Pixie Trix Comix & Hiveworks Community

First I would like to say that I absolutely love Gunslinger Girl and would like to personally thank Seven Seas for re-releasing in the always awesome omnibus format. Now I don't own any other manga published by Seven Seas, so I don't know if its a problem exclusive to Gunslinger Girl. In both volumes 1 & 2 there is a table of contents with the page numbers clearly stated, but looking through the rest of the volume, there isn't a single page number. I would like to know, why? I've never seen anything like it. Sure, there are markers for the beginning and endings of chapters, but its still a little unnerving. Its only a minor point.

I have several from them, and the pages usually don't have page numbers. On occasion you'll find one.

So that confirms that it is a design choice, but all the more reason strengthens the question. Why leave out page numbers?

So they don't have to hear about how the artwork has been RUINED FOREVER due to them putting the number 29 over Saten's calf.

Lord Styphon wrote:So they don't have to hear about how the artwork has been RUINED FOREVER due to them putting the number 29 over Saten's calf.

*Flips through the first volume* I doubt even 1/3rd of the book has pages where numbers would intrude or look out of place.

I have to give you guys credit, until this thread, we hadn't really thought about it. I know that DC Comics and Marvel stopped numbering pages and including table of contents in their comics and graphic novels a few years back.

For Seven Seas, not including page numbers is a cost cutting measure as it's extremely time consuming remove existing page numbers and then renumber them. See books that read Right-to-Left (like Japanese manga and our OEL) have to be laid out in reverse. So page 192 would now be page 1, and page 1 would be page 192. Since we have a very small staff, not having to manually calculate or add in page numbers is an incredible time savor. So yes, it does seem silly, in retrospect, to have a table of contents when there are no page numbers in the books themselves. For English comics and novels, table of contents are a vestige of the old ways print books were published and are no longer the norm for non-academic works. (Plus, most comics and manga can be read in 1 to 2 hours, so there's isn't much need for a contents page if the numbers themselves are often obscured by artwork, unlike in novels.)

We're going to take a look at our upcoming books and if a table of contents isn't needed, we're going to work towards phasing them out. Thanks for pointing this out!

Actually, I think a table of contents is still quite useful even without page numbers. It lets you gauge how long chapters are, and get the general gist of where things are. Like, I'm reading on the toilet and I flip to the table of contents to judge the length of the next chapter...I can either say, "Ah, 20 pages, I can finish that" or "55 pages...nah, that's too long."

Not that it's a must-have, but it does have at least some use without page-numbers.

einhorn303 wrote:Actually, I think a table of contents is still quite useful even without page numbers. It lets you gauge how long chapters are, and get the general gist of where things are. Like, I'm reading on the toilet and I flip to the table of contents to judge the length of the next chapter...I can either say, "Ah, 20 pages, I can finish that" or "55 pages...nah, that's too long."

Not that it's a must-have, but it does have at least some use without page-numbers.

THIS. I don't care if you guys have page numbers, but I would like you guys to keep having table of contents in your books.

Adam Arnold wrote:For Seven Seas, not including page numbers is a cost cutting measure as it's extremely time consuming remove existing page numbers and then renumber them. See books that read Right-to-Left (like Japanese manga and our OEL) have to be laid out in reverse. So page 192 would now be page 1, and page 1 would be page 192. Since we have a very small staff, not having to manually calculate or add in page numbers is an incredible time savor.

Please tell me the omnibuses read pages right to left.
I fear this is an unintelligent question but, do the Japanese not use Roman Numerals for their page numbers? If they do, just leave them. The page numbers should reset for each volume.

Adam Arnold wrote:We're going to take a look at our upcoming books and if a table of contents isn't needed, we're going to work towards phasing them out. Thanks for pointing this out!

I can understand that switching a Japanese table of contents to English can be time consuming. Hearing you say that because you cut corners on the page numbers, you can now get away with cutting corners on the table of contents just makes me sad. I'd like to see the original work left as much alone as much as possible. (Volume size, page order, page numbers, table of contents, ect...)

PS
Yay shipping notification on volumes 7-8!!!

RoScO wrote:I fear this is an unintelligent question but, do the Japanese not use Roman Numerals for their page numbers?

I'm reasonably certain the Japanese use Arabic numerals for page numbers, not Roman numerals.

Lord Styphon wrote:I'm reasonably certain the Japanese use Arabic numerals for page numbers, not Roman numerals.

I knew I was wrong, but that was really bad...
Thanks for the correction Lord Styphon.
Arabic numbers, use those!