Yet Another Comics Site

Have you read Reprints Part 1: Why You Should Buy Them and Reprints Part 2: Affordability?

_____As a general rule, reprints do not occur singly. The current trade paperback form, as well as its various predecessors (including the ongoing series of reprints), collected groups of comics.
_____These groups can be divided into two types. The first I will term Linear Reprints, which collect consecutive issues of a title and/or the parts of a story arc. The second is Lateral Reprints, which collect comics either completely at random or around a specific theme (eg Batman, Christmas Stories, Origins).
_____Naturally, there are overlapping categories. When viewed individually, DC's Adventure Digests were lateral reprints, containing various completely unrelated features; runs of the digest, however, contained reprints of consecutive issues. The same applies to the Marvel Megazines. Conversely, several trade paperbacks (including, for example, The Best of Marvel Comics), contain complete reprints of several unrelated multi-issue storylines.
_____In recent years, the linear school of reprinting has come to dominate. Partly, this is as a response to the TPB format, but more likely it is a response to the increasing omnipresence of lengthy epics and continuing storylines within titles.
_____The linear approach does have its advantages, even when more than one story is collected. For one thing, it allows for the reprinting of issues that would otherwise probably never be reprinted (say, Fantastic Four #3) due to a complete lack of historical importance. For another, it allows a reader to track a character's development, and also a writer's.
_____But there are also advantages to the vanishing lateral format. It allowed readers a much broader sampling of eras and/or characters than the linear system does. DC's Greatest Stories volumes offer an education in comics history, while its archives offer only a lesson.
_____Further, the emphasis on quality tends to be greater in lateral reprints. Linear reprints have their hands tied, by definition. A sub-par story needs to be included. A worthy one from an inappropriate time will not even be considered. Lateral reprints are given a free hand. They can pick and choose the very best stories available.
_____Now, I'm not decrying linear reprints. For titles I love, the completist in me orients towards them. I am almost annoyed by the number of times Fantastic Four #5 has been reprinted in lateral reprints, while other issues languish. But while I would not want to give up my FF masterworks, neither would I trade away the smorgasbord of Golden Age variety that the Greatest GA Stories gave me, for the paltry compensation of a Batman Archive. If I want an idea of what each and every JSAer was like in their solo stories, only lateral reprinting can give it to me between two covers.
_____What do you think?