In one of those moments that shows how the comics “industry” has it’s head so firmly stuck up it’s arse that it, quite frankly, deserves to die miserably there’s great shock that Los Bros Hernandez are to stop publishing their work in pamphlet form and are instead to just publish graphic novels with spines once a year. The reasoning being that readers prefer this with the added bonus that it makes artistic sense.
Even my good chum Rich Bruton is astonished saying “it could easily be one of those defining moments in the Comic Business that we will look back on and identify as a discreet point in time where the entire industry changed.”
I don’t now about that. What I do know is the pamphlet (28-36 pages with staples coming out monthly or so) is a really stupid format. I stopped buying them ages ago because unless you’ve got a specialised storage system they’re incredibly annoying to have around the place. Despite getting rid of most of my pamphlets I still have a couple of boxes and they’re buried in a cupboard. Meanwhile the comics with spines are on the shelf and re-read frequently.
That the comics industry didn’t dump the pamphlet years ago is a testament to how fucking stupid and irrelevant it is. Sure, there’s a hardcore audience who like them – there’s an audience for vinyl but no-one thinks it’s going to save the record industry.
What’s most astonishing about the comics industry is how it makes the book publishing industry look like a paragon of good business practice and, as anyone who’s mixed with book publishers knows, that’s quite the achievement.
Whatever, I look forward to more Hernandez published in the right format from the off. It’s about time.
Later: Hmm – reading that press release properly it’s not quite there yet. “Fantagraphics confirmed that the stories published in Volume III will eventually be collected into logical graphic novels/collections.” Gah! Why not just publish the bloody graphic novels from the off if that’s the “logical” way to do it?
Comics as vinyl.
Graphic Novels as Music.
Like that. Annoyed I didn’t think of it myself. But will use it from now on!
cheers Pete
I can’t imagine the Love and Rockets comics were selling very well — they’re a bit of a nostalgia purchase nowadays, TBH, and probably only appeal to people who remember it back when it was fun.
The problem with going graphic, for me, is that I a) want a regular hit of comics-y goodness and b) don’t want to feel stressed about chucking them into the recycling. Vinyl’s a bad analogy, the way I read comics — I’d say they’re more like TV shows. Watch them, enjoy them, let them go — apart from a a few favourites reserved to watch (or read) again and again.