It's one thing to take a chance on more obscure material in a format that has comfortable margins -- it may not sell all that well (even the non-obscure Masterworks don't these days), but hey, there's a chance you'll squeak out ahead, maybe make a bit of money.

To do that in softcover, with what would essentially be new material (with higher costs to bring that material to market), that's a much bigger risk. Marvel strikes me as kinda risk-averse these days where this stuff is concerned.

I think the short answer is, if you're ever going to see that stuff -- romance comics, more western reprints, funny animal reprints, et cetera -- in book form, it's more likely to be in hardcover.

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