Things that annoy me #82519: Comic Book Information

[andrewducker]

I've heard good things about Geoff Johns' take on Superman. I'd be happy to catch up with what he's written so far. I'm 99% sure that there are collections out there of the stuff he's produced. Can I find a bibliography? No.

Similarly, if you've heard that Green Lantern has been well written recently and fancy getting caught up to date, there's no real way to know which books to even buy. Scanning the DC website there's nothing that says "Like this? Read all these other things!" which is, frankly, criminal. Do they not _want_ my money? What I eventually dug up was this - a fucking Amazon List.

I'm sure that if you're a fanboy you know exactly what to read, which message boards will keep you updated, etc. But the casual reader? Lost.

On the other hand, to pick a recent book series - if you want to read all of the Sookie Stackhouse books (the ones True Blood is based on) then a 5 second search lands you at the author's web page, where there's a complete bibliography, complete with ISBN numbers. See, that was simple, wasn't it?

Comments

[johncoxon.livejournal.com]

So go to the local comic book shop and ask. The bloke behind the counter will know exactly what you want to buy.

[andrewducker]

So that means spending an hour of my time travelling back and forth to ask someone who probably doesn't know - certainly, the staff in the local FP have been completely clueless in my experience. Plus, of course, they're about 50% more expensive than Amazon.

I've got the information now anyway - it's on that Amazon list I linked to. The point is that I can't believe that the publishers (or the authors) aren't making the information available - and pointing people at it - "Here's our big event. Read these books to get caught up to date!"- and this attitude strikes me as insane.

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

Simple: ask a friend who knows what they are talking about.

Green Lantern volume 4 is what you want.

Start with Green Lantern Rebirth, which launched the new series. Then..

No Fear
Revenge of the Green Lanterns
Wanted: Hal Jordan
Sinestro Corps Wars 1 & 2
Tales of the Sinestro Corps
Secret Origin
Rage of the Red Lanterns
Agent Orange

Wikipedia is also helpful.




The good writing starts after One Year

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

The staff in the edinburgh FP are actually assholes. Go to a better store.

[andrewducker]

I know I can ask people - my problem is that I'm completely baffled by how shit DC are. or even Geoff Johns' own web site.

Wikipedia didn't seem to have a list of all GL TPBs that I could find.

[johncoxon.livejournal.com]

I think the problem here is that you're naïve enough to think FP is a 'local comic store' – that's like me seeing a recommendation to go to a corner shop and hitting a branch of Tesco Extra.

[andrewducker]

The only other one I know of in Edinburgh is Death's Head, who have never seemed much better, knowledge or price wise.

[andrewducker]

Besides which my point is still "Why are the publishers so shit???"

I don't have to go into my local book shop to find out what order to read the Inspector Rebus novels - that information is available in two clicks from a Google search. Why are comics not able to do this too?

[skington.livejournal.com]

In the case of novels, authors have all the incentives there are to publicise books: they get paid (more or less) by the copy, and nobody's competing with them.

When it comes to people writing established comic series, though, while you may find individual writers, pencillers, inkers, colourers and/or letterers pimping their work on individual issues, the publisher is less likely to say "Hey, OK, so we'd like to think of all our Green Lantern stuff is great, but seriously, if you only care about the good stuff, well, it's the stuff that blah wrote".

Wait, no, I take it back. DC won't even obviously list each and every Green Lantern comic. Never mind provide you buy links for individual items.

They're still in the "If you're a fan, you'll buy everything" mode. Which is fine as far as it goes, and chances are the Internet would have made them rethink it... except that suddenly Hollywood has started making comic publishers a shitload of money that hides the deficiencies in their prior business model. (So just as well they got another one, then.)

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

This! A1 in Glasgow is a lot better and staff both know what they are talking about and will take the time to help you.

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

In their defence the DC Comics site USED to be a lot easier and did list all their collections per title, so I don't think it's fair to say they've never done that. It was only very recently that for whatever reason they have got rid of that. It may be that they are redeveloping the site and will put that back on once everything else is in order.

But, y'know what, email them and tell them this. They are a good company and will take that on board. Feedback's always helpful.

Generally the site's pretty good for telling you what's going on. Blackest Night is a great read.

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

I'm sure they'll correct this.

Do you still need information on Green Lantern collections? Or Superman?

Geoff John's is currently in the middle of Superman Secret Origin, which is by all accounts very good and worth reading.

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

DC typically do mini-sites on the main website which actually do tell you what you (arguably) need to read in the build up to a big event. I've seen this for the last few big events.

[andrewducker]

Cheers - and thanks for the info on stuff worth reading. I'll be slowly picking up trades as cash allows, I think (slowly).

I'm glad they used to have the info - I hope they get it back up again.