Fin Fang Foom wrote:
Most of the costs of printing the "variants" (and this applies to the hardcovers, as well) is in printing the bookblock -- and that's identical over both editions. Paying to do a short run of dust jacket or covers, yeah, that's going to be increasingly expensive as the quantities get smaller (not to mention the time spent preparing them), but probably not to the point where it completely erodes the margins -- yet.

(To be honest, I'm surprised they are still doing them at this point, but who knows how long that will last.)

Geez, talk about a wet blanket!

Obviously Marvel has some "secret formula" to make their Masterworks programs work. And instead of dieting on sour grapes, DC should maybe do what they've been doing since 1966 and try to copycat Marvel's success formula and apply it to their Archives program.

What it comes down to is that Marvel has earned my respect through how they've handled their Masterworks line and their customer base (and that's coming back from bankrupcy), and I will support them and the program for as long as they choose to continue it. If the paperbacks stopped tomorrow, I would simply buy up all the hardcover volumes to complete my Silver Age collection. They won't match but I'll at least  have  a complete collection, which is more than I can say for my abandoned Shazam!, Plastic Man, and Superman Archive collections.

Sorry to be so blunt, but I was tired of hearing stuff like this over on the DC forum, so I avoid those cancelled Archive threads now. I certainly didn't expect to read about how anyone is "surprised" at how the quality and on-time Masterwork program is holding up so well despite the fact they are "eroding." All comic business has been in the red for decades now, so perhaps it just comes down to the fact that the mega-corporation that owns Marvel is more generous with the write-offs than the cheapskate mega-corporation that owns DC. But as a consumer, I shouldn't have to care about such things. If a publisher puts out something I like, that I can readily find, then I buy it. Excuses for their failures, or the "illogic" of their successes, don't concern me, only the comics themselves do. When you go to, say, the optometrist, do you pay them to hear someone tell you how tough their job is or how hard it is for them to find customers? No, you pay them for a service. And if they can't run their business and are gone one day, well that just leaves you just find another one to go to.

As the great Stan Lee has been known to say, 'Nuff said!

Oh, yeah, and "Marvel Marches On!"







 

Last Edited By: Aug 3 13 4:38 AM. Edited 1 times.