A Major Spoilerite wrote in this week wondering about trades – specifically which was the better buy for reading and enjoying comics – the trade paperback or the collected hardback?
VOTE!
[poll id=”241″]
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19 Comments
My main reason for liking TPBs is they are easier on my wallet.
Went with the trades as well. they are more affordable and don’t take up as much room. I will spring for a hard cover if I really like the story but that isn’t often.
I tend towards the trade paperbacks, but there are some books that I collect the hardcovers (Locke & Key is one of those). I find this funny, because I am the opposite with novels. I always try to get the hardcover novels and the paperbacks only if I have to.
I went with trades for monetary reasons as well. When I can hop on Amazon (by clicking on the portal at MajorSpoilers.com of course!) and get the newest trade of Walking Dead for 8-10 bucks it doesn’t make sense to buy individual copies anymore. That and trades are much more portable and look oh so nice lined up on a book case. Hardcovers, while very pretty, are essentially the same item with bigger pictures. They are nice but not worth the extra coin to me.
Gonna take the cop-out route & say “it depends on what’s being collected”. If it’s something I really love & treasure, I’ll take the hardcover; but if it’s a regular story I just to read to see what it’s like, I’ll go for a paperback. The lone exception to this was when my credit company offered me the $100 deluxe hardcover edition of (of all things) “Battle Chasers” for free. Since I always wanted to read such a perfectly awful story, it was a worthwhile opportunity.
Hard covers all the way for me. I have a seven year old son who loves to read some of the trades/books I have, and I have lost more than one of the paperback due to them just being read too many times, and the binding falling apart. But I have yet to lose a hardcover collection. Now maybe I’ve been lucky, but who knows. When you go to Amazon (through the Major Spoilers portal of course) the difference is price tends to be so small that it’s worth the small amount of extra coin for the hard cover. And I think they look 100% better standing in my book case, they don’t start to sag like some of the paperbacks do.
I had to go with paperback on this one. I bought my first hardback through Amazon, after of course using the link on major spoilers, and when compared to my paperbacks I like the paperback better. They feel more like I have a comic in my hands then a book. Which is why I started reading them in the first place. Plus I feel that the paperbacks aren’t going to get their spines bent like Vern Gagne doing a dropkick on it. (Yes that was for you Matthew) I’m almost afraid to open my hardback of Batwoman: Hydrology because I can hear the spine bending *shudder*
Okay *facepalm* apparently I wrote paperback right after paperback. What I ment was “and when compared to my hardbacks I like the paperbacks better.”
I like the hardcovers because with two kids who love to read them they tend to last longer.
Hardcover trades are usually very nice, but I just cannot afford them.
if you have the money, there is nothing like having the hardcover version. I admit, i have mostly trades but the few hardcovers i have i treasure.
I didn’t vote this week because you didn’t provide a “depends” choice. And whether I buy a trade or a hardback depends on several factors: 1. Availability 2. The quality of the story (read it once every ten year or so – trade is fine – read it several times a year hardback is preferable) I didn’t buy quite a few DC hardbacks because I the story didn’t really interest me enough to spring for it. On the other hand, I’ve been buying the Lenore comics and Courtney Crumrin in hardback. Then there are some things that are only available in hardback – I am buying the Complete Little Orphan Annie in hb because that’s all there is. I actually own a few original Cupple & Leon Annie hardbacks from the 1920, and I have a hb edtion of “Arf – The Life and Hard Times of Little Orphan Annie” which reprinted the highlights of several stories from each decade, but up until the Complete LOA was the most that was available. [Why would I invest so much in a strip that’s been defunct for almost a half century? I always liked LOA when I was a kid, but we only got it in the Sunday papers, not in the daily paper, so I never got to read the whole story. Harold Gray had an annoying habit of using the daily strips to build up to a climax which was revealed in the Sunday pages – but without the dailies I had to guess about what was going on. The two earliest tragedies, back when I was in grade school – Walt Disney dying when I was ten (happily, I had met him and shook his hand just two years before) and Harold Gray’s death when I was twelve. Up until then, I had sort of supposed that famous people were immortal. Hey, I was a kid, so sue me!] 3. Price – some of the hardbacks are far too expensive – especially the Ultimate or Absolute Editions. Pretty on the shelf, but really? $75+? 4. Advertising – if I don’t know about it, I can’t buy it. For example, the collected editions of Rocketeer and Starstruck. I already bought the new editions in trade or comic form because that was all I knew was available. Only later did I learn they had special hardback editions. Too bad they didn’t, you know, actually tell people about it before they bought the soft covers.
Did you wear an onion on your belt?
As was the fashion at the time…
We didn’t have white onions because of the war.
For cost and therefore ease of getting my hands on more than one here and there, paperback.
But I do like hardcovers, don’t get me wrong. I have a nice leather bound hardback copy of “The Complete Frank Miller Batman” that was gifted to me ages ago and has held up multiple readings and is still in almost the same condition compared to many of my TPB that have bent covers or worse. If it weren’t for cost, I’d definitely like more like that.
Digital.
Agree
I went with paperback trades as well. This mainly has to do with the cost and my lack of money. I will save up and get a hardcover if it something really good. Sandman is definitely worth the price in hardcover.