With DC's preview of next months solicits we saw some more examples of DC's new "Omnibus" line.
So to add to the already solicited Silver Age Green Lantern (640 pages for $75) and Geoff Johns Flash Omnibus (448 pages for $75), we now have the planned releases of a Teen Titans Omnibus (464 pages for $75) and The Steve Ditko Omnibus (464 pages for $60)
So we have two modern omnibuses at 450ish pages for $75, and two silver age omnibuses for $75 and $60. So with the Ditko Omnibus for 80% of the price of a Lantern Omnibus you get 73% of the pages. Im not going to split pennies about the difference here, it's close enough for my taste.
What I think it does seem to inform is the difference in cost to DC when deciding to print Silver age comics (before Artists/Writers had contracts stipulating to a cut of future printing sales) versus Bronze and modern age comics when those payouts began to appear in contracts.
So how much is that payout? Well based on pure numbers from this small sample set I would guess $15. Now it could be less (I don't work for DC so I don't know their total production costs) or it could be more. Why more? Well with more modern comics there is often less overhead in producing a reprint since many/most pages exist as scans or proofs with the publisher, as opposed to some silver age content which has to be reworked from poorer scans of lesser source materiel (or even from a comic itself). No judgment here either way, just an observation.
I am glad to see DC getting into the "omnibus" style releases. Marvels success with this type of line over the last 5 year, proves that the comics community is willing to pay a premium for this type of "shelf porn". I think DC's first four planned collections show a nice diversity in approaches to the library which I hope will continue. Already we have had a Silver Age Omnibus starting with a "first appearance" and going forward, very reminiscent of Marvels usual approach to Omnibuses. They have also taken the "seminal work" approach doing a run of Geoff Johns Flash, though the fact that it only contains the first 15 issues of such a long run seems like a drop in the bucket. The Titan's Omnibus is in that same vein.
The last version of the Omnibus seems to be the creator-specific approach which they are taking with Ditko. When they have a high profile creator, but not enough content to justify an omnibus, creating this omnibus to capture various parts of the creator's portfolio can be very informative and entertaining when done well. A word of caution to this approach, it can become very disjointed and feel "slapped together" when all the work does not seem as equally important to informing the scope or development of the creator.
Whether you are interested in Silver, Bronze or Modern it seems like DC is moving to this Omnibus approach for its archive line, and I look forward to seeing what other runs and creators will get this oversized treatment.
Now go read some comics!
So to add to the already solicited Silver Age Green Lantern (640 pages for $75) and Geoff Johns Flash Omnibus (448 pages for $75), we now have the planned releases of a Teen Titans Omnibus (464 pages for $75) and The Steve Ditko Omnibus (464 pages for $60)
So we have two modern omnibuses at 450ish pages for $75, and two silver age omnibuses for $75 and $60. So with the Ditko Omnibus for 80% of the price of a Lantern Omnibus you get 73% of the pages. Im not going to split pennies about the difference here, it's close enough for my taste.
What I think it does seem to inform is the difference in cost to DC when deciding to print Silver age comics (before Artists/Writers had contracts stipulating to a cut of future printing sales) versus Bronze and modern age comics when those payouts began to appear in contracts.
So how much is that payout? Well based on pure numbers from this small sample set I would guess $15. Now it could be less (I don't work for DC so I don't know their total production costs) or it could be more. Why more? Well with more modern comics there is often less overhead in producing a reprint since many/most pages exist as scans or proofs with the publisher, as opposed to some silver age content which has to be reworked from poorer scans of lesser source materiel (or even from a comic itself). No judgment here either way, just an observation.
I am glad to see DC getting into the "omnibus" style releases. Marvels success with this type of line over the last 5 year, proves that the comics community is willing to pay a premium for this type of "shelf porn". I think DC's first four planned collections show a nice diversity in approaches to the library which I hope will continue. Already we have had a Silver Age Omnibus starting with a "first appearance" and going forward, very reminiscent of Marvels usual approach to Omnibuses. They have also taken the "seminal work" approach doing a run of Geoff Johns Flash, though the fact that it only contains the first 15 issues of such a long run seems like a drop in the bucket. The Titan's Omnibus is in that same vein.
The last version of the Omnibus seems to be the creator-specific approach which they are taking with Ditko. When they have a high profile creator, but not enough content to justify an omnibus, creating this omnibus to capture various parts of the creator's portfolio can be very informative and entertaining when done well. A word of caution to this approach, it can become very disjointed and feel "slapped together" when all the work does not seem as equally important to informing the scope or development of the creator.
Whether you are interested in Silver, Bronze or Modern it seems like DC is moving to this Omnibus approach for its archive line, and I look forward to seeing what other runs and creators will get this oversized treatment.
Now go read some comics!
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