History Main / WritingForTheTrade

Similar to DecompressedComic, this can be a good or a bad thing. Stretching a thin story even thinner over five or six issues isn't good by any standards. But writing for the trades can also allow the author to tell a more complex story and go deeper into characterization and dialogue, two things often glossed over in old-style short-format comics.

* The rebooted ''Amazing Fantasy'' series of the mid-zeros were often guilty of this. Their aim was to capture the style of the original ''Amazing Fantasy'' series, which introduced ''Comicbook/{{Spider-Man}}'' and the concept of mutants to the MarvelUniverse. But where the original managed to introduce its characters in self-contained one-issue stories, the new version introduced them in six-issue arcs. Only the backup stories came close to the style they aimed for (and most of them were arc-based too).

* Virtually every single CrisisCrossover, especially if it includes the word "Crisis" or "War" in it.

* Boom! Comics model for Disney comics generally follows a four-issue arc to trade format.

* Jonathan Hickman has been said to not just write for the trade, but for the ''omnibus''. His most prominent works (''ComicBook/FantasticFour'' and ''[[ComicBook/JonathanHickmansAvengers Avengers]]'') tend to have individual arcs... but always end up forming some huge story arc across multiple ''years''. the invidual arcs are always at least four issues long, and those arcs themselvse tend to be parts of "acts" in his huge stories. So you have ''Fantastic Four'' #570-574 being the "Solve Everything" arc, which is ''actually just part of the first act of his ''Fantastic Four'' saga, which actually has ''three'' acts.

** ComicBook/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Season 8 is an example that must be pointed out: It is a single story broken up in smaller arcs that all follow each other. Every single arc is done by a different author and consist of 4 or 5 issue. One TPB = 5 issue. In case of an arc with 4 issue, the first (or fifth) one is a one-shot done by Creator/JossWhedon himself. Due to pacing issues, the series is a lot better in trade, as its goal of emulating the show's format is easier to obtain if you don't have to wait a month (or sometimes more) between issues.

* ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'' was incomprehensible when it was monthly issues and separate tie-ins but is absolutely spectacular in its collected form, especially when a copy of Morrison's run on ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' and (to a lesser extent) ''Seven Soldiers'' is available as well.

** Given that it's by WarrenEllis, whose beliefs are outlined above, this is hardly surprising.

** ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'' was incomprehensible when it was monthly issues and separate tie-ins but is absolutely spectacular in its collected form, especially when a copy of Morrison's run on ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' and (to a lesser extent) ''Seven Soldiers'' is available as well.
*** Maybe Creator/GrantMorrison in general.

* GeoffJohns eventually stopped working for Marvel because he was tired of writing Avengers storylines in six-issue format, however his more recent work for DC is sliding in this direction, notably ''ComicBook/{{Flashpoint}}'' and the ''[[ComicBook/GreenLantern War of the Green Lanterns]]'' storyline.

* Most {{manga}} are clearly intended to be finite stories that will be collected in a series of several books, even {{Long Runner}}s such as ''OnePiece''. However, since most publishing houses in Japan make most of their money from weekly magazine anthology publications, authors are forced to break up their stories into 10 to 15 page long chapters first.

* Whether ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' is better experienced as an ArchiveBinge or as incremental daily updates has been debated by the fandom. When people started to question the direction the story was going in based on the latest pages, author AndrewHussie brought this trope up, stating that reading the story serially may be causing people to judge plot developments out of context since they can't quickly see what comes after. He's also indicated that he keeps in mind that at the end of the day, once it's all finished, it'll be sitting on a server for years to come and will be exclusively read as an ArchiveBinge.

* This is an accusation frequently aimed at the Marvel [[UltimateMarvel Ultimate Universe]]. Many of the series (including the ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan'', ''[[ComicBook/UltimateFantasticFour Fantastic Four]]'' and ''[[ComicBook/UltimateXMen X-Men]]'' series) are mostly comprised of six-part stories.

** Despite this, several UltimateMarvel titles fell victim to the bad side of this trope. Warren Eliis' ''Ultimate Nightmare'' is essentially a single-issue story padded out into a full-length TPB with entire issues that can be summed up as "the X-Men and the Ultimates move further into the ElaborateUndergroundBase." The second and third series in the "Ultimate Galactus Trilogy" fare better.

** ''TheUltimates'', on the other hand, came in 13-part arcs, and so was Writing For The Hardcover. Read in that format, it was arguably among Creator/MarkMillar's finest work.

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* It's quite obvious that Creator/MasashiKishimoto, creator of ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' is writing his storylines for collection in volume form later on, most noticeably in the Fourth Great Shinobi War Arc. Volumes are 10 chapters. So the first part of the war? 20 chapters for two volumes. Then the main character finds out about the war, and spends 10 chapters running towards it so that it can be collected in Volume 57. Then he spends 11 chapters finding random guys, which is collected in Volume 58. Then, after some major revelations, he spends 10 chapters fighting Tobi, the masked [[TheDragon dragon]] to [[BigBad Madara Uchiha]]. But due to Kishimoto not padding out the previous story segment enough, two chapters of this fight are at the end of Volume 59 and the next eight are in Volume 60. Then after Kishi writing too much, we get the inconsistent Volumes 61 and 62. But then Volume 63 is a ten chapter long story segment about Naruto learning the incredibly obvious identity of Tobi. And then Naruto fighting Tobi and [[spoiler:the Ten Tails]] after the reveal takes ten chapters, even though Naruto clearly can't win until the story progresses. And then the story cuts to [[spoiler:Naruto's rival Sasuke talking with a zombie wood guy]], which manages to be stretched out to ten chapters so it can be in another volume. After that, Volume 66 is another ten chapter long fight which is basically padding because [[spoiler:the story can't progress until Tobi or Madara absorbs the Ten Tails, but they wait ten chapters so Kishi can have a volume of it.]] And then, after countless chapters of waiting, [[spoiler:Tobi finally gets the Ten Tails, and now he just needs to cast a spell and the freaking plot will finally progress. Because this is, you know, the final battle. But how long does it take him to cast the spell? You guessed it, ten chapters. The rest of the volume is about him angsting about how a girl he barely knew died seventeen years ago.]]
* ''Manga/{{Bakuman}}'' features this trope InUniverse, given that it's a story about the manga industry. The protagonists' long-term story arc in their final manga is both a blessing and a curse, since there's no real way to swap out elements that the audience doesn't like.
* Most [[{{Manga}} manga]] are clearly intended to be finite stories that will be collected in a series of several books, even {{Long Runner}}s such as ''OnePiece''. However, since most publishing houses in Japan make most of their money from weekly magazine anthology publications, authors are forced to break up their stories into 10 to 15 page long chapters first.
** Depending on the title, manga can also suffer from the inverse of this: sometimes authors don't know or don't care where a certain volume will end, so an arc might end and another one start halfway through the book, and the end of a volume can make a WhatCliffhanger.

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* Pretty much the entire point of ''ComicBook/{{Cerebus}}'', you could say. However, at the time that creator DaveSim [[note]]after tripping out on LSD early in its run[[/note]] had the idea of turning the comic into a 300-issue epic storyline covering the eponymous character's entire life, only rare examples of the GraphicNovel format existed. In fact, he did the "comic books followed by collected volume" before just about anyone. In part because the GraphicNovel did not even have a name at the time, he nicknamed them "phonebooks".

* Then there's the arguable king of this trope -- Creator/BrianMichaelBendis. The so-called "story arcs" in ''The Mighty Avengers'' are so obviously padded that you could skip every third issue and not miss a single narrative beat. And this isn't even [[ComicBook/{{Powers}} the most egregious example in Bendis' bibliography]].

By the early-to-mid 00s, virtually every halfway-popular comic book published by DCComics or MarvelComics--the "big two" companies in the industry--would get a shot at getting collected in a TPB. At around the same time, a fad for {{Decompressed Comic}}s had developed that saw writers experimenting with the idea of taking more time than had been used previously to tell a story in order to give it a more cinematic structure.

* Most of IDW's run of ''[[TheTransformersIDW Transformers]]'' comics have been neatly arranged into 4-6 issue story arcs. Exceptions include the stand-alone Spotlight issues, and the 16-issue "All Hail Megatron" series.

** Marvel's new ''Star Wars'' [[ComicBook/MarvelStarWars2015 comic]] follows suit. Each five- or six-page story arc begins with an opening crawl just like the ones in the films but with "Book [X]" rather than "Episode [X]," essentially dividing them into trades before the trades even get published.

** Marvel's new ''Star Wars'' [[ComicBook/MarvelStarWars2015 comic]] follows suit. Each five- or six-page story arc begins with an opening crawl just like ones in the films but with "Book [X]" rather than "Episode [X]," essentially dividing them into trades before the trades even get published.

* Dark Horse's entire StarWars line for the year 2011 consisted entirely of 5-issue and 6-issue arcs. By the contrast, arcs from the 2000s had no such constraint and varied all the way between 2-issue and 6-issue pretty evenly, with a healthy mix of odd standalones.

* ''[[http://kokotheblue.com/ Koko the Blue]]'', especially considering that it started out as a self-published comic book. Even after transitioning to a webcomic, it's still written and drawn as if it's meant to be read in batches.

* Most [[{{Anime}} manga]] are clearly intended to be finite stories that will be collected in a series of several books, even {{Long Runner}}s such as ''OnePiece''. However, since most publishing houses in Japan make most of their money from weekly magazine anthology publications, authors are forced to break up their stories into 10 to 15 page long chapters first.
** Depending on the title, manga can also suffer from the inverse of this: sometimes authors don't know or don't care where a certain volume will end, so an arc might end and another one start halfway through the book, and the end of a volume can make a WhatCliffhanger.

* This is an accusation frequently aimed at the Marvel [[UltimateMarvel Ultimate Universe]]. Many of the series (including the ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan'', ''[[ComicBook/UltimateFantasticFour Fantastic Four]]'' and ''[[UltimateXMen X-Men]]'' series) are mostly comprised of six-part stories.

** [[ComicBook/TransformersRobotsinDisguise Robots in Disguise]] and [[ComicBook/TransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye More than Meets the Eye]] seem to be an exception to this tendency, with [[WordofGod James Roberts]] even declaring he preferred to write self contained issues or 2-3 part arcs.

** Excluding the supplemental "Coda" issues, [[TransformersAllHailMegatron All Hail Megatron]] qualifies, albeit much more in a "Writing to be read in one shot from issues 1 to 12" than "Writing For The Trade(s)". To say the story's pace is slow would be an understatement.

* Then there's the arguable king of this trope--Creator/BrianMichaelBendis. The so-called "story arcs" in ''The Mighty Avengers'' are so obviously padded that you could skip every third issue and not miss a single narrative beat. And this isn't even [[{{Powers}} the most egregious example in Bendis' bibliography]].

* Pretty much the only way ''[[GrantMorrisonsBatman Batman R.I.P.]]'' is going to make any sense is if you read the previous two trade paperbacks in the MythArc. And that one issue where Bruce gets high on weapons-grade heroin and runs around in a red-and-purple Batsuit makes a whole lot more sense as a chapter of a graphic novel than as a standalone issue.

** ''FinalCrisis'' was incomprehensible when it was monthly issues and separate tie-ins but is absolutely spectacular in its collected form, especially when a copy of Morrison's run on ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' and (to a lesser extent) ''Seven Soldiers'' is available as well.

* NeilGaiman has admitted doing this with 'The Kindly Ones' arc in ''ComicBook/TheSandman''.