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Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2015 12:52:53 GMT -5
I fear that I have derailed this thread and apologize for wasting anyone's time having done so. I hope it can return th an actual discussion of Tempo books, and since I have nothing further to offer beyond what I did in my first post on that subject, I will refrain from posting further in the thread.
-M
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 18, 2015 14:13:16 GMT -5
If I walk into a bookstore and ask where the trade paperbacks are, will they point me to large format prose books or comic book reprints? As someone who runs a book store and knows about comics, I would say 'do you mean the comics?'. MRP is absolutely correct as far as industry jargon goes, however. 'Trade Paperback' refers specifically to paperbacks that are large-ish size(I think over 7''). They are bigger that 'Mass Market Paperbacks', which all of us are familiar with. The majority of fantasy and science fiction in the old days were JUST Mass Market size. Nowadays, as MRP pictured, they do Hard Cover first (at $25-$35, depending on size and popularity), then Trade(Usually $14-$18) usually about a year later, than Mass Market($9.99 for most publishers now) a year after that. It's very true that popular use of 'Trade Paperback' or 'Trade' means 'collection of comics'. It's also true that comics are collected in trade paperback volumes. However, Trade Paperbacks existed before comics, and it's not necessarily a comic book term. I know some people use 'Collected editions' to refer to comics, but I doubt that'd ever catch on. Of course, many people also call collections of comics 'Graphic Novels', even though, properly, a Graphic Novel would really only be something that was release specifically in that format, and not in a monthly comic book first. It's a matter of industry definitions/jargon vs. popular usage. Just like many people say 'Coke' for any carbonated Beverage, or 'Xerox' for any copier. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2015 15:07:34 GMT -5
even though, properly, a Graphic Novel would really only be something that was release specifically in that format, and not in a monthly comic book first. If we really wanted to argue for the sake of arguing, I'm not even sure that's correct. Some letters columns in some old comics like Elfquest and Love & Rockets referred to the floppies as graphic novels. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 18, 2015 15:51:09 GMT -5
even though, properly, a Graphic Novel would really only be something that was release specifically in that format, and not in a monthly comic book first. If we really wanted to argue for the sake of arguing, I'm not even sure that's correct. Some letters columns in some old comics like Elfquest and Love & Rockets referred to the floppies as graphic novels. The letters columns could have referred to them as cheese pizzas and it would have had just as much validity. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 18, 2015 16:29:03 GMT -5
If we really wanted to argue for the sake of arguing, I'm not even sure that's correct. Some letters columns in some old comics like Elfquest and Love & Rockets referred to the floppies as graphic novels. I suppose one could refer to a single continuous story as a 'graphic novel', but I think really that's not what most people mean. Calling collections of comics a 'graphic novel' is really purely a marketing device, to make people take them more seriously. It's arguable on how well it worked, certainly, but that's why some people in the industry started doing it.. there was an article a couple years back in Publishers' Weekly about it I vaguely recall. That said, I think it makes alot more sense to call them graphic novels, since that way people know you're talking about a comic, if you're talking to non-comic fans. Using 'trade' (as in I like to wait for the trade), among fans that already know you're talking about comics makes more sense. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2015 17:17:44 GMT -5
If we really wanted to argue for the sake of arguing, I'm not even sure that's correct. Some letters columns in some old comics like Elfquest and Love & Rockets referred to the floppies as graphic novels. The letters columns could have referred to them as cheese pizzas and it would have had just as much validity. Until Oxford Dictionary decides what is and isn't a graphic novel, I'll say popular use is as good an indicator as your own opinion on the matter. And I don't disagree with your usage either, it's the same as mine, but my point is arguing over definitions and semantics is stupid. When someone uses a word, and you know exactly what they mean, language is working as it's supposed to. Be happy with it. If I say "Hey, look at my new graphic novel!" and get four or five pages worth of responses along the lines of "That's not a graphic novel, it's a trade paperback!" and "That's not a trade paperback, it's a strip collection!" then people are being ridiculous. Is DKR a graphic novel? Sure. Is Bone a graphic novel? Sure. |
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Post by JKCarrier on Jul 19, 2015 13:13:04 GMT -5
"Graphic Novel" has been a slippery term ever since it was coined. I think Eisner's "A Contract With God" was the first book to actually bill itself as "a graphic novel", and that was a collection of short stories.
My favorite silly example is the comic book that came with the computer game "Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers". It was undersized (approx. 5 1/2" x 8 1/2") and only about 30 pages long, but they referred to it as a "graphic novel".
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Post by DE Sinclair on Jul 20, 2015 16:29:43 GMT -5
"Graphic novel" is used to a great extent by those who don't want to admit they read "comic books". Just like the people who buy "action figures" and get bent out of shape when they're called "toys".
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Post by Deleted on Jul 20, 2015 16:46:56 GMT -5
"Graphic novel" is used to a great extent by those who don't want to admit they read "comic books". Just like the people who buy "action figures" and get bent out of shape when they're called "toys". or dolls! -M |
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
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Post by shaxper on Jul 20, 2015 17:55:49 GMT -5
"Graphic novel" is used to a great extent by those who don't want to admit they read "comic books". Just like the people who buy "action figures" and get bent out of shape when they're called "toys". Articulated statue, if you please.  |
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Post by DE Sinclair on Jul 22, 2015 9:24:18 GMT -5
"Graphic novel" is used to a great extent by those who don't want to admit they read "comic books". Just like the people who buy "action figures" and get bent out of shape when they're called "toys". Articulated statue, if you please. I know on some toy boards I used to go to there was a term used for figures with limited or poor articulation that was "LPS". Stood for "Little Plastic Statues". |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 22, 2015 23:04:36 GMT -5
"Graphic Novel" has been a slippery term ever since it was coined. I think Eisner's "A Contract With God" was the first book to actually bill itself as "a graphic novel", and that was a collection of short stories. My favorite silly example is the comic book that came with the computer game "Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers". It was undersized (approx. 5 1/2" x 8 1/2") and only about 30 pages long, but they referred to it as a "graphic novel". Some guy on Facebook or something wanted people to review his "webnovel", which turned out to be a webcomic, and not even a long form drama. Basically nine panel cartoony stories. It was obvious he was completely avoiding the term "comic" altogether because he had a problem with it. When I clicked the link I expected prose. |
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Post by DE Sinclair on Jul 23, 2015 8:51:05 GMT -5
"Graphic Novel" has been a slippery term ever since it was coined. I think Eisner's "A Contract With God" was the first book to actually bill itself as "a graphic novel", and that was a collection of short stories. My favorite silly example is the comic book that came with the computer game "Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers". It was undersized (approx. 5 1/2" x 8 1/2") and only about 30 pages long, but they referred to it as a "graphic novel". Some guy on Facebook or something wanted people to review his "webnovel", which turned out to be a webcomic, and not even a long form drama. Basically nine panel cartoony stories. It was obvious he was completely avoiding the term "comic" altogether because he had a problem with it. When I clicked the link I expected prose. Hope he has a thick skin if he's asking for opinions from the internet. People aren't usually very nice here (present site/company excepted). |
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Post by chadwilliam on Aug 10, 2015 21:57:53 GMT -5
Just came across a two page article in BackIssue 81 (July, 2015) on these Tempo books. Not much to add to the link provided - there was a 1972 precursor to these publications in the form of two Green Lantern/Green Arrow books reprinting some of 'O Neil and Adams run on the character (along with Hal Jordan's first appearance).
Apparently, Tempo only released six of these books which could also be purchased in a slipcase box - as seen in your link (though the run seems to have started with the Batman book in 1977 and not '78).
Not much to add, though Chris Marshall's article also touches upon Tor Books releasing similarly sized reprints this time focusing not on random stories taken from here and there but on runs - such as Untold Legend of the Batman 1-3, the first four issues of New Titans, Len Wein's Swamp Thing, etc.
Only one of the Temp Books I came across was the Batman one which I'll always remember for a story in which Batman is able to escape a seemingly fool proof deathtrap in a way that plays completely fair to the story and to the audience. Bruce Wayne is hypnotized so that he'll have to vote for some Mayoral candidate by a mesmerist whose powers are impossible to break. As Batman, he fails to arrest the guy and is then hypnotized into walking into a lake until he drowns. While the story has established that no one can resist this guy's mental commands, Batman takes advantage of the fact that he's been given two separate orders. By focusing on the first order to "Vote on Tuesday", he's unable to drown himself since following that second order would make the first one impossible to carry out. I always thought that was clever.
Anyhoo, that issue of BackIssue should be of interest to anyone even remotely curious about DC's various reprint/Giant series during the Bronze Age.
twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1192 |
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