Graphic Novels

by Josh Crawley

If you found this doing a Google search expecting an in-depth primer on every step of the process, I apologize. On the other hand, the various packaging aspects of trade paperback collections seems to be glossed over far too often. It isn’t going to be in-depth, but a little goes a long way. As someone who’s been involved in the customer service & retail aspects of the comic book industry for over eight years (and a reader of almost 20), I have a pretty decent idea of what makes a good trade paperback collection.

To compare and contrast my points, I’ll be referencing the Brave and the Bold: Milestone soft cover released this past Wednesday.

The Cover

This isn’t just the front of the book. After all, once the book is shelved spine out, you don’t see the front (nor back) cover. You see the spine. While it’s nice to have the book stand out from other spines, the words should be easy to read. While an ink splatter may draw the eye to pull the book off the shelf, there are probably twice as many people likely to just skip the book.

If you plan on doing an ongoing series of collections, keep in mind how the design looks multiplied. If you get to a second volume, start numbering them. This Milestone volume breaks the pattern of the previous series (issues directly following each other for the entire volume), so I’m okay with that. However, when it took Vertigo until the fourth volume of 100 Bullets to start putting volume numbers on the books, that’s just silly.

(Any argument about the 100 Bullets trades numbers being deciphered by the names of the volumes is appreciated, but most people I talk to have yet to make the connection.)

Something DC isn’t so great with, but they do on this book, is to include a list on the back cover of what’s reprinted within. It’s only partial, but the newer material that is listed is what I assume they’re trying to sell the book with. That, and they at least mention “…three of Milestone’s most revolutionary heroes, in landmark adventures…” which helps.

While you’re putting information on the back cover, a quick synopsis is nice; some people might actually want to know what the book is about. Marvel’s been pretty bad about that on some of their collections.

The Pages

I appreciate a nice title page as much as the next guy, but two of them in a row is redundant, especially if your cover has a clear logo and title on it. Also, having partial credits on the second title page (a double page splash, at that) and then full credits on the next spread makes it seem like the book is getting padded out. The only information that isn’t redundant on that double page title spread is the character creation credits.

And apparently, it only matters who created Static and Black Lightning, not Hardware, Holocaust, and Xombi. I’ll let Spectre slide, since contracts really were that horrible those many ages ago, but the Milestone characters are contemporary.

That second spread has the DC masthead and legal information, including copyright and trademark information, on the left hand page. This is where better companies include helpful information, such as where the material was originally published. On the facing page we have the previously-mentioned full credits, including story titles and starting pages, no not from which issue they were in. That’s information that’s good to make clear, since the legal area is usually tiny anyways. Sadly, there are issues where the same task (inking) is done by multiple individuals, but we aren’t told which pages each one worked on. Include that information!

Flipping through this book, there’s also no information for the first three chapter break images. While I know they’re the original covers to the stories within, not everyone else will.

The Bonus Material

If you’re going to include sketches with notes, the notes should be legible. If not, transcribe them. If you don’t want them read, get rid of them.

Even worse, if there were notes originally explaining Hardware’s arsenal, and you’ve devoted a section in the book to it, it doesn’t make sense to get rid of all of the notes and to leave the numbers on the diagram. I would rather see spot illos from covers.

This also sounds like a good time to mention… print your book on a decent paper stock! All of the old Milestone comics were colored with a certain paper stock in mind. In this trade, due to how they had to reproduce them, they don’t look so hot (the newer Milestone material looks much better, but it’s still splotchy in places). I’m not looking for a glossy white paper (rarely ever do I look for that; it isn’t in comics). Marvel goes too far the other way: too heavy a paper stock that’s really glossy. I like to be able to see what I’m reading and looking at.

The Cross-Sell

Icon: A Hero's Welcome

Please, please, please have your cross-sells make sense. Even as a Milestone fan, I may not know there are other collections in print (Static Shock: Rebirth of the Cool, Icon: A Hero’s Welcome, or about to be in print (Hardware: The Man in the Machine)), or even that there are previous Brave and the Bold collections in hard cover and soft cover!

Honestly, promoting two different volumes of Batman: Hush after releasing a one volume edition? Then again, Milestone was about diversity, yet the only cross-selling going on is Superman/Batman books, and more Batman books. While there is a diversity of Batman material, that’s a stretch. Less so when those three pages are in the back of so many DC collections.

This is also a great place to list a chronological listing of the books in the series if you got past volume 1 of something and forgot to include volume numbers, which you wouldn’t have if you read this all the way through from the beginning.

The End

Just for this week, though. You aren’t getting rid of me that easily. I do want to go read some Xombi by John Rozum, though. Want more of me running my mouth? Check Twitter. Need to tell me something? Email & post info below!

josh@westfieldcomics.com

Westfield Comics

ATTN: JOSH

7475 Mineral Point Rd STE 22

Madison WI 53717

______________________

Josh Crawley is the tenured Master of Disaster for Westfield Comics, not to be confused with Josh Crawley, the keyboardist for Everclear.