Omnibuses v. Trades - How do you decide?

[Bad Wolf]

Cost not being a factor, I would prefer omnibus. Hardcover is always preferable to me.

I would like to get All-Star Superman in Absolute because I want to see the art in a larger format.

[Orion]

Age of Apocalypse - Omnibus has much better reproduction than the complete tpb's, and the material is great and art warrants oversized format

All Star Superman - story and art obviously warrant the deluxe treatment, but DC is incompetent and didn't include Mark Waid's beautiful introduction from the vol. 2 trade, so I didn't upgrade.

Marvel Omnibus rule of thumb - If it's already available in OHC, I don't need to upgrade to omnibus (ie Annihilation), unless there is significant gutter loss with the old glued binding OHC's (ie The Ultimates).

[Mixmaster]

I definitely like trade paperbacks better than omnibuses and hardcovers. They are much easier to read. Sure, I like the oversized art, as I'm primarily a comic art collector, but I also love the fact that I can read a trade paperback without having to lay it flat on a table so that I can stare down at it for hours and get a neck cramp. I also like trades because they are so lightweight and I can carry them around with me where ever I want to go; an omnibus weighs anywhere from three to eight pounds, so that's not going to fit well into a computer case or bag.
I will buy an omnibus now if it's the only way to get a run of something in a collected edition. I have sold off nearly all of my omnibuses over the last year or so (about 25 magazine-size boxes of omnibuses and OHCs), but I've kept Man-Thing, X-Statix, New X-Men, Miller DDs and Elektra, Untold Tales of Spider-Man, Hawkman, New Teen Titans, Animal Man and Squadron Supreme because I really like having all those stories under one cover.
I do enjoy the oversized art. I kept my Miller DDs because I own a cover from the Miller/Mazzuchelli run and it's nice seeing it in an oversized format.
But, with many of the omnibuses I had, I was able to sell them for a profit and get the same material in the smaller, easier-to-handle-and-read format of trade paperbacks.
I am looking forward to the Infinity Gauntlet Omnibus and, when it comes out, Miracleman (we all know THAT one is bound for OHC) and plan to buy both, as I'm a big fan of Starlin's work and I think Miracleman may be Moore's best work next to Swamp Thing.
I do wish DC would give us a set of omnibuses of Moore's Swamp Thing run. It just seems like a no-brainer.
But, until then, I will just read and reread my copies of the trade paperbacks (yes, I have the hardcovers, but the trades are so much easier to read).

[Dr. Jay]

I love omnibuses--- I love collecting them and owning them and I anxiously anticipate each new announcement what is going to be available. But here is the dirty secret about omnibuses---a book that size is going to have construction problems and taking care of them is a laborious task. And then the reading of them is difficult--they are cumbersome: If you are a bed reader or like to hold them a certain distance from your eyes and not necessarily flat on a table, it is difficult. Can't really transport them anywhere.

I notice that when I want to look at something-- I tend to go to my masterworks over my omnibuses.

So for me, I like to read oversized hardcovers> well put together standard sized hardcovers> trades>omnibuses.

(Although strangely, I still buy the omnibuses, but I am realizing that is more of a collector thing than a story reading thing)

[Canucked]

In the very odd situation I'll get the trades or PHC and if I love it and an OHC or Omni comes out I'll sell the small format or give it to my nephew. In other cases I'll wait till OHC and OMI. I only really get trades or PHC on cheap deals of stuff you can't find bigger. Like shadowland.

[zevious zoquis]

I definitely like trade paperbacks better than omnibuses and hardcovers. They are much easier to read. Sure, I like the oversized art, as I'm primarily a comic art collector, but I also love the fact that I can read a trade paperback without having to lay it flat on a table so that I can stare down at it for hours and get a neck cramp. I also like trades because they are so lightweight and I can carry them around with me where ever I want to go; an omnibus weighs anywhere from three to eight pounds, so that's not going to fit well into a computer case or bag.
I will buy an omnibus now if it's the only way to get a run of something in a collected edition. I have sold off nearly all of my omnibuses over the last year or so (about 25 magazine-size boxes of omnibuses and OHCs), but I've kept Man-Thing, X-Statix, New X-Men, Miller DDs and Elektra, Untold Tales of Spider-Man, Hawkman, New Teen Titans, Animal Man and Squadron Supreme because I really like having all those stories under one cover.
I do enjoy the oversized art. I kept my Miller DDs because I own a cover from the Miller/Mazzuchelli run and it's nice seeing it in an oversized format.
But, with many of the omnibuses I had, I was able to sell them for a profit and get the same material in the smaller, easier-to-handle-and-read format of trade paperbacks.
I am looking forward to the Infinity Gauntlet Omnibus and, when it comes out, Miracleman (we all know THAT one is bound for OHC) and plan to buy both, as I'm a big fan of Starlin's work and I think Miracleman may be Moore's best work next to Swamp Thing.
I do wish DC would give us a set of omnibuses of Moore's Swamp Thing run. It just seems like a no-brainer.
But, until then, I will just read and reread my copies of the trade paperbacks (yes, I have the hardcovers, but the trades are so much easier to read).

I certainly am not disagreeing with your personal prefs or anything, but for me there just isn't ever a time where I'm going to be taking my comics on the road for reading. It's almost entirely an "at home" pass time for me. As far as the ease of reading goes, I just don't find trades much more comfortable to read. Sure, they are obviously smaller and lighter but they also pretty much all require you to hold them open which for me gets tiresome too (especially since I'm always hyper concerned about damaging the glued spines and am afraid to open them too far). I can quite comfortably sit an Omni in my lap and read it without any neck strain.

[mike1981]

I only buy hardcovers, which makes collecting much easier for me.

I also try to get the best possible edition of the material. Sometimes I'll back peddle, like trading down from the Invisibles omnibus to the deluxe hardcovers as the former is just too large

[Orion]

I find Absolutes more cumbersome than omnibuses in terms of "ease of reading" factor. I also don't like having to take the time to remove the slipcases etc - this means in practical terms I tend to (re)read my absolutes much less frequently than my other books that I can just grab off the shelf and flick through.

[earl]

Why would it be obvious to anyone that you prefer floppies over collected editions?.

Surely in the collected edition board most collector prefer omnibus and other editions, for the larger art, quality books instead of a brochure filled with ads, better value, reading experience as a collection and other such reasons like how good they look shelved in a collection.

It kind of depends on what you are wanting to read. Hardcovers and trades don't cover everything. Sometimes there is also quite a bit of changes done to older comics that are not always successful when compiled decades later. There are tons of comics that has never and probably never will be compiled. And with some of these collections, they are not always cheaper than going back and getting the actual comics every time. This is especially true if you want to read long runs of certain characters, especially DC, as their reprinting of older material is really hit and miss. The original comic is also an artifact of a piece of time, some of the ads and other items in the comics can be interesting, as it places the comics into a specific point in time that is lost in a reprint. Trades and omnibus collections are cool, but they are not the end all be all.

[Tony]

I will buy a nice Omnibus but anything more than 8-9 hundred pages is too big and I don't bother. Simonson Thor for example just way too big and honestly didn't hold up enough to keep. Since then if I see more than 900 pages I'm out before it is.

[NZ_InFerno]

I prefer Omnibus or Oversized hardcover mostly because you get a better product for similiar price to the tpbs. I've always picked up tbs/HCs of recent releases that I want and then sold them when an oversized edition has come out.

I don't mind the big Omnibuses, the only one that wasn't super comfortable was Simonson Thor but that was after a long reading spell.

[canadianaidan64]

I always go for the best most complete version of a book unless it's oop and stupidly expensive. Then I buy other stuff until a reprint (hopefully) comes out. I guess My preference would be for absolute > omnibus > deluxe HC > standard HC > TPB >Floppy. But there are some comics like the authority or planetary where the absolutes aren't as complete as later printings so I go for the omni/OHC.

I love omnibuses--- I love collecting them and owning them and I anxiously anticipate each new announcement what is going to be available. But here is the dirty secret about omnibuses---a book that size is going to have construction problems and taking care of them is a laborious task.

Would you elaborate on that last part about taking care of your omnis? Right now all I do is dust them occasionally. Do books of this size require some sort of special treatment to preserve them?

[NZ_InFerno]

I always go for the best most complete version of a book unless it's oop and stupidly expensive. Then I buy other stuff until a reprint (hopefully) comes out. I guess My preference would be for absolute > omnibus > deluxe HC > standard HC > TPB >Floppy. But there are some comics like the authority or planetary where the absolutes aren't as complete as later printings so I go for the omni/OHC.



Would you elaborate on that last part about taking care of your omnis? Right now all I do is dust them occasionally. Do books of this size require some sort of special treatment to preserve them?

Some people put little bits of cardboard or paper under the books pages so it sits level. With the book upright the weight of the paper can pull at the binding, because the pages don't touch the ground unlike the hardcover itself they are hanging off the binding. Whether this can damage a book I don't know. I've had post it notes under some of mine, then moved some books and didn't put them back. It's a year or so later and haven't seen any difference/damage. If your books are tight together on a shelf this would achieve a similar purpose IMO.

[zevious zoquis]

Yeah I think it really all comes down to the basic quality of the binding. If a book is bound reasonably well, you likely don't need to take any special precautions with it. I mean I have some huge hardcover books (not comics just regular books) that are over 30 years old and have been moved and boxed and un-boxed several times and they are still in great shape. But I think if a book has a crappy binding it won't really matter what you do it's gonna fall apart sooner or later. Most of my omni's and OS HCs are fine (especially the Darkhorse books. They seem really solid). But a couple (The Stand being one) seem to have pretty flimsy binding or just crappy glue jobs or other issues and they appear to be failing already even though they have hardly been opened...

[ohmshalone]

I like trades for most of my stories and will only buy a hardcover or omnibus if its a classic for me. Otherwise, buying an entire run can be a waste if you don't finish it, or if you realize when you get to the end that it wasn't worth buying. To keep up with current stuff, I only buy tpbs. They're cheap, and I can always stop once I see the quality's dropping.