brevoortformspring:

I understand the difficult you’re talking about, but I suspect that adding a Volume * on the cover would make the books sell just a little bit less—and that wouldn’t be good for either you or me. My goal is to sell comics by creating great stories, worrying about how readers file their collections (or how you organize the store’s back issues) isn’t really much of a factor.

Speaking as someone who’s read every single issue of Fantastic Four, owns the complete run of the comic from 200 to the current issue (and about 30-50% of the issues prior to 200), and is a obsessive compulsive completionist to the point of buying absurdly expensive alternate covers because I love this particular series and its characters, I find Brevoort’s answer here somewhat dismissive.  Personally, I’d love to see volume numbers added as a way to keep things straight.

As far as Brevoort’s theoretical decline in sales by “a little bit less,” I know you have to make money and maximize profits for shareholders, but what you’re doing is creating de facto volumes.  Can we please just codify it at this point?  I don’t think anyone is asking to have the volume designation emblazoned on the cover in a way that takes away from the bright and shiny “#1” but a tasteful designation somewhere would be both honest and helpful.

Also, Brevoort does not address the “making things easier for casual readers” point.  I realize that he is taking the time to answer questions as a courtesy, but this is a legitimate concern that actually ties into the idea of creating new regular readers from casuals.  Mightn’t that offset this theoretical minor decline in sales for #1’s?

How about it, Mr. Brevoort?