General omnibus & hardcover discussion vol. II

[lvizzz]

Hungary is crap, they never do hardcovers, only paperbacks and very few titles can survive because no one cares. Walking dead is quite strong and there is a constant market for Lucky Luke and Asterix it seems like but that's basically it. Of course the superhero stuff is always popular but there are a limited number of costumers so it's either monthly or bi monthly issues or trades. And you get every 3 or 6 month a trade which is either Iron man or Spider-man or a Batman but you can't release 3-4 titles because people won't buy them.
Stuff like Hellboy, Fables, Sandman died a horrible death after a few trades. Scott Pilgrim got released all the way through but that was a cheap trade, not that big of a risk.
I stopped caring about translated stuff ages ago even when I lived there (didn't go back since I moved here) and just got everything in english, didn't even care about supporting the local market, did it for ages but nothing will ever change.
Oh but bloody freaking Spawn got republished in bi monthly form and people lost their minds about it. That tells you everything about the future of hungarian comicbook publishing.

I've read Enigma btw when the new tpb came out, really-really liked it. Have the best of Milligan and McCarthy hc too but only read Paradax. Not but stuff but I really have to be in the mood for these.

That's really sad story man, people losing their minds about Spawn. Love the art, but writting is beyind bad: it's like 14-years old decided to write all cool stuff he's been thinking about for years for other 14-year old. Lots of writing from Marvel is bad, but Spawn beats everything.

I wonder why polish market is booming when you guys struggle so much. Correct me if I'm wrong but publisher from early 90's TM-Semic, was part of bigger group with HQ is Sweden., dont remember their nameThey'd published tons of super hero books - but also Alf, Barbie - and I remember everything was printed in Hungary, for few countries in Europe to lower the costs. I just pressumed because all this stuff was printed there, it was also published. That why polish market is growing: kids from 90's got jobs, have money to spend, there are new publishers, new projects, like Studio Lain: they publish 2000 AD stuff in hardcovers. Future Shocks by Alan Moore in HC! Slain: King in HC! Small circulation, only 500 books, but they do reprints, sold out Slaine almost immediately, I have second printing with different cover. And now they gonna do Heavy Metal Dredd!!! In HC!!!111one I'm losing my ****, it's just incredible.

@vark: haven't seen Marshal Law in polish, but with Studii Lain you never now. Maybe one day....

[Balakin]

That's really sad story man, people losing their minds about Spawn. Love the art, but writting is beyind bad: it's like 14-years old decided to write all cool stuff he's been thinking about for years for other 14-year old. Lots of writing from Marvel is bad, but Spawn beats everything.

I wonder why polish market is booming when you guys struggle so much. Correct me if I'm wrong but publisher from early 90's TM-Semic, was part of bigger group with HQ is Sweden., dont remember their nameThey'd published tons of super hero books - but also Alf, Barbie - and I remember everything was printed in Hungary, for few countries in Europe to lower the costs. I just pressumed because all this stuff was printed there, it was also published. That why polish market is growing: kids from 90's got jobs, have money to spend, there are new publishers, new projects, like Studio Lain: they publish 2000 AD stuff in hardcovers. Future Shocks by Alan Moore in HC! Slain: King in HC! Small circulation, only 500 books, but they do reprints, sold out Slaine almost immediately, I have second printing with different cover. And now they gonna do Heavy Metal Dredd!!! In HC!!!111one I'm losing my ****, it's just incredible.

@vark: haven't seen Marshal Law in polish, but with Studii Lain you never now. Maybe one day....

as far as I know, Marvel raised their licencing fee or declared bankruptcy and the fees went up because of that and Semic or their hungarian division just couldn't afford it so that was it for Transformers, X-men and Marvel extra (an anthology title publishing random Marvel books like avengers, Iron man or Daredevil) and probably some more I haven't read like Alf or something in that manner.
Superman and Batman became one title and after a while maybe bi monthly then cancelled. Spider-man ran for 128 issues though from 1990 or 1989 and got cancelled in 1999.
That was a sad day for me (mid storyline btw). Then they restarted a year later but with Ultimate Spider-man which got published until Ultimatum and that was the publisher's jumping off point but I can't remember if that was Semic or just the same guys with a different company (respect to them btw, they are real enthusiasts. No matter how jaded I am about hungarian comics publishing the guys who did it in the late 80's and 90's got me hooked on the hobby).
Stuff like 2000AD and that sort, no one would even touch it. I'm pretty sure they clearance basically everything except the Walking Dead. Bilal hc-s (only hardcovers I can remember), a Metabarons paperback, Sandman, Hellboy...at some point you could get all of them for some change and a button.

[lvizzz]

as far as I know, Marvel raised their licencing fee or declared bankruptcy and the fees went up because of that and Semic or their hungarian division just couldn't afford it so that was it for Transformers, X-men and Marvel extra (an anthology title publishing random Marvel books like avengers, Iron man or Daredevil) and probably some more I haven't read like Alf or something in that manner.
Superman and Batman became one title and after a while maybe bi monthly then cancelled. Spider-man ran for 128 issues though from 1990 or 1989 and got cancelled in 1999.
That was a sad day for me (mid storyline btw). Then they restarted a year later but with Ultimate Spider-man which got published until Ultimatum and that was the publisher's jumping off point but I can't remember if that was Semic or just the same guys with a different company (respect to them btw, they are real enthusiasts. No matter how jaded I am about hungarian comics publishing the guys who did it in the late 80's and 90's got me hooked on the hobby).
Stuff like 2000AD and that sort, no one would even touch it. I'm pretty sure they clearance basically everything except the Walking Dead. Bilal hc-s (only hardcovers I can remember), a Metabarons paperback, Sandman, Hellboy...at some point you could get all of them for some change and a button.

That's a good reason, but they'd lost audience because readers got older and Semic couldn't offer anything else. They've tried few times with more ambitious projects - not in every country from what I know, it was up to people working in those countries - like Judgment on Gotham in '93 printed on shinny paper but with terrible glue bidding, after one read book was in pieces, or Weapon X in '94 which was just too difficult to understand for most of us, kids. I've lost interest for comics in high school, found it boring, Spidey Clone Saga was so boring that Maximum Carnage looked like Nobel Prize material in comparison. Same thing happened with Batman and Superman, those titles had been merged.

But market was huge in 90's, specially in country like Poland, I've seen comics in every press store, and I knew them all in my city, knew when to expect new titles to arrive, some were more tricky, had to hunt them down, but as a kid I had unlimited time. Now publishers reprint lots of polish cult classic comics from 80's or even 70's but there are also more specialised publishers like Studio Lain. We have big publishers as well, Egmont is about to publish their 1000th book, other guys publish European comics, Thorgal obviously is always a hit, gets reprints all the time. The biggest success for last year was Justice in deluxe format, had it in my hands and couldn't believe how great that book looked.

[vark]

That why polish market is growing: kids from 90's got jobs, have money to spend, there are new publishers, new projects, like Studio Lain: they publish 2000 AD stuff in hardcovers. Future Shocks by Alan Moore in HC! Slain: King in HC! Small circulation, only 500 books, but they do reprints, sold out Slaine almost immediately, I have second printing with different cover. And now they gonna do Heavy Metal Dredd!!! In HC!!!111one I'm losing my ****, it's just incredible.

@vark: haven't seen Marshal Law in polish, but with Studii Lain you never now. Maybe one day....

thanks for the info. 2000 AD stuffs in Polish, it is good to know for future hunts.

[LordJulius]

Latest:



To anyone who hasn't read XIII yet (like myself, until a couple of days ago) - go get it. Now! Incredible espionage/mystery thriller. And it's available in English (Cinebooks, I think).

[drd]

To anyone who hasn't read XIII yet (like myself, until a couple of days ago) - go get it. Now! Incredible espionage/mystery thriller. And it's available in English (Cinebooks, I think).

Is that a hardcover version of XIII? I've been wanting to read that for years (fell in love with the video game they did when it came out) but the only english version I can find are paperbacks.

[LordJulius]

Is that a hardcover version of XIII? I've been wanting to read that for years (fell in love with the video game they did when it came out) but the only english version I can find are paperbacks.

It is the first volume of the German complete collection, which includes the first four albums. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for an English-language HC, but the story is great regardless of the format (and I think you can find the Cinebook albums rather cheaply).

[Balakin]

It is the first volume of the German complete collection, which includes the first four albums. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for an English-language HC, but the story is great regardless of the format (and I think you can find the Cinebook albums rather cheaply).

yeah but they are 90 pages, standard paperback. Quite disappointing and doesn't really motivate me to get them. I think later they became only 45 pages tpbs or maybe that was Thorgal? At least they should be oversized paperbacks like most of the other Cinebook books.

[MartinNL]

Latest:

[IMG]http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/n627/LordJulius76/80D3C5B2-D836-4B02-A35C-C6F048FF45A7_zpsadcqznx8.jpg[/IMG

To anyone who hasn't read XIII yet (like myself, until a couple of days ago) - go get it. Now! Incredible espionage/mystery thriller. And it's available in English (Cinebooks, I think).

I know I should too. Only hardcovers available in Dutch though is a 180€ box set :/ I got the first paperback a few years ago and totally loved that though!

[Dark-Flux]

Did i read somewhere that the Cinebook volumes of XIII are censored from the original?

[Garuda]

Did i read somewhere that the Cinebook volumes of XIII are censored from the original?

Not just XIII - all Cinebook volumes e.g. Largo Winch, Aldebaran (& sequels), Lady S and Thorgal are censored for nudity as well.

[evilomar]

It is the first volume of the German complete collection, which includes the first four albums. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for an English-language HC, but the story is great regardless of the format (and I think you can find the Cinebook albums rather cheaply).

LordJulius. I'm not sure if the 9th Blog was your website or not, but because of that sites' reviews over the years I have spent so much money from comics that came from overseas. So thank you and my wallet hates you.

[ChinBo37]

Yeah one nice omnibus would be cool. Plus one for the sister title - which I liked better - as well!

Incorruptible? I read the first 6 issues or so but thought it wasn't as good as irredeemable

[LordJulius]

LordJulius. I'm not sure if the 9th Blog was your website or not, but because of that sites' reviews over the years I have spent so much money from comics that came from overseas. So thank you and my wallet hates you.

Oh yeah. The blog. Cough. Cough. Somehow we all stopped working on it at some point, dunno why. And Johnny's disappeared completely. But glad to have been of help (ruining you)

[MartinNL]

LordJulius. I'm not sure if the 9th Blog was your website or not, but because of that sites' reviews over the years I have spent so much money from comics that came from overseas. So thank you and my wallet hates you.

Oh yeah. The blog. Cough. Cough. Somehow we all stopped working on it at some point, dunno why. And Johnny's disappeared completely. But glad to have been of help (ruining you)

Time time time... I loved to write reviews for it and I still do, I just hardly have the time. I love to read comics and even that is sometimes a challenge. Maybe someday we'll continue, who knows