I've come up with a few ideas for comic anthologies I'd like to put together. After being the assistant editor on a couple of books (Postcards, Wicked West II), I'm ready to handle my own. I'm at the very initial stages of the project where I brainstorm and flesh out the ideas.

I'll keep my questions simple:

What do you like about anthologies?
What don't you like?

You know, I was just about to start a thread to see if there were any other creative types in here who might want to put together a little "Comic Book Talk" anthology. It could be fun to do a cheap B&W type thing. I've been wanting to get back into making comics again.

Anyway, there's not much I can think of that I DON'T like in an anthology. As long as there is a nice variety of stories and styles. You don't want too much of one flavor.

Guess it's just you and me, Dad.

What were you thinking with the book talk book?

Comic book anthologies that I like have:
- a variety of good talent
- cool short stories
- a consistent theme or feel to the comic
Examples: Death Rattle, Wasteland, and Zap Comix

Comic anthologies that I didn't like have:
- a variety of bad or mediocre talent
- serialized stories (full comic or even tpb sized stories that get cut into 8 page installments)
- poor short stories
Examples: Action Comics Weekly, Marvel Comics Presents

One that falls in the middle is Dark Horse Presents. Many a great story in there from Black Cross to Concrete and many, many others, but I could never buy every issue.

ytrez, when you say short stories, do you mean textual stories? Or just short comic stories?

But I agree with all of your points...particularly serialized stories...they don't work for me either.

Well if we don't really have any other people interested I don't know if it matters.

I have tons of characters I've created over the years, so I think it would be cool to do some new short stories with them. They were mostly bizarre superhero types. We've just had fancy new copiers installed at work, which have great booklet making abilities, so that got me thinking about getting back into comic creation.

Of course, I don't know how characters like my Cactus Man or Baron Von Mummy might fit in with your anthology plans.

I did some stuff in college when I was an art major. We had a whole team at one point, writer, me on pencils, another as inker, and letterer. We had 2 stories published in Launchpad, if anyone remembers that. I did a little creator stuff for a local zine, and did an autograph session at one of the comic shops here, with others in the biz. (which was awesome!)

I haven’t done any sequential in years, but still do pinups and covers for fun. Always enjoyed doing pinups more anyway. But if we want to get something going I would contribute just to keep in practice.

Bishop, I was referring to short comic stories

That's what I thought.

I think that in order to do a successful comics anthology you need to have consistent material.

The only really successful anthology -- that is still running -- is probably Heavy Metal. If you look at the content, you see that there's a certain consistency to the story themes (naked women, sci-fi/fantasy) and artwork quality.

One danger that I think anthologies face is in the perception that they only contain b-list material. If the stories in them were any good, they'd be published on their own. I think that there is something to that; something like Grant Morrison's We3 would've fit nicely into an anthology, but nobody is going to waste a story like that by burying it with a bunch of other material.

The only anthology I've really liked was the batman black and white anthology. A lot of great artists who you wouldn't normally see draw batman, and they actually got writers, not just artists, to submit to it as well.

That's one of the problems I've seen in most anthologys, dc's solo, image flight/dreamworks, negative burn, is that the art can be good and consitant, but the storys tend to be rather empty and unoriginal. The best anthologys I've read are ones with real writers.

and while it's not an anthology per say, check out any of 2000ad's future shocks or alan moore stories. Also, not a comic, but Mcsweenys collection of stories is a great example of different approachs, similar theme, but good quality through out.

I like anthologies that have an over all theme, no matter how loose it is. The best example of an anthology that works on every level for me are the Flight books.

A bunch of nice, but short stories. Almost all of the stories are unique with great talent on the books. Very nice art.

I go to anthologies for quick, cute, stand alone, and quirky stories. Not saying that is what anthologies need to be, just how I like them.