In Stores Now
Starting today, DC Comics will release a couple Blackest Night hardcovers every week for the next three weeks. Here's the tentative schedule:
July 8, 2010
- Blackest Night
- Blackest Night: Green Lantern
- Blackest Night: Green Lantern Corps
July 14, 2010
- Blackest Night: Black Lantern Corps Vol. 1
- Blackest Night: Black Lantern Corps Vol. 2
July 21, 2010
- Blackest Night: Rise of the Black Lanterns
- Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps Vol. 1
The Journey to Blackest Night
It's been a long nine months since we broke the news of the Blackest Night hardcovers here on Collected Editions. Here's a look back at how we waited it out:
- Trade Perspectives: How Would You Collect Blackest Night?
Before we knew all the details, Collected Editions readers discussed how they'd best like to see Blackest Night collected, including some discussion of whether the Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps issues would appear in the main volume. We learned how that would turn out a little later ...
- Full Blackest Night Contents Revealed
In November, we finally learned the names of all the Blackest Night collections, with a general idea of what they'd collect (and that Lantern and Corps would be in separate volumes. This past February, we found out some of the Blackest Night crossover issues would be included, too.
- Crossover Comparison: Final Crisis vs. Blackest Night collection
Finally, our ongoing Trade Perspectives series looked at DC's collection policies for Final Crisis and Blackest Night, noting the insular nature of Final Crisis and Blackest Night's expansiveness.
Free Stuff
If you're one of those people who doesn't get their comics until Friday in Hawaii, DC Comics' new digital Comixology application has Blackest Night #0 available free for your reading pleasure. This is a great use of digital comics, promoting an in-store release; read our take on DC's digital initiative.
Brand New Covers
And now, the day is finally here! I'm headed out to get the first three volumes from my local comics shop -- in the meantime, here's the brand new covers by Ivan Reis and Rodolfo Migliari for all the volumes.
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Who's got their Blackest Night hardcover? How do you think it looks? Chime in when you get back from your comic book store -- any local events going on?
I thought you might be interested in this blog post:
ReplyDeletehttp://troublewithcomics.tumblr.com/post/785290906/the-roy-g-biv-lantern-corps-red-orange-yellow
It sounds like DC hasn't put a lot of thought into how to collect this crossover. Or they just don't care. I don't understand. You'd think that with the market shifting more and more toward collected editions they wouldn't come as a mere afterthought.
I just ordered my copies; I got BN, BN: GL, and BN: GLC. I'm looking forward to it. One thing that bothers me is why there releasing the books over a period of three weeks rather than just all in one. Maybe they didn't have the other ones prepped yet?
ReplyDeleteI am thinking of picking of the Tales and Rise.
My guess is that the release schedule is to make it more of an event -- in stretching it out, it's kind of like the monthly release (or, at least, you have to go back to your local comic book store more than once!).
ReplyDeleteAlso, I wonder if DC thought customers might balk at buying all seven thick hardcovers in one week; this balances the weekly budget a little bit. Personally I don't mind the week's delay; I'm just glad it's not months between hardcovers, like with New Krypton.
I've put together an excel page with the reading order of all the issues and will follow that as best I can. I'll have to wait two weeks to get mine, so I may have all seven at once.
ReplyDeleteI'll be buying Blackest Night, Blackest Night: Green Lantern, Blackest Night: Green Lantern Corps and nothing else. I've been reading the entire GL / GL:C runs so I'm very excited for Blackest Night, seems like I've been waiting 2 years for it.
ReplyDeleteI'm really concerned about how to read the 3 trades though, it sounds like they are all missmashed together. Sucks DC didn't realize them as 3 volumes but in order :(
I'm with the group on worrying about the reading order issues. Having to bounce back and forth with Sinestro Corps and the Tales trade wasn't all that bad, but here I'm going to have to juggle all these trades? I mean, I can understand keeping the minis separate, and I even could settle for GLC being its own trade, since the title practically screams "ANCILLARY!" But breaking up issues written by the crossover's architect seems fraught with trouble, especially knowing that the big "White Lantern" scene starts in GL and ends in BN (and never the twain shall meet, it seems). I just hope they don't bandage over this with "In the other volume..." pages.
ReplyDeleteI did, however, order all the BN volumes because I'm taking a few long plane rides at the end of the month and need something to keep me occupied. I discovered Long Halloween/Dark Victory on a plane, and I'm banking on a similar experience here
Hix, any chance of sharing that spreadsheet? As someone who didn't pick up the weekly "reading order" cards, I'm in the dark here.
Plans are in the works for that spreadsheet -- stay tuned!
ReplyDeleteI picked up the reading order cards while the event was ongoing, knowing I'd need them for when the collections were released. I'm sure the information is out there on the net, but I can provide the reading order from those cards if anyone wants it.
ReplyDeleteThe first two checklists are up at http://www.dccomics.com/sites/greenlantern/?action=checklist, but no word on how to finish up BN.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to see this blog go nuts about the big trade announcements from DC for early 2011. The big one for me (and slightly BN related): Brightest Day is in hardcover... at seven issues a crack. I was hoping they'd go a 52 route on this, but no soap.
ReplyDeleteZach, where did you see that announcement? I check ComicBookResources.com on a regular basis and didn't see that mentioned.
ReplyDelete7 hardcovers for Brighest Day? That really SUCKS. I mean, 52, Countdown, and Trinity, their previous WEEKLY series were released as 4 softcovers...turning the bi-weekly Brightest Day into four hardcovers? That means you're getting half the issues per book (7 instead of 14), at a higher price point! Seems to me that DC is getting GREEDY. Or, I guess one could argue, this is all part of their stated plan to move people back to the floppies.
From DC Source, March 2011:
ReplyDeleteBRIGHTEST DAY VOL. 1 HC
Writers: Geoff Johns and Peter J. Tomasi
Artists: Ivan Reis, Patrick Gleason, Ardian Syaf, Scott Clark and Joe Prado
Collects: BRIGHTEST DAY #0-7
$29.99 US, 256 pages
Wow DC... not liking this.
The first HC is issues #0 to #7 so I think we're getting the 26 issues spread over 4 or maybe 3 collections.
ReplyDeleteThe announcement is over at DC's The Source blog.
Hopefully it's 3 volumes instead of 4 (my comment about 7 hardcovers was a typo!); #0-#7 is 8 issues...so that would mean 2 volumes of 9 issues or 3 volumes of 6 issues to collect the remaining 18 issues of the series.
ReplyDeleteStill $30 a hit is pretty steep.
ReplyDeleteI'm rethinking getting Robinson's JLA in hardcover, given the relatively cool critical reception.
I'm not going to bother with them at all. I'm sorry, but I would much prefer BOTH of the big two to look at things with a bigger picture in mind than the short term.
ReplyDeleteWhat I mean by that is, they should be preparing these events with the trades in mind at a later date. Sure, they'll get those initial sales, but in the long run, it's going to be confusing for others who might want to pick up the collections years later.
Also, I should mention something: I've tried numerous times to contact Collected Editions for questions or even to volunteer to write reviews. But all the "contact" button does it return me back to the main page.
That's a bummer for Brightest Day. I don't mind the hardcovers as much as it only collecting 7-8 issues.
ReplyDeleteThis can be stopped, you know how? By us. But, and I'm the first to admit, I probably will end up buying. I think it would be cool to have fans really stand up and show their disapproval by not buying it and maybe that would get DC to not be greedy.
But then they might not put out comics and that's not good. I love reading comics and in the end I don't think I'm that disciplined enough to not buy.
I could always go to their crosstown rivals though.
I just checked out the DC article myself...Justice League: Generation Lost Vol 1 hardcover, collects issues #1-#12 of the biweekly series...$39.99US!
ReplyDeleteAgreed with everyone that $40 for twelve issues of Generation Lost and $30 for eight issues of Brightest Day do both seem expensive. Granted both (if I do my math correctly) are still less per issue than buying the book in single issues -- and (my controversial statement of the morning) you really should be getting a discount from your local comics shop off the retail, too. Maybe that means you have to subscribe or whatnot, but given the discounts offered online, I can't believe a local comics shop can't take a little off themselves, too.
ReplyDeleteBut expensive, yes, and I'll try to chat this up more officially shortly.
Nick -- sorry about the Contact link. See email address in the footer. Thanks!
By my math, $39.99 / 12 issues = $3.33 per issue; but isn't that series $2.99 an issue? So we're paying more!
ReplyDeleteI don't get a discount from my local comics store, except when they're having a sale. Not only that, I have to pay the Canadian cover price, not the American one (for example Blackest Night is $35.99Cdn I believe, instead of $29.99US). Sometimes I'll buy trades at the local "big box book store" (Chapters), where I'll get like a 10% discount, but their selection isn't great and their books tend to get beat up the longer they're on the shelf. Plus I like supporting a local small business.
Each issue is $2.99, you're right. I was thinking they'd gone up to $3.99. Well, if you can find Generation Lost discounted to about $36, at least, and Brightest Day about $24, then you start to come out equal or ahead, at least at US prices.
ReplyDeleteThe old chestnut that trades save you money over the individual issues does seem to be fading away though, doesn't it? Used to be that trades were cheaper per issue than the monthly issues *without* the additional retailer discount. Now perhaps we're paying more for the benefit of a collection, not less.