The argument of telling comics in the format of the 22 page issue or the much larger paged Graphic Novel has been going on for awhile now. Personally I think the various sides of the argument won’t reach an agreement anytime soon. The reason why is I think this is because the need or benefit for each format is really only suit’s a certain section of the comic industry and there is no way beside a very violent shift in format will any thing change.
Single Issues -
22 Paged comic stories are stuck in an inertia that has been around for years. Existing readers are trained to read in that format and Publishers are trained to produce work in that format. More importantly Publishers are trained to get their money in their format. A good example is the Event or Crossover story line in comics. It’s designed to help boost monthly sales of 22 Page comics, but such events rarely do anything to help boost sales of say Trade paperbacks.
A lot of starting creators and publishers think this is the format to go with, because it is preexisting and so an easier sell to the also preexisting reader base. The problem with that is that it is preexisting and so the reader base is already trained to look to established Publishers for stories. It’s not that readers think that new comics are bad, but when there is so much material is out there it’s easier to just default to a trust name or brand than it is to potentially waste money on a unknown book.
Also with Single Issues, you are stuck in a very specific style of episodic or serial storytelling. Sure, you can do a set finite story, but you still have to structure each and every issue in a certain way so that it will compel the reader to pick up the next part of the story. The rhythm or flow of the story will be different because of the physical pauses (the end and start of each new issue).
Graphic Novels -
Now the biggest issue with Graphic novels is that it takes a much bigger commitment of time and resources. Since a GN is typically much more than 22 pages, it’s obvious that mean it will take more time to make a GN. This also means that, it will take longer to get money back from the project. With Single Issues, you’re getting money back every month. That’s how some publishers survive, they recoup their costs with the Single Issues and then the collected editions of the single issues make them more money. So if you do a GN starting out, you have to have time and money ready to spend because timeframe of creation to profit is much longer. You could argue that you just make sure that you always have a book coming out, to help cover costs, but that still means that you have to initially outlay a lot more money and now a lot more because you’re wanting to start a regular schedule of books.
Now that said, creatively you have a lot more room to tell your stories in the manner you best see fit. In theory this should in turn mean it’s a better story and therefore also sell better. Now mind you some people say that creators learn better by having rules enforced on them, as they use their creativity to work around or even bend the rules. And there is truth to that, but eventually you can work with the “training wheels” off and you need more room to work.
Dusk -
With Dusk I actually used both methods in a way to see it would make for a better balance. I told shorter stories, but compiled them all together in one volume or GN. This way I could spread the work load around and therefore help speed up production. Well that’s great in theory, but with any project, the more people you add, the more possibility of complication happens. Now everyone involved has done their best., but life is what it is and things are going to happen despite your best planning. So now I have a book done up in a different style, but it’s still being released on a GN like schedule so by intention to avoid that failed.
And of course there is some format confusion for readers. Since the stories in Dusk are shorter, some readers wonder why I just didn’t just do them as single issues because they’re trained to think 22 pages stories are meant to be single issues. In my opinion it’s easier for me to promote and sell a collection of stories than it is to go out and push each individual story as a single issue. Dusk as a GN is a more satisfying chunk of entertainment in that format.
Of course I wonder if pushing single issues would help build up a audience and relationship with retailers as I go out and talk to them for each and every single issue. Maybe I’m impatient and don’t relish the thought of having to keep going out over and over to sell people of Dusk.
I’ve ran into this same line of thought with my next book Miss Masque. In an interesting twist, Miss Masque is a whole complete story, but it was divided up in four chapters or issues, so it can be done as either a GN or 4 issues. Or even better 4 issues and then collected as GN.
Of course this whole line of thought is more focused on the comic industry and more specifically comic book stores. This doesn’t even touch on the Book Industry and Book Stores, where single issues don’t really exist and GN fight with Manga for shelf space everyday. And manga is just collected editions of serial stories. But I that’s a whole other matter with it’s own set of problems and idiosyncrasies. When I first launched Dusk, I thought I was being clever doing a two pronged attack into the Comic and Book industries. I figured that the strengths of one would make up for the weakness of the other. What I found out was it just made my job twice as hard as I had to navigate two systems that weren’t similar and using each their own unique form of logic.
David Doub was a IT professional in the Dallas-Forth Worth area for the past decade, but after several turns in his life he’s going back to his first love, comics. Come read David’s journey has he tries to make it as a writer and creator in the comic industry. The only companion with him on this journey is his cat Jordon, who happens to like the taste of paper. 
Merin on 
