Genis Vell
Last Son of Krypton
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Posts: 262
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« Reply #11 on: August 20, 2005, 07:19:23 AM » |
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The 2001 crisis caused several troubles to Italian readers, and of course DC titles were the most important victims. But Play Press didn't fail! In fact, the publisher cancelled the newsstands titles, but began their publication for comics shops only. A situation similar to yours.
So, in 2001 started the quarterly SUPERMAN TRADE PAPERBACK and BATMAN TRADE PAPERBACK, which continued the run of the previous monthly series. Well, readers weren't so glad to read Superman and Batman in that more expensive form, but it was better than to see they nevermore.
Plus, in the comics shops arrived new collections of the most recent titles, like GREEN ARROW (the Smith series), WONDER WOMAN (from the Jimenez run on) and JSA (but only tpb 1 was released). These series were added to JLA TPB, which started in 1999 after the conclusion of the monthly series. These editions aren't so bad, except for certain defects like "flying pages" (luckily, this isn't anymore).
Meanwhile, in 2000/01, Panini Comics, another Italian publisher, bought the rights of DC for Germany. Several readers hoped to see the Panini Logo on Italian DC books, too, but it never happened, so Play Press still owns the rights for Superman and the rest of the gang.
In 2003, a good news: at last, a monthly series again (but for comics shops only): DC UNIVERSE. It's a low priced book containing 3 stories (it costs 5 €, i.e. $6, 70 circa...), chosen among the most popular DC comics released in the US. It presented stories like "Hush", BIRTHRIGHT, FORMERLY KNOWN AS THE JUSTICE LEAGUE... Not bad.
Now there is a good quantity of DC publications here: SUPERMAN TP, BATMAN TP, GREEN ARROW, OUTSIDERS, WONDER WOMAN, DCU and some special tpb like IDENTITY CRISIS.
The big change arrived in march: at last, 4 years after the cancellation of SUPERMAN NS and BATMAN NS, Play Press released a new newsstands title: BATMAN MAGAZINE. And, in summer, another series: SUPERMAN MAGAZINE. It was about time: in the past years Marvel, Wildstorm and Vertigo, too, were in newsstands expositors... But not the DC Universe. And, who knows, things could be better!
Our problem is that we haven't a "DC culture", here. We hadn't DC Comics in important periods like the mid '70s and the late '80s, when Marvel was alone and, so, the most popular. But DC has several fans, here... Who want to read DC superheroes in every way, for example purchasing the American editions (me, too). I hope that the return in newsstands can really better the situation: DC has great character, and they deserve a larger audience.
I hope you enjoyed with all this... Because we arrived to
-THE END-
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