Every Comic Book Format Explained For Beginners | Trades? Omnibus? OHC?

Whether you read or buy comic books to read all the stories, or you just want to collect comic books for the fun of it or for profit, you might get confused with all these different comic book formats collected editions, and reprints. I'll be explaining all of them as much as I can in this article.

Digital

Digital format is just a form of reading comics from a digital device, as you can tell from the name. You can download digital comic book apps on your mobile device, such as an iPhone or iPad. One of the benefits is having a lot of options, sometimes up to 45, 000 comics for Comixology and 30, 000 for MARVEL Unlimited. Some comics go all the way back to the 1930s. Also, you do not have to buy comics one by one, which will take a lot of money and time. We'll talk about it soon enough, but some comics go up in price or are not available in the market. Some of the cons are obviously not having the physical copy in your hand and owning the comic forever. Plus, there will be no selling or trading for digital comics. Some of the most popular digital comic book apps are...

-ComiXology

-Hoopla

-MARVEL Unlimited

-DC Universe Infinite 

Single Issue/Floppy

TThe next comic book format I'm going to talk about is single issues, also known as floppies. These are the very first format of a comic book that will be released once or twice every month except on a few occasions like Manga. They mostly contain 20~25 pages on average, but there are some special ones. The best examples are one-shot issues, mega-sized issues, and annual issues. These can vary from a few dozen to a whopping hundred pages. Because of that, the price range also varies from $4.99 USD or lower up to $9.99, but these are only the cover prices.

This is the most common and most profitable format to collect comics. A lot of comic book "collectors" will likely collect single issues for either the hang of it or profit and rarely any collected editions like trade paperback or omnibus. It all differs from person to person. Some will collect because they really want to read with single issues, some might collect for the cover art, while others will collect purely for their side hustle business. That is the main pro and con of floppies. It will increase in value a lot. Especially the ones that have been published a long time ago or the first appearances of popular characters. 

For example: Action Comics #1, the first-ever DC comic and starring Superman for the first time, in 1940 was sold for $6 million this year. This was the record for the most expensive comic book sold. Some other pros are you can get the comic book right away when it comes out and you don't have to be late to the party, however, the main problem is that it is only 20 pages and one of the small chapters that make up of an arc that potentially leads to a whole run. As a result, you will be left unsatisfied and have to wait a month or so to read the next story. 

Trade Paperback (TPB)

Now, onto the collected editions. Eventually, an arc usually made of 4 to 6 issues will be printed as Trade Paperback or TPB in short. They will be priced at USD $14.99 when published, so they will be more affordable than floppies, especially the older ones. These are all on average though. Some have more, some have fewer issues. One noteworthy thing is that it collects all over series in order like it might include just a few scenes from others, annuals, specials and issues from other series that crossovers with the main series. There are "thick trades' which isn't an official name, but they're just TPBs that are on the thicker, more expensive, more packed side. Also, they will have soft covers and be sized the same as the floppies. 

(This is a very rare case, but they could make a whole standalone TPB with just the materials from a series, like how DC made a New 52 Shazam! TPB with 2 Justice League issues and the "sneak a peek bonus stories" from Justice League issues)

Hardcover (HC)

A Hardcover is just a TPB with a slightly bigger hardcover, as the name suggests. Now, when people say a standard-sized hardcover, they mean the exact same thing, because there are oversized hardcovers or deluxe editions which are a larger format. However, most hardcovers will have the same sized pages with TPBs and floppies with a hardcover. Other details are the same as those for a TPB, but it might cost you a couple of more dollars. 

However, an Oversized Hardcover, (OHC in short) more well known as a Deluxe Edition is the format in between an HC and an omnibus. It is the same size as the dimension go but has less than an omnibus. They have around 300~400 pages for one and around #15 issues. So, three times a TPB or a HC. So, basically a. OHC = HC or TPB x 3    b. HC or TPB = Issue x 5. These are the formulas for you, math nerds.

Omnibus

An Omnibus is a comic book collected edition that usually contains more than #30 issues and 800 pages. There are smaller ones like Batman By Grant Morrison Vol. 1, which is a popular omnibus among the fans, contains #28 issues making up 658 pages. Some are bigger than others like Geoff Johns' Teen Titans Omnibus which is over 1400 pages. Their price range can vary from $50 to almost $200. The main key point is its massive size. It's either love it or hate it. Some people tend to love them because of their size and on the other hand, some hate them because of that. This is an even more affordable way to collect comics if you want the whole run because if you were to buy 30 single issues, it would be at least $150 dollars, which would be around $80 as an omnibus.

Others

here are more collected editions, some examples are the following: MARVEL Epic Collection which is the same as a TPB height wise, but includes more than an OHC, around #18 to 30 issues, which also popularized collected editions, DC's newest line, the answer to their rival, MARVEL's Epic line, DC's Finest line, Compendium which is just an Omnibus for Image Comics, a box set including several TPBs in a bookcase, Slipcase that is even bigger than the Omnibuses, but thinner, like DC's Absolute editions or Dynamite's Definitive Editions, smaller, more affordable editions like Invincible New Edition, DC's Compact line, Marvel-Verse and last but definitely not least Monster edition.