Essential Tomb of Dracula

[delekkerste]

What exactly was the deal with the Essential Tomb of Dracula TPB that was solicited and then cancelled? I think somebody said that there were legal issues involving reprinting these or something? Does anyone know?

 

I ask this because I discovered this week that Marvel is reprinting ToD in TPB format...in Spanish. I came across volume 4 of the series, which reprints several issues from the #20s plus Giant-Size Chillers #1...it retails for 4.75 Euros and contains about 150 black and white pages in a smaller-sized format (a la CrossGen's new "Edge" and "Forge" TPBs).

 

Are we ever going to see this series reprinted in English???

 

Gene

[chromium]

Marvel decided that all the work/expense involved in turning the originals into an essential TPB wasn't worth their while as (at that time) their TPB dept was in shambles.

 

Marvel Spain picked up the ball and did all the work in-house and released a Spanish-language version of the book...

[Kevin Boyd]

That was me. They claimed that it was too much work and not worth their effort at this time for something that was not going to be a big seller (even though it did place in the top ten pre-ordered tpbs and was ordered more heavily than the Howard the Duck and Ant Man volumes).

 

What has been surmised is that Marvel decided they didn't want to reprint a book with stories written by Marv Wolfman who was suing them for the rights to Blade. Especially since he would have received royalty payments under the current reprint royalty rates system. Since those Blade stories would have been included in the volume it was even more of a reason for them to drop the book.

 

Marvel Spain is not bound by such contractual concerns. They decided to put out the Tomb of Dracula books as they still retained the rights to reprint the work, even if Marvel's central office was not. They did a similar thing with the Steranko Nick Fury stories that Marvel central had never reprinted. Marvel's european reprint rights are almost as screwed up as the Spider-Man movie rights once were. With the Steranko volumes, Diamond cut some sort of deal to have the first one distributed here and Marvel got in on the action on the second volume. Since they still don't want the TOD series reprinted in North America you won't see a similar pick-up.

 

Kev

[delekkerste]

Since they still don't want the TOD series reprinted in North America you won't see a similar pick-up.

 

Arrrgh...so I either have to learn Spanish and buy the European TPBs or shell out a bunch of dough for the originals...

 

Gene

[COI]

If you only care about reading them, just pick up low grades which are very cheap for this book.

[blowout]

What has been surmised is that Marvel decided they didn't want to reprint a book with stories written by Marv Wolfman who was suing them for the rights to Blade.

 

Do you know if this has been resolved? Are we EVER likely to see TOD reprinted in English?

Also does anyone know Marvels reprint intentions regarding other 70's horror titles like WBN?

[Kevin Boyd]

I do believe that the court case has been resolved in Marvel's favor but is being appealed by Wolfman.

 

Not that I'm 100% behind Marvel on this, but logically speaking, either way would YOU reward someone who sued you by releasing collections of their work for which you will have to pay them royalties?

 

Kev

[blowout]

either way would YOU reward someone who sued you by releasing collections of their work for which you will have to pay them royalties?

 

Oh, I can fully see why they wouldn't want to release the book right now. I just hope it all gets cleared up and we see the reprints at some point in the future.

[Aman619]

its only business--youre looking at this very personal....

 

If Marvel makes more money even after paying the royalty, why not?

 

And, even though Marvel won in court, does anyone really think Marv DIDN'T create Blade on his own earlier and insert it into the comic he was writing for Marvel?

[Kevin Boyd]

Regrettably, many business decisions, especially in the world of comic book publishing, are personal and petty. There have been many instances of this, like cancelling Byrne's X-Men: The Hidden Years even though it was outselling most of the other X-Men spin-off titles at the time, mostly because Bill and Joe didn't want continuity-heavy "retro" titles on the racks. Or taking a successful artist like Salvador Larrocca off of X-Treme X-Men to pencil the President's vanity project.

 

Everytime Bill Jemas opens his mouth he comes across as the type of person that makes those kinds of business decisions. Why else is Marville still being published? How did he get involved with that ridiculously scripted Namor comic that shipped this week - an editor that wasn't afraid of his job would never have allowed the kinds of clothing and dialogue errors that crept into that book.

 

For that matter, why haven't we seen any new Essential volumes since Daredevil 1?

 

Kev

[blowout]

For that matter, why haven't we seen any new Essential volumes since Daredevil 1?

 

Yeah, ALL the Essentials seem to have stalled. I'm not sure what Marvel are playing at currently but maybe they need to think less about movies and more about comic books.

[Illiterati-migration]

Regrettably, many business decisions, especially in the world of comic book publishing, are personal and petty. There have been many instances of this, like cancelling Byrne's X-Men: The Hidden Years even though it was outselling most of the other X-Men spin-off titles at the time, mostly because Bill and Joe didn't want continuity-heavy "retro" titles on the racks. Or taking a successful artist like Salvador Larrocca off of X-Treme X-Men to pencil the President's vanity project.

 

Everytime Bill Jemas opens his mouth he comes across as the type of person that makes those kinds of business decisions. Why else is Marville still being published? How did he get involved with that ridiculously scripted Namor comic that shipped this week - an editor that wasn't afraid of his job would never have allowed the kinds of clothing and dialogue errors that crept into that book.

 

For that matter, why haven't we seen any new Essential volumes since Daredevil 1?

 

Kev

 

Aren't we missing the point here?

 

Dele, Spanish is INCREDIBLY easy to learn.

[lighthouse]

It comes down to economics...

 

To do new Essentials volumes requires a lot more work than putting out a trade of the most recent issues of Wolverine. All the current artwork is stored digitally, and it takes very little effort to throw together a collection of recent material. I could prepare the files myself in Quark for a new TPB in less than an hour. Compare that to the amount of work to convert older material to a digital format and it's clear why we've seen so many more collections of recent material than older stuff... I was frankly stunned that Marvel put out the Korvac Saga trade last month for the same reasons I was not surprised that Essential TOD was cancelled.

 

I have no doubt the lawsuit was a factor. But in a choice between a $19.95 TPB that takes two interns an hour to prep and a $14.95 TPB that takes 400 man-hours to prep, the orders better be awfully high for an Essentials to see print.

 

I'd love to see the Essential TOD... and I ordered 15 copies when it was solicited the first time (even though I only had buyers for four). But I suspect we won't see one for quite a while.

[blowout]

To do new Essentials volumes requires a lot more work than putting out a trade of the most recent issues of Wolverine.

 

Sure, but it takes a hell of a lot LESS work than producing a book full of new material.

The thing is Marvel has an incredible back catalog of work that has never been reprinted, and there are many fans/readers that have never had access to it.

here has surely got to be enough money there for the taking to pay few guys to do some scanning.

[Kevin Boyd]

The Korvac saga had been reprinted before in TPB format in the late 1980's. Unlike most of the older material the film was already available for a new volume - albeit some tweaking was required it wasn't like they had to format it from scratch.

 

I think you'll find that most of the trade paperbacks of older material being released these days has been reprinted previously in one trade or another.

 

The only real surprise was the Avengers/Defenders Ward which was reprinted for the first time over a year ago.

 

Kev