Who Buys Comics in Hardcover?

I kinda like the (semi)durable nature of HCs, versus TPBs and their flaccidity (if that's a word).

this is as it should be as they are class

Oh yeah, I own a bunch of the Marvel hardcover graphic novels that they put out towards the end of the 80s (the best of which is the Dr. Strange/Dr. Doom crossover with art by Mike Mignola.) Most of 'em are forgettable, but they're a relic of an interesting time in american comics.

Yeah, as a young kid, I had many hardback Rupert annuals, as well as Tintin and Asterix stuff. Because kids need durable stuff or else they'll eat it.

The thing that means the most to me though, is probably my first edition of Jules Feiffer's Passionella.

Mine:
Bone: One Volume
Smax
Top 10: 49ers
Runaways v1
X-Force (Milligan and Allred of course!)
Kabuki, v2 and v6 (I'm actually embarrassed now)
Batman: Year One
300
Elektra Lives Again (First edition!)
Cages
Wonder Woman: Hiketeia
The Originals
Buddha, v1 & 4
And two Queen & Country novels.

Well remembered, I've got a first edition Elektra Lives Again somewhere.

Billy Hazelnuts by Tony Millionaire

because Tony Millionaire has done a graphic novel, and I want to read it NOW. Plus it’s a children’s book, and they’re so suited to hardback.

previously in Millionaire children’s books:
Little & Large
That Darn Yarn
The Glass Doorknob
I think there was another one in the square format that I never got. I didn’t buy the Mighty Mite hardcover because he’d sent me the minicomic years ago and the copies in the bookshops were all mottled and smudged.

And alternatively, I don’t like the long hardcover format for the later Maakies collections. I wish they’d go back and do them two-years-at-a-time in paperback, instead of going back to redo the first book in two hardcovers.

The Science Service by Rian Hughes
because it’s Rian’s only graphic novel, and some of his only cartooning ever, and it only came out in hardcover.

The Bear by Raymond Briggs
because it came with a snowglobe of the bear and little girl!
Ethel & Ernest by Raymond Briggs
because OMG Raymond Briggs has done a full-on graphic novel and I don’t want to wait for softcover! Actually I got this for Christmas, pre-chewed by a kitten, but ended up buying the second-edition hardcover (the one with the printed cover) as a gift, and then half a dozen copies of the paperback as just-in-case presents.
plus loads of Briggs that I either had as a kid or bought second-hand because they’re more common in hardcover: Gentleman Jim, The Man, Unlucky Wally Twenty Years On. Ug, Boy Genius Of The Stone Age I think I got discounted. Fungus I have in paperback, I think that’s the only one.

Shutterbug Follies by Jason Little
because I’d quite like to read a Jason Little graphic novel and don’t like reading extended comics on a computer screen. Remaindered you say?

The Book Of Leviathan by Peter Blegvad
only came out in hardcover. If only more volumes had come out in any format!

Acme Novelty Library #16
because I don’t want to wait until 2014 to read the non-gag Rusty Brown story, and don’t live in an American city where a paper runs it. The layout for the Building Stories in the back is shittingly annoying though, I’m going to keep reading the NYT strips week-by-week in the library.

One! Hundred! Demons! by Lynda Barry.
Lynda! Barry! Graphic! Novel! In! Painted! Colour! Only! Published! In! Hardcover!

The Yum Yum Book by R. Crumb
had never been published in paperback. And the copy I bought turned out to be cheaper than the reprint that Dana organised anyway. Wish I’d bought the dozen copies the shop had had sitting around for thirty years.

The Life Of Saint Nicholas by R.O. Blechman
looks interesting, Blechman’s alright, was cheap.

Sick Sick Sick
The Unexpurgated Memoirs Of Bernard Mergendeiler
The Explainers
Because it’s Feiffer! What are you, nuts? I’ve got a couple of the kids’ picture books in hardcover as well, Meanwhile, I Want My Bear and something else probably, but none of them really have the same ‘readable by adults’ rewardingness of The Man In The Ceiling.

Noisy Outlaws, Unfriendly Blobs, and Some Other Things That Aren't as Scary, Maybe, Depending on How You Feel About Lost Lands, Stray Cellphones, Creatures from the Sky, Parents Who Disappear in Peru, a Man Named Lars Farf, and One Other Story We Couldn't Quite Finish, So Maybe You Could Help Us Out by various people via McSweeneys. There’s only one comic in here, but it’s a full-colour James Kochalka one.

Jordan Crane – The Clouds Above
(only in hardcover! so far. but considering sales is likely to stay that way for a while)

the Jimmy Corrigan collection (the second Cape edition with the gold Guardian sticker on for extra self-deprecatory gag material)

The Curious Sofa by Ogred Weary (I’d get all the Gorey books in hardcover if I could, I hate the reformatting for yer Amphigories)

Wimbledon Green by Seth (only in hardcover!)

Stray Bullets volumes 1 & 2
(were only in hardcover at the time, but I like the oversized format anyway, and there weren’t as many issues in the paperbacks. I wish I’d ever found vol 3)

Posy Simmonds’ Gemma Bovary
(was only in hardcover at the time, and given how much better it looks than the eventual paperback, I’m glad I didn’t wait)

Dave McKean’s Pictures That Tick (only in hardcover!)
and Cages (only in hardcover!)

The Frank Book by Woodring (only in hardcover!)

From Hell (Graphitti edition)
(I’d gotten the paperback for free, so what the fuck. And considering I’d already bought the first chapter in about four editions already, I didn’t want to break the chain)

Weasel #6
(only in hardcover! I didn’t bother getting #7 though, I wish Cooper would go back to actual comics)

TASCHEN:
Little Nemo!
that Crepax collection with three books of total filth in one!
erm, that’s it!

Stuck Rubber Baby (this one I should have waited for paperback on)

Black Hole by Burns (if only the dustjacket was as gorgeous as the cover)

The Birthday Riots (it was cheap. please be 19 and good again Kanan!)

Throat Sprockets (okay, not actually a comic, but it STARTED as one)

Harvey Kurtzman’s Jungle Book
(nicer than the paperback, got it cheap)
Harvey Kurtzman’s Strange Adventures
(if only this HAD come out in paperback, such a lame way to go out)

Mr Punch by Gaiman & McKean

Stardust by Gaiman & Vess (GORGEOUS and twice the size of the forced serialisation)

that Spider-Man Goes To Scotland book by Vess alone (only in hardcover!)

McSweeney’s #13 (only in hardcover!)

The Acme Novelty Datebook (only in hardcover!)

The History Of The DC Universe by Wolfman & Perez
(basically for the extra bits that included the Swamp Thing wash painting by Bissette & Totleben, and that big jam pin-up by doddering ‘40s guys and Los Bros Hernandez)

Arkham Asylum
AND the Arkham 15th anniversary edition thing. That was a bit of a dud.

Underwhere (fully painted Mark Martin! okay it’s a rub children’s book by Kevin Eastman with Paul Jenkins holding his hand, but pretty.)

Knockabout Trial Special (excluso Alan Moore!)

The Wild Party illustrated by Art Spiegelman. Probably should have waited for the paperback, and then not bought that.

All three Little Lits. Not bad but the upcoming best-of is probably going to be all anyone needs (bet it’ll only be in HC too, though)

Louis Riel, which is supposedly never going to be in paperback. Fine by me, it’s such a well-made book.

both the Gaiman & McKean children’s books (original, less ugly editions)

and a bunch of superhero things too: the Morrison X-Mens, Selina’s Big Score by Darwyn Cooke, Earth 2 by Morrison & Quitely (oh yeah, The Mystery Play by Morrison and Muth too, that was a should-have-waited), Elektra Lives Again , both Bizarro Comics and the first Ultimates. Plus I won the first four Legion Archives at convention trivia competitions in high school.

Probably a couple of Asterix and Tintin and Lucky Lukes scattered among my paperbacks. The boxes of the first four Peanuts. A French Moebius sketchbook. You know, stuff. HAVE YOU GOT A PROBLEM WITH THAT, HUK?

i don't have any comics in hardcover. at all. i don't think i ever have, even.

one of the sin city books, er, the white one.

Ted McKeever's Metropol (won in competition, bad for fingerprints) and Eddy Current

Watchmen graffito thing (signed by Moore and Gibbons (at different times))

a couple of those thin vertigo hardbacks, the brown one (ah, The Mystery Play), the white one. still don't think i've read the white one.

10th anniversary Dark Knight, old Arkham Asylum

Pictures That Click (expensive!) and The Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish. and Mr Punch (signed i think. yes, i remember i ordered it mail order and then when i turned up at the signing at FP it set the alarm off)

nobody's mentioned the two Death books yet. i am a sucker for hardbacks with translucent covers.

49ers was the last one.

I'm not particularly proud of that, and I only stole from the big bookstores (not my local comic store), but I never really afforded to buy comics. These days I depend on what the library has to offer.

Damn typos.

i have two copies of this (second one was a sympathy purchase as it had been marked down to 50p) and both are paperback.

Now I feel like an ass for my dismissive/derisive tone. I mean, I was genuinely curious, because, as much as I spend on floppy comics and floppy trades, I've never been able to convince myself to buy a superhero hardcover (though things like that new Batman: Year One and AbsoWatchmen continue to tempt me). The closest I came was that Last Will & Testament of Hal Jordan which took forever to come out in softcover, but, fortunately I waited--and maybe that's what set off my anti-hardcover sentiments. I came THIS CLOSE to dropping like $50 on a really lousy fanwank ("Great fish hooks! I'm drunk!") and, y'know...

Now I feel like an ass for my dismissive/derisive tone.

ha ha, just joshing. I was actually a bit surprised to see how such a vast majority of mine only ever came out in hardcover, but then I find it baffling that people that read comics wouldn't have a good chunk of my list as a matter of course! this thread properly explains to me why there are all these threads full of grown men getting excited about corporate superhero crossover event marketing - this is what you people prefer to read and that's why you invest so much energy into actually caring what gets done with those characters month-to-month. I genuinely never really got that before.

The four volumes of Complete Peanuts that have been published, plus any further that come out before I die can be considered part of my collection, as well as two copies of Peanuts Treasury, the best old single-volume Peanuts collection I've seen.

The Jimmy Corrigan novel, plus the recent ACME Novelty Library hardcovers (not Quimby Mouse, yet, since I can't tell whether I already have that material or not, nor the Date Book, since, well, no).

Ils ont marché sure la lune, or whatever it's exactly called, the Tintin book.

I thought I had a bit more, but it seems, no! I'm probably going to pick up the Louis Riel at some point, and maybe that recent Seth book, I dunno.

Also, can't this forum be about more serious discussions too? Should it all be about how fun and cool and groovy comics are? Everytime I've brought up stuff like politics people seem to view that as a personal insult - which has never been my intent. I can enjoy politically problematic comics as fun entertainment, but should I stop taking them seriously as well?

Miller weasels disingenuously on the panel, though, incidentally. Especially on the issue of Batman killing dozens of dudes in his tankmobile.

I probably would be your sidekick, actually, except for the don't-give-a-shit factor. Sometimes you're right about the fascist underlyings of superheroes, but these are power/self-determinism fantasies. You're OTM about big tits on superhero chicks, but the anatomy, characterisation and male-centered sexual politics in superhero comics are so rubbish in general that it makes no difference.

Is this making sense to anybody?

some people read comic books
the way other people read the tabloids

some people read comic books
the way other people watch soap operas.

comic books have a lot of functions for a lot of different people, in the world.

hey kit i got these two from the library! bryn read clouds. i enjoyed shutterbug - remaindered you say = where?

Judging by past debates we've had, someone seems to care. ;) (See the 1000+ post thread on Batman Begins in ILE or the sexism thread here for proof.)

My problem is not that I couldn't read and enjoy texts that are against my political views, but that I also like to argue about them. It's all meant to be in good nature though, so hopefully no one is offended.

BTW, did Groth actually use the 'fascism' about DKR? This rings a bell but my memory is vague. Is this another Alan Moore Syndrome thing?

A vigilante kicking a lot of criminal ass can not POSSIBLY be called 'fascist' -- ideologically troublesome maybe, but as fascism is an extremity of authoritarian state regimes, no one but the official representatives of said state can be called fascist per se. In DKR, Superman represents that, if you like. Miller was making a pro-libertarian statement (how else do you reconcile the derision of Reagan?), but in that confusing, Ditko-esque way that has this ultra-hard line against criminals as opposed to the more obviously liberal-friendly Chomsky side of the coin... from an extreme enough angle, you can see in its fierce protection of liberty something that looks like 'fascism' if you squint and don't understand the fundamental difference (individual autonomy to protect liberty vs unquestioning deference to state policy & enforcers).

I read DKR again last year. I enjoyed it, but thought it had aged v.v. badly. I used to own the first hardcover edition of it (as well as the first printings of all four issues), but sold it years ago. Oh, the money I could make on ebay today... :-/

hahaha, I was at this panel. Re: the tank scene, Groth finally got Miller to admit "okay, he blew the hell out of 'em," and the crowd cheered.

Chrissie makes a good point about DKR, but I think it's the whole fetishisation of strength and 'might makes right' undercurrents that make people equate Miller's work with fascism, although technically, yes, it's probably more libertarian (as made explicit in that supremely shitty Give Me Liberty sequel).

now, back to the panel... 8)

The libertarianism on display is the same as Ditko's (only with major added gore factor): the abusers of other people's liberty get NO mercy. That isn't what fascism is about at all. Not even close.

The reason this differs from Chomsky, for instance, with whom I am generally in greater sympathy, is its lack of social conscience & empathy per se. It's a hard, black and white line on all things. That's why the liberals get it in the neck in DKR: Miller is saying, 'No we CAN'T all be friends, so you gotta make a choice.'

He's not completely wrong, but I don't like the hardness of it much...

I wish I had bought Planetary collections & JLA: Earth 2 in hardback, because they fold better.

He's a charismatic would-be leader who takes it upon himself to define in-groups and out-groups, and mete out whatever treatment he desires to members of the outgroup. He isn't bound by democratic governments, norms, or laws, and the whole 'non-initiation of force' thing obviously doesn't apply. It would take more than a "Free East Timor" badge to turn him into Chomsky.

Hitler was never a Fascist. He was a Nazi. Either way, I don't see how a person smashing up criminals (read: abusers of liberty) outside of the law (with no expressed or implicit desire to even be *within* the law) can be compared to authoritarian regimes where such things as the culling of 'undesirables' (based in no way on criminal behaviour) and burning of books/censoring of media are inherent to such systems. It's a completely different thing. You may find both objectionable -- for perfectly comprehensible reasons, I should think -- but this habit people of have of confusing the two is... a little tiresome.

It also prohibits an accurate criticism of the viewpoint expressed by clouding the whole picture. Trust me, when I was 17 (er, in fact, even when I was 25), everything I didn't like, I went, 'Bollocks to this poxy fascism!' It's a phase one hopefully grows out of (except Alan Moore).

But, I dunt wanna argue wit you, dollin...

;-)

Okay, can't argue with that...

first bendis.

cheap.

too much bonus SHITE

but a good intro and, yeah um, cheap for those issues.

(btw: whatta crap dialogue writer)

turns out it was actually 'small book of black and white lies' and even at 17 quid it's a bargain given amazon has 3 starting(!) at £165

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0964206900

(k-blimey, "pictures that click", amazon.com, "1 used & new available from $3,029.35")

javascript:NewWindow('product_ptt.html','product_ptt','405','193','no')

(especially if you spell 'tick' with a 'cl' like i have, oops)

I'd also like to stand up for the fact that liking hdbk-Euro-comics and being a hopeless monthly-comic-buying DC nerd aren't mutually exclusive activities.

i've got the locas collection, posy simmonds' "gemma bovery," the peanuts books, and i think that's about it.