Marvel NOW Trades: Iron Man gets HC, but FF gets TPB???

[randomengine]

What is the deal with this?

Iron Man is getting a HC release, but Fantastic Four/FF is getting a combined TPB release, but no hardcover.

What does this mean?

Is there no faith in the quality of the Fantastic Four?

[funeralthirst7]

It's probably based on sales of the current titles and projected sales of the collection as well as Marvels current policy on which books get hard cover vs tpb. Iron Man is the better seller and Marvel probably has reason to believe that there is a strong chance of selling hard cover Iron Man books whereas FF doesn't sell as well. If the FF tpb sold really well then Marvel might consider a hard cover later.

[Timmy]

It would not shock me if all of the 3.99 got HC and the 2.99 got TPB. Double dip.

[randomengine]

It would not shock me if all of the 3.99 got HC and the 2.99 got TPB. Double dip.

I thought this might be the case, but it isn't. Daredevil gets HCs. I think it is a case by case basis.

[Timmy]

I thought this might be the case, but it isn't. Daredevil gets HCs. I think it is a case by case basis.

Then it must be a combo of sales & critical acclaim

if a book sells well or has people clamoring for it, why not make it more expensive?

[sparticus]

To be honest, I'd rather everything came out straight into TPB and then later larger, more exhaustive hardbacks. Trades are cheaper, and sometime the HC means they come out a year after the arc in floppies.

[Nova2814.1]

This came up in an interview with Marvel's Head of Sales last month and he said that fewer series would be getting the premiere hardcover treatment, but I can't remember if he said why. And if the catalogue of Marvel's bookstore distributor is accurate, it seems that Superior Spider-Man, Ultimates, Ultimate X-Men and Wolverine & the X-Men are all going straight to paperback too.

[Rimmer]

This came up in an interview with Marvel's Head of Sales last month and he said that fewer series would be getting the premiere hardcover treatment, but I can't remember if he said why. And if the catalogue of Marvel's bookstore distributor is accurate, it seems that Superior Spider-Man, Ultimates, Ultimate X-Men and Wolverine & the X-Men are all going straight to paperback too.

I think, at least for now, the days of getting a complete ongoing series/run in HC are over, UNLESS you follow one of the extremely top tier books, like Avengers, New Avengers, IM, Cap... The hope would be if the series that comes out in TPB does extremely well, either in floppy/digital sales, or TPB sales, that they'd combine 2-3 TPBs into an oversized HC down the road, but I wouldn't bank on that always being the case.

And as far as critical acclaim, Fraction's Hawkeye book has gotten TONS of love, and even it's still going straight to TPB. So I wouldn't take it personally, regarding F4/FF and Marvel thinking its quality is lacking or anything like that.

[Sissel]

The real question is: Who is going to buy an expensive HC edition that only contains pages drawn by Greg Land? I'm losing my faith on the human race. xD

[Drewman]

To be honest, I'd rather everything came out straight into TPB and then later larger, more exhaustive hardbacks. Trades are cheaper, and sometime the HC means they come out a year after the arc in floppies.

I agree with this. I don't want HCs of just 3-4 issues. I prefer oversized HCs of runs that are really great.

[FanboyStranger]

The real question is: Who is going to buy an expensive HC edition that only contains pages drawn by Greg Land? I'm losing my faith on the human race. xD

Iron Man 3 is coming out this summer. I'm guessing Marvel is banking that there's a book store crowd with little knowledge of comics beyond the movies that are going to scoop this up.

There's a bunch of IM products coming out around that time: Chaykin's Iron Man: Season One, the Layton/Micheline Omnibus, etc.

[Iron Maiden]

Iron Man 3 is coming out this summer. I'm guessing Marvel is banking that there's a book store crowd with little knowledge of comics beyond the movies that are going to scoop this up.

There's a bunch of IM products coming out around that time: Chaykin's Iron Man: Season One, the Layton/Micheline Omnibus, etc.

This......the Fantastic Four don't have anything coming out until maybe 2014-2015. And since Marvel Studios doesn't own the Fantastic Four movie rights that might not even help either.