Single Issues vs. Trade Paperbacks

It’s not by accident that the EXPO Weekly Comic-Book Blog posts every Wednesday.  Wednesday, for those of you who don’ t know, is new comics day, the day that the newest-latest issues of your favorite four-color fantasies hit the shelves of your LCS — that’s Local Comics Shop (or Store) to all of the Arthur Fonzarelli’s reading this by “mistake.”

Needless to say (or it should be, at this point, if you’re a regular reader of this column) that I can be found in my local comics shop each and every hump day with an armload of new books not on my regular pull list as well as older gems which I somehow missed the first time around.

But it’s gotten lonely in the comic shop lately.  I mean, lonelier than usual, insert comic-book bachelor joke here.  I’ve mentioned one reason for this here, but another reason is likely the result of a not-so-new trend in comics buying, commonly referred to as “waiting for the trade.”

You see, Fonzie, whether it’s a story-arc within an ongoing comic-book series like “Evolution” from Batman/Detective Comics, or a limited series (anywhere between 3 and 12 issues give or take) like Luke Cage Noir, after first appearing in single monthly or bi-monthly issues/installments (sometimes longer than that, depending on the artist) a popular storyline’s individual issues will be collected into what’s called a trade paperback.  Actually, Luke Cage Noir, as of this writing, has only been collected into a “premiere hardcover edition,” so we’re all still waiting for the trade on that one.

A trade paperback, or TPB, is a single book containing all the issues (now chapters) of a storyline, often with added, supplemental “bonus” content not found in the original single issues, like an all-new epilogue, pencil sketches used in the creation of the comic, alternate or unused covers, things like that.

What happens is fewer people buy the single issues when they’re published each month, choosing to wait until the eventual TPB sees print.

The upside being the extra content listed above, and a nice, slim volume that fits neatly on your bookshelf next to that overpriced Godzilla vinyl toy that you’re only half-embarrassed you own, much less paid for.  Not to mention, sometimes the TPB costs the same or less than the single issues did, again, with DVD-like extras.  Speaking of, do you like to watch your TV programs weekly on television or Hulu, or do you prefer watching them a season at a time on DVD?

The downside, arguably, being the possible Catch-22 brought about by fewer people buying the individual comics in the first place.  The comic in question could be cancelled before a storyline or series reaches its conclusion.  Or, the low sales of those issues could be seen as low interest in a TPB collection, and you end up waiting for a trade that will never be printed.

“Printed.”  It’s almost an archaic word these days.  Soon, the preferred method of comics consumption  may/will be to download them onto your iPad (Sorry, Mario) with an iTunes-like system.  New comics Wednesdays will move up a day and join music and film, debuting on Tuesdays.  Good-bye LCS and TPB, hello “waiting for the eComic”.

Call me old-fashioned, Fonzie, but I will miss those Happy (Wednes) Days.

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