Wednesday Comics - Coffee Table Book?

[amircat]

Was wondering how you guys thing Wednesday THC would look. I wish it would come out sooner than it will.

I can't see myself getting it in issues because of storage. I like to bag and board everything.

[chlop]

You can fold it...

[amircat]

You can fold it...

It doesn't fit nicely. I will wait for the book.

[drakedangerz]

I prefer to show my immediate support for the project, so singles work for me. And as far as I know, if you get a silver age bag & board, then they fit nicely into that. I just stuff them in my short box. No idea how the collected edition will look. Maybe like Kramer's Ergot 7? That would be something special indeed. Not really sure how well it would sell that way though.

[chlop]

Is it more cumbersome than Superman Peace on Earth?

I guess they can do a Peach on Earth type of deal, or cut it up but leave the panels the same size, or just downsize the panels so the people that want the nostelfia will get it in the issues. Is the size important to the story and art?

[amircat]

Is the size important to the story and art?

No not at all. I was just saying, it would be awesome to own a book.

[drakedangerz]

Is the size important to the story and art?

Yes, it is. I would prefer it to be the size that it was initially published in, and I would think so would anyone that was waiting for the collected edition. Besides, if you shrink it down, it would be incredibly hard to read quite a bit of the stories, especially Wonder Woman.

[elwood]

While I haven't gotten any issues of this, due to being broke and far from any competant comic shops, from what I've seen some of the stories really try to take advantage of the size and format, and downsizing would likely hurt it. Besides which, is it a guarantee that it'll get traded? I mean, it wouldn't be the first unique project with a wide range of talent that didn't get a trade when it ended... see DC's Solo for proof of that.

[gabeja]

I would love a full on Winson McKay type big ol book. However, everyone should be buying these issues.

[sugarsickness]

Oh god my money it's gone already.


I'm gonna need a bigger table to support both this and my Comic Book Tattoo HC D:

[tad]

The panel on Wedesday Comics was one of the best I attended at SDCC. Someone asked about how it would be collected and Mark Chiarello said he was just concentrating on trying to get the weeklies out first. But he did add that there was a problem in making it affordable.

That suggests to me that it's been discussed and that the obvious collection would be a big book with full sized art but that would be very expensive. And if you think about it, not only would it not fit on a shelf, it would barely fit on most coffee tables without taking up the space meant for coffee.

Anyway, it sounds like an affordable collection that preserves what's great about the comic is by no means a sure thing. I say buy it in issues and fight your inherent comic collector OCD.

[neb]

If everything pans out with this series and they put together a really nice collection, I would pay top dollar for it. I think if designed right, it could make an engaging sort of book to sit out.

[heavyliquid]

My two cents:

Even though I'm buying all of the singles every week, I'm already looking forward to the collected version. That is, if they manage to do it right. Unfortunately, there's a lot that could go wrong because of all the things working against it.

The thing makes the comic stand out the most is also that which will prove most difficult when collecting it: The size. They really need to keep the collection at the original size, because if they shrink it down the text will basically become unreadable. I can't see any way around this, especially with stories like Wonder Woman which contain tiny panels even in the large format to begin with.

I would really love to see a nice deluxe hardcover like the 'Little Nemo: So Many Splendid Sundays' book, which also happens to be the same size. The Nemo book lists for $125 and is discouted to $78 at Amazon. Not too much more than an Absolute, and perhaps DC would be able to reduce that cost even more, as they hopefully have a bit more weight in the industry than the much smaller publisher Sunday Press Books who put out Nemo. I imagine the softcover would also be much cheaper, hopefully at least half the price as the hardcover, which could have the buyer saving money over buying each individual issue.

I'm also hoping that they decide to group the stories together. There's no reason to keep the issues in the original order they were released, as it would just make reading the book a pain. I'm already re-reading the issues this way: 4 pages of Batman, 4 pages of Deadman, 4 pages of Superman, etc.

Lastly, I hope that they don't go with newsprint for the collection. Newsprint works for the individual issues, because that's the whole idea behind the book, and I'm fine with that. But I really don't want to see it for the collection. I want to see the beautiful artwork on paper that it deserves and really shows it off. If they do go with newsprint for the collection, I won't be buying it.

[jestr]

I plan on framing a few pages and hanging them up. I already framed the first Superman story and hung it up in my bathroom.

[jurassicalien]

I'll but whatever they put out, trade, omnibus, absolute, I'm there.

[chlop]

A collection of posters?

[amircat]

I finally decided to collect all and learn how to bind books and I am gonna make that a cool project. I have about 2 months to learn. :)

[jmstump]

I really hope that the collected version(s) of this book is in separate volumes of each story. I tried reading a couple of these and either found them boring or just not appealing to me. The best example is the Wonder Woman one, there is way too much going on and I can hardly follow it. I would like to skip this when a collection comes out. I also have not been a fan of the Paul Pope Strange Adventures.

I would love for each one to be in its own collection, but I don't see that happening.

[neb]

I really hope that the collected version(s) of this book is in separate volumes of each story. I tried reading a couple of these and either found them boring or just not appealing to me. The best example is the Wonder Woman one, there is way too much going on and I can hardly follow it. I would like to skip this when a collection comes out. I also have not been a fan of the Paul Pope Strange Adventures.

I would love for each one to be in its own collection, but I don't see that happening.

This is probably the "perfect world" scenario. From a cost perspective, if they do collect it, it will probably be all together. I too would enjoy skipping the Wonder Woman one...

[elwood]

A collection of posters?


I'd buy some Mike Allred's Metamorpho or Paul Pope's Adam Strange as a poster.

Might just be me though.

[sugarsickness]

I'd buy some Mike Allred's Metamorpho or Paul Pope's Adam Strange as a poster.

Might just be me though.

Seconded. Even just a poster of that final panel of the first Adam Strange page with the jet pack and awesome Fafoom or whatever sound effect!

[heavyliquid]

Well, they announced during the DC Nation Panel at the Chicago Comic Con that Wednesday Comics will be collected as a series of trades for each individual strip.

So that will be 16 different books, one for each character. No word on if it will be oversized or if there will be a massive hardcover with everything yet. Hmm.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=22463

"Wednesday Comics" will be collected into trade according to strips rather than altogether, Sattler said.

[drakedangerz]

Hmmm, can't say I agree with that decision. Why not just collect all the issues in one big ass newspaper length edition? That would be bitchin'. Oh wells.

[heavyliquid]

Hmmm, can't say I agree with that decision. Why not just collect all the issues in one big ass newspaper length edition? That would be bitchin'. Oh wells.

After thinking about it, I don't think they're going to be in separate books. Each book would only be 12 pages long which is way too short. I got the idea of separate books stuck in my head from Chris Marshall's blog (http://www.collectedcomicslibrary.com/2009/08/11/collected-edition-blog-browsing-on-tuesday-afternoon-4/). I'm guessing everything will be in one big book, but they'll group the titles together. The wording was just a bit confusing.

[elwood]

I can't recall where I read it, but I remember hearing something along the lines of them using at least two different methods, a regular trade with the art probably shrunk down a bit, and a bigger oversized volume with the art kept to the original size. Obviously it wouldn't make much sense to make seperate trades for every character.

Also, reading that CBR article, I kinda like the sound of the Batman/Doc Savage tie-in universe, and I'm glad that it sounds like Billy Batson will make a comeback as the Big Red Cheese in the future, even if it's not the near future.

...

Not to high-jack the thread, but in Wednesday Comics related discussion, if there is a second Wednesday Comics series (which was at least suggested as a possibility according to the CBR article), what characters/creators would you want to see used?

Me personally? I'm actually surprised that Darwyn Cooke didn't get involved in this, as the project seems like something that'd be right up his alley. He's said he'd be interested in doing the Spectre, or you could have him do something familiar like Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter (ala New Frontier) or Catwoman. Other then that I'd love to have:
Aquaman by Frank Espinosa
Legion of Superheroes by Mike Allred
Superman by Morrison and Quitely
OMAC by Bruce Timm
Phantom Stranger (with a Dr. 13 mini strip) by Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang
Deadman by Mike Mignola
Plastic Man by J.Torres and J. Bone
House of Mystery by by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez
Couldn't hurt to get some Doom Patrol and Jonah Hex in there either.
Oh, and more Paul Pope.

[voodoomama]

I am really hoping that this comes in an format in the same size to preserve the beauty of the art. I dont really care it it is alot of seperate books or all together but, i will be getting them all. This really reminds me of some of the charm craftmenship of the old and great comic strips that paved the way. It is so much fun!
And as far as who I would like to see in the next volume. Karl Kerscel drawing any freaking thing he wants!!!

[yetihands]

yeah, i don't think they'll end up doing trades per story, being 12 weeks, it'd only be 6 pieces of paper in each. 10 if we get a lot of extras.

[dierect-current]

I'm really loving Wednesday Comics. It has a real nostalgic quality to it, which is grat for an old git like me. When I was a kid all my comics were on this news print stock. They weren't meant to be read once and then bagged and boarded. They were a ral entertainment medium, were something that you kept coming back to until they fell apart. Just the smell of the paper is so evocotive. If/when it is collected I hope that they do a realy nice job because the end result could be something very special. I cant wait.

[jmstump]

I don't know if this has been mentioned but at CC09 they confirmed each story would be collected individually in trades of some sort.

[elwood]

I don't know if this has been mentioned but at CC09 they confirmed each story would be collected individually in trades of some sort.

Yeah, I heard that on the Collected Comics Library Podcast. I gotta be honest, I don't know if I like the idea. Especially since according to CCL (I think this is where I heard this), the way it'll work is that instead of making it oversized, they'll just have every single page from a strip broken down into like 3 or 4 normal size trade pages. So it's a normal sized trade paperback, and the newspaper pages are broken up by panels, stretching it out to something resembling a normal length trade.

If that's actually how they're collecting this, I think I might pass. That just sounds REALLY stupid. I mean, I like that this way you can just collect the strips you want, but whats the point if we can't see a whole page at once? I'd think breaking up pages like this would hurt the art, and the art is one of the strongest points of the whole project.

Hopefully we'll still get some kind of proper collection of this stuff as well.

[sensei]

Even if they do trim down the pages into individual comic sized pages (bad idea enough), these "trades" are going to be razor-thin.