The Energon Pub

More and more DC seems to be opting for Hardcover trades over Paperback. Why is that? The obvious reason I can come up with is that they can charge more for Hardcovers. Maybe lots of comic readers enjoy the longevity they provide, but I prefer less expensive paperback versions. My collection is already heavy enough!

I'm particularly upset with this over Alex Ross' Justice series. They are releasing 3 Hardcover trades with 4 issues each. I'm sure eventually they will release a collected trade paperback with all 12 issues, but I don't know when that will be. Anyone else share my frustrations, or do you prefer hardcovers?

I think DC reguards trades as your one disc basic DVD with very little or no special features, and the hardcovers as the deluxe version 2 disc versions (Ala Pirates of the Caribbean 2). In some cases DC is even doing a "special edition" of their stories changing dialogue and art to make it to try and make it "better" like they did with Infinite Crisis (or Infinite Crapfest as I call it) which means you
had to buy a crappy mini-series and even crappier hardcover
to get a crappy story that sucked to begin with.

Marvel's problem is that make the Hardcovers equal to 2 trades in price and have more special features.
I bought The Astonishing X-Men in Hardcover at $30
instead of the two trades are both $15 each because
at that price I felt that one hardcover (with more content I must add) was simply a much better deal than buying two trades.

Look at it this way. You have paperback books, good for you. But a hardback, now thats prestige.

It seems normal to release the hardcovers first and 6 months later, they'll release the paperbacks.

I usually can't wait and buy the hardcovers any way. But Senor Hugo is right, hardcovers do come off nicer. And with Amazon's discounts, the prices between hardcovers & paperbacks isn't that much different.

Supreme Convoy wrote::BOT: It seems normal to release the hardcovers first and 6 months later, they'll release the paperbacks.

I usually can't wait and buy the hardcovers any way. But Senor Hugo is right, hardcovers do come off nicer. And with Amazon's discounts, the prices between hardcovers & paperbacks isn't that much different.

I guess a Marvel fan who really prefers paperbacks could have the same complaint. At least in the Ultimate universe they release hardcovers after the paperbacks.

Really, I would love to buy the Absolute Editions that have come out thus far, but I can't really justify spending $50+ on something that can be picked up for around $20 or so. Maybe some day when I'm rich...

xxaMaxx wrote:

Supreme Convoy wrote::BOT: It seems normal to release the hardcovers first and 6 months later, they'll release the paperbacks.

I usually can't wait and buy the hardcovers any way. But Senor Hugo is right, hardcovers do come off nicer. And with Amazon's discounts, the prices between hardcovers & paperbacks isn't that much different.

I guess a Marvel fan who really prefers paperbacks could have the same complaint. At least in the Ultimate universe they release hardcovers after the paperbacks.

Really, I would love to buy the Absolute Editions that have come out thus far, but I can't really justify spending $50+ on something that can be picked up for around $20 or so. Maybe some day when I'm rich...

Most (but not all) of the Absolute Editions are $75.00 and are worth every cent.
The two that I highly recommend are Crisis on Infinte Earths ($100) and JLA/Avengers ($75.00).
The Compendium book that comes with each one is well worth the price alone.