Lack of 'Previously...' Pages

[Parch]

I think it's foolish to basically say to a new reader "you do the extra work to find out what's going on" instead of having the company do it for you.

Yes it is. DC is terrible at recaps, so for a new reader they'll find other companies much more reader friendly.
For those who buy back issues or just random issues it can really be confusing. I recall finishing DC comics from the 90's and having absolutely no idea what was going on because it was in the middle of some arc or event. Very new reader unfriendly. It means immediate dislike for the company.

It doesn't have to be a full page. Even just a paragraph can describe what's been going on. It's not hard and it's not a lot of extra work or space. Assuming that the price will go up a buck just because of a recap is ridiculous.

The lack of a recap is one of the biggest peeves for me. I thinks it's very bad business for a comic company trying to attract new readers.

[batGRRRl4ever]

I've heard that Dan Didio (DC's previous Editor in Chief) really dislikes recap pages. I think his reasoning was that having a recap page implies that you've missed a lot and would therefore NEED a recap page to get caught up, and I know that DC editorial said that they wanted to ensure that with the New 52, each individual issue could be new reader friendly. I don't really think the latter has come true, but with the oldest New 52 series at only 17 issues long now, it's not like you have that much to catch up with.

Well that's just frankly rather stupid. A recap page on a book I haven't read before lends me to the idea much more to try out a book or not as it quite quickly gets me up to speed.

[AgentFelix]

I've tried getting into Marvel and I never found their recap pages to be helpful.

Now what Marvel did in the 90's with that fold out cover? That I loved. The explanation of the plot was lengthy, but I also enjoyed them explaining the characters in the book. Especially X-Men. Hated jumping into that series and not knowing any of the characters, but at least those character descriptions gave me an idea of who they were/motivations/powers/etc.

The character aspect of the recap pages is exponentially better when applied to a team book. NAME/REAL NAME/POWERS. Easy peazy

[RKitch]

Trades bro. Trades.

This.

As someone in a similar situation with a student budget, I've bought the trade for a bunch of different series and bought every other issue. I did that with Batwoman and Wonder Woman. Also, a good idea is looking at announced trades and seeing when they end and start with the next issue. I've done that too with Aquaman, Batman, and Justice League. In addition, take advantage of #1s and new waves.

[Mr. Holmes]

I've tried getting into Marvel and I never found their recap pages to be helpful.

Yeah they're not very helpful at all. You can only recap so much on a page, and Marvel has so much continuity that you need to know to follow.

[RKitch]

Marvel's recap pages really seem like a tv show recap, but with a different shading.

[Parch]

New readers don't buy trades. They'll buy a random issue to see if they like the title. Make a bad first impression and they'll never buy it again.

[MajorHoy]

New readers don't buy trades. They'll buy a random issue to see if they like the title. Make a bad first impression and they'll never buy it again.

Plus, if too many people are buying the trades instead of the single issues, couldn't that mean DC isn't seeing enough initial interest in the series, so it could get cancelled?

[Hulk_Is]

Recap pages are terrible. That is one issue I take with Marvel.

[RKitch]

Plus, if too many people are buying the trades instead of the single issues, couldn't that mean DC isn't seeing enough initial interest in the series, so it could get cancelled?

And that's why I'm trying to convince my friends to read issues. Time to break out the guilt trip. If only they read issues...

[Goggindowner]

And that's why I'm trying to convince my friends to read issues. Time to break out the guilt trip. If only they read issues...

Eh, DC and Marvel just need to be more diligent about getting trades out quicker. There is no reason a trade collecting six to eight issues should come out any later than six weeks after the last collected issue hits the stand. Image had trades of the Walking Dead hitting shelves about a month after the last collected issue was released, so a trade containing issues 1-6 would hit the stands the same month issue 7 came out.

This is the model all comic companies should follow. It allows those of us who prefer trades to keep current on series that we want to read, and gives the company a better gauge of where the series actually is sales wise. They can not only take into account the monthly figures, but trade sales as well, when trying to determine which books to can.