We shouldn’t just collect or flip books, we should also read them. A good story can make your purchase well worth the money spent if you ask me. After all, we buy books to read for entertainment right? Even if you can’t flip them, reading is just as rewarding.
We tend to focus on mostly the floppy copies each week and kind of ignore the trades and hardcovers that come out week after week.
These can be one off books, collected editions or special editions.
The first trade on my radar is Invasion 1984.
Skeletal-looking alien warriors have invaded the Earth, bringing many large cities like London to the brink of total destruction in this British comics’ take on War of the Worlds! Never reprinted outside the original newsstand magazine Battle Picture Weekly, a legendary comic that influenced a generation of creators including Garth Ennis (Preacher). The story of pluck in the face of alien invasion as combat collides with cosmic terror!
Reminds me of Mars Attacks with a mix of War of the Worlds. Both great books so this is a definite check out for me. Who doesn’t love a good alien invasion story and graphic novel?
Next on the hit list is a book I’ve been waiting to be collected into an entire book as I stopped reading after the first few issues to wait, so I could read it all together, at the same time, in the same book.
That book is Tom King’s Mister Miracle HC.
“The critically acclaimed 12-issue mini-series is collected. Scott Free is the greatest escape artist who ever lived. So great that he escaped Granny Goodness’ gruesome orphanage and the dangers of Apokolips to travel across galaxies and set up a new life on Earth with his wife, the former Female Fury known as Big Barda. Using the stage alter ego of Mister Miracle, he has made a career for himself showing off his acrobatic escape techniques. He even caught the attention of the Justice League, which counted him among its ranks. You might say Scott Free has everything…so why isn’t it enough? Mister Miracle has mastered every illusion, achieved every stunt, pulled off every trick-except one. He has never escaped death. Is it even possible? Our hero is going to have to kill himself if he wants to find out.”
This last book is a must have. I mentioned this one way back when it was announced by Legendary.
That book is the new Godzilla Aftershock Hardcover that is a prequel story.
I’ve linked to Amazon’s site as they seem to have the best deal out of them all.
Also, Previews World has this set to hit shelves on May 22nd, but Midtown has it listed for May 15th while Amazon has it listed for May 21st. We all know Previews can be behind with their updates. I’ve rarely seen Midtown wrong with their release dates, it’s just the cover art they’ve gotten wrong from time to time.
THank you for writing this. I am currently writing an article on this subject as well. 🙂 Glad I am not the only one who thinks this.
Very nice. I love reading trades myself. Hoping this brings forth some great reads.
When a new reader enters my Shop, I greet them and let them browse around, eventually, I will strike up a conversation with them .. generally, leading up to what they like .. at that point, I will begin to gently direct them toward TP’s / GN’s that I feel they would have an interest in .. I explain that the beauty of that format is, they are generally self contained and don’t require a monthly commitment to a series .. there are TP’s / GN’s for any age and taste .. I keep a large selection on hand ..
As well, Mr. Poyo, there are a good number of TP’s / GN’s that have been Winners over the years as far as spec value goes .. it’s pretty much always a slow burn, but it does happen ..
It certainly is a way to really engage and read a series instead of sticking them into a bag with board, only to get tucked away into a longbox as well.
I love trades to be honest. We shouldn’t just collect comics, we should read them too and I think collected editions into trades or hardcovers are the best way to really engage into the stories and artwork.
I wish that they would have released that Mister Miracle HC sooner so I could have gotten it signed at Awesome Con a couple weeks ago. King and Gerards were both there.
I guess there will always be more cons they’ll both be at, hopefully. 🙂
Just for clarity regarding the release date, comic shops get HCs a week before “book stores” like Amazon, B&N, etc. Midtown and instocktrades will get them a week before Amazon, so the 15th and the 22nd are probably both accurate.
FWIW I would always recommend instocktrades for HC/TPBs. They’re 50% cover on the week of release and then 40%-50% after.
Ah, good to know that. Wonder why TFAW doesn’t have Godzilla listed then? Hmm..