Hard Time: Some Disappointing News
I learned today that DC has decided not to collect *Hard Time* #7-12 as a trade paperback — at least, not yet. I was hoping we would have this second collection out before the first issue of *Season 2* hit the stores. Now, that’s not going to happen.
It makes me wonder how all those interlocking, triple-knotted company-wide crossovers which themselves cross over into other crossovers are selling this year. Is that really what people want to read? Guess so…
August 12th, 2005 at 10:58 PM
yeah, and after all these super awesome climactic everything changing mini-ties-into-every-book-series, there’s going to be this year long “maxi” series with one book coming out each week. (tenatively, and might i add cleverly, titled “52*”)
so when is ethan going to run into OMAC? is this going to have major effects on the ENTIRE DC universe? i can’t buy these things fast enough!
August 12th, 2005 at 11:58 PM
So then hopes are dashed even for a Season one collection?
August 13th, 2005 at 1:26 AM
They really do not want the transition from monthly serial to collected graphic novel, do they ?
A book like Hard Time not only deserves collecting for the wider audience, but it could actually bring in new readers if it was out there in the book shops.
Instead, it’s all about getting the shrinking pool of comics readers to buy more monthlies.
Bah!
August 13th, 2005 at 2:23 AM
Soon: Issues 1-6 of *Hard Time*’s “season one” are already available in paperback form. You can use the link in the right-hand column to order it directly from Amazon.
August 13th, 2005 at 2:36 AM
By the way, I don’t mean to criticize DC for publishing all those crossover books. I assume they’re just giving the readers what they want. What perplexes me is the notion that *that’s* what the readers want.
DC has been very supportive of *Hard Time*, and, as I’ve said before, I’m immensely grateful for that.
August 13th, 2005 at 5:45 AM
Well, Steve, despite respecting your opinion of not being overly critical towards DC for all their crossover nonsense, I can’t claim to have that same viewpoint at all: Dozens and dozens of inferior comics flooding the market, all at $3 a pop… and for what? In the aftermath, the status quo will be shaken up a teeny-tiny bit, Batman will have an even bigger stick up his ass & Wonder Woman goes the way of The Flash. BFD. A chimp with a brain tumor tripping on moldy bread could plot a better story. And wouldn’t need to con their ever-shrinking audience into mortgaging their basements to read the whole damn on-par-with-Joycean epic, either.
Still – folks get what they deserve. I suppose if the fans are eating all this up, it’s like selling crack: They’ll pay for it through the nose, so DC’ll keep cranking it out.
I wonder what, if anything, will break the cycle?
Anyway, Marvel’s a LOT better about collecting worthwhile stuff into trade immediately AND keeping it in print. HARD TIME is yours, is it not? – nothing stopping you from taking it elsewhere… is there?
Just a thought.
August 13th, 2005 at 7:54 AM
Mark: “Still – folks get what they deserve. I suppose if the fans are eating all this up, it’s like selling crack: They’ll pay for it through the nose, so DC’ll keep cranking it out.”
If the sales figures on ICv2 are correct, the fans are indeed eating all this up. Personally, I don’t get the appeal of this stuff, but DC would be crazy *not* to keep cranking it out.
(If that sounds too uncritical, keep in mind that the sales of those books make long shots like *Hard Time* possible.)
August 13th, 2005 at 11:06 AM
Actually, I like a lot of what DC is doing with its cross-over summer. Each of the miniseries is different enough to not be repetitive with each other. The highlight for me has been DAY OF VENGENCE miniseries written by Bill Willingham that features Detective Chimp as one of the main characters.
August 14th, 2005 at 2:52 AM
If the first six are season one, and the second half dozen are season two, what would you call the 12 collected? volume one? I meant a volume one.
August 15th, 2005 at 7:54 AM
So it looks like DC doesn’t want me to pick up the relaunch of Hard Time. That’s the whole point of going on a break like this between “seasons”, to get the original material back into print so more people can get up to speed on something they missed out on the first time.
Marvel collected Runaways before launching Runaways v2. Marvel collected She-Hulk before that relaunch as well. DC even did the same thing with Sleeper. I decided to support the single issues on the relaunches of all of those. If the companies are willing to expend that little bit of effort, I’ll help them out even though it’s not the format I really prefer.
It is very frustrating that DC wants to force me to buy the material in a format I don’t want. Unfortunately given this turn of events, I don’t forsee myself purchasing the relaunch of Hard Time.
August 15th, 2005 at 9:43 AM
Son of a bitch. You mean I have to either a) find the back issues (a frustrating, more expensive, and possibly difficult task) or b) hold onto the new issues in the hope that when 7-12 get reprinted, I can read them in order? This is why the comics industry is in trouble.