History KeepCirculatingTheTapes / Comics

! Comic books

* Due to Disney's infamous lawsuit, ''Air Pirates Funnies'', a 1970s underground comix series unauthorized by Disney which depicted Disney characters in sexually-explicit situations, is completely out of print. Original copies are valuable, although the series has made appearances on the internet.
* Creator/AlanMoore's Marvel Pastiche series ''[[ComicBook/NineteenSixtyThree 1963]]''. Also Alan Moore's few-but-canonically-significant ''Series/DoctorWho'' comics for ''Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine'', because of Moore's strained relations with Marvel UK.
* Jon Muth's gorgeous graphic novel "Dracula: A Symphony in Moonlight and Nightmares", published by Marvel Graphic Novels in the early 90's, hasn't seen the light of day for years, despite it being one of the best and more unique adaptations of Stoker's novel and would be of great interest to Dracula fans.
** For that matter, a majority of the works published under Marvel Graphic Novels have lacked reprints, the exceptions being most of the ones featuring Marvel characters that have been reprinted or included in other collections.
* ''ComicBook/{{Legion of Super-Heroes}}'':
** Legion fans have long suffered due to politics involving the comic's most famous writer-turned-head of DC Comics Paul Levitz. Levitz, known for vetoing the collection of stories whose writers and artists are out of favor with DC Comics for various reasons, has long refused to collect his ''Legion'' run in TPB format, going so far as even stopping the popular and commercially-successful LOSH Hardcover Archive series due to it having reached the point where his first issues on the book were published, just so that he could use the lack of his books released to justify his corrupt policies of who gets their work collected. This has had a detrimental effect upon the ''Legion'' franchise as, save for ''ComicBook/TheGreatDarknessSaga'' (which was out of print for over a decade), the only way to buy the Legion was to pay $50 a volume for the DC Archives, which while being a comprehensive collection of all Legion stories, consists mainly of the Adventure Comics era, which are at best a mixed bag qualitywise. The Legion's 1980s run, where Levitz took over the franchise and made it into a hit series, remained uncollected and unseen until two years ago when Levitz (to tie into the return of the Pre-Zero Hour Legion) released two volumes collecting the first 13 issues of Legion V3, ironically even as "The Great Darkness Saga" has once again fallen out of print.
** The post-Levitz ''Legion'' also suffers this and then some. The controversial V4 run by Keith Giffen and the Bierbaums remains uncollected. The 1994 reboot had its first eight issues and a later storyline involving a retread of the Great Darkness Saga collected, but nothing else. Part of this was due to artist Oliver Coipel, who drew four and half years of the reboot leaving DC to go work for Marvel, leading to Levitz blacklisting him and refusing to collect any of the ''Legion'' stories he drew in TPB. Also, when the last 1994 ''Legion'' reboot story (a crossover special with the 2002 ''Teen Titans'' relaunch) finally see the light of day as part of a ''Teen Titans'' TPB, the collection '''omitted''' the final pages of the story, where the Legion rally together as their world is destroyed and they are cast outside of the known universe to rot for all time. To add insult to injury for fans of the other runs, the 2004 reboot has, save for a single issue, been completely collected with the last year of the book seeing print not just in softcover but also '''hardcover'''.
* ''ComicBook/SwampThing'' suffered this for years with several major issues (the last four issues of Len Wein's original run on the title, the first Alan Moore ''Swamp Thing'' story) uncollected until most recently as DC began re-releasing the [=TPBs=] in hardcover. Still, stuff like Creator/NancyACollins' back-to-basics run and Grant Morrison and Mark Millar's controversial runs on the title remain uncollected, as does the Marty Pasko run (''Saga of the Swamp Thing'' #1-19), the last 4-5 issues of which are crucial for setting up the bulk of Alan Moore's plotlines in the book.
** As of 2017 all of the mentioned comics (yes, all of them) are available on [=ComiXology=]. You're still out of luck if you want a physical copy, though.
* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' suffers this as well — Marvel has done a lousy job collecting and keeping in print most of the character's defining storylines. While ''Essential Spider-Man'' has now reached Creator/RogerStern and Peter David's legendary runs (and the first third of David Micheline's legendary run on ''Amazing Spider-Man'' released as an omnibus), good luck if you want to find most of Spidey's stuff like [=DeMatteis=] and Gerry Conway's Spectacular Spider-Man or Tom [=DeFalco's=] Amazing Spider-Man.
** An omnibus of Roger Stern's run is now pending for release in April 2014.
** Mark Bagley did a Spider-Man web-comic around the 2000s that seems to have mysteriously dropped off the face of the Earth, with nothing being reprinted and the comic not appearing on Marvel's website.
* The bulk of Creator/BillMantlo's work as a comic creator remain uncollected. While Marvel has recently announced two oversized [=TPBs=] collecting the first 40 issues of his Hulk run and most of his Spider-Man stuff is available in the Essential line, his Micronauts and Rom work remains in legal limbo hell while his Alpha Flight run (featuring early pre-fame artwork from Mike Mignola and Jim Lee) is still not collected.
* Any ComicBook/{{Daredevil}} that isn't Frank Miller's or part of the 2000s Marvel Knights reboot. In particular, Ann Nocenti's run has only ever received two collections (One, out-of-print, Daredevil Visionaries collection of Typhoid Mary and one more recent collection of Lone Stranger) despite running far longer than either of Miller's runs and featuring artwork not only by fan favourites John Romita Jr and Lee Weeks, but art from Creator/SteveDitko, Mark Bagley, amongst others.
* A lot of 1990s Marvel stuff remains uncollected, even with Marvel recently making headway in collecting it via their "Marvel Classics" line. The 1990s ''ComicBook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'' series; ''Nightstalkers'' (which brought ComicBook/{{Blade}} back after fading away into comic limbo and resolved several major dangling plotlines from the 1970s ''Comicbook/TheTombOfDracula'' series); ''ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}}'', ''ComicBook/GenerationX''; and ''ComicBook/XMan'' has yet to be collected.
** Thunderbolts, Generation X, and X-Man are now being collected and while the 90s series has yet to be collected, all of the Guardians of the Galaxy material from the various anthology comics Marvel originally published them in have finally been collected.
** Marvel has announced that the Creator/JimValentino run on the 1990s GOTG series (ie the first 26 issues or so) is being released in TPB format in 2014, most likely to capitalise on the release of the film.
* Marvel's early comics, back when they didn't even have that name (they started as Timely) and some of whom lasted until their transition to superhero-only in the 1960s, are heavily neglected, even if characters such as ComicBook/PatsyWalker and ComicBook/MillieTheModel made their transition into the mainstream universe. The fact that [[http://marvel.com/comics/issue/19035/millie_the_model_1945_100 one issue]] of Millie's title is available on the digital service Marvel Unlimited is nothing short of a miracle.
* DC has its own 1990s stuff that has yet to be collected, be it obscure cult favorites (''ComicBook/MajorBummer''; ''Darkstars''; ''Young Heroes In Love'') to major books that are a no-brainer for collecting (the 1990s ''Robin'' series; the Kyle Rayner ''Green Lantern'' run of Ron Marz; ''L.E.G.I.O.N.''; Mark Waid's ''Flash'' run; Peter David's ''Aquaman'', ''Supergirl'' and ''Young Justice'' runs). While DC has released "Best Of" volumes of the early Rayner ''Green Lantern'' stories, their attempt to do a comprehensive collecting of Kyle's ''Green Lantern'' run failed to sell enough to justify further volumes. And the ''Robin'' thing is even more insulting, given that ''Nightwing'' and ''Birds of Prey'' (other Batman spin-offs) have received numerous [=TPBs=] over the years collecting the bulk of those two series.
** ''ComicBook/YoungJustice'' originally only had one TPB released in 2000. The book ran for six years and over 50 issues, and saw strong sales throughout that time, but DC never saw fit to put any real effort into collecting it -- until the success of the [[WesternAnimation/YoungJustice cartoon]] increased interest in the series, upon which they started releasing [=TPBs=] from scratch.
** David's ''Supergirl'' run eventually started seeing release in 2016.
* Stormwatch Team Achilles and Wildcats V3.0 only had the first year's worth of stories collected, as both comics were critical darlings with poor sales, leading to them being put down and replaced with more traditional versions of the concepts that have been largely panned by fans of the "Eye of the Storm" books.
** Wildcats 3.0, at least, is finally being collected in full in two large trade paperbacks - just in time for Wildstorm's shuttering.
* Joe Casey's non-crossover ''Adventures Of Superman'' run remains uncollected, even though his book was widely praised to be the best of the early-2000s Superman books.
* While DC has begun to make a serious effort to collect the Giffen/[=DeMatteis=]/[=McGuire=] [[ComicBook/JusticeLeagueInternational JLI/JLA]] run, fans still hold onto the first JLI TPB ("A New Beginning") and not the most recent printing, based off of the first edition hardcover re-release. The original TPB contains a lengthy introduction where Giffen discusses in graphic detail how he got the job writing the book, how the roster came about, the politics that determined that he could only use Batman and Martian Manhunter as far as founding Big Seven members, and the overall tone of the book. This fascinating look at the behind-the-scenes making of this beloved incarnation of the franchise was replaced with a one-page "intro" that is extremely brief and barely mentions the behind-the-scenes stuff except in a brief aside.
* ''[[ComicBook/TeenTitans New Teen Titans]]'' suffers this — vague, often butchered [=TPBs=] have been released of random stories (with the only common theme being that they are drawn by George Perez), while the only way to read the stories in chronological order is the uber-expensive "Archive" Hardcovers, with DC announcing that the Hardcover collecting will stop now that they've reached the point where the earliest issue number TPB would be the next volume.
** DC eventually released The New Teen Titans in omnibus format, but the first volume is out-of-print and the third volume has been widely panned for both not collecting the issues DC solicited (this happens often) and for containing huge gaps in continuity between the issues that were collected.
* The ''Franchise/TransformersGeneration1'' [[ComicBook/TheTransformers UK comic]] stories featuring Death's Head cannot be reprinted in the US, since Marvel owns the character. Luckily, prior to IDW getting the UDS reprint rights, they were collected in the UK via Titan (who distributes Marvel's trade paperbacks in England) with Titan scoring global distribution rights, meaning that they could be grey-market imported to the States.
** Similarly, a complete collection of ''ComicBook/DeathsHead'' issues is very difficult, since many of his stories involve crossovers with ''Transformers'' and ''Doctor Who,'' and reprinting them would require straightening out the license rights. The situation may have been recently resolved, as an old Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine comics story featuring Death's Head as an antagonist was reprinted by IDW.
* While its predecessor [[ComicBook/TheTransformers The Transformers]] has had the lion's [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/The_Transformers:_Generations share]] [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Classic_Transformers of]] [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/The_Transformers_Classics reprints]] over the last 30+ years good luck if you want to find the sequel series [[ComicBook/TransformersGeneration2 Generation 2]] as the only option for finding it today are the original print run or the releases that were [[NoExportForYou UK exclusive]] done by Titan books during the early 2000s.
* ''[[ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHeroMarvel G.I. Joe]]'' for years suffered this, especially after Marvel attempted to reprint the books only to stop after reaching #50. Luckily, IDW has picked up the ball and is now reprinting the entire series.
* Matt Howarth included several real people as characters in his various Bugtown comic book series. He asked their permission to do so, but did not anticipate any future reprint market. So Howarth feels the permission only covered the original publication of the books and he would need new assent to republish the books in collected form. As he has been unable to contact several of the people involved, some of whom have since passed away, these series have never been collected.
* Peter Milligan and Chris Bachalo's mind-bendingly experimental Creator/VertigoComics revamp of ComicBook/ShadeTheChangingMan remains unavailable for purchase, except for a 2004 TPB of the first six issues. DC likely planned to use this as a test for future [=TPBs=], but since the first arc is the weakest of the 70-issue series, it failed to garner significant interest.
** This is slowly being changing. The first volume of the series was re-released with a second in December 2009, and a third in July 2010.
*** Unfortunately DC has published no further [=TPBs=] since the third volume was released in 2010, so the rest of the series still remains in this category.
** Many of Peter Milligan's other mindblowing comics, such as Human Target, Enigma and his Batman/Detective stories (bar the one story that was part of the Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul) have not been collected or are out-of-print, or else suffer from the same fate as Shade, the Changing Man.
* DVD pack-in comics, specifically those that are only packaged with [[LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition special edition]] [=DVD=]s (bonus points if its only sold by a certain chain of stores) or ones [[NoExportForYou that are only released in certain regions]].
* ''ComicBook/{{Spawn}}'' issues 9 and 10 have a history of coming in and out of limbo in reprint volumes. #9, held up due to the legal battles with Creator/NeilGaiman, the co-author of the issue who claims partial ownership of the (continuity-important) characters he introduced (Medieval Spawn, Angela and Cagliostro), and #10 because it was a ''ComicBook/CerebusTheAardvark'' CrossOver issue that Dave Sim has not authorized for reprints.
** This seems to be resolved, as both issues were included in the oversized ''Spawn Origins Collection: Book 1'' hardcover book, with a letter by Dave Sim explaining the story behind the making and reprinting troubles of issue #10 included as a forward to that issue.
* If you want to collect the comic stories that ran in ''Magazine/DisneyAdventures'', you're pretty much gonna have to go to [=eBay=] and try to win auctions on the issues, or their reprints in ''Disney's Colossal Comics Collection''. However, Boom! Studios is now reprinting the ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' stories.
** ''ComicBook/TheLegendOfTheChaosGod'', a five part CrossThrough story which is widely regarded as one of the greatest stories ever printed in the magazine, has ''never'' been reprinted. The only way to read it is to buy all five of the original issues online, or find page scans on the internet.
* For countries that still publish [[ComicBook/DisneyMouseAndDuckComics Disney Comics]], Brazil sometimes suffers from this despite publisher Editora Abril being prone to republish old stories instead of new, imported ones (as locally produced are sporadic ever since they closed their studio in 2001). Some comics are heavily sought, be they old magazines or recent ones (as their distribution is sometimes cumbersome), particularly collections such as ''The Complete Works of Creator/CarlBarks''.
* Creator/ArchieComics seems to rarely reprint stuff involving their (Non-Pureheart) superhero output: They themselves put out three trade paperbacks in the early 2000s on certain characters.
** Archie is offering many of the stories as part of its ''ComicBook/NewCrusaders'' digital subscription service starting Spring 2012.
* The pulp style comic series ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starblazer Starblazer]]'' books, despite some incredibly good stories and a small but very loyal fandom, is doomed to obscurity by the refusal to reprint any stories even as a collection. The old books themselves are getting increasingly hard to come by as time takes its toll.
* ''ComicBook/ElfQuest'', while an excellent series, hasn't been reprinted since 2003, its quarter-centennial, and the only full-ish reprints -- the Father Tree Press 20th anniversary Readers Collections -- are getting harder and harder to find as time goes on. On the plus side, all of it -- and even never-printed material from aborted series -- is available on the official website.
** Some of the original chapter pages got redesigned without chapter titles for later editions, and the original versions aren't available on line. The website also omits miscellaneous cartoons, promotional art, artwork for editorial page borders, and even one editorial that's lettered in the shape of a wolf's head.
** The original ''ComicBook/ElfQuest: Wavedancers'' series was withdrawn because of a dispute between the Pinis and its creators and cannot be legally reproduced.
** The first in what is proposed to be a complete series of {{Doorstopper}} collections emerged in 2014, although it's unclear if it will include '''everything'''.
* The issues of ''ComicBook/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|Mirage}}'' written and illustrated by Creator/RickVeitch (issues #24-26 and 30 of Volume One of the original Mirage run, plus the story "North by Downeast" initially serialized in Plastron Cafe #1-4 and later colorized and given a conclusion in the two-part ''Casey Jones'' mini-series) face problems when it comes to reprints as Veitch never signed away those rights. Possibly the TMNT stories by Creator/RickArthur (who did TMNT Vol. 1 #41 and a short story called "Lucindra" in Turtle Soup (vol. 2) #1) fall into the same trap, though there's no confirmation from anyone involved with the franchise (though see below). Creator/FrankBella, who did the two-page gag story "Pesticide" in Turtle Soup (vol. 1) #1, also never signed away reprint rights, which indicates that the same thing happened with the other story in that special (save for one done by Mirage regular Creator/EricTalbot which was later reprinted, a crossover story with Creator/StanSakai's ''ComicBook/UsagiYojimbo'' which has been reprinted several times, and one by Creator/SteveBissette who did sell the rights to his TMNT-related work). Some of the other TMNT short stories and Vol. 1 issues done by freelance writers and artists during the late 1980s and early 1990s may also have legal problems, but in some cases it's hard to tell since Mirage's contracts could be a bit loose regarding reprint rights at the time.
** Update: Rick Arthur has told this troper that the only intellectual property he owns from TMNT Vol. 1 #44 is the character of Lucindra and nothing else. Also, veteran comics writer Creator/PaulJenkins never signed away the rights to his contributions to TMNT Vol. 1 #43, but doesn't really mind it being reprinted. ''ComicBook/MegatonMan'''s Creator/DonSimpson still owns the rights to his TMNT parody short stories, "Teen Techno Turtle Trio Plus One!' from Shell Shock and "Alternative Turtles on the Moon" from the color Turtle Soup series (I assume that Mirage didn't buy out those stories since they're just parodies), same with Creator/FredHembeck's TMNT back-up strip from the third printing of TMNT Vol. 1 #2. Most other TMNT stories should face no legal problems from being reprinted, although IDW may go the extra mile in getting permission from and compensating the owners of guest characters such as Creator/ErikLarsen's ComicBook/SavageDragon and Creator/BobBurden's ''ComicBook/FlamingCarrot'' (since Dave Sim has no problem with anyone else using his character ComicBook/{{Cerebus}}, yet IDW still got Sim's permission and paid him in order to reprint the TMNT issue that guest stars Cerebus).
* Unlike its popular [[ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics American cousin]], ''ComicBook/SonicTheComic'' has yet to be collected into volumes. The series is extremely hard to find (as everytime you search for it the Archie's comics come up instead), though there are sites specifically made for buying issues of the comic. It's still hard to get certain issues though. It's possible the lack of an archive is due to legal issues involving the several {{Canon Foreigner}}s.
* Entire companies suffer from this trope. If you like First Comics in the 80s, only ''ComicBook/AmericanFlagg'' has seen a reprint: books like ''ComicBook/JonSableFreelance'', ''Nexus'', ''ComicBook/TheBadger'', ''Grimjack'', ''Dynamo Joe'', and ''Mars'' languish in obscurity. A lot of the output of companies like Malibu, Eclipse, and Comico are similar. For more obscure companies, like Neal Adams's Continuity Comics, not even graphic novels exist.
** Actually, most of the First Comics books mentioned have been reprinted in some form. The exception is ''ComicBook/DynamoJoe''.
* Marvel's current policy is to not maintain any inventory. Once they print a trade or hardcover and send it out you'd better hope it doesn't sell out because unless it's a really popular series it's not going to get a second printing. This means that there are trades just two years old that are already out-of-print. Some of them are trades released to replace older out-of-print collections, which is as ridiculous as it sounds.
** The 2008 run of ''ComicBook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'' was a good example of this. Due to the series suffering low sales at the time, compounded by the announcement of [[Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy the movie]], what copies DO exist have shot up in price.
** DC has a similar policy. The first Teen Titans omnibus was out of print by about mid-2012 despite having come out in September of the previous year. Their much-panned, oversized hardcover reissue of Batman: Year One is now out-of-print (although that may be because it was widely panned, especially by David Mazzuchelli himself). ''Absolute ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' is out-of-print, and there are many others.
* None of the volumes of ''ComicBook/AlbedoErmaFelnaEDF'', the original FurryComic, were ever re-issued. Unlike its sequel, ''Birthright'', which is currently slowly being put out as a WebComic.
* Until recently, the ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' storyline ''ComicBook/{{Knightfall}}'' only had two of its three acts collected as a trade paperback - ''Knightfall'' and ''[=KnightsEnd=]'', but not ''[=KnightQuest=]''. However, on May 29, 2012, one part of the ''[=KnightQuest=]'' storyline, "The Crusade" - which chronicled Jean-Paul Valley's stint as Batman - was finally released. However, "The Search" - which had Bruce Wayne hunting down the kidnapped father of Robin Tim Drake - has yet to be released collected. In addition DC also omitted a few stories from the first volume that serve as build-up to the main Knightfall arc, The Sword of Azrael (which was previously collected elsewhere, but is now out-of-print) and the Troika arc, a four issue arc that more-or-less finishes the [=KnightSaga=].
** DC also declined to reprint Contagion, Legacy and Cataclysm. All three are big Batman arcs, all three somewhat lead into No Man's Land, and Legacy contains appearances by Bane, Talia and Catwoman, three characters you'd think DC would want to reprint stories of, [[Film/TheDarkKnightRises considering]]
*** DC has since not only reprinted Contagion and Cataclysm, it is also getting ready to release Legacy again as well, along with Knightfall in a new Omnibus format, which might, hopefully, finally see the entire event collected properly.
* ''ComicBook/TheLostOnes'', a comic book by former [[ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics Archie Sonic]] writer Creator/KenPenders, only saw one issue printed, and it sold very poorly. As a result, even if you use the internet to help you, you're ''very'' unlikely to find it. The closest it got to a rerelease was being put up on Ken Penders' website, and even then, it's only the first few pages. That said, it has such a poor reputation that, like ''Ricky 1'', in the off chance you ''do'' find a copy, it won't cost very much to buy.
* ''ComicBook/FishPolice'', which was independently released for its first 11 issues, has had several reprints of the early issues. Comico reprited issues 1-4 in a colorized trade, and then reissued 5-11 (with some new material thrown in), but went bankrupt after printing issues 12-17. The series was picked up for Apple Comics for issues 18-26, after which Marvel did bowdlerized colorized reprints of issues 1-6 to capitalize on the short-lived AnimatedAdaptation. Issues 1-4 were ''again'' reprinted in a black-and-white trade by IDW in 2011, but so far, everything afterward remains hard to find. There was also a six-issue LighterAndSofter spinoff called ''Fish Shticks'' that was only printed once by Comico.
* Marvel's satirical comics ''ComicBook/NotBrandEchh'' and ''[[ComicBook/WhatThe What The--?!]]'' have never been reprinted, despite being popular titles and often requested. In November 2017, the 14th issue of ''Not Brand Echh'' was finally released as part of ComicBook/MarvelLegacy.
** A possible reason for no reprints of ''What The--?!'' is that it often took (affectionate) jabs at then-current writers, artists, and other Marvel staffers. Since many of these people no longer work for Marvel, it would likely confuse some readers, and look like they're taking shots at their former employees.
* When ''Toys/{{BIONICLE}}'' concluded, it got harder to find the Papercutz reprints of the comic series, let alone the originals from LEGO Magazine or the Lunchables comics. Luckily, reproductions on the Internet are available with a bit of digging.
* Almost none of the hundreds of GoldenAge ''ComicBook/GreenArrow'' stories have ever been reprinted; as far as DC Comics are concerned the character apparently began with Jack Kirby in 1958.
** A handful of GoldenAge ''ComicBook/GreenArrow'' stories can be found in the three ComicBook/SevenSoldiers of Victory archives, since he was a part of that team.
* The comic portion of the Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse suffers from this.
** For the pre-1996 ''Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine'' comic strips, because of the [=TPBs'=] marketing focus on single Doctors, there was doubt over whether they'd ever reprint the short run of multi-Doctor strips between their ''Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures'' Seventh Doctor strips and their Eighth Doctor comics, a run best known for breaking with ''New Adventures'' continuity in the story "Ground Zero". The announcement of "Land of the Blind", the first TPB collecting strips from this run, confirmed they would, the promotion focusing on strips from multiple Doctors being featured.
** A less ambiguous example is the 1960s and 1970s ''TV Comic / Countdown'' ''Doctor Who'' comic strips, which are unlikely ever to be reprinted in TPB form because of their sometimes-dubious quality and the effort involved in reformatting them for TPB publication.
** The much more highly regarded 1960s "The Daleks" VillainProtagonist strips published in ''TV Century 21'' got a short-print-run collection in the early '90s, but afterwards were unavailable for more than 20 years despite the fact that some other less popular ''TV Century 21'' strips got collections. Although nothing's been made public, the notoriously hardball attitudes of the Creator/TerryNation estate may have had something to do with that. Panini eventually released a bookazine collecting the strips in 2020, albeit without their '90s continuation from ''Doctor Who Magazine'' 249-254, "Return of the Elders".
** The strips from the kid-orientated ''Magazine/DoctorWhoAdventures'' magazine haven't been reprinted, though at last report the Panini team were looking at ways they might reprint them, and convincing their powers-that-be that the project would be profitable.
** The Tenth Doctor strips from the ''Doctor Who: Battles in Time'' part-work haven't seen the light of day since the official online archive closed.
** The short-lived Eighth Doctor ''Magazine/RadioTimes'' strip hasn't been republished since its first run in 1996-97.
* The short-lived Creator/MarvelMAX series ''[[ComicBook/TheEternals The Eternal]]'' will probably never get collected, owing to it being a Chuck Austen miniseries loaded with sex and nudity.
* Until it met its end in 2017, ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'' mostly averted this trope. That said, there were exceptions even during its run:
** The main story of ''Sonic Live!'' remains without reprint. This might have something to do with likeness rights, as it features caricatures of Ken Penders' children.
** Issue #50 hasn't seen a reprint, as all collections prefer to reprint the extended version seen in ''Super Sonic Special'' #6.
** ''Sonic Super Special'' #7 probably won't see a reprint due to it being a crossover with several Creator/ImageComics characters, leaving the rights tangled.
** The final story in ''Super Sonic Special'' #8, an adaptation of a cartoon episode, hasn't seen a reprint, notable for having very poor artwork.
** ''Sonic Super Special'' #15's main story is also off the table for some particularly bad artwork (several panels are literally just snow or darkness with word balloons over them). The story was retold and retconned in the Free Comic Book Day issue for 2011.
** 10 issues of ''Knuckles the Echidna'' (#22-#28, #30-#32) are suspects. While the final two Knuckles Archives were announced and even had cover art released, they seem to be in limbo for unknown reasons. Amazon de-listed Volume 5 for pre-order in early 2015. They also aren't available on the Sonic app. Issue #29 made it into ''Sonic Select Book 7''. It was most likely due to the lawsuit with Ken Penders as, in the height of the lawsuit, Penders actually contacted distributors and slapped C&D notices on, at the very least, Volume 4 of the Archives.
** The ''ComicBook/SonicX'' comic that Archie published hasn't seen a trade reprint, and Ian Flynn has confirmed that Creator/{{SEGA}} doesn't want it republished. This is likely due to legal matters, as the rights to ''Sonic X'' are a bit of a mess. This ends up affecting the final issue of the series, as it is a crossover with the main comic when that universe's Shadow and Metal Sonic drop into that universe briefly before disappearing and heading to Blaze's universe.
** With Archie having lost the Sonic comic license to IDW, it's safe to assume that ''their entire run'' will be in the limbo for the time being. It is unknown when, or even ''if'', it will get any reprints.
* Anything to do with Valiant Comics is a bit of a tangled mess - when Valiant went under, they sold off all their properties to video game company Acclaim. When Acclaim folded, the comic rights were sold to a new company - however, some of the Valiant books were based on old Gold Key Comics characters, and those rights reverted to Gold Key, not to mention that the Acclaim video games went to another rights holder which further strained things dealing with the tie-in comics. When Jim Shooter finally purchased back the properties he'd originally started, rather than mess with attempted reprints that may not even be legally possible (coupled with a lot of backlash at the franchises, as his original plans did not mesh with what the later owners of Valiant did with the titles), he merely rebooted the Valiant universe.
** Separately, the video game adaptation of Shadow Man (based on the Acclaim sequel to the original Valiant title) has seen release on Steam, though the 3 console ports are in limbo.
* ComicBook/NintendoComicsSystem has yet to receive a reprint, probably due to a combination of OldShame and DistancedFromCurrentEvents (two storylines in the ''Game Boy'' comics series dealt with both the World Trade Center and the space shuttle ''Columbia''.) The legal red tape surrounding the back catalogue of Valiant Comics, who published the series, makes any chances of a reprint even less likely.
** While on the subject of Nintendo, many of the old Magazine/NintendoPower comics count as this too. The only ones to get modern re-releases are ComicBook/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast and ComicBook/SuperMarioAdventures which have gotten new edition graphic novels by Creator/VizMedia. Others such as ComicStrip/StarFox & Super Metroid on the other hand are a lot more easier to find off of unofficial internet scans.
* In general, the vast bulk of [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age comics]] have simply never been reprinted in any form. Want to read ''anything'' that doesn't feature Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, or Captain America? Your best bet is torrent sites with image files often shot from ''university microfilm'' collections. Even worse for anything that isn't a superhero genre story.
* In particular, the Golden Age ''[[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]]'' comics are very hard to get hold of despite their quality and importance to the genre. In 2018, DC announced a collection of the seminal "Monster Society of Evil" arc (generally considered the first multi-issue ongoing story in the superhero genre) but cancelled it a few months later due to unspecified "concerns over its contents", generally assumed to be due to racist caricatures (some YellowPeril Japanese villains, plus the notorious sidekick Steamboat, who was such an EthnicScrappy that he was dropped due to anti-racist protests in the pre-Civil Rights 1940s).
* Marvel's comic book series based off ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'', due to Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} owning the rights to the ''Ren and Stimpy'' property and Creator/{{Disney}} owning Marvel. Not helping matters is that issue #6 (May 1993) features ComicBook/SpiderMan as a major character, so any reprinting of the series would have to leave that issue out.
* ''ComicBook/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice'' has ran into this twice. Surfin' The Highway, a compilation of all the comics up to that point, was printed in 1995 and went out of print. For years, second-hand copies were going for a substantial amount of money. Then, in 2008, following the success of Telltale's VideoGame/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice games, the company re-released a greatly expanded version. Then ''that'' went out of print, and as of this writing neither version is easily obtainable.
* The ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' comic books from Marvel UK are one of the rarest comic books one can find, as not only have they been out of print for decades, but the [[ScrewedByTheLawyers complicated legal problems]][[note]]''Tiny Toon Adventures'' is owned by Creator/WarnerBrothers, parent of Marvel competitor Creator/DCComics, while the comics are property of Marvel, owned by Time Warner competitor Creator/{{Disney}}[[/note]] are actively keeping the comics from getting reprinted. This is not the case with the US ''Tiny Toons'' magazines, though, as DC owned the US license the whole time, but DC hasn't bothered reprinting those due to that series not selling well.
** For that matter, licensed comics in general. Unless it was based off of an incredibly successful franchise (i.e. ''Transformers'', ''Franchise/MastersOfTheUniverse'', etc), chances of reprints are slim, and if it was based off a franchise aimed at younger audiences with little to no PeripheryDemographic (i.e. most of the licensed Star Comics line from the 80's such as ''WesternAnimation/StrawberryShortcake'' or ''WesternAnimation/TheGetAlongGang''), you can forget about seeing those outside of finding back issues.
* Pretty much all of Eros Comix's output has fallen prey to this trope since Fantagraphics closed the imprint down. This includes ''ComicBook/{{Ironwood}}'' (one of Creator/BillWillingham's earliest series), ''Birdland'' (by ''ComicBook/LoveAndRockets'' co-creator Gilbert Hernandez) and some of the erotic works of Gray Morrow and Wallace Wood.
* Because of the way that AC Comics binds each issue, back issues of ''ComicBook/{{Femforce}}'' are very hard to reprint, and consequently, your best bet of acquiring them is to buy them secondhand, which can get very pricey.
* Bizarre Adventures #29, originally published by Marvel in 1981, is noteworthy for containing the first comic adaptation of a Stephen King story, ''Film/TheLawnmowerMan''. Featuring art by Creator/WaltSimonson, to date the story has only ever been reprinted in 2014 by Creator/IDWPublishing... in the form of a limited edition art portfolio.
* ''ComicBook/FallOutToyWorks'', a Music/FallOutBoy comic miniseries published by Image Comics, is no longer for sale digitally and is out of print for both individual issues and the trade paperback. The UK publisher, Atomeka Press, made the full comic available for free online in webcomic format [[http://fallouttoyworks.keenspot.com/d/20120326.html through Keenspot]] and in individual issues through [[https://www.graphitecomics.com/t/QR22kmFZw4 Graphite Comics]]. The original print issues have certain pages (including the original ending) that weren't included in the trade paperback or Atomika's Keenspot and Graphite Comics. There's been no comment by those involved with Fall Out Toy Works about future reprints or digital sales.

! NewspaperComics

* While ''ComicStrip/USAcres'' will hardly get reprinted, the strips [[http://www.garfield.com/usacres are available on the official Garfield website]] in full color (with the exception of the ones from February to May 1989, which are in monochrome).
** ''ComicStrip/GnormGnat'', Jim Davis's [[OldShame first comic]], has never been published, not even on the Garfield site. A few strips have appeared here and there, but most seem to be solely in the newspaper archives of the ''Pendleton Times''.
** The same is true of ''ComicStrip/{{Jon}}'', a proto-''Garfield'' that also ran in the ''Pendleton Times'' for a couple years before ''Garfield'' took off. ''Jon'' has become so obscure that its mere ''existence'' was almost entirely unknown until 2019.
** Speaking of Jim Davis' work, ''ComicBook/GarfieldHis9Lives'' has also been out of print for several years and the Garfield website barely acknowledges the book's existence, if at all. What's really weird though is that if you search in the site's store you can actually find the animated special version of ''Garfield: His 9 Lives'' still in print.
** A 1986 book of original ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'' gags, ''The Unabridged Uncensored Unbelievable Garfield'', has been out of print for a very long time.
** Also, the 2000-2003 comic based on ''Mr. Potato Head'' that Davis worked on with longtime assistant Brett Koth. There's only been one printed collection.
* ''ComicStrip/DickTracy'' has few reprints available, and in the case of the Max Collins era strips (which were critically acclaimed) few have ever been reprinted, save the various sequences collected in the Anniversary editions. Fantagraphics is releasing ''The Complete Chester Gould Dick Tracy'' archive editions however, and ''The Collins Case Files'' are currently on their third volume.
* ''ComicStrip/ThePerishers'' was only ever reprinted in paperback collections. Worse, the early volumes didn't reprint the strips in chronological order. Classic 60s strips are currently being reprinted in the ''Daily Mirror'', resized somewhat to fit, with new colour, and occasional textual revisions for topicality. One can only hope the original versions are being safely preserved somewhere.
* In the late 80's children's book author Creator/DanielPinkwater and editorial cartoonist Tony Auth collaborated on a newspaper comic called ''Norb'', concerning the lighthearted adventures of a scientist, his dwarf woolly mammoth (who can destroy things by trumpeting his trunk and loves pizza) and an unkempt teenage girl. It ran for 52 weeks before getting canned due to low readership, and the one collected edition has been out of print since the early 90's and is ridiculously expensive online.
* The earlier strips of ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'' are falling into this. The [=GoComics=] website only goes back to March 11, 1996 (the strip began in April 1988), so the only way to read any comics from before that date is to buy the first five treasuries. These books are becoming harder to find.
----

* ''Comicbook/SwampThing'' suffered this for years with several major issues (the last four issues of Len Wein's original run on the title, the first Alan Moore ''Swamp Thing'' story) uncollected until most recently as DC began re-releasing the [=TPBs=] in hardcover. Still, stuff like Creator/NancyACollins' back-to-basics run and Grant Morrison and Mark Millar's controversial runs on the title remain uncollected, as does the Marty Pasko run (''Saga of the Swamp Thing'' #1-19), the last 4-5 issues of which are crucial for setting up the bulk of Alan Moore's plotlines in the book.

* A lot of 1990s Marvel stuff remains uncollected, even with Marvel recently making headway in collecting it via their "Marvel Classics" line. The 1990s ''Comicbook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'' series; ''Nightstalkers'' (which brought ComicBook/{{Blade}} back after fading away into comic limbo and resolved several major dangling plotlines from the 1970s ''Comicbook/TheTombOfDracula'' series); ''ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}}'', ''ComicBook/GenerationX''; and ''ComicBook/XMan'' has yet to be collected.

* Marvel's early comics, back when they didn't even have that name (they started as Timely) and some of whom lasted until their transition to superhero-only in the 1960s, are heavily neglected, even if characters such as Comicbook/PatsyWalker and Comicbook/MillieTheModel made their transition into the mainstream universe. The fact that [[http://marvel.com/comics/issue/19035/millie_the_model_1945_100 one issue]] of Millie's title is available on the digital service Marvel Unlimited is nothing short of a miracle.

** ''Comicbook/YoungJustice'' originally only had one TPB released in 2000. The book ran for six years and over 50 issues, and saw strong sales throughout that time, but DC never saw fit to put any real effort into collecting it -- until the success of the [[WesternAnimation/YoungJustice cartoon]] increased interest in the series, upon which they started releasing [=TPBs=] from scratch.

* ''[[Comicbook/TeenTitans New Teen Titans]]'' suffers this — vague, often butchered [=TPBs=] have been released of random stories (with the only common theme being that they are drawn by George Perez), while the only way to read the stories in chronological order is the uber-expensive "Archive" Hardcovers, with DC announcing that the Hardcover collecting will stop now that they've reached the point where the earliest issue number TPB would be the next volume.

* The issues of ''Comicbook/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|Mirage}}'' written and illustrated by Creator/RickVeitch (issues #24-26 and 30 of Volume One of the original Mirage run, plus the story "North by Downeast" initially serialized in Plastron Cafe #1-4 and later colorized and given a conclusion in the two-part ''Casey Jones'' mini-series) face problems when it comes to reprints as Veitch never signed away those rights. Possibly the TMNT stories by Creator/RickArthur (who did TMNT Vol. 1 #41 and a short story called "Lucindra" in Turtle Soup (vol. 2) #1) fall into the same trap, though there's no confirmation from anyone involved with the franchise (though see below). Creator/FrankBella, who did the two-page gag story "Pesticide" in Turtle Soup (vol. 1) #1, also never signed away reprint rights, which indicates that the same thing happened with the other story in that special (save for one done by Mirage regular Creator/EricTalbot which was later reprinted, a crossover story with Creator/StanSakai's ''ComicBook/UsagiYojimbo'' which has been reprinted several times, and one by Creator/SteveBissette who did sell the rights to his TMNT-related work). Some of the other TMNT short stories and Vol. 1 issues done by freelance writers and artists during the late 1980s and early 1990s may also have legal problems, but in some cases it's hard to tell since Mirage's contracts could be a bit loose regarding reprint rights at the time.

* Unlike its popular [[ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog American cousin]], ''ComicBook/SonicTheComic'' has yet to be collected into volumes. The series is extremely hard to find (as everytime you search for it the Archie's comics come up instead), though there are sites specifically made for buying issues of the comic. It's still hard to get certain issues though. It's possible the lack of an archive is due to legal issues involving the several {{Canon Foreigner}}s.
* Entire companies suffer from this trope. If you like First Comics in the 80s, only ''ComicBook/{{American Flagg}}'' has seen a reprint: books like ''ComicBook/JonSableFreelance'', ''Nexus'', ''ComicBook/TheBadger'', ''Grimjack'', ''Dynamo Joe'', and ''Mars'' languish in obscurity. A lot of the output of companies like Malibu, Eclipse, and Comico are similar. For more obscure companies, like Neal Adams's Continuity Comics, not even graphic novels exist.

* ''ComicBook/TheLostOnes'', a comic book by former [[ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog Archie Sonic]] writer Creator/KenPenders, only saw one issue printed, and it sold very poorly. As a result, even if you use the internet to help you, you're ''very'' unlikely to find it. The closest it got to a rerelease was being put up on Ken Penders' website, and even then, it's only the first few pages. That said, it has such a poor reputation that, like ''Ricky 1'', in the off chance you ''do'' find a copy, it won't cost very much to buy.

* Until it met its end in 2017, ''ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog'' mostly averted this trope. That said, there were exceptions even during its run:

** The much more highly regarded 1960s "The Daleks" VillainProtagonist strips published in ''TV Century 21'' got a couple of short-print-run collections years ago, but are not currently available. This is despite the fact that some other less popular ''TV Century 21'' strips do have collections out. Although nothing's been made public, the notoriously hardball attitudes of the Creator/TerryNation estate may have something to do with that.

* ''ComicBook/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice'' has ran into this twice. Surfin' The Highway, a compilation of all the comics up to that point, was printed in 1995 and went out of print. For years, second-hand copies were going for a substantial amount of money. Then, in 2008, following the success of Telltale's VideoGame/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice games, the company re-released a greatly expanded version. Then ''that'' went out of print, and and as of this writing neither version is easily obtainable.
* The ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' comic books from Marvel UK are one of the rarest comic books one can find, as not only have they been out of print for decades, but the [[ScrewedByTheLawyers complicated legal problems]][[note]]''Tiny Toon Adventures'' is owned by Creator/WarnerBrothers, parent of Marvel competitor Creator/DCComics, while the comics are property of Marvel, owned by Time Warner competitor Creator/{{Disney}}[[/note]] are actively keeping the comics from getting reprinted. This is not the case with the US ''Tiny Toons'' magazines, though, as DC owned the US license the whole time, but DC hasn't bothered reprinting those due to that series' not selling well.
** For that matter, licensed comics in general. Unless it was based off of an incredibly successful franchise (i.e. ''Transformers'', ''Franchise/MastersOfTheUniverse'', etc), chances of reprints are slim, and if it was based off a franchised aimed at younger audiences with little to no PeripheryDemographic (i.e. most of the licensed Star Comics line from the 80's such as ''WesternAnimation/StrawberryShortcake'' or ''WesternAnimation/TheGetAlongGang''), you can forget about seeing those outside of finding back issues.

* ''ComicStrip/DickTracy'' has few reprints available and in the case of the Max Collins era strips (which were critically acclaimed) few have ever been reprinted, save the various sequences collected in the Anniversary editions. Fantagraphics is releasing ''The Complete Chester Gould Dick Tracy'' archive editions however, and ''The Collins Case Files'' are currently on their third volume.

* ComicBook/NintendoComicsSystem has yet to receive a reprint, probably due to a combination of OldShame and DistancedFromCurrentEvents (two storylines in the ''Game Boy'' comics series dealt with both the World Trade Center and the space shuttle ''Columbia''.)

* ComicBook/NintendoComicsSystem has yet to receive a reprint, probably due to a combination of OldShame and TooSoon (two storylines in the ''Game Boy'' comics series dealt with both the World Trade Center and the space shuttle ''Columbia''.)

** ''Comicbook/YoungJustice'' only had one TPB released. The book ran for six years and over 50 issues, and saw strong sales throughout that time, but DC has never seen fit to put any real effort into collecting it -- until the success of the [[WesternAnimation/YoungJustice cartoon]] increased interest in the series.

** The pre-1996 ''Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine'' comic strips are being very slowly reprinted by Panini in [=TPBs=], but given the [=TPBs=]' marketing focus on single Doctors, there was doubt over whether they'd ever reprint the short run of multi-Doctor strips between their ''Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures'' Seventh Doctor strips and their Eighth Doctor comics, a run best known for breaking with ''New Adventures'' continuity in the story "Ground Zero". The announcement of "Land of the Blind", the first TPB collecting strips from this run, confirmed they would, the promotion focusing on strips from multiple Doctors being featured.

* ''ComicBook/FallOutToyWorks'', a Music/FallOutBoy comic miniseries published by Image Comics, is no longer for sale digitally and is out of print for both individual issues and the trade paperback. The UK publisher, Atomeka Press, made the full comic available for free online in webcomic format [[http://fallouttoyworks.keenspot.com/d/20120326.html through Keenspot]] and in individual issues through [[https://www.graphitecomics.com/t/QR22kmFZw4 Graphite Comics]]. The original print issues have certain pages (including the original ending) that weren't included in the trade paperback; Atomika's Keenspot and Graphite Comics releases appear to be based off the trade paperback as those pages aren't included. There's been no comment by those involved with Fall Out Toy Works about future reprints or digital sales.

* Anything to do with Valiant Comics is a bit of a tangled mess - when Valiant went under, they sold off all their properties to video game company Acclaim. When Acclaim folded, the comic rights were sold to a new company - however, some of the Valiant books were based on old Gold Key Comics characters, and those rights reverted to Gold Key, not to mention that the Acclaim video games went to another rights holder which further strained things dealing with the tie-in comics. When Jim Shooter finally purchased back the properties he'd originally started, rather than mess with attempted reprints that may not even be legally possible(coupled with a lot of backlash at the franchises, as his original plans did not mesh with what the later owners of Valiant did with the titles), he merely rebooted the Valiant universe.
** Separately, the video game adaptation of Shadow Man(based on the Acclaim sequel to the original Valiant title) has seen release on Steam, though the 3 console ports are in limbo.

*** Thunderbolts, Generation X, and X-Man are now being collected and while the 90s series has yet to be collected, all of the Guardians of the Galaxy material from the various anthology comics Marvel originally published them in have finally been collected.
*** Marvel has announced that the Creator/JimValentino run on the 1990s GOTG series (ie the first 26 issues or so) is being released in TPB format in 2014, most likely to capitalise on the release of the film.

** Legion fans have long suffered due to politics involving the comic's most famous writer-turned-head of DC Comics Paul Levitz. Levitz, known for vetoing the collection of stories whose writers and artists are out of favor with DC Comics for various reasons, has long refused to collect his ''Legion'' run in TPB format, going so far as even stopping the popular and commercially-successful LOSH Hardcover Archive series due to it having reached the point where his first issues on the book were published, just so that he could use the lack of his books released to justify his corrupt policies of who gets their work collected. This has had a detrimental effect upon the ''Legion'' franchise as, save for ''ComicBook/TheGreatDarkness'' Saga (which was out of print for over a decade), the only way to buy the Legion was to pay $50 a volume for the DC Archives, which while being a comprehensive collection of all Legion stories, consists mainly of the Adventure Comics era, which are at best a mixed bag qualitywise. The Legion's 1980s run, where Levitz took over the franchise and made it into a hit series, remained uncollected and unseen until two years ago when Levitz (to tie into the return of the Pre-Zero Hour Legion) released two volumes collecting the first 13 issues of Legion V3, ironically even as "The Great Darkness Saga" has once again fallen out of print.

* ''Comicbook/{{Legion of Super-Heroes}}'' fans have long suffered due to politics involving the comic's most famous writer-turned-head of DC Comics Paul Levitz. Levitz, known for vetoing the collection of stories whose writers and artists are out of favor with DC Comics for various reasons, has long refused to collect his ''Legion'' run in TPB format, going so far as even stopping the popular and commercially-successful LOSH Hardcover Archive series due to it having reached the point where his first issues on the book were published, just so that he could use the lack of his books released to justify his corrupt policies of who gets their work collected. This has had a detrimental effect upon the ''Legion'' franchise as, save for the Great Darkness Saga (which was out of print for over a decade), the only way to buy the Legion was to pay $50 a volume for the DC Archives, which while being a comprehensive collection of all Legion stories, consists mainly of the Adventure Comics era, which are at best a mixed bag qualitywise. The Legion's 1980s run, where Levitz took over the franchise and made it into a hit series, remained uncollected and unseen until two years ago when Levitz (to tie into the return of the Pre-Zero Hour Legion) released two volumes collecting the first 13 issues of Legion V3, ironically even as "The Great Darkness Saga" has once again fallen out of print.

** ''Gnorm Gnat'', Jim Davis's [[OldShame first comic]], has never been published, not even on the Garfield site. A few strips have appeared here and there, but most seem to be solely in the newspaper archives of the ''Pendleton Times''.

** The same is true of ''ComicStrip/{{Jon}}'', a proto-''Garfield'' that also ran in the ''Pendleton Times'' for a couple years before ''Garfield'' took off.

** ''Gnorm Gnat'', Jim Davis's [[OldShame first comic]], has never been published, not even on the Garfield site. A few strips have appeared here and there, but to see the rest one would probably have to find old copies of ''The Pendleton Times'' from the 70s, or even ''more'' obtuse, ''go to the Pendleton Library itself in Pendleton, Indiana, and use the microfiche archives of the newspapers and go over to the comics section,'' and even then, you're limited by the newspapers that were chosen to be archived.

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' suffers this as well — Marvel has done a lousy job collecting and keeping in print most of the character's defining storylines. While both Essential Spider-Man and Essential Spider-Man have now reached Creator/RogerStern and Peter David's legendary runs (and the first third of David Micheline's legendary run on Amazing Spider-Man released as an omnibus), good luck if you want to find most of Spidey's stuff like [=DeMatteis=] and Gerry Conway's Spectacular Spider-Man or Tom [=DeFalco's=] Amazing Spider-Man.

** ''Comicbook/YoungJustice'' only had one TPB released. The book ran for six years and over 50 issues, and saw strong sales throughout that time, but DC has never seen fit to put any real effort into collecting it -- not even after the success of the ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' cartoon!
*** Finally seems that DC has taken notice of this, as a new release of the Young Justice series was recently announced. This may have something to do with the announced renewal of the television show as well.

* ''[[Comicbook/TeenTitans New Teen Titans]]'' suffers this — vague, often butchered [=TPBs=] have been released of random stories (with the only common theme being that they are drawn by George Perez), while the only way to read the stories in chronological order is the uber-expensive "Archive" Hardcovers, with DC recently announcing that the Hardcover collecting will stop now that they've reached the point where the earliest issue number TPB would be the next volume.

* The issues of ''Comicbook/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|Mirage}}'' written and illustrated by Creator/RickVeitch (issues #24-26 and 30 of Volume One of the original Mirage run, plus the story "North by Downeast" initially serialized in Plastron Cafe #1-4 and later colorized and given a conclusion in the two-part ''Casey Jones'' mini-series) face problems when it comes to reprints as Veitch never signed away those rights. Possibly the TMNT stories by Creator/RickArthur (who did TMNT Vol. 1 #41 and a short story called "Lucindra" in Turtle Soup (vol. 2) #1) fall into the same trap, though there's no confirmation from anyone involved with the franchise (though see below). Creator/FrankBella, who did the two-page gag story "Pesticide" in Turtle Soup (vol. 1) #1, also never signed away reprint rights, which leads this troper to believe that the same thing happened with the other story in that special (save for one done by Mirage regular Creator/EricTalbot which was later reprinted, a crossover story with Creator/StanSakai's ''ComicBook/UsagiYojimbo'' which has been reprinted several times, and one by Creator/SteveBissette who did sell the rights to his TMNT-related work). Some of the other TMNT short stories and Vol. 1 issues done by freelance writers and artists during the late 1980s and early 1990s may also have legal problems, but in some cases it's hard to tell since Mirage's contracts could be a bit loose regarding reprint rights at the time.

* ''The Lost Ones'', a comic book by former [[ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog Archie Sonic]] writer Ken Penders, only saw one issue printed, and it sold very poorly. As a result, even if you use the internet to help you, you're ''very'' unlikely to find it. The closest it got to a rerelease was being put up on Ken Penders' website, and even then, it's only the first few pages. That said, it has such a poor reputation that, like ''Ricky 1'', in the off chance you ''do'' find a copy, it won't cost very much to buy.

* Marvel's satirical comics ''ComicBook/NotBrandEcch'' and ''ComicBook/WhatThe'' have never been reprinted, despite being popular titles and often requested.
** A possible reason for no reprints of ''ComicBook/WhatThe'' is that it often took (affectionate) jabs at then-current writers, artists, and other Marvel staffers. Since many of these people no longer work for Marvel, it would likely confuse some readers, and look like they're taking shots at their former employees.

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' suffers this as well — Marvel has done a lousy job collecting and keeping in print most of the character's defining storylines. While both Essential Spider-Man and Essential Spider-Man have now reached Roger Stern and Peter David's legendary runs (and the first third of David Micheline's legendary run on Amazing Spider-Man released as an omnibus), good luck if you want to find most of Spidey's stuff like [=DeMatteis=] and Gerry Conway's Spectacular Spider-Man or Tom [=DeFalco's=] Amazing Spider-Man.

* DC has its own 1990s stuff that has yet to be collected, be it obscure cult favorites (''ComicBook/MajorBummer'; ''Darkstars''; ''Young Heroes In Love'') to major books that are a no-brainer for collecting (the 1990s ''Robin'' series; the Kyle Rayner ''Green Lantern'' run of Ron Marz; ''L.E.G.I.O.N.''; Mark Waid's ''Flash'' run; Peter David's ''Aquaman'', ''Supergirl'' and ''Young Justice'' runs). While DC has released "Best Of" volumes of the early Rayner ''Green Lantern'' stories, their attempt to do a comprehensive collecting of Kyle's ''Green Lantern'' run failed to sell enough to justify further volumes. And the ''Robin'' thing is even more insulting, given that ''Nightwing'' and ''Birds of Prey'' (other Batman spin-offs) have received numerous [=TPBs=] over the years collecting the bulk of those two series.

** The post-Levitz ''Legion'' also suffers this and then some. The controversial V4 run by Keith Giffen and the Bierbaums remains uncollected. The 1994 reboot had its first eight issues and a later storyline involving a retread of the Great Darkness Saga collected, but nothing else. Part of this was due to artist Oliver Coipel, who drew four and half years of the reboot leaving DC to go work for Marvel, leading to Levitz blacklisting him and refusing to collect any of the ''Legion'' stories he drew in TPB. Also, when the last 1994 ''Legion'' reboot story (a crossover special with the 2002 ''Teen Titans'' relaunch) finally see the light of day as part of a ''Teen Titans'' TPB, the collection '''omitted''' the final pages of the story, where the Legion rally together as their world is destroyed and they are cast outside of the known universe to rot for all time. To add insult to injury, the critically-panned 2004 reboot has, save for a single issue, been completely collected with the last year of the book seeing print not just in softcover but also '''hardcover'''.

** For that matter, licensed comics in general. Unless it was based off of an incredibly successful franchise (i.e. Transformers, WesternAnimation/MastersOfTheUniverse, etc), chances of reprints are slim, and if it was based off a franchised aimed at younger audiences with little to no PeripheryDemographic (i.e. most of the licensed Star Comics line from the 80's such as WesternAnimation/StrawberryShortcake or WesternAnimation/TheGetAlongGang), you can forget about seeing those outside of finding back issues.

* The ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' comic books from Marvel UK are one of the rarest comic books one can find, as not only have they been out of print for decades, but the [[ScrewedByTheLawyers complicated legal problems]][[note]]''Tiny Toon Adventures'' is owned by Creator/WarnerBrothers, parent of Marvel competitor Creator/DCComics, while the comics are property of Marvel, owned by Time Warner competitor Creator/{{Disney}}[[/note]] are actively keeping the comics from getting reprinted. This is not the case with the US ''Tiny Toons'' magazines, though, as DC owned the US license the whole time, but DC hasn't bothered reprinting those due to that series' failure.

* In general, the vast bulk of [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age comics]] have simply never been reprinted in any form. Want to read stuff like the various 1940s Comicbook/{{Shazam}} series, the first appearance of Comicbook/VandalSavage, or pretty much ''anything'' that isn't selected Superman, Batman, or Captain America stories? Your best bet is torrent sites with image files often shot from ''university microfilm'' collections.
** And then there's anything that isn't a superhero genre story.

* Bizarre Adventures #29, originally published by Marvel in 1981, is noteworthy for containing the first comic adaptation of a Stephen King story, ''Film/TheLawnmowerMan''. Featuring art by Creator/WaltSimonson, to date the story has only ever been reprinted in 2014 by Creator/IDWPublishing... in the form of a limited edition art portfolio.

* The ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' comic books from Marvel UK are one of the rarest comic books one can find, as not only have they been out of print for decades, but the [[ScrewedByTheLawyers complicated legal problems]][[note]]''Tiny Toon Adventures'' is owned by Creator/WarnerBrothers, parent of Marvel competitor Creator/DCComics, while the comics are property of Marvel, owned by Time Warner competitor Creator/{{Disney}}[[/note]] are actively keeping the comics from getting reprinted. This is not the case with the US ''Tiny Toons'' magazines, though, as DC owned the US license the whole time, but DC hasn't bothered reprinting those, either.

* Marvel's comic book series based off ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'', due to Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} owning the rights to the ''Ren and Stimpy'' property and Creator/{{Disney}} owning Marvel.