History Main / WritingForTheTrade

* While ''ComicBook/{{Invincible}}'' isn't that bad, RobertKirkman tends to write ''ComicBook/TheWalkingDead'' with the trade in mind. The issues tend to continue right after one another, so new readers don't get much of catch-up, and there's one point in the fourth volume where if you count the pages, the last page of chapter four and the first page of chapter five are a two-page spread.

* 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.]]

* 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/SpiderMan'' 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).
* JamesRobinson's ''Comicbook/{{Starman}}'' subverted this for maximum headache: With the initial run of [=TPBs=] for the series, Robinson was given free rein over how the series would be collected, resulting in the various one-off issues (flashback stories mainly) being omitted from the core [=TPBs=] and collected instead in what would be called "Times Past" [=TPBs=]. This would be well and good, except that the flashback issues established major plot points for the series and indeed, most of the narrative for the book collapses when those stories are omitted as far as said issues setting up key plot points and other essential information that is outright required for a lot of the main storylines to make sense. Even worse, for reasons unrevealed, many of the later series one-off stories were never collected as DC opted not to release any future "Times Past" volumes for the series. They've since made up for it, however, as DC has recently begun collecting the series in hardcover format, with the issues (and tie-in comics) being collected in the order in which they were published, meaning that fans can read the series in the fan-preferred reading order.

* Pretty much the only way ''ComicBook/BatmanRIP'' 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.

* Hardly anyone remembers reading ''Comicbook/{{Watchmen}}'' in its original 12-part format. Although instantly acclaimed even before the story had reached its conclusion, it was only after the collected edition was issued that it came to be regarded as a true novel.

* ''Manga/{{Attack On Titan}}'' is a notorious case of this among the fandom with its monthly release format and the author's fondness for rather intense cliffhangers.

* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'', while [[ArchivePanic intimidatingly]] {{Long Runn|er}}ing, is very rewarding to read in archives, especially when most of the plots involve a GambitPileup or two with LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters. Since the 1000th strip, the author has written with shorter series arcs for ease of publication later, to the point where the first 1000 were not even meant for inclusion because they were not, though thankfully they were compiled into larger collections later.

* 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 individual arcs are always at least four issues long, and those arcs themselves 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. The acts themselves tend to have about five "arcs" in them. The entire ''saga'' had three "acts". The result is a story that very much feels epic and carefully planned out, and constantly builds on itself, but is also is very self-referential (and not even explicitly, at that) and reliant on the reader having started from the beginning.

** The biggest answer from [[http://mspandrew.tumblr.com/post/18106704483/ok-i-answered-some-more-questions this Tumblr post]] is a rant on it. It also appears on [[http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/10/02/homestuck-interview-andrew-hussie-bryan-lee-omalley-ms-paint-adventures/ this interview]], just search for "pacing".

By the early-to-mid 00s, virtually every halfway-popular comic book published by Creator/DCComics or Creator/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.

* ''Sonic Universe'' flat-out tells you in its subscription pages that it intentionally makes four-issue story arcs for purposes of bundling into trades. The mainline ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehog'' comic series also started breaking up arcs in trade sized pieces once CerebusSyndrome kicked in and it stopped being a self-contained-per-issue gag comic.

** Marvel's new ''Star Wars'' [[ComicBook/MarvelStarWars2015 comic]] follows suit. Each five- or six-issue 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.

* It seems like the author of ''Manga/TheDemonGirlNextDoor'' clearly knows that every volume contains 13 chapters, so the plot-heavy content is always arranged towards the end of the volume--especially on the ''second-to-last'' chapter of each volume (or the 13n-1th chapter), which nearly always contains important plot twists.

* It seems like the author of ''Manga/TheDemonGirlNextDoor'' clearly knows that every volume contains 13 chapters, so the plot-heavy content are always arranged towards the end of the volume--especially on the ''second last'' chapter of each volume (or the 13n-1th chapter), which nearly always containing important plot twists.

Once upon a time, ComicBooks were just floppy pamphlets that were easily forgotten and thrown away. But in the 1990s, when American comic books achieved a level of popularity that they had not managed for fifty years, the viability of collected editions of comics -- known as trade paperbacks ([=TPBs=]) or trade hardbacks -- increased dramatically.

By the early-to-mid 00s, virtually every halfway-popular comic book published by Creator/DCComics or Creator/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.

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

* The ''ComicBook/RainbowBrite'' comic was written for the trade as a miniseries, with future adventure dependent on trade sales.

Once upon a time, ComicBooks were just floppy pamphlets that were easily forgotten and thrown away. But in the 1990s, when American comic books achieved a level of popularity that they had not managed for fifty years, the viability of collected editions of comics--known as trade paperbacks ([=TPBs=]) or trade hardbacks--increased dramatically.

By the early-to-mid 00s, virtually every halfway-popular comic book published by Creator/DCComics or Creator/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.

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, dialogue, pacing and framing, things often glossed over in old-style short-format comics.

** This is a bit of a JustifiedTrope in the case of the Ultimate books though, since they were specifically created as newbie-friendly alternatives to the [[ContinuityLockOut continuity-laden]] mainstream books. They were specifically designed so that casual readers could pick up a trade paperback at a book store and then get into the series.

** Despite this, several ComicBook/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 "ComicBook/UltimateGalactusTrilogy" fare better.

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

* JamesRobinson's ''Comicbook/{{Starman}}'' subverted this for maximum headache: With the initial run of [=TPBs=] for the series, Robinson was given free rein over how the series would be collected, resulting in the various one-off issues (flashback stories mainly) being omitted from the core [=TPBs=] and collected instead in what would be called "Times Past" [=TPBs=]. This would be well and good, except that the flashback issues established major plot points for the series and indeed, most of the narrative for the book collapses when those stories are omitted as far as said issues setting up key plot points and other essential information that is outright required for a lot of the main storylines to make sense. Even worse, for reasons unrevealed, many of the later series one-off stories were never collected as DC opted not to release any future "Times Past" volumes for the series. They've since made up for it however, as DC has recently begun collecting the series in hardcover format, with the issues (and tie-in comics) being collected in the order in which they were published, meaning that fans can read the series in the fan-preferred reading order.

* Most of IDW's run of ''[[ComicBook/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.

** ''[[ComicBook/TheTransformersRobotsinDisguise Robots in Disguise]]'' and ''[[ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye 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.
* Since Dark Horse's solicitation model seems based on the miniseries format, its not surprising that their other titles seem to follow the ''ComicBook/{{Hellboy}}'' model. Other series include ''The Unbrella Academy'', ''ComicBook/BuffyTheVampireSlayer: Season Eight'', and ''Grendel''.
** 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.

** Dark Horse's entire ''Star Wars'' 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.

* Pat Mills is criticised [[http://www.2000adreview.co.uk/site/index.php/2000AD-2008-2010/2000AD-1677.html here]] for ending the Volgan War mega-arc of ''ComicBook/ABCWarriors'' in a way which shows he was clearly thinking more about the inevitable collection than about a sensible weekly series. The strip is written in six-page instalments; the final one ends the war in two pages, followed by a four-page epilogue.
* While ''ComicBook/{{Invincible}}'' isn't that bad, RobertKirkman tends to write ''ComicBook/TheWalkingDead'' with the trade in mind. The issues tend to continue right after one another, so new readers don't get much of a catch up, and there's one point in the fourth volume where if you count the pages, the last page of chapter four and the first page of chapter five are a two-page spread.

* Averted with DC's Showcase and Archive lines, and Marvel's parallel Essentials and Masterworks lines. While all four of these lines consist of compiling entire runs of classic comics into either deluxe color hardcover editions (Archives and Masterworks) or less-expensive Cerebus phone book-style black-and-white omnibuses (Showcases and Essentials), very few of the reprinted stories are anything other than done on ones.

* 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.

* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'', while [[ArchivePanic intimidatingly]] {{Long Runn|er}}ing, is very rewarding to read in archives, especially when most of the plots involve a GambitPileup or two with LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters. Since the 1000th strip the author has written with shorter series arcs for ease of publication later, to the point where the first 1000 were not even meant for inclusion because they were not, though thankfully they were compiled into larger collections later.

* Have only one page come out every week & a half at best, and you can say the same thing for ''Webcomic/MegaTokyo''. the [=TPBs=] are a lot easier to follow than it is online.

* ''Webcomic/FreakAngels'', with its very detailed panels and extremely slow storyline fits this trope, all the more so since every so many chapters it's actually made into an album.

* The creator of ''Webcomic/ParadigmShift'' actually switched the schedule from one page a week to one chapter a month partly because of this trope, but also because the update schedule combined with his love of [[SceneryPorn superbly detailed Chicago cityscapes]] was taking a considerable physical toll; he had to take a quite lengthy break from drawing it on the advice of his doctor because he'd quite seriously injured his hand.

* Just like his approach to writing Ravine, Sejic views his work ''Webcomic/{{Sunstone}}'' as full sized graphic novels allowing him to have naturalistic narratives. (''Sunstone One'' is a massive 160 page graphic novel about to go into trade.) What makes this interesting is that as the entire work is viewable on deviantart as strips, a lot of readers are people who simply spotted the strips when browsing; leading to a lot of confusion in the comments met with suggestions to start from the beginning.

* ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'' is very plot and mood heavy. Though you can stay on top of new plot developments by checking every other day, you'd better go back and reread them later in batches to get the proper pacing and coherency.

** [[UsefulNotes/AmericanCourts U.S. Immigration courts]] sometimes just write up a decision for a non-controversial case ''for the purpose of establishing a rule''. For example, in ''[[http://www.justice.gov/eoir/vll/intdec/vol20/3241.pdf In the Matter of Price]]'', nobody really doubted whether a Zimbabwean golfer [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Price Nick Price]] could move to the US as an "extraordinary athlete." The reason a whole decision was written for this case and declared a precedent was just to clarify evidential standards for "extraordinary athlete." In another situation, in 1998, the court allowed Chinese asylum cases based on one-child policy, due to a change in law. In 2002, the same court [[http://www.justice.gov/eoir/vll/intdec/vol23/3470.pdf issued another decision]] on reopening an asylum case this way, approved it, then said, "90 days after this decision, we will not entertain asylum cases to be reopened like this."

** [[UsefulNotes/AmericanCourts U.S. Immigration courts]] sometimes just write up a decision for a non-controversial case ''for the purpose of establishing a rule''. For example, in ''[[http://www.justice.gov/eoir/vll/intdec/vol20/3241.pdf In the Matter of Price]]'', nobody really doubted whether a Zimbabwean golfer [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Price Nick Price]] can move to the US as an "extraordinary athlete." The reason a whole decision was written for this case and declared a precedent was just to clarify evidential standards for "extraordinary athlete." In another situation, in 1998, the court allowed Chinese asylum cases based on one-child policy, due to a change in law. In 2002, the same court [[http://www.justice.gov/eoir/vll/intdec/vol23/3470.pdf issued another decision]] on reopening an asylum case this way, approved it, then said, "90 days after this decision, we will not entertain asylum cases to be reopened like this."

* ''Manga/{{AttackOnTitan}}'' is a notorious case of this among the fandom with its monthly release format and the author's fondness for rather intense cliffhangers.

* ''Manga/{{AttackOnTitan}}'' is a notorious case of this among the fandom with it's monthly release format and the author's fondness for rather intense cliffhangers.

* ''Manga/{{AttackOnTitan}}'' is a notorious case of this among the fandom with it's monthly release format and the author's fondness for rather brutal cliffhangers.

* 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|s}}. And this isn't even [[ComicBook/{{Powers}} the most egregious example in Bendis' bibliography]].

** Despite this, several ComicBook/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.

* 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. The result is a story that very much feels epic and carefully planned out, but also is very self-referential (and not even explicitly, at that).