Right Comics, Wrong Format: Sugar and Spike
by Jeet Heer
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Normally I’d be overjoyed at the news that DC comics is at long last doing a book reprinting Sugar and Spike, the delightful kids comics Sheldon Mayer started in 1956 and continued working on till 1992. Chronicling the misadventures of two talking babies (who can communicate with each other and other kids but not adults), Sugar and Spike hasn’t received the critical acclaim doled out to Carl Barks or John Stanley, but the series has a real sweetness to it that is worth cherishing.
Alas, DC is going to reprint the first 10 issues of Sugar and Spike in their dreadful “Archives” format. So the books are going to be overpriced, garishly colored, hideously designed and all-round ugly. It’s a real shame and completely unnecessary because the Archive format is a dying one. In recent years DC has improved its reprint game, especially with the handsome Omnibus books devoted to Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. Given this new flexibility in reprints, why stick with the “Archives” format? Why not hire out a good designer – there are many in comics right now – to do something handsome like the Moomin books or the John Stanley Library or the Toon Treasury. How often does this complaint need to be made?
The mistreatment of Mayer’s Sugar and Spike is especially galling because it’s happening at the same time that Fantagraphics is set to do justice to Carl Barks. Sheldon Mayer devoted his life to working for DC comics and they treat his legacy with a slapdash, thoughtless shoddiness.
In the meantime, if you want to see Mayer’s work treated right, read the Toon Treasury.
Labels: Sheldon Mayer, Toon Treasury
I don’t mind the Archives coloring so much, but I do agree that these should be available in a more kid-friendly format than a $60 HC.
Don’t forget that it’ll not only be unattractive, it’s also going to be SEVENTY DOLLARS! Which, as a retailer who’s been bothering my DC reps for close to twenty years about this, does not fill my heart with joy. As near as I can tell, DC Archives only sell to comic shop employees buying at cost (such as myself), Amazon customers buying at deep discount, and guys buying them from the clearance bin. Those last guys, incidentally, usually pride themselves on their savviness, yet bellow with uncomprehending rage at the huge eBay prices for late volumes of the series they teach us not to order. Maybe I can goose sales for these by offering the terrible S & S plush dolls that I could never sell as a free bonus with purchase.
Okay, sixty bucks then. I would swear I saw a $69.95 cover price cited. Still, not competitive with nicer packages/price points offered by publishers with fewer resources available to them.
It’s a real shame DC has made such a poor decision.
There is a very good chance I won’t be buying this volume, despite the content being one of the very few things DC ever published I’d love to have collected.
There is not one good thing I could say about the “Archive” format.
I own several, and every time I buy one I want to kick myself, because they are so hideous, poorly produced, and insultingly overpriced.
Yes, it is a shame they can’t get Seth to redraw the characters for the cover in his style, and hand letter it in his de facto font . Nothing sold me on Nipper more than seeing another artist’s version of the title character on the cover.
I can go both ways on this.
Archives are meant to showcase the Best Of The Best when it comes to DC’s classic catalog. It’s been mostly superhero in this format, but ElfQust and MAD have been collected under the “Archive” banner, just not with the trademark pin-strip dust-jacket.
However, DC has been re-purposing the Archives into their much more affordable – and color – softcover Chronicle books. Sugar and Spike would be fine with that format.
I have no particular problem with a high cover price.
The “Archives” combine a high cover price with a skimpy poorly produced package.
Compare to the Fantagraphics Barks library volumes.
The “Archives” books are twice the price, about the same number of pages, and on top of that poor design.
[…] Design | Jeet Heer is happy that someone is collecting Sheldon Mayer’s Sugar and Spike but not happy that it’s DC shoehorning it into their Archive edition format. [Comics Comics] […]
I’ll buy the Archives for me, but I’d rather have it in the Chronicles format – though with jollier-than-usual packaging – then I could buy a few as presents.
What I find astounding is Fantagraphics holy reputation. We haven’t seen any of the those “90% sized” books and we already know that “Fantagraphics is set to do justice to Carl Barks”.
They get a free pass for everything: reducing the size of the books, bad scans like on Prince Valiant…
What? Bad scans? Tell me more. I am pretty sure those Prince Valiant books are as good as the book has looked since the first time they were printed!
The Carl Barks books are NOT 90% (an off-the-cuff figure thrown out by Gary G. that has traveled around the globe five times since he made it, despite prompt attempts to rein in back in), they will be something like 97%.
We get a free pass for everything because we are super awesome and have earned it.
Yet another problem with the “Archives” books is the art is reduced.
On the golden age material the art is only 5 3/4 X 8 1/4.
An original Golden Age comic book printed the art at 6 1/2 X 9.
That is a very substantial reduction. The DC Golden Age “Archives” aren’t even 90% let alone 97%.
Aside from the crappy production values, I think the worst part of this is that very few of these Archives editions will fall into the hands of actual children. I know from experience that these stories are a great way to introduce young children to comics. In 2002 DC printed a facsimile of the first issue of Sugar & Spike. I bought one for myself and one for my then-four-year-old niece. It was her first comic and she read it over and over until it fell apart. Eight years later she still loves comics and she’s talking about making her own comics some day.
If DC would collect these stories in a format similar to D+Q’s John Stanley Library, a lot of people would probably buy them for the children in their lives as well as for themselves. As it is, I’m sure sales will go exactly as Devlin Thompson predicts. If I buy one at all, it will only be because I found it at a deep discount. It seems like a real missed opportunity to me.
Amen. These are kids comics and should be treated as such. The bigger crime with the Archives format is the readability; since they don’t easily lie flat when opened, they’re actually really hard for a kid to get their hands (and head) around. The best remedy for this HC dilemma has been the MOOMIN books. Great size, durable, no dustjacket (kids end up ripping these anyway) and the book is easy to open and STAYS open.
And just to harp on this $60 for the same number of pages offered by Fantagraphics for $25.
You can’t buy one of those hideous monstrosities without feeling like you’re being jobbed.
It’s like DC is saying, “Hey, kiss our ass, fool.” And then laughing at you.
I imagine why this isn’t going to be a popular opinion but I think this is why digital preservation (and yes, I do think there is a legitimate distinction between preservation and piracy) is important.
Almost two years ago, I downloaded the complete collection of Sugar & Spike under the expectation that DC would probably never reprint those issues. So I have all 99 as they originally appeared, including ads and letters pages. No overly-shiny pages and garish color. I’ve also had no qualms about downloading material that DC has made available only in the B&W Showcase format.
If DC had given me the option of purchasing digital copies of Sugar & Spice at a reasonable price (say, $100-$150 for all 99) I would have done so, but they are YEARS behind the curve in this area.
With 35 or so years of material, I would really like a uber-chearp Showcase multi-volume set. You wouldn’t need color for these.
Ugh. I thought that design was ugly in the early 90s… and it hasn’t aged well!
The shops in my area have so many of those old Archives marked down 40% that don’t sell because they’re still too expensive. Many of them I’d buy for $20-$30 but not for $40-$60 as I just can’t afford that.