London comicon report (October 5th)

[drice6900]

Do they really sell all that many Archive editions? The Comic Stores here won't bother to stock them, but they will order them individually if asked. I also see plenty of them in nearly every used bookstore at a discount.

 

Personally, I don't see a "retro" series doing all that hot. First, today's readers have more sophisticated tastes - young and old alike. Second, there are alternatives that people can access now (like the Archives, TPBs, etc.). Finally, I am not sure that there are many writers out there who can pull it off and maintain interest over the long haul.

 

- D.

[Ian_Levine]

Personally, I don't see a "retro" series doing all that hot.

 

I hope you're wrong.

Anyway, someone else set up a poll on the "Seventy Years Of DC" thread. I hope you'll all vote on it (I hope some of you might agree with me, or we'll never see anything so wonderful)

[goldust40]

You can't ignore market forces, however. I'd imagine that at least one of the bods at DC may have conceivably suggested your idea at some point in the recent past, only for it to be rejected due to the above mentioned demographic scenario.

 

 

I started another thread called "DCs Seventieth Birthday" specifically about this.

 

Firstly, if it was such a bad idea, HOW COME DC sell so many archive editions

Secondly, they half heartedly tried it with their awful "Silver Age" series in 1999. The covers were stunning but the insides were all a letdown, and neither looked anything like the covers suggested, or felt anything REMOTELY like Silver Age stories whatsoever.

 

But go read the other thread too.........

 

Those Archive editions are a godsend, and no mistake. I've got many of them, and they do an excellent job of reproducing historically important comics. I agree, archives must sell otherwise DC wouldn't print them. However there's a big difference between classic reprints and new series attempting to ape such material. The archives are enhanced (at least a little) by this historical context. And it's difficult to mimic the sheer daftness of some of those Superboy and Batman late '50s/early '60s stories, or the dated grandeur of DCs 1950s sci-fi output without trivialising or parodying them. With that scepticism in mind, I'll go off and read that other thread as you suggested.

[Ian_Levine]

Those Archive editions are a godsend, and no mistake. I've got many of them, and they do an excellent job of reproducing historically important comics. I agree, archives must sell otherwise DC wouldn't print them.

 

 

The Archive editions are wonderful for reading your old Golden Age comics without the risk that every read turns a VG into a G..............