Trade Perspectives: Enough with the Front Foil Stamping!

Maybe I'm a little anal-retentive (though what comics fan isn't), but I like my trade paperbacks to stay in good condition. That's why when I shelve them on my bookshelf, I store them in bags; that's why when I read them, I'm careful not to bend the spines.

And when I read a hardcover, of course, I take the jacket off. A dust jacket, I know, is supposed to protect a book, but increasingly I find myself protecting the dust jacket from the world at large.

Now, with all the new DC Comics hardcovers, more and more when I take off the jacket I find ... a foil-stamped cover! Foil stamping on the hardcover spine I expect, and the occasional stamped cover I can deal with. But increasingly I'm finding ever more intricate cover stampings; see the full Justice League logo on Justice League of America hardcovers, the Justice Society eagle on Justice Society hardcovers, even a scene of Batman and Ra's al Ghul fighting on Batman: The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul!

As if trying not to crease the pages, trying not to bend the spine, trying not to damage the jacket, and trying not to scuff the edges all weren't enough ... I now have to endeavor not to flake the stamping off the front of my hardcovers! It's getting so that I have to hold my hardcover three feet away with salad tongs to read it, just to keep a collection in good shape.

Please, oh please DC Comics -- we know you're high end, and we know you're fancy ... now enough with the front stamping already!

[Paid for by Readers Against Front Stamping and the Society for Tongue-in-Cheek Blog Posts.]