I recently picked up Marvel’s Thor: The Mighty Avenger volume one and two. I hadn’t realized trade paperbacks had been published of this wonderful material from Roger Langridge and Chris Samnee but discovered them through an Amazon search and quickly acquired both at my local comic shop.
It was at that moment, holding them in my hands, that my righteous hand of comicdom did long to smite Marvel’s team of collected editions. Why on earth would standard size comic books be collected in a small 6×9″ softcover format for $15, the price Marvel uses for regular sized trade paperbacks?
The series has been canceled so we’re only every going to get these eight issues and Marvel will most likely never collected this material in a different format so for their one and only edition a small, shrunken version is offered.
And as I turned the book over it hit me: an “A” or all ages rating was applied to this work. Therefore Marvel decided this material is suitable for children and therefore should be made small for their tiny hands. If we continue this logic DC makes Absolute editions for giants and those of us over 6′ 6″ whose massive hands can easily handle the book. Oh wait, that makes no sense.
I know the format is gaining traction as it mimics that of a hardcover book and has been made popular with IDW’s Parker series. Dark Horse is all over the map in sizing and the Usagi Yojimbo series has always been collected in this size even though the pamphlet/monthly/floppy comic book is standard sized.
Two things irk me here: shrinking comic art and minimizing the graphic portion of graphic novel. Of course I don’t like to pay the same price for smaller pages either.
If there is anyone out there who would like to see Scott’s collection, I am selling some magic beans. You just need to climb up the beanstalk to get to his house.
They also released the first volume of Grant Morrison’s New X-Men run in this smaller format. I don’t think that series was meant for children at all and it’s even more odd when the first volume of the series in the regular size is still in print.
Why are comic books getting smaller anyway? My eyes aren’t getting any bigger. 🙂
Maybe the publishers are getting the kids used to holding and reading iPad sized books figuring tablets is the way most comics will be read in a few years.
I love the 6×9 format and I’m post40! Fits well in my medium sized hands and is easy to hold and take out. Only issue is the size of the font which could be bigger for my old eyes – which is the same issue I have with the iPAD.
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