What the Weekend Whatnot Hath Wrought

D. D. Degg November 5, 2023 1 minute 0 comments

Passing on various comics related items before they are deleted from the queue.

A bargain at twice the price!

The hardcover edition of The Complete Calvin and Hobbes box set is currently being offered for less than half MSRP at Amazon. Don’t know how long the sale will last but it seems to happen two or three times a year.

TDC lawyers say we should pass along this warning from Steven Heller:

It is an old joke that these modern mammoth livres could substitute as doorstops (or, with legs screwed on, as coffee tables). In fact, the heavy genre is now almost as common in the publishing industry as are lower-cost trade paperbacks. During the past three years it appears there are more of them than ever before.

Heavy Books May Be Hazardous to Your Health.

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DC Comics is Going in the Opposite Direction

In a surprise announcement Thursday morning. DC has unveiled DC Compact Comics: a new line of collected edition of some of its best-selling evergreen titles — including Watchmen, Batman: Hush, and Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo’s Joker graphic novel — at a smaller trim size, and smaller price, than ever before.

Popverse has details of DC’s new marketable size:

Note the comment about the size of these books being “popular among graphic novel aficionados in international markets” — the 5.5″ x 8.5″ sizing is comparable to U.S. manga size, which is 5″ x 7.5”. It’s also the exact size of mainstream publishing trade paperbacks, which means that it’ll be easier to store and display in bookstores or other outlets that carry books.

The traditional comics trim is 6 5/8″ x 10 3/16”.

The DC Compact Comics will be priced at $9.99 – which is competitive with those aforementioned manga volumes, while at the same time being in full color opposed to the mostly black-and-white of manga.

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More about Marketing

Net Gertler and About Comics are bringing Stan Mack‘s Revolting Rebels: A History in Comics of the American Revolution back into print, in the spirit of Horrible Histories.

But Shital Soni for Samachar Central reports About Comics has a twist in distribution:

While About Comics intends to reach a variety of sales channels with this book, they are making a key target of one outlet many publishers overlook: gift shops at museums and historic sites. About Comics is a member of the Museum Store Association, and actually does more business with such gift shops than with comic book stores. For now at least, they are back with Diamond Comic Distributors for some volumes.