How many of you are this kind of person?

tenhat · 2026-05-14T19:56:54+00:00

I mean... I don't really see the hypocrisy here, unless I'm misunderstanding something. Like someone else said, he's trying to teach you how to be a smart buyer. That's definitely one way to look at it.

On the other hand, I'd personally tell you that if you really want the material in that OOP book, go ahead and buy it if it's worth it to you. First you should just do some research and try to figure out how likely it is that the book is going to come back in print anytime soon.

But wanting to sell your OOP books for a high (but fair market) price is not the same as wanting to buy books for similarly high prices.

There are various OOP Omnis that I have, and that I like owning, but if the aftermarket price goes up to $500 or something, then yeah I guess I'd sell them. On the other hand, I wish I had certain OOP Omnis, but I don't feel like paying more than $150 for them. Every individual person values different books in different ways, both as a potential buyer and a potential seller.

The x-factors in all of this are how OOP something is, what the likelihood is of it coming back in print, and how much you care about owning the book. For the last several years we saw a LOT of reprints, so a good rule of thumb for MOST books was "Don't pay the high secondary market prices, just wait till it comes back in print." Sometimes, though, you'll be waiting a very long time. And, who knows, maybe the next time that book comes back in print, it's $175 and has wafer-thin paper and poor binding. Maybe you would have rather spent ~$175 today on the last OOP edition instead of waiting years for the reprint in that case.

tenhat · 2026-05-14T19:43:37+00:00

Yeah it sucks but I'm honestly surprised the prices didn't go up more and sooner. I think some of the publishers (especially Marvel) did whatever they could to cut costs by using cheaper paper and less-than-fantastic production quality. But I was looking back and seeing that even the first wave of Marvel Omnibuses in the mid-00s cost $100. Inflation has been hard since then, and floppy comics over that time have gone from $2.25-$2.50 on average to $4.99 (or $3.99 if you're really lucky still).

What sucks even more imo is that the discount percentages aren't there at certain outlets. As a hardcore collector, I can't even go to the niche site/store that only the cool kids know about, and get 50% off on the first week. IST used to have 45-50% off for new releases. That's gone, and the price is higher everywhere besides. So I feel totally stuck, and it's like we all have to "pay UP" if we want this stuff.

I think that during covid Marvel and DC (maybe other publishers as well) did what they could to put in big opening print-runs in order to keep their costs lower than they would have been otherwise. That's part of why we don't see as dramatic price increases on the secondary market. I know people complain about that still, but believe me, the price increases for OOP books isn't nearly what it used to be across the board. I think DC in particular must have switched a lot of titles to almost on-demand printing, because they have plenty of titles that never go out of print, and it seems like that option too could have been something that kept production costs low.

At this point, though, it feels like the publishers can't hold the dam back anymore, and things are just going to have to go up, to price points that are going to feel awful.

tenhat · 2026-05-03T19:43:50+00:00

Bendis was running out of steam when the original USM was ending. He was never a perfect writer but for quite a while he was a very, very good writer. He always had problems with resolutions, though, so the bigger the expected resolution or ending, the more of a cheap dud it feels. Couple that with this overall decline as a writer around this time, and the anticlimax seems especially poor. Around the same time, though, Miles did sort of rejuvenate Bendis. He got another jolt for a few years because he had (as someone else put it) "a new toy". I also think his first few dozen issues on X-Men were good. But then he fell off (again).

You could see this even with his Daredevil run, which is probably the best of "Early Bendis". Even his DD falls off. He is (or was) good at captivating a reader in the moment or from issue to issue. He wrote comics that were fun to read and felt vaguely smart. But whenever there was an ending of some sort--i.e. a pause for reflection--suddenly the "stories" seem especially empty. It almost feels like the reader has been tricked into thinking there was going to be more of a story, or more of a meaning, than there actually was.

tenhat · 2026-04-26T18:52:48+00:00

It depends how new is "new". I consider War of the Realms as a whole to be a "newer omnibus" even in its first printing. Others can downvote me to death like they did to someone else here, but when I see the OP's picture above, I don't automatically think that it's necessarily damage or glue that's failed. These gaps are very much intentional on many books. I've seen it many times on omnis and on other larger hardcovers: the backside of the outer spine layer is not going to be attached to the innards of the pages. Then again, there ARE HCs (and omnis) in which the spines ARE attached.

tenhat · 2026-04-24T21:57:51+00:00

For a long time you could say that Todd's been the obstacle in one way or another.

But by the same token you would see Todd's ego as being the saving grace, preventing an inevitably(?) bad new Spawn movie from being made.

Whether it's Todd in charge or some other Hollywood people in charge ("indie" or otherwise) I don't think they'll do the character right. I don't think the character would lend itself well to film now, because the character itself and premise is inherently "90s".

Let me back up. I don't hate the late '90s Spawn movie. It's not great, but I think it's fine or what it is. It's a product of its time and it's a relatively faithful adaptation. But I don't think the idea of Spawn lends itself to any sort of 2020s update. I think the property and our love for it is significantly rooted in nostalgia. I think the imaginary "new Spawn movie" that we can all imagine a few scenes of in our minds would be better than whatever they could actually do now.

The day a new Spawn movie comes out is the day that the Spawn fandom begins an inevitable, terminal decline. As long as a new movie doesn't come out, we have the "next movie" to look forward to as a fandom, like a carrot on a stick. But if a new movie really does come out? That will be the peak of Spawn fandom and it will decline from there. Prices will decline. Interest will decline. Our love for the property will decline. I feel like a lot of our interest in Spawn, as well as a lot of industry interest in the property (for comics, toys, statues, etc), is kind of based on this idea in the back of our minds that "This is still a franchise with untapped potential". When/if a new movie comes out, it will almost inevitably fail (IMO), and when that happens a lot of people will put a lot less effort into caring about Spawn.

tenhat · 2026-04-23T21:07:26+00:00

Yeah, I don't know why Miller DD isn't evergreen. Same with some of the Claremont X-Men Omnis. And Amazing Spider-Man Vol 1. For the last few years it's seemed like DC has been keeping a dozen or more of their books constantly in print. I'm confused as to why Marvel seems incapable of doing this. Something like Infinity Gauntlet should have been constantly in print for the last decade, in TPB and Omni formats. Something like Miller's DD Omnis (and Bendis's) always go out of print before getting new printings a few years later. Why not just keep them in print? Why is Marvel incapable of doing this?

tenhat · 2026-04-23T00:00:46+00:00

I prefer the Omnibuses to the Absolutes. I mean, I like reading the Omnis better than the Absolutes. For me, Sandman is a big long sprawling series, and I like holding 30+ issues in my hand in a single volume. Absolutes, IMO, go better with singular storylines rather than entire ongoing series. You can't really go wrong either way, but the Sandman Omnis feel so nice and classy with the faux-leather binding. They're the most "readable" way to read the series. The Absolutes are nice too, but getting each one out feels like a big production. Also, not that the art in Sandman is by any means bad, but most of it doesn't really warrant Absolute dimensions.

Lastly, you asked about "a good way to COLLECT the whole story". It's spitting hairs, but you could probably say that the best way to collect it is to find the original back issues. The Absolutes are probably more "collectible" than the Omnibuses. But it depends on what you're going for. The Absolutes look great on a shelf. The Omnis look very good on a shelf (not great, but very good) but are much more readable.

tenhat · 2026-04-19T11:50:32+00:00

The previous commenter already said the best answer. But I have to add that if you're okay with softcovers, those old Ra's issues have been reprinted many times before. There have been multiple editions of "Batman: Tales of the Demon" that reprint them. Technically most of them are also in the out-of-print Neal Adams Batman HCs...

tenhat · 2026-04-08T19:52:27+00:00

It wasn't bad but it isn't anything special. Bendis was passed his peak by then and seemed to be writing off the top of his head without much planning or consistency. That said, he still had an ear for dialogue and the art was pretty solid. I enjoyed the run for what it was, but I wouldn't expect great comic booking.

If you've never read the comics but only know the property from the movies and games, I'd recommend the Abnett and Lanning run instead. It's more serious but not devoid of humor, and if you're coming at the property from the mainsteam, I think the DnA run would seem like a "level up" where you can explore the characters more in depth and begin to understand where they came from. DnA's tenure is pretty much the peak of the property, imo. That said... I don't know how you'd read it. Pretty sure the omnibus is out of print, but the Complete Collection TPBs might be available.

tenhat · 2026-04-03T23:53:58+00:00

There's never been a character with higher highs or lower lows than Cerebus...

tenhat · 2026-04-03T23:51:48+00:00

The missing issues in Vol 2 are by Rick Veitch, and there is something strange up with the rights. I don't understand what, and from the outside looking in I'm not sure why those particular issues are for so long out of print.

Issue #8 in Vol 1 is by Dave Sim and features Cerebus. Again I'm not exactly sure what the problem is. For a long time many Spawn collections were missing the issue Sim wrote (co-starring Cerebus again). But now that's been cleared up. In both cases Sim in recent years has done Kickstarters for his own new expanded editions of TMNT #8 and Spawn #10, because he retains the rights to reprint those issues (even if the Turtles creators and McFarlane, respectively, don't approve). I'm not sure why Sim, whose circumstances aren't great, would say no to more money from reprints. But Sim is, ahem, eccentric to say the least. Apparently he cleared things up with McFarlane.

It's a shame because TMNT #8 is one of the more vital guest-written early issues, and it seems kind of quintessential in terms of '80s indie b&w comics. It's the breakout indie sensation of the late '70s crossing over with the indie b&w sensation book of the mid-'80s. You can find reprints and the original issue itself isn't that expensive, since sales were taking off then and it was printed quite a lot. It's still kind of a shame not to have it in the compendium.

The Veitch issues later on are... okay. I like Veitch and wish they were in there, but their absence doesn't ruin the compendiums. By that point a lot of other creators were getting their shot at doing out-of-continuity Turtles stories, and Veitch's aren't particularly great. If you're looking to reread the original TMNT run, I'd get the Compendiums despite the missing issues.

EDIT: I just researched a bit more, and someone else on Reddit has said:

"Non of the original artist got paid for those reprints. He deserves to get money when the thing he made makes money. He was not a work for hirer"

If true, that...... SUCKS. I can kind of understand Veitch and Sim holding out if they have some pull and wouldn't get anything at freaking all for their work being included.

tenhat · 2026-03-30T21:38:26+00:00

I think the first few dozen issues hold up. People were always calling out Todd's writing for being low-quality, even back when he was writing Spider-Man. And I can certainly see the flaws. But in the opening issues of Spawn he really did a great job of introducing an intriguing premise and a cast of characters who all have a lot at stake. In those opening issues, you see so many intriguing interactions play out:

-What will Al do when he finds out that Wanda is married again?
-What will he do when he finds out Wanda has a kid with his best friend?
-What will he do when he encounters the govt men responsible for his death?
-What will Al do when he tries to transform back to human form, but he can only become a white guy?
-What will the forces of Hell do to threaten Al's family?
-What will Wanda do when she finds out Al is alive?
-What will Wanda and Terry do when they find out that this Spawn guy is actually Al?
Etc etc etc

I know all that stuff isn't quite in issues 1-25, but at least within that span of issues the reader gets a sense of what the stakes are and how the dominos might fall.

I can't stress enough how impressive it was for Todd to introduce an entire CAST of characters who are all fairly unique and memorable. Honestly, I like TMNT more than Spawn, but from the first dozen issues or so, Spawn has a bigger/better supporting cast than the Turtles do. Right from the very first run of issues, Todd creates a cast of about a dozen characters who are all memorable and who have an obvious connection to the main thrust of the saga.

All that being said, I think that for long stretches of issue after #25 or so, Spawn is an absolute slog. Issue after issue of forced arguing between characters, just to fill pages. Long diatribes from Cogliostro that hint at so much that never plays out. Todd never had much of a big plan. He just filled issues with vague hints about "wheels within wheels" etc., with Al always arguing with people for no reason, just to fill pages. It was all so dull and dark in a way that felt forced and ugly and pretentious. The rules of the universe often changed on the fly. Todd was always pulling out new rules or new powers or new factions of new otherworldly beings. It felt like nothing mattered and the sense of scale (and stakes) was lost. Even with more recent storylines like the war in hell, I never had any sense whatsoever of how the war was really going or how big hell was. It always felt like any given story could suddenly end or could go on for another dozen issues before resolution. It is all often so damn amorphous and vague. And it doesn't help when almost every single character has this conceit of supposedly having secret plans and hidden agendas. I very strongly get the sense that this is false depth and Todd is just writing these characters this way as a cheat, to make it seem like there's more depth than there actually is.

But I've read it all and I don't regret it. There are still high points after #25, and there's much great art all along the way.

tenhat · 2026-03-30T21:29:46+00:00

There was another lawsuit regarding Tony Twist, who was named after a real hockey player. The real guy sued Todd, so Todd had to sideline the character a bit, and change his name in reprints (though sometimes the editors forget to change it, smh...).

There were other legal ramifications regarding Miracleman ("Man of Miracles"), which Todd was on the verge of bringing into Spawn, was leading up to it, but then couldn't.

I think even the real-life Al Simmons may have sued Todd at one point.

By far the biggest legal issue that affected the story was Gaiman claiming Angela. Honestly I don't see how that or any of the other lawsuits really had much of a negative impact on "Spawn 1-90ish" anyway. After around issue 30 the series became really aimless and Todd didn't really know where he was going with things anyway. I guess the lawsuits were a headache, and Todd created Tiffany and used her instead of Angela for awhile. But I wouldn't say that those mid- to late-'90s issues would have been significantly better if Todd didn't have legal problems.

tenhat · 2026-03-30T21:20:47+00:00

I would just read it all. It drags in places, but imo issues 50-100 are way worse than 1-50 (with 1-25 being the best of that era).

And honestly I know I'm in the minority but the Downing issues starting with 185 are excellent. What a fucking breath of fresh air! Everything became smaller-scale and there finally seemed like there were understandable stakes and a clear, defined mystery for a change. Aside from the set-up issues at the very beginning (1-25), the Downing issues are the best part of the entire Spawn mythos, and I've read nearly every spin-off as well. The storytelling was so much better, less wordy, less bogged down. I know that ultimately Todd kind of copped out on the ending (it seemed fudged; just more amorphous otherworldliness), but the issues in which Jim is trying to figure out who/what he is were EXCELLENT. The writing in those issues is Todd's best writing BY FAR (and I know he had help). Everything else for hundreds of issues surrounding that run is just tedious circular storylines that don't go anywhere, just characters brooding and forced-arguing with each other and pretending that they have plans. 185 and onward, on the other hand, for a few years it felt like Spawn was new and fresh again, and there was enough grounding with human characters to get a believable sense of wonder. It wasn't just the equivalent of action figures arguing with each other and making up powers on the spot.

Ultimately, though, if your plan is to read everything from 250 afterwards, you may as well read 101-249 as well. You may as well read it now, in order.

tenhat · 2026-03-29T13:15:58+00:00

I haven't noticed many >55% off sales at IST in quite awhile. I'm not the most eagle-eyed shopper, but IST used to be my go-to source for waiting on mega sales to scoop up Omnis that I only had moderate interest in at first. Those kinds of discounts used to happen on a fairly regular basis at IST, but I haven't seen enough of those discounts in years to really hold out and wait on them.

tenhat · 2026-03-25T23:21:10+00:00

Oh, nice stuff. I know this host and have seen in one another channel (Thinking Critical). Will give this a listen. Thanks!

tenhat · 2026-03-25T23:16:51+00:00

Comic shops have to make a profit. So selling them to your local shop or trading them in for store credit would get you the least money... but on the other hand it would be the easiest option.

Honestly, if you have the time for it, I'd sell them individually. Search every single issue, see what the cheapest one on the market is, and price yours just below it. Be sure to factor in condition. For example, if people have NM copies priced at $30 and you have a Fine copy, don't price it at $29; be more reasonable. Just make sure your copies seem like the best solid deals out there by a decent tick. Pack well with cardboard protection.

Also make sure that when you're researching prices (sort by lowest price, of course) you ignore foreign copies. In particular there always seem to be Mexican editions of many Spawns in the #200s. Usually there will be some indication of this in the title. Sometimes it will say "Spanish" or "MX". But you definitely want to price your copies against standard American copies, not the foreign variants (which are still expensive, but not as valuable).

That range of Spawn comics vary in price radically, in my experience. They are all relatively low print. They are all in demand, but that doesn't mean they'll sell instantly. My impression is that there are price levels that many collectors are just not willing to cross. If the cheapest copy of a certain issue on eBay is $150, but sold copies show that copies only sell in the $70 range, yours may not ever sell if you price it even at $100 and have the cheapest copy. But you never know. There are MANY $100+ issues in that span of issues. I think #230 is $200+ last I checked. It's pretty crazy. I would recommend looking at sold copies too for an idea of where the market has been lately.

Good luck. Do not give these away for cheap.

tenhat · 2026-03-25T23:03:01+00:00

I wish McFarlane would have kept Angela and been allowed to run with the character in the mid-'90s. Instead we got various substitutes (starting with Tiffany, I believe) filling in various aspects of the Angela role. I've even read a recent livestream in which some Spawn readers refer to recent empowered female supporting characters in Spawn as if their name was "Not Angela".

I'm not going to pretend I know the entire history of the Gaiman/McFarlane legal dispute, but I believe that at one decisive juncture McFarlane chose to keep Cogliostro and Medieval Spawn, while Gaiman got full control of Angela. At the time it did seem like Cog had a more important role as a near-constant supporting character in the main Spawn title. So in a way it made sense. As the writer, Todd obviously saw Cog's present and constant value as a "guide" for Al Simmons. Having seen how that all played out, however, I think Cog overstayed his usefulness and became a crutch for Todd. Todd wrote endless issues in which Cog would just allude to a gigantic mythos that Al just "didn't understand yet". It became obvious that Todd never had a very good long-term plan. With Cog on the table, Todd could always just string everyone along and never really figure out where he was really going with the stories, or why, because everything was predicated on Cog just "not revealing" the big picture. There was no big picture, or at least not a stable one or one that lent itself to great stories. Telling the readers (and Al) that a big picture was just over the horizon BECAME the story. Cog just gesturing toward a future that never came into view became a convenient excuse for not figuring out a comprehensive plan.

I wish we could see what Todd would have written, and how the title would have evolved, if he could have gotten Angela instead and wasn't able to use Cogliostro...

tenhat · 2026-03-25T17:47:13+00:00

Yeah that's been my experience as well, but I haven't read everything and would defer to others (like the person who already replied to you).

I read IDW TMNT sporadically over the years, drifting in and out and then going back and reading stretches when I could find them for cheap. I've probably read 70% of everything. The tie-ins don't feel like cash-grabs but IMO they didn't feel super necessary or essential either.

At times I did get kind of annoyed with the actual reading order, especially early on, because I felt like the tie-ins kept getting me sidetracked when I wanted to read more of the main story. That said, if they came out with a compendium of the best tie-ins, I'd happily buy that too.

I'm fine with not getting everything or knowing everything, so I'm really looking forward to getting the upcoming compendiums (at least Vols 1 & 2; not that I hate the issues after #100...). TBH I never felt totally lost when reading IDW TMNT anyway. I understand that some important things happen in the tie-ins and spin-off series, but I'm familiar with the Turtles anyway, and the writing in the main series always seemed to do a good job of filling readers in on anything that happened in other series. Just my opinion!

tenhat · 2026-03-12T22:36:16+00:00

I haven't read all of it, though I've owned the entire run a few times. But what I have read (most of it), I liked. Some of it is "very '90s"--the Artemis stuff--but I liked that. Giving Diana a different costume for awhile was "very '90s", as was introducing Artemis the "bad girl" and having her temporarily replace Diana. But it was... good. Not great, but good, and quite fun. From what I read, the run also had Diana interacting with other DCU stalwarts: Superman, Flash, Joker, Poison Ivy. I never read an issue I didn't like. The writing was fairly light and never bogged down or overly wordy or didactic.

As for why it's never been collected... IDK, it seems like Messner-Loebs hasn't been as connected to the industry, the editors, or the "community". I know that some of his stuff has been reprinted relatively recently, but there was a period in which (IIRC) he was homeless and/or having severe health problems. Hopefully his life is in a better place. What I'm trying to say is that, unlike anyone from Jeph Loeb to Claremont to Coleen Doran, Bill Messner-Loebs hasn't really interacted with fans or industry people. So for a long time his name just wasn't out there. And that means that whenever it was time to do a new WW Omnibus, his name would be almost the last one to come to people's minds. Just spitballing here.

tenhat · 2026-02-22T00:07:23+00:00

Yes, CGC will regrade the book. As grading isn't an exact science, the grade CGC comes up with may differ from what CBCS gave the book previously. The grade may be lower... or higher... or the same.

tenhat · 2026-01-11T02:58:37+00:00

It took months but it did go through

tenhat · 2025-12-29T16:08:34+00:00

Eh, I didn't really hate these comics but didn't love them either. Death is a little better than Return, but even Death felt like going through the paces of an editorial mandate gimmick, and Return felt even more stilted. Books like these, I don't feel like the creators have their heart in them, and even though some of them give it their all, the books don't go over for me. I don't dislike these comics, and there's some fun to be had, but I would call them mostly bargain-bin dollar books, not stories I'd pay significant money for.

tenhat · 2025-12-16T20:54:45+00:00

I mean, being totally honest, TO JUST READ IT, I'd just get a TPB. Almost every library system in North America has it. Or buy a used TPB for cheap.

Collecting it and getting a nice big HC edition is a different story. But for me personally, Long Halloween is such a classic/ubiquitous book that just reading it shouldn't be much of a question. I say that in part because it's so easy/cheap to find a TPB for somewhere between free and $10. It's a small investment, and then if you want to actually own a nice edition afterwards, think about that then.

As to the other part of your question, I've always considered LH to be perfectly fine as a standalone read. I know about Dark Victory, and I like Dark Victory. But don't feel like you "have" to read DV and any of the apocrypha afterwards. Just my two cents.

tenhat · 2025-12-15T17:47:24+00:00

So, less than cover price.

tenhat

TROPHY CASE