Vertigo hardcovers for Preacher, Y: The Last Man, Transmet, Scalped, DMZ

[masahikotahara]

OK, so I'm thinking about selling my trade paperbacks of Y: The Last Man, Preacher, Transmetropolitan, Scalped and DMZ and update to the hardcover versions. I simply love these series and the hardcovers would look nice on my shelves.

Can anyone tell me about the quality of these books (binding, printing/paper quality)?

As for Preacher, it's kind of weird. There were three runs of collected editions for the series:

Some years ago, I bought the complete series in (the original, 1996-2001) 9 trade paperbacks, and during reading I noticed that some trades had the standard quality paper (matte/newspaper - is this the same?), while others had the heavier, glossy paper. Apparently Vertigo/DC changed that somewhere along the way?

It kind of bothered me, I wanted the series in one and the same printing (I prefer the glossy paper, does anyone prefer the matte paper?), I'm weird that way...so I sold my trades and bought the same series again (9xTPB) and made sure they all had the same glossy paper.

Now, later on (2009-2012) Vertigo/DC published a series of 6 hardcovers collecting the complete series, followed by 6 (new) trade paperback versions (2013-2014) of those hardcovers. I came across some disappointed buyers of the new hardcovers, and I presume that the trade paperback that followed use the same paper?

Can anyone shed some light on this matter? Should I go for the hardcovers or stick to my glossy trades?

Now, I have Y: The Last Man (10xTPB), Transmetropolitan (10xTPB), Scalped (10xTPB) and DMZ (12xTPB) in (the original) in trade paperback series and also think about upgrading them to hardcovers. Should I?

EDIT: I see that Transmetropolitan has no hardcover editions, except for the Absolute versions. I'm no big fan of these editions; I stuck to my Absolute Watchmen and Absolute Dark Knight (Frank Miller), but sold my other (Batman) Absolutes. They look real nice with the slipcase, and I like the size, but they aren't really handy to read, so apart from the classics Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns, I'm not collecting any Absolutes.

[Balakin]

lot of the Vertigo deluxes use matte paper. I have Y and Scalped, they have the same nice matter paperstock which I actually prefer to glossy stock especially in case of DC because most of the glossy paper they use currently sucks. Thin and feels cheap and gets really wavy. Not heavy at all.
Matte and newsprint are not the same. Essentials and showcases have newsprint, also the older DC pseudo omnis like the Kirby and Ditko books.
Some absolutes have matte paper, I'm pretty sure Watchmen has that.
While the deluxe's matte stock is not on par with the absolute's matte paper I think it's still better than the glossy.
Also, the Preacher hardcovers are not oversized, they are standard size hardcovers.

[masahikotahara]

Wow, that was fast. Thanks!

Oh, right, newspaper is the tin, cheap paper (like a newspaper, lol), while matte is thicker, better quality. Thanks for clearing that up.

So, do you know whether the Preacher hardcovers have matte or glossy paper?

The Absolute Watchmen has matte paper, indeed.

So, I think I'll go for the Y: The Last Man, Scalped and DMZ hardcovers...$$$

[Balakin]

Wow, that was fast. Thanks!

Oh, right, newspaper is the tin, cheap paper (like a newspaper, lol), while matte is thicker, better quality. Thanks for clearing that up.

So, do you know whether the Preacher hardcovers have matte or glossy paper?

The Absolute Watchmen has matte paper, indeed.

So, I think I'll go for the Y: The Last Man, Scalped and DMZ hardcovers...$$$

nah, I have old trades for Preacher.
DMZ v1 is oop btw (maybe US folks still can get it for good prices but in europe it costs aprx 2x as much as the others). But DC starts the chunky trades of that series in march.

[masahikotahara]

You're right, can't find DMZ v1 (HC) at any of my shops (I'm from Holland), that's a shame. I'll have to hunt that one down and will probably pay a lot more than the cover price. I'm afraid more books will go that way; DMZ v1 was only published in 2014; that is quite fast for a book to go out-of-print.

[drd]

You're right, can't find DMZ v1 (HC) at any of my shops (I'm from Holland), that's a shame. I'll have to hunt that one down and will probably pay a lot more than the cover price. I'm afraid more books will go that way; DMZ v1 was only published in 2014; that is quite fast for a book to go out-of-print.

It feels like vertigos recent policy is to follow up there deluxe hardcovers immediately with chunky trades with the same mappings and let the hardcovers fall out of print, DMZ and 100 bullets have both gone through this and the retroactivly went back and did the same with Y and Ex Machina too, I assume this is cheaper for them long term while still keeping the books as a whole in print. It sucks for us collectors though as it means anyone late to the party wil sturggle to get certain volumes in the format they want.

[Magnum Valentino]

I'm not sure about the most recent TPB printings of Preacher but I can confirm they are considerable slimmer than their hardcover counterparts which would lead me to believe they're printed on glossy pape. I know that's just conjecture but thought it was worth a mention.

[victorxd1999]

I'm not sure about the most recent TPB printings of Preacher but I can confirm they are considerable slimmer than their hardcover counterparts which would lead me to believe they're printed on glossy pape. I know that's just conjecture but thought it was worth a mention.

Just checked mine and it's indeed glossy.

[Fuller]

I'm not sure about the most recent TPB printings of Preacher but I can confirm they are considerable slimmer than their hardcover counterparts which would lead me to believe they're printed on glossy pape. I know that's just conjecture but thought it was worth a mention.

The new tpb edition is on (very) glossy paper. DC doesn't have a straight policy about those deluxe editions. Fables, Invisibles and 100 Bullets have glossy paper, DMZ, Y, Scalped matte paper... but one thing is for sure, they got the best looking spines on the market.