...and I understand the economics of printing and press trim outs and all those production costs (ie: the cost for making the book just 1/2" wider would be considerable, just considering paper costs alone).


You know, it probably wouldn't be all that much more expensive, certainly not prohibitively so, to make a slightly wider (or even a bit larger) book -- but this is the standard trim size (6.625" x 10.1875") that DC uses for virtually every other book they publish (and comics, as well) that isn't specifically "oversized." It's easier to do a back-of-the-envelope quote, and to have a standardized page size when dealing when vendors, et cetera. You might say it's become institutionalized in the sense that nobody thinks twice about it, or what might make for a better reading experience with certain types of material.

A Week Ago Tuesday: My blog, where I never, ever write about comics (though I think I did, once or twice).