel at the time to publish a new set of titles for only 99 cents at a time when Marvel comics were selling for a $1.50. It was Marvel's attempt to attract new readers who might have been put off by Marvel's higher priced books. Untold Tales was the only book that really made any success of this plan and lasted for any significant time. (see the Wikipedia entry on this). Also notice that Toban has tried to explain that this title is special in that it is the only Spidey series to be set in Parker's distant past instead of in the current 90's continuity of the time and that the stories take place "between the issues" of Stan Lee's Silver Age Spider-Man. Because a potential buyer might be unfamiliar with the material, distinguishing this book from a thousand other Spidey collections is important.

Something that is missing from your review is a description of the art. Who are the artists and are they drawing Spider-Man more like Steve Ditko, John Romita(s) or Ramos? Also, I own this book but haven't even read half of it yet. I have, however, noticed that the art reproduction is not up to par for a $100 book. I'll not claiming to have the best eye for these things, but even I could tell that some of the issues turned out kind of fuzzy/blurry and hence it isn't Masterworks quality reproduction. If I reviewed this book I'd mention this and probably knock it down a star because I find it so noticeable. Otherwise, I've enjoyed what I've read so far.

[Rimmer]

So did anyone order anything from the Black Friday sales around the net? Curious what people are getting.

*As an aside, for the first time ever (and I've been doing Ebay for many years), I shipped an item before I got paid for it. Doh!!
On the positive side, it was an auction for two used guitar cables that sold for $5, so I'm not out a ton if the buyer flakes, but still, guess my mind was elsewhere this morning.

[krisis]

So did anyone order anything from the Black Friday sales around the net? Curious what people are getting.

I very nearly pulled the trigger on some MMWs at the CGN sale, but when I read the individual summaries of the issues they collected I realized I wasn't all that interested in the stories - it was just the packrat in me wanting to own MORE STUFF.

I nabbed a cheap pack of four TPBs I had been hunting for on eBay, but otherwise managed to stay purchase-free on the weekend through all of the big sales. Hooray!

Tonight I might try to pull my Expedit a yard out from the wall behind it to see if I can use the reverse side of the shelves to chronologically shelf Avengers books back to back with their x-counterparts :)

[DrGregatron]

BTW I had written a review of the Deathlok Masterworks.

http://www.amazon.com/review/R2BE8SS...wasThisHelpful

I realize no one would ever put this work into an Amazon review, but look at this kickass review this blogger did with this book.

http://longboxgraveyard.com/2012/01/...-for-deathlok/

I searched and searched for some detailed opinions on this book. A lot of times the guys over at the Masterworks board will talk about a book, but never really give a detailed or critical review. And many of the Masterworks don't have many detailed reviews at all on Amazon--notice that neither yours or any of the other reviews are any longer than a few sentences. This blogger's review is by far the best and most detailed review I've seen for any Masterwork volume. This is the kind of info you need before you drop $65 on a book--too bad their weren't more blogs with this caliber of review. Even though he gave the book a "D-" grade, I found I couldn't help myself and I bought a copy last weekend for $23. We'll see how it reads after I get through my most recent pile of books.