IDW Publishing Forums

[Cnwl]

Hey, bem -- Yup, the same Rick Norwood!

And though of course I'm prejudiced, I agree -- too many libraries are under-represented in stocking LOAC titles. It's up to us to figure out how to change that, but so far we obviously haven't been as successful as we might like. One thing that may be making it tougher for us -- and all book publishers -- is that libraries seem to be increasingly focused on other media. Several months ago the Boston GLOBE ran an article about a small college that was _eliminating_ all hard-copy books and replacing them with a number of Kindle readers. That's an extreme example of the pursuit of "sexy electronics" (to the point of folly, I believe), but my local libraries _do_ seem to be diverting attention -- and resources -- over to electronics and "multi-media" (whatever that is) and away from the hard-copy books that have been their bread-and-butter for generations.

And I agree libraries can't totally ignore the increased media options, but I believe they also can't let the pendulum swing too far the other way. We'll totally lose the next generation of readers coming out of the cradle if we expect them to engage with e-books and Kindles and Nooks and whatnot -- a pre-school kid will be more focused on playing with the buttons and controls than he will be on the _content_, which is where his focus should be. Even as an adult, I find something is lost when content becomes just a packet of data, rather than something tangible. Since I've shifted to storing old and buying new albums on an iPod vs. on CD (or vinyl, because I remember that format, too), I find I'm more detached from music than ever before. The iPod carries the tunes, but lacks the booklet (or vinyl jacket sleeve or inserts) that lets me easily check lyrics or scan production notes at a glance, thereby giving me a sense of the "bigger picture" of and appreciation for the work. I've saved a lot of household space, having my music on one small gizmo instead of on almost a thousand CDs, but in turning it from "tangible" to "intangible", I've definitely frayed my connection to it. I see the "tots with e-readers" scenario causing those kids to grow up without ever establishing a connection to books and printed stories -- and that's a pretty horrifying thought to me.

Yes, that was a _big_ tangent I just concluded, but it comes back to: libraries need hard-copy books (most young families of my acquaintance who are encouraging reading make the public library a part of their lives -- easier and cheaper to borrow-&-read than buy-store-&-read), several libraries seem to be shifting away, and that makes getting LOAC titles into libraries that much tougher.

As I say, we've yet to fully crack the code in this area. . . but we've love to have LOAC books in every library in the land!
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Best wishes --

- B -

[Cnwl]

Double-posting -- how'd that happen? Sorry for the rerun, all ...
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Best wishes --

- B -

[Ahab]

Hi Everyone! My first post here.

Have just finished purchasing the great Terry and the Pirates volumes. Am wanting to collect the Dick Tracy set too, but am hesitating because of the huge prices being asked for volumes 8 and 9 of that collection. Are there plans to run another printing of those volumes?


Cnwl,
I agree completely with the points you make about the importance of getting all of the LOAC books in our libraries. Kindle editions are ok but they simply are no match for a physical copy of a well-printed book. But how are these books going to get into the libraries of they are allowed to go out of print so quickly?

[Cnwl]

Ahoy, Ahab -- (Couldn't resist, especially because I have reason to continually tease Dean about nautical/piratical things -- it's a reflex action!)

We appreciate your support -- it sounds as if you're pleased with TERRY AND THE PIRATES, and that pleases up. We're huge Caniff/TERRY fans, as you can probably tell ...

We have every intention to do a second printing for TRACY Volumes 8 and 9, but the only way it makes economic sense for that to happen is for us to go back to the printer with re-printings of several volumes all at once, so we have to ask for a bit of patience until that happens. Timing, as they say, is everything. I also checked -- both TRACY Vols 8 & 9 were released in 2009, so they're each about three years old. I'm not sure that period of time qualifies as being labeled "out of print so quickly" -- and certainly, even if they're on a once-a-year buying schedule, I believe any library intent on acquiring TRACY (or any of our other releases) would do so before three years have passed.

"Kindle editions are ok but they simply are no match for a physical copy of a well-printed book. " I'm with you 100%! My mother bought me a Kindle as a Christmas gift the first year they went on the market, and it was an incredibly generous and kind thing for her to do (those early Kindles weren't exactly inexpensive!). So far I've used it almost exclusively to download the London TIMES and read that newspaper on-line, and I've probably done that less than twenty times. (Sorry, Mom -- I'm just a bibliophile at heart!) And I've said elsewhere that, if digital is going to "save" comics the way its "saved" newspapers, count me out! But I'll refrain from riding that hobby-horse one more time ...

So, all this blather probably boils down to: [1] Thanks for reading _and_ for posting! and [2] the future holds second printings for TRACY Vols 8 & 9.
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Best wishes --

- B -

[ericb33]

Hi Bruce,

[Cnwl]

Hey, Eric --

Yup, TRACY 9 will have those adjustments made when it goes for its 2nd printing!

All the books you're waiting for are at the printers and should all be available roughly within the next six weeks, with the fascinating and influential SKIPPY, GASOLINE ALLEY, and LI'L ABNER Volume 5 (chock full of sweet stuff; our best ABNER volume to date, if I may immodestly say so) coming on their heels.
_________________
Best wishes --

- B -

[Gryphon]

What are the chances of new printings of rip kirby 2 and 3?

[bem1]

Cnwl: I was wondering what you'd say about the library and other things. I can see that topic struck a nerve with you and I enjoyed reading your comments. A couple of points of interest. I do use the local library (ll) for a great many things. I'm watching a tv show on DVD that I otherwise would not be able to watch, CDs of musical acts that I otherwise I wouldn't hear, and reading books that I want to read but do not really want to pay money for. My resources are limited, like most people, and so the library is a great resource for me.

My parents used to make us work, and then as a treat take us the ll. As kids we looked forward to it, because we could come home and read. I checked out the Dick Tracy and LOA compilations many many times, but as far as graphic novels and comic strips, there just wasn't much. So my parents made the library a part of our routine. ( We also did not have a TV so that helped.) I read a lot of junk and popcorn for the eyes, but I also read a great deal deal of the literary canon.

I teach at a community college, and though you did not put it in these words the short attention span of teenagers today just astounds me. I have to teach research skills to students who are used to surfing or flitting from topic to topic. There is not the deep immersion into a topic there needs to be to fully understand the topic. At the same time a couple years ago, I discovered Hank Williams. I read a biography of Williams by Escott, then read stuff on the internet, watched videos of Williams performing on youtube, listened to cds, and so I was able to have a broader experience then what I'd have been able to have 20 years ago so I can see the good and bad in electronics and the internet.

To finish with comics, I was reading the latest Mickey Mouse. I could flip from the introduction to the strips to the back where the supplemental info was, and yet still remain firmly in Gottfredson's and Mickey's world. Ironically enough one of the stories reminded me of a LOA story, but rather that is faulty memory, or racketeering was a major concern and infiltrated pop culture in the early 30s is something I'll have to investigate. Anyways thanks for sharing your thoughts with me, Cnwl. I don't mean to derail this thread into something else. Since it is the same Rick Norwood, tell him I really enjoy the Roy Crane books he's been working with Fantagraphics. I do wish they'd come out more frequently, but I have a feeling, those books are labors of love. Am looking forward to Lil Abner vol. 5 Yea!

[Ahab]

Cnwl,

Thanks much for the warm welcome. Hope to hang around here for some time because it appears to be a civil place with a lot of info on the comics I'm interested in.

Also, am very happy to hear that some of these out of print editions are soon going to get another printing. Have already placed on order for Dick Tracy, vol. 1. And will try and get the first vol. of Rip Kirby.

I just recently got interested in picking up some of the classic newspaper strips so I missed out getting a bunch of stuff when it was first printed.

Also am waiting to receive my copy of the second printing of the Wally Wood Artist's Edition.

Shame that when books go out of print the price skyrockets so quickly. Used to be I could find some really good stuff fairly cheap in used bookstores. But now with easy access to info on books available on the net some people can more readily seek an insanely high profit from that situation.

[Cnwl]

(That "Subject" line being something my Dad would say. He wasn't much of a reader, but he loved plays on words. I admit that one works better verbally than in type, but it still tickles my funnybone.)

Gryph -- I'll have to double check, but didn't we already announce that we were going back for second printings on RIP Vols 2 & 3? It's early in the AM here on the East Coast, so could be I just dreamed that, but when I read your question my knee-jerk mental reaction was that those are already in the "2nd Printing Queue" ...

AHAB: Agreed -- this does indeed seem a good group, but not a "clique." New voices of reason always seem welcome! Used bookstores -- *sigh*. I live in the greater Boston area, and used to have a wide selection of such establishments (some devoted exclusively to genres -- Spenser & Marlowe's for used mystery, for example). Now -- basically, it seems we're down to the venerable Brattle Books on West Street in Boston. On-line used booksellers may be great, but unless you know they're out there, it seems tough to find folks in your local area. And clicking through screens of books for sale is never as much fun as browsing the stacks!

BEM: In a word -- Hank! I love Hank Williams's stuff (well, not so much the Luke the Drifter songs, or the duets with Miss Audrey, but the pure Hank -- FABulous!).

Absolutely agreed that today's multimedia world opens up depths of learning that didn't exist in my younger days -- but as you also pointed out, the sword cuts two ways. The eagerness to push electronic media onto kids instead of reading books has contributed to the short attention spans and poor study skills you cite. Kids come out of the womb wired the same way as they always have -- it's the lessons parents and the school systems teach them that shapes a significant chunk of their learning and (more important) their _approach_ to learning. I'm also with you 100% on the value of a well-stocked local (or school) library. Like you, I'm astounded to look back and see how much utter junk I've read -- but I figure that's OK. I was entertained at the time, and without being exposed to the good, the bad, and the indifferent, how does one get to distinguish which works belong in each category?

On the reading-strip-collections front, I admit one thing I do _not_ like to do is flip back and forth between the front/guts/back of a book to read biographical asides or historical notes -- it completely "breaks the spell" of the strip-reading experience for me. One of the reasons our BLOOM COUNTY series is designed the way it is is because I put out a case that we needed an alternative to the "flip back and forth" approach. Am I the only one whose enjoyment is at least somewhat blunted in those types of books?

Finally, on the ABNER front -- I received back from Dean a couple items I had bought on eBay and sent to him for scanning and inclusion in the front section of the upcoming Volume 5. Some great fun awaits in that book, I think (though I admit I'm prejudiced ...).
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Best wishes --

- B -

[captcomic83]

I am looking forward to Genius Illustrated!

Jeremy.

[motiontoast]

The Vancouver Public Library system has three copies of Terry vol. 1, one copy of Chuck Jones: The Dream That Never Was (not by my request, honest!) and a copy of Genius, Isolated is on order. That's it from LOAC, but the VPL has a fantastic graphic novel selection and a fairly good comic strip selection, so getting more of these book in there wouldn't be a stretch.

There is a "suggest a purchase" section on the VPL website. Maybe I'll try it out and see if it does any good. All of you should try it at your local library's website as well.
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Kurtis Findlay
Chuck Jones: The Dream That Never Was

[metabaron]

Toronto Public Library has a few LOAC titles. I've seen Terry and the Pirates, Dick Tracy and Little Orphan Annie. I am sure they have others in the online catalogue and multiple copies. It is great thing to have them available in library for new readers who may have missed when these were originally published. I don't know selling to libraries is profitable (I do notice Beguiling - comics store - is also doing that), but it is great for nurturing a new audience of comics fans. Toronto Public Library also has lots of other comics and even some rare ones...

[bem1]

just a couple points of interest. Gasoline Alley now has a new cover. I liked the old one, but I can see why they chose this one.

IDW website has info about the Star Trek comic strip. Not something I'm in the market for personally, but I hope it does well.

An Amazon fish for Opus has surfaced, and that will be all of Breathed's work. Wonder if they have any other contemporary cartoonists they want to work with.

October solicitations are up on IDW. I looked for King Aroo vol. 2, but did not see it. Fingers are crossed.

Hoping to see more Archie, Polly and Her Pals Sundays, maybe the Red Barry project, announced the winter/ spring 2013 catalogue, but for now there is such a great array and so many books I want to read, I'll be busy and stay off the streets.

[Gryphon]

Has anything changed on the possiblity of reprinting the work of Charles Addams?