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Post by jason on Jan 20, 2022 16:39:48 GMT -5
This makes me wonder, does anyone collect Classic X-Men, if just for the backup stories in the early issues?
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Post by spoon on Jan 20, 2022 17:35:18 GMT -5
A little bit of thread drift from #67-93: I owned the tiny two-issue Days of Future Past TPB for years until I learned on the interwebs that it removed the last page of #142. I decided I'd buy an issue I had as reprint to get one page. It actually changes the tone of the ending. I own that TPB as well, had it for years. I just checked that versus the new Epic Collection that reprints #142. Damn, you're right! I never knew that till now. Wow, and you're also right, the extra page does alter the tone of the ending. I wonder why they felt the need to excise that from the slim TPB? Maybe they thought cutting the final page made the slim TPB feel more like a complete story with a resolution. It's sort of a happy ending, because it leaves the assumption that Kate Pryde's mission worked. The added page suggests the story is not resolved. It also could be a downer, because it suggests that made saving Sen. Kelly didn't change the path of history enough.
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Post by Dizzy D on Jan 20, 2022 18:18:29 GMT -5
This makes me wonder, does anyone collect Classic X-Men, if just for the backup stories in the early issues?
I did, both because those issues were far easier to get and I also liked a lot of the backup stories.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 20, 2022 18:52:05 GMT -5
A little bit of thread drift from #67-93: I owned the tiny two-issue Days of Future Past TPB for years until I learned on the interwebs that it removed the last page of #142. I decided I'd buy an issue I had as reprint to get one page. It actually changes the tone of the ending. I own that TPB as well, had it for years. I just checked that versus the new Epic Collection that reprints #142. Damn, you're right! I never knew that till now. Wow, and you're also right, the extra page does alter the tone of the ending. I wonder why they felt the need to excise that from the slim TPB? Publishing requires 8 page leafs*. Books will be 8, 16, 24, 32, 40, 48 etc. pages long (1 leaf, 2 leafa, 3 leafs 4 leafs, etc.). It's possible that when combining two Bronze Age books, they needed to cut pages to get down to the 8 page section rather than adding 6 or 7 pages of material. Going an extra leaf ups production costs and requires a higher msrp usually. So to make the story fit the format they were putting it out in, they likely needed to trim something to make it fit and that page probably got elected. It's also the reason why a lot of the 70s Bronze Age reprint books cut content, to fit available space. Pages committed to title pages, ads, etc. have to be accounted for before content pages in most cases. So content has to fit the available space. Anytime you need to ask why something was cut, that's going to be the reason why 99% of the time. Now what material to be cut is up to the editor, but the need to cut something stems from available pages to keep the multiples of 8 intact. -M *there are a couple of technical terms often used instead of leaf. Leaf is the term the publisher we worked with used when I was the advisor for student publications (like yearbook) way back when I was still in academia. PPS this is also a quick way to check if all pages are present in a back issue you buy-if the number of pages is not a multiple of 8, something is missing.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jan 20, 2022 22:43:01 GMT -5
This makes me wonder, does anyone collect Classic X-Men, if just for the backup stories in the early issues? I bought them as they came out, since the original issues were often too costly, for my tastes. I stopped picking it up when it reached the point where I was regularly buying X-Men. I also bought the odd Marvel tales, for specific stories, since they were easier to come by than Amazing Spider-Man, for older issues. Same for the Special Marvel Edition reprints of Sgt Fury and some Marvel Super Action Captain America reprints and Marvel Triple Action Avengers reprints.
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Post by spoon on Jan 20, 2022 23:28:16 GMT -5
This makes me wonder, does anyone collect Classic X-Men, if just for the backup stories in the early issues? I'm another one who collected Classic X-Men because it was cheaper. I didn't really start collecting X-Men until after Classic X-Men had started. But I liked the backups, so I would've bought the Classic issues even if price weren't an obstacle. After the backup stories were discontinued, Classic X-Men doesn't offer the same draw. I'm not a completist to the extent that I'd buy the X-Men issue and Classic reprint just to have two different covers. So at that point my collection becomes a mishmash of Uncanny/Classic depending on which I was able to find at an LCS, if the cover caught my eye, and whether the original was affordable.
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Post by Marv-El on Jan 21, 2022 15:02:06 GMT -5
I also bought Classic X-Men when it first came out just to read the reprints of those original issues I couldn't afford. The backup stories were a good enticement to buy it as well since they were 'canon'. Thankfully, Marvel has since released two trades collecting just those backup stories.
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Post by chaykinstevens on Jan 22, 2022 8:22:09 GMT -5
Publishing requires 8 page leafs*. Books will be 8, 16, 24, 32, 40, 48 etc. pages long (1 leaf, 2 leafa, 3 leafs 4 leafs, etc.). It's possible that when combining two Bronze Age books, they needed to cut pages to get down to the 8 page section rather than adding 6 or 7 pages of material. Going an extra leaf ups production costs and requires a higher msrp usually. So to make the story fit the format they were putting it out in, they likely needed to trim something to make it fit and that page probably got elected. It's also the reason why a lot of the 70s Bronze Age reprint books cut content, to fit available space. Pages committed to title pages, ads, etc. have to be accounted for before content pages in most cases. So content has to fit the available space. Anytime you need to ask why something was cut, that's going to be the reason why 99% of the time. Now what material to be cut is up to the editor, but the need to cut something stems from available pages to keep the multiples of 8 intact. According to GCD, the reprint was 48 pages plus the cover, which was blank on the insides. The original story was two issues of 22 pages plus covers, which should have fit in if they had wanted it to.
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Post by Icctrombone on Jan 22, 2022 9:23:55 GMT -5
I have the Cockrum/ Byrne books in tpb or reprint versions just to “have them “. I sold off my X-men books in the 2000’s without blinking to pay bills.
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Post by dbutler69 on Jan 22, 2022 10:00:14 GMT -5
I always collected both the originals and the reprints, since I am a completionist. If I had to only choose one or the other, I'd go with the originals, though they're more expensive. For one thing, I think those reprints (some of them at least) have some pages edited out since the page count was smaller in 70's comics than in 60's comics.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2022 11:04:38 GMT -5
Publishing requires 8 page leafs*. Books will be 8, 16, 24, 32, 40, 48 etc. pages long (1 leaf, 2 leafa, 3 leafs 4 leafs, etc.). It's possible that when combining two Bronze Age books, they needed to cut pages to get down to the 8 page section rather than adding 6 or 7 pages of material. Going an extra leaf ups production costs and requires a higher msrp usually. So to make the story fit the format they were putting it out in, they likely needed to trim something to make it fit and that page probably got elected. It's also the reason why a lot of the 70s Bronze Age reprint books cut content, to fit available space. Pages committed to title pages, ads, etc. have to be accounted for before content pages in most cases. So content has to fit the available space. Anytime you need to ask why something was cut, that's going to be the reason why 99% of the time. Now what material to be cut is up to the editor, but the need to cut something stems from available pages to keep the multiples of 8 intact. According to GCD, the reprint was 48 pages plus the cover, which was blank on the insides. The original story was two issues of 22 pages plus covers, which should have fit in if they had wanted it to. 44 pages plus 2 covers is 46. You need more than 2 pages in a reprint collection for title page, indicia page, and some kind of house ad to defray costs. So something had to go, and for legal reasons its not going to be the title page or the indicia page. So it comes down to ads, which help pay the marketing bills, or a content page, and business/financial factors will always outweigh content in a for profit business like a publisher, so it was likely a content page had to go. Now choosing that page, instead of say a bunch of recap panels at the beginning of each issue was an editorial decision not a business one, but the decision that a page of content needed to be cut to fit the page allotment was most definitely a business decision. -M
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Post by chaykinstevens on Jan 22, 2022 12:00:08 GMT -5
The Punisher/Wolverine African Saga, which reprinted Punisher War Journal #6 & 7, was published in the same format in the following year and managed to fit in both 22 page stories and covers. The DOFP reprint seems to have replaced the final story page with an afterword by Louise Simonson.
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Post by spoon on Jan 22, 2022 14:12:29 GMT -5
The Punisher/Wolverine African Saga, which reprinted Punisher War Journal #6 & 7, was published in the same format in the following year and managed to fit in both 22 page stories and covers. The DOFP reprint seems to have replaced the final story page with an afterword by Louise Simonson. Yup. Just looked at it and saw the afterword page. There is no house ad. To me, that suggests a decision to edit the content beyond material constraints.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2022 15:38:39 GMT -5
The Punisher/Wolverine African Saga, which reprinted Punisher War Journal #6 & 7, was published in the same format in the following year and managed to fit in both 22 page stories and covers. The DOFP reprint seems to have replaced the final story page with an afterword by Louise Simonson. Yup. Just looked at it and saw the afterword page. There is no house ad. To me, that suggests a decision to edit the content beyond material constraints. Or to give the buyer content-the afterword-unavailable anywhere else as incentive to buy that product even if one owned the original material to make it an appealing product to the collector market. If you are a completist, and that afterward is not available anywhere else, it's a reason to buy the product that might otherwise be a pass. The choice of the prestige format for the collection is another indicator they were courting the collector of that time period when it was released, Offering an affordable reprint of highly regarded, high in demand out of print stories courts readers, the prestige format and exclusive content courts the collector customer of that time, giving the product they are trying to sell as many copies as they can to retailers who will resell it to their customers a wider range of customer appeal. -M
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