News: CG-USA startet Traveller-Reihe im März

[Ralph Kruhm]

Frisch von newsarama:

CROSSGEN LAUNCHES 'TRAVELLER' LINE IN MARCH
by Matt Brady
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Adding to its monthlies, trades, comics on the web, and compendia, CrossGen has confirmed that it will unveil a new category of comics in March with the “Travellers,” smaller-sized, full color editions of previously published graphic novels priced at $9.95 each. Unlike CG’s Compendia, the Travellers will contain a storyline from one series. CrossGen’s VP-Sales and Marketing Chris Oarr explained the new volumes for Newsarama…
Oarr was quick to point out two distinct advantages the new Travellers will have over regular-sized trades, the first, obviously is reflected in the category’s name. “The Travellers have portability and price going for them,” Oarr said. “The Travellers will be the same size Forge and Edge will have come December when they drop in price to $7.95.

“Increasingly, people like to read comics in book form, and the Compendia were developed with that in mind,” Oarr continued. “The idea behind Forge and Edge was to combine the portability and durability of a trade paperback with the thrill of monthly comics. They look good on your shelf, and, most important, they've always been an outstanding value. We've been very happy with the response to our Compendia, both in the comics market and especially at national retailers like Tower Records and Barnes & Noble.

“But product development didn't stop with the release of the first Forge and Edge. We've been working for many months on improving the Compendia, which meant (1) lowering the price to roughly that of a mass market paperback and (2) increasing their portability. We wanted a size that fit more store pockets outside of comic shops, but didn't sacrifice color, clarity, or readability. Our Production Department worked closely with our printer for months on different size reductions and paper stocks before settling on the new format, which combines the best of all possible worlds. They did a fantastic job. The final package is going to knock people's socks off. You've never seen a color comic like this. Our artists are uniformly happy with the results, including the colorists, and they're a hard bunch to please.

“Forge and <Edge drove development of the new format, and the Traveller editions are a logical extension of that process. CrossGen puts a lot of stock in getting our books into as many markets as possible, and these smaller-sized graphic novels open up a whole range of possibilities for us. Our book trade partners are keen to try full color graphic novels priced competitively with manga collections, which is doing extremely well across the board. I also think the Travellers are going to do very well in comic shops, because regular comics readers are open to all kinds of different formats these days. Simply put, these are really neat objects - they have ‘good hand,’ and they fit in your pocket.

“But here's the important thing: The new format means that we can afford to publish books that kids can afford to buy. CrossGen has always been about offering something for the young reader, and with the reformatted Compendia and the upcoming Traveller series, we're living up to that commitment.”

The exact dimensions of the Traveller line of books will be the same as the new trim size for the compendia, 5 3/16" x 8 1/8". “That puts it in the neighborhood of some manga collections,” Oarr said. “Bigger than some, smaller than others.”

Oarr stressed that the Travellers is an additional product category for the publisher, and will not be replacing its regular-sized trade paperbacks or compendia. “You can draw a parallel with prose book publishing if you think of CrossGen's full-size graphic novels as hardcovers and the Traveller editions as paperbacks,” Oarr explained. “Travellers are designed to follow long after the full-sized editions. In fact, they aren't planned to come any closer than two volumes behind the full-sized editions. We can publish the first two Traveller series quarterly in 2003 because they're so far behind the ongoing GN series; eventually we'll have to slow down.”

The first series to get the “traveler treatment” will be Meridian, with volumes scheduled for release beginning in March, and continuing in June, September, and December of 2003. Scion Traveller volume 1 is slated for an April release, with subsequent volumes coming in July and October. Additional Travellers series may be scheduled in 2004, but for now, according to Oarr, CrossGen is committed only to Meridian and Scion.

Slated to clock in at 192 pages, Travellers will contain eight issues’ worth of material, with a little rejiggering. “We're having a lot of fun tweaking the back matter, coming up with new covers and the like,” Oarr said. “Nothing really new except the presentation. In terms of content, what you see in the original editions is what you'll see in the Travellers.”

As for why Meridian and Scion were selected for the Traveller treatment, Oarr said that the decision was made with help from CrossGen’s book trade partners. “They strongly urged CrossGen to launch the Travellers with (1) proven strong-selling series, and (2) series with strong appeal to young girls as well as boys,” Oarr said. “Teenage girls may not be the biggest demographic in comic shops, but they're driving the bus in bookstore sales of graphic novels --- particularly in mall stores like Waldenbooks and B. Dalton, but also in the big box stores and independents that do well with graphic novels. Both Meridian and Scion are strong sellers with young-adult appeal.

Meridian is one of our most critically-acclaimed titles, and it's a great young adult series. The sweeping scope of Barbara Kesel's story combined with the delicate line of Steve McNiven's fantastic artwork is attractive to female readers, and Meridian is among our best selling series in the book trade. Scion has similar attributes, in that it appeals to both male and female readers. Although it is a fantasy-adventure series with lots of action, Scion is also a love story. Ethan and Ashleigh are young adults brought together by adverse circumstances, and in the course of their adventures they develop a relationship that helps drive the series.

“I also think that the Travellers are going to pick up new readers in comic shops, if only on the basis of low price and unique packaging. And if Meridian or Scion are the first CrossGen Comics people read, then I'm very happy, because both these series represent the best of what we're all about.”

[Ralph Kruhm]

http://www.icv2.com/articles/home/2577.html

[LeGuy]

Bei CGE wird offenbar darüber nachgedacht, statt den regulären Trade-Paperbacks nur noch die kleineren Traveler-Sammelbände rauszubringen:
Von http://forums.comicbookresources.com...hreadid=67696:

Mark Alessi let it slip at his Q&A on Saturday that CrossGen will most likely be slowly phasing out their trade paperbacks and going solely with the Traveller-sized books. That's what sells for them.
On the other hand, he also said that they're working with people to possibly put out a limited edition hardcover and/or oversized reprint edition of some of their books. They'd be available for a limited time only.

Dazu passt, dass im Oktober Brath Vol.I direkt als Traveler erscheint, ohne dass es den Band vorher im "großen" Format gegeben hätte.

[Slobdell]

Kann ich mir gut vorstellen, dass sich die Traveller entschieden besser rechnen. Immerhin enthalten diese -wie Forge und Vector- im vergleichbaren Umfang nur Reprint Material, waren aber von Beginn an um einiges teurer als die beiden Kompendien.

Slobby

[Ralph Kruhm]

Die Trades werden weiterproduziert, aber nur noch etwa in der Stückzahl, in der sie ursprünglich bestellt werden. Wer also nicht beim Erscheinen zugreift, wird´s später sehr schwer haben.