It’s certainly nice that DC is re-re-re-re-releasing the first Justice League International trade paperback (I think that’s as many times as they’ve printed it in the past) as a fancy hardcover (for 25 bucks! on page 92), but wouldn’t it be nice if they released the rest of the Giffen/DeMatties run? I mean, the second trade is way out of print, I think, and no others exist. I mean, if this signals that the rest are coming, then fine. But a 25-dollar hardcover probably won’t sell well, especially for something that’s available elsewhere. DC: Masters of Marketing!
The JLI run is one of my two or three favorite comics runs ever, but DC has handled reprinting these stories about as well as it has not killing off these characters in gruesome and stupid comics. A hardcover reprinting the same contents as a still-in-print trade is, well, just about useless. One of the best things about collected editions is having an entire run of a series on your bookshelf, whether that's the Morrison Doom Patrol and New X-Men or Neil Gaiman's Sandman or Bob Haney's Super-Sons lunacy. And there's no way in hell DC is going to reprint a run that included sixty issues of JLI, 35 of JLE, plus multiple annuals and specials and the occasional story by Giffen & DeMatteis in Mister Miracle in a series of seven-issue hardcovers. If the hardcover included the first year of the series and the relevant annuals, I might be willing to hope DC would eventually put out another eight books to complete the run. But trickling them out seven issues at a time? Pull the other one.
4 comments:
Frankly Chris, I'd just be happy if Green Lantern, Justice League, etc. could be given the Chronicles treatment that Batman and Superman are currently receiving (albeit slowly).
However, I'm giving some thought to buying cheap copies of the books and having them bound into handy volumes (scroll down for comics).
Check out this example.
Ain't it purdy?
I've had many thoughts along the same lines, De -- the main obstacles being the cost of binding and the fact that many of the comics I'd want to bind are far, far away in my parents' house.
With the JLI stuff, the really daunting task is tracking down all of the ancillary stuff (JLI Quarterly, annuals, specials, etc.) and fitting them into the main books in something that resembles chronological sense. If you've got a list or a spreadsheet, I'm listening...
Give me a couple of days and I'll have one ready.
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