reprints reprinted

[JamieB]

"Ultimately, the problem with long-running serials is that the collections will almost certainly never be completed."

Er... no. *Not* going to be a problem, I assure you.

"This is my worry with Dante GNs. Wasn't the plan to release them over a period of several years? What happens, then, when sales dip after the initial interest wanes?"

Well, as that happens with every book ever published...
...I'm sorry, I don't really see what you're getting at.

"We end up with yet another incomplete set (just as we have with stuff from Titan, Hamlyn, et al)."

Yes, but Titan and Hamlyn were both publishing under license from either Fleetway or Rebellion, and were therefore always going to go with the series they could maximise sales with, and were working on the basis of having a limited reprint time window. Rebellion, owning 2000 AD, has the luxury of having everything to pick through, and forever - if necessary - to do so.

"The limited demand on things like Meltdown Man, to pick but one story, means the chances of it every being reprinted is near to zero."

Probably accurate, I'm afraid.

"However, the level of interest in de-facto complete reprints of all 2000 AD material is likely to be much higher"

Why? I don't see this at all. "A" material - yer Zeniths, Halo Joneses, what-have-you, fine. That's coming out in GNs anyway (well, except Zenith, but that's a special case).

But d'you not think people buying collections of the, ahem, lesser progs (you know which they are) might feel, I dunno, ripped off?

"...but ONLY if it's good value (which, quite frankly, the digital archives are not - but then they were aimed at people who already had the issues and wanted to keep their originals pristine)."

So what you want, effectively, is complete, bulky reprints of large numbers of progs, cheaply priced. I'm afraid that's not how things are going to go.

I'm doing my best to keep prices down, but the reprints are going to be as they have been - complete stories where do-able (i.e. NECRONAUTS), in high-quality editions.

J-Bo-1

[Art]

Probably accurate, I'm afraid.

S'pity. Theres a few odds and ends (stuff like Freaks, The Dead) that would make lovely standalones, but I suspect no one remembers them enough to buy collected editions of them.

[Oddboy]

Maybe if the Freaks sequal is good then it could be collected together?

Have to see how Faces goes first though.

[IndigoPrime]

My point was, I thought, fairly obvious, but I shall clarify it further. With every series that's reprinted, the interest will peak at the official announcement and then wane as time goes on. If, for instance, Dante will take a few years to be reprinted, I worry that the dip in interest (and thus sales) will lead to Rebellion cancelling later reprints. Are you really saying that this 100% definitely won't happen and that when people buy the first book that the others are all certain to arrive?

I find it very likely that we'll end up with maybe half (or less) of Dante in GN form and then the rest will be canned, due to low sales. However, in this case, I'll be very happy indeed to be proved wrong.

With regards to your collections comment, I guess that explains the death of the Digital Archives. However, my point regarding "reprint" actually was referring to the DVD idea. As for the phone book idea, that has been suggested on numerous occasions by various people and is obviously not financially feasible for Rebellion, hence my mentioning the DVD idea again.

[paulvonscott]

"PVS - all of those things are on my Big List."

That's fine, I'm not really bothered what comes out when, or in what order.  As long as there are some old classic stuff coming out now and again, as part of a bigger plan, that'll do me.

I've spent hundreds of pounds (sob) over the years on Titan/Hamilyn collections, which they've rarely followed up on, always churning out the same episodes of ABC Warriors or Robo-Hunter.  I certainly regret buying a lot of them as I've been left with almost random selections of most of my favourite stories.

[Grant Goggans]

Prime, I'm not sure I understand your position.  Sure, Volumes 2 and 3 of "The Complete Nikolai Dante" *might* sell badly, preventing the publication of Volume 4, but Rebellion won't know until they publish them, right?

Fantagraphics' "Complete Peanuts" begins this year, with Volume 1 reprinting 1952-54.  It's planned to run for 23 or 24 volumes published between now and 2016.  Any number of things could happen to prevent them completing this series, including the bankruptcy of the publisher, but heck, while they're printing 'em, I plan to buy 'em!

--Grant

[Marbles]

I've been digitally archiving my UK comic collection for about 6 mths now. Purely for reasons of saving space tbh (small flat + baby + comics = angry missus).
So i've been scanning my old progs as oversize jpg's (to future proof then against bigger monitors).
They can be viewed v. easily using XP's 'screenshow' function.
You can view series like 'Leviathon' in sequence at the click of a button. No hunting for a pile of old issues on the shelves (or loft) etc for a particular story - all your favourite's are available at your fingertips. Flogging my old 'Battles' as I go.
nb. to be clear, I'd never sell any of these scan archives, they are purely for personal use, and I'd buy 'official' 2K DVD/scans like a shot.

[starscape]

It's things like Leviathan as well as Invasion, Meltdown Man and Inferno that I'd like to most see made available.  Sure Dredd is great but how many times can I read The Dark Judges saga?

In fact, I'm doing something for DC Thomson as regards web/ PC comics of their classic material, how about I piece together a 2000AD version of that, then Rebellion can decide whether its an aye or no.  

One idea is an animated comic, much like either the Leopard screensaver (using Flash) or the Damage Circus movie (Quicktime).

Wonder what anyone who downloaded one would think of that (and judging by my bandwidth, that's quite a few).

[Pyroxian]

>They can be viewed v. easily using >XP's 'screenshow' function.

     There's a program called CDisplay out there that will take a zip file of Jpegs (renamed to a .cbz extension) and allow you to page through it at a full-screen resolution, either showing single page or double pages.

    STeve

[Floyd-the-k]

must trawl the internet to read the progs I haven`t read (which is progs 21 to 880, minus graphic novels)!  
  I still think the bespoke reprints could be a goer, especially if they sacrificed some quality...I just want to read the thing.
  Back progs on CD ROM or DVD would be great as would a pay per view part of the site.