As I (generally) agree with his points, and I'm ridiculously lazy, I thought I'd present a few paragraphs of that here:
As I said, I generally agree with Grist. For the most part, I prefer my comics as serials, not trades (or written for trades-paced serials).So discuss.
Awesome! I will steal this (with FULL credit) once I head downstairs and turn on the PC...
ReplyDeleteFloppies vs the trade paperback, eh? I'm coming from a slightly different place than Grist, although I agree with what he is saying, especially floppies compared to a TV series.
ReplyDeleteIt's like serialised writing in comics has "devolved", and writing for the trade is akin to an 80s TV series like the A-Team. A lot of cool things happen, but nothing really progresses...
Conversely, the best of the 80s comics writing is complex serialised storytelling which influenced many recent TV writers! (and not just Joss Whedon)
But when selling TPBs one huge consideration must be that the consumer may well be purchasing a trade out of sequence. Missing an issue or two of Claremont's X-Men is not a problem, missing 12 issues may be? I expect this is why a huge chunk of Claremont's hugely popular X-Men stories are not available in TPB, and neither is the majority of Stern's Avengers run.
If more writers wrote compelling, single issues, I'd read more comics that way. The majority of the single issues I check out though leave me thinking, "This'll read a lot better when it's collected."
ReplyDeleteWe live in the Trade age. Even TV shows are experienced in DVD bundles.
ReplyDeleteYou already know my stance on the subject. I think most comics series should be "trade" ONLY. The shelf always wins over the dirty long box.