One of the interesting points to come out of the great CBR Top 100 thread was how a lot of the older artists didn’t get many votes because many readers today aren’t familiar with them. It can’t be argued, of course – I’m a pretty big comic buff, and I hadn’t even heard of some of the guys, let alone have any familiarity with their work. The main reason for this is that most of it’s not easily available, and reading it involves some devoted back issue hunting.
Now, Gemstone is collecting old EC Comics material, which I think is pretty cool – they’re even recolouring the stories, which tends to upset some purists but is probably a good move on the whole. I’ve heard a lot of good stuff about this material, and it’s nice to have it accessible.
But. The first volume is a hardcover collection with a cover price of $49.99, which brings us to the other accessibility problem: When these books are collected, it’s often in a format geared towards people who are already familiar with them. Dark Horse put out some Magnus: Robot Fighter and Solar collections in the same format. It’s about servicing a niche market, not finding a new audience: I’d like to read some of this, but I’m unlikely to spend that kind of money on stories and creators I don’t really know, and god knows I’m irresponsible about spending money on comics. I’ll spend that kind of money on Absolute Sandman, but I couldn’t imagine doing it if I’d never read anything by Neil Gaiman before.
It’s unfortunate, because this is stuff I’d really like to read. If anyone’s got any suggestions for more affordable EC reprints, let me know.