Need help buying a compilation book

[caltino]

I've been reading online for 5-6 years or so. I got the two prequel books. I am planning to buy the "snips" book and I was thinking of buying one of the main story compilations for the bonus materials only- I saw that they contain commentary, but I am not sure what that means.

Are these comments for every page? Every few pages? Or are they infrequent (like 10% of the pages or so)? Are they little notes in margins or footnotes (I got Tarquin's name from a roman general), or more detailed thoughts (I knew durkon was going to be a vampire from day one, thus...)?

I looked up reviews for the books but couldn't find a description of what these commentaries are like.

I would appreciate any explanations on this to help me make a more informed buying decision. Rich, maybe you could even post a single page preview to show what these are like, kind of like the Amazon "see inside" feature.

I'm sure these change from book to book and even then throughout the story flow so this question does not have a simple answer, but I don't know anything right now anyway.

If I may try to ask two questions in one thread- which of the main story books would you all recommend for the bonus materials?

Thanks in advance.

[Cizak]

Every book gets divided into chapters, or "Rounds" as they are called. Each Round gets a commentary where Rich discusses things like the writing process, philosophy, art technicalities etc about the strips the Round contains. Most commentaries are 1 page, but DCF has one that's only half a page and WaXPs has some that are more than one page with some strips between the different pages. Besides these, there are also an Introduction and an ending commentary by Rich, a Preface by a character and a Foreward by other authors (not in DStP though, that one has a page dedicated to Gygax and Arneson instead).

[ChristianSt]

The conpilations have all pretty much an equal amount of bonus material. Commentary should be around ten full pages (as Cizak noted mostly in front of each arc). In addition to that they contain bonus comics, which also add some additional value (not exactly sure, but I would say around 10-20 additional strips) - there is a thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=277004) floating around saying that DCF had total 36.5 xtra pages the others had 46/47 xtra pages (but I'm not sure how this was counted).

I can't really say that one adds more than the others, imo they add pretty much equal value. DStP features most bonus strips in two additional small arcs, one is how they retrieved Roy's body in Greysky City, the other features Elan under water, while the other books divide them more evenly. But I cannot really say that one way is better than the other.

SSaDT has maybe half that much commentary (again, pretty much a page in front of most sections).

OtOoPCs and SoD feature no additional commentary besides the forword/preface/introduction (that is included in all books).

I think all books are really great, and I have surely gotten my fair share of value from the (I have read the multiple times - I find it more enjoyable than reading online). Also I like to argue to start with SSaDT because this is a limited print run, so it might be out of print one day.

[Copperdragon]

If you already have the prequel books and also plan on buying Snips, I say it does not really matter which of the Original Story books you buy first.

As was said before the bonus content and commentary is distributed evenly and each represents a different part of the story and of Rich's writing process. But it's really not mattering which one is which.

If you are already at buying books I suggest you just start at the first one and just get the "next one" once in a while when you feel like it. If you *really* need a suggestion and are not planning on buying all of them anyway over a long time I'd go for DStP, as that adds two small arcs. The loose strips scattered in are very nice as well and sometimes contain pieces of story or additional snippets about characters, the biggest addition to the story are those mini-arcs.
But we're talking about a difference between the books that's barely worth measuring. So here's my bottom line: Just start with #1 and then march onwards.

[ChristianSt]

One thing I didn't first thought of (but I kinda should have noted it, since I posted a similar advice in the Looking To Get a Friend Into OOTS (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=318275)-thread):

If you want to convince a friend to OotS in form of a book, I think DFC is the best starting point for it. So if you have a friend that isn't that much into webcomics but you think he might enjoy OotS anyway, then starting with DCF is imo the best to get them hooked (just say to them it is best to NOT read the commentary before reading the strips - they spoil the content of the arc they introduce sometimes pretty hard).

[caltino]

Thanks to all who replied, the information you shared was very helpful. The commentary turned out to be different than I expected. Turns out it's more an overview rather than a notation kind of thing. I've seen other cartoonists (like Scott Adams and Gary Larson) get more detailed regarding specific strips, so that's what I thought was happening here too.

I'll just buy one compilation book and see if it's worth it for the bonus materials. I have the comic on my ipad and won't be reading the regular strips in the paper form, so I'll see if spending $40 just for the bonus stuff is a good idea.