Why weren't tradebacks here sooner?

[Wild_Child]

Superhero comics have been around since the 30's.It wasn't until the I think the 90's that we had tradebacks. Why did it take so long for for tradebacks to come about?

[Wild_Child]

Maybe they didn't think of the idea sooner.

[MykeHavoc]

Comics weren't really a respected medium until the age of the "graphic novel" in the mid 80's, which is when collected editions started popping up. I have those "Greatest Batman/Superman/Joker/Team-Up/etc." books and those are from around the time Dark Knight Returns hit. The "prestige" format sort of paved the way.

[The Adventurer]

Why do you keep saying Tradebacks?

To answer your question its because at one time comics were seen as disposable entertainment, and the way consumers bought comics wasn't conducive to the economics of collected editions. Its the same reason that many older TV shows were lost forever, nobody thought old material had any future value to anybody.

[Wild_Child]

Why do you keep saying Tradebacks?

.

My mistake

[The Adventurer]

No. Its not a mistake. Its just a really odd name. I don't think I've ever heard anyone refer to trades by that before.

[the4thpip]

Oddly enough, DC and Marvel comics often got published in trade paperback editions in France and Germany as early as the 70s.

[carabas]

Oddly enough, DC and Marvel comics often got published in trade paperback editions in France and Germany as early as the 70s.

Not that odd, considering that's pretty much the normal format for comics around here.

As for the OP'sq question, DC trades are so tardy because the DC Powers That Be believe easily available trades take away from the floppies, and they looove their floppies...

[the4thpip]

Not that odd, considering that's pretty much the normal format for comics around here.

The album format with 2 to 3 American issues included maybe emulated the GN format common in Europe, but in France they also released thick collections of several previously released issues of the Titans and Strange magazines - something I don't know from European comics otherwise.

[MajorHoy]

Also, who would they be marketed to, and where would they be sold back then?

I don't know how many individual book stores would go out of their way to order them . . . actual "comic book shops" were often still in their early stages in the 1970's and early 1980's (with more newsstand distribution widely available). And Al Gore hadn't invented the internet yet (), so no amazon.com-like options back then. (You'd actualy have to do catalog mail order from certain places if you couldn't physically go to an actual brick-and-mortar shop.)

[carabas]

The album format with 2 to 3 American issues included maybe emulated the GN format common in Europe, but in France they also released thick collections of several previously released issues of the Titans and Strange magazines - something I don't know from European comics otherwise.

Oh, I miss those... I had a stack of them. I really wonder whatever happened to them all of a sudden.

[Kymeric]

It wasnt till 2000 before tpbs became really widespread. Before that it was just big stories. Days of future past, AoA, etc. Back then if you missed an issue you were SCREWED. Its nice to be able to catch up quickly with tpbs cheap via amazon. If money gets tight again I feel able to stop buying, knowing Ill be able to catch up 6 months later when the trade comes out.

In some ways the industrys resistance to TPBs reflects their resistance to digital. It was screamed that it would ruin the direct market, but it actually increased profits.

[Mat001]

In the 70's, maybe back in the 60's, paperback books were put out that reprinted newspaper comic strips such as "Peanuts", "Haggar The Horrible" and "Garfield". Usually about a whole year's worth of material. In about the same time period, actual comic book issues were reprinted in this format. Usually about four comics, which were in black and white and had two panels per page. Maybe three. I own a Batman book with this format from the late 70's and had read a book collecting "World Of Krypton" at my elementary school library in 86.

The standard comic book trade didn't start until the 1980's, when DC and Marvel both decided to reprint the comics as is, minus the ads. Before then, none of the companies really thought about collecting them that way. They were just content to put it out in the first place and left it at that. Jack Kirby was one of the first creators who wanted to go the trade route when he was developing "The Fourth World" books. It just took a while to get to that point.

[Wild_Child]

No. Its not a mistake. Its just a really odd name. I don't think I've ever heard anyone refer to trades by that before.

my friends tell me i have a strange way with words

[nightw1ng]

my friends tell me i have a strange way with words

You were mostly right. You just forgot to include "paper," as they are called Trade Paperbacks or TPBs, not tradebacks. I think most people understood what you meant. A lot of people just call them "trades" or "graphic novels."