I just wanted to make a quick clarification about the PvP collections, and give you guys a better understanding of how they’re organzied. We’ve been collecting PvP strips into paperbacks since 2001, so it’s easy to get confused about what strips are in which books.

The simplest way to get every PvP strip currently in print is the following:
PvP Awesomology + Book 6 + Book 7 = all strips, in order from 1998-2007. Completists should note that PvP: The Dork Ages contains the six independently published PvP comics which never appeared online.

PvP Books 1-5 are a smattering of strips, somewhat in order, as collected after being printed monthly as an Image comic book. Books 1-5 were created with the comic book shop retailer in mind as the customer. Let me explain.

When you sell books through comic book shops, you’re not selling to readers. You’re selling to retailers. Unlike other book stores, comic book retailers are stuck with the books they buy. If, at the end of the month, they were unable to sell books, they are prohibited from returning them to their distributor. Because of this, they’re trepeditious about trying new things. And because of THAT, most comic book companies create books with the retailer, not the reader in mind.

For example, PvP books 1-5 are sized like a standard comic book trade paperback turned sideways. This format was chosen specifically to cater to retailers who have built shelving to accomodate this size. So despite wanting a more square book, PvP books were print to service the retailer.

Things have changed since then. A lot of retailers are making more space for odd sized books and trades of many shapes and sizes. They’re casting off their back-issue bins to make room for more face-forward book displaying. On top of that, my business has changed to where a majority of my books are sold directly to you guys, online.

So starting with book 6, the format of PvP books changed. Each book now contains an entire year of strips. The books are larger and more square, with three strips per page instead of two. More like a traditional comic strip collection. And this is the format moving forward.

Once books 1-5 sell out, we won’t be reprinting them. Those strips are contained in the Awesomology. So if you want them, now is the time to get them (they’re on sale pretty cheap right now, FYI).

So that’s the skinny on our books. Now you know. And knowing, is 50% of most conflicts.