I’ve fallen off the monthly comics wagon and I don’t think I’m getting back on anytime soon. What happened? Winter. I last bought comics in mid-December, and then the cold snap hit, and today is the first relief we’ve had from the minus 20-40 (with wind chill) temperatures. The comicbook store is only a few blocks from work, but in miserably cold weather like that, I don’t go out for *anything* I don’t have to. I was enjoying sampling many different series I’d never tried before, but after a break from comics, I’m reassessing what I really want to buy.
The thing is, comics haven’t been making me very happy lately. I haven’t been able to keep up with Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes since issue 24, because my local store orders in so few copies that they sell out within a day or two of release. After missing two months, I decided I would have to go back to buying this in trades. Which really hurts, because I love this series and it’s my primary reason for getting back into monthly comics this past year. But I know that I’ll likely miss more issues in the future if I forget to go in on the release date, and I can’t and don’t want to schedule my life around *one* comic that way. (I’m without a car now so it’s this store or bust.)
Then a couple of weeks ago I realized there were two issues of 52 still sitting unread in the bag from my last trip. Whoops. I may not be as interested in that series as I thought. And at $3.50 CDN an issue, I better be interested. I’m fascinated with 52, I want to see what happens in every issue, but it comes out so darn often that I can end up spending $15 in one trip just to catch up on the past few weeks. Then I read the issues once and forget about them. I don’t have room on my shelves for a humongous series that occupies so little room in my brain.
What about the other series I’ve been buying lately?
Supergirl – I’d like the excuse to drop this, frankly. Not going into the store is the one thing that’ll prevent me from wasting my money on it.
Birds of Prey – I started reading this recently, but I can just as happily read it in trades if I have no other reason to go into a store.
Manhunter – I got into this series thru the first TPB and have yet to actually buy it as a monthly. I couldn’t get the first issue of the recent miniseries, because, again, the store owner is stupid and didn’t order enough copies. I wanted to support this series by buying the “second chance” miniseries as it came out, but it looks like that’s not going to happen.
JSA – bought a couple issues, sort of interesting, but I can live without it. Also hate the multiple covers, which always make me feel that I’m missing out on something whichever one I get.
JLA – dropped this after issue 3. Not missing it. Hate trying to find an issue with the variant cover I like.
Wonder Woman – is this still around? I keep forgetting it exists. Missed the first issue of this summer’s reboot, couldn’t find it anywhere. Bought number 2 and 3. Issue 4 doesn’t come out until next week. I just can’t follow a series which almost never comes out.
White Tiger – bought the first two issues, liked, and would buy like to pick up more.
She-Hulk – I’ve never bought a single issue of the monthly and probably never will, due to those scary awful covers (Marvel, you are idiots). I got hooked after buying the third TPB and plan to continue buying it in that form. Contrast with Supergirl & LoSH, which I got my start in with the first two TPBs, and loved so much that I bought the next monthly issue when it came out. I can’t find copies of that in the store but there are plenty of She-Hulk issues in stock.
So basically there are two series I see myself buying monthly: Birds of Prey and White Tiger (and that’s a limited series). On the other hand, there’s some nice new TPBs that I would very much like to buy, and those I’ll order online. I looked at the DC Comics site today to see what had come out in the past two months, and I just couldn’t find enough reason to go in. I think from now on I’m only going to go in for specific comics (like the upcoming Brave & Bold), and follow my favorite series in trades rather than monthlies.
EDIT: rewrote parts of this post after getting home from work
Wow, that’s lots of comic books! :-) You can order them via http://www.dccomics.com so you won’t have to worry about missing an issue.
Hope this helps.
Not really, I live in Canada and subscriptions are way over priced. I think the last time I calculated the per issue cost, it came to more than the normal cover price.
EDIT: I just checked the current subcrip price, and it does work out to less than cover now. But I’ve heard enough horror stories about delays and damaged books that I’m wary of that route. There’s also the problem that I’d have to lay out $42 for each series I *think* I’ll want to buy for the next year. TPBs seem smarter.
Appropos Wonder Woman…just read today that #5 isn’t going to be the final chapter of the opening arc, it’s going to be a new story that deals with a ‘Women’s’ Movement’ that sprang up in the aftermath of WW killing Max Lord…the last part of the first arc will be re-solicited later…yikes! Can DC do much more to totally derail the relaunch of Wonder Woman(and piss off readers and fans)?
“it’s going to be a new story that deals with a ‘Women’s’ Movement’ that sprang up in the aftermath of WW killing Max Lord”
This is scaring me.
Hey all,
I haven’t had much time, or money for comics since I made my big move. Also, sadly, a lack of desire has also played a part. Supergirl being the biggest one, altough I never got issue 12, I did read issue 13 and it was actually good, but not great.
And Wonder Woman, what is up with that? You’d think that since the next big super-hero movie coming out by DC is Wonder Woman (unless that has changed), that DC would want to get some buzz out on her. Give her a kickass story to get people (gals and guys) ready for her. I was readying her latest saga, but as you all have pointed out, the storys come out like every 2 or three months. It’s hard to follow.
Also since I movie my access to comic stores is limited to the one by work, and like our lady Michelle, walking to this store in this weather is not something I want to do.
Here is some Wonder Woman news:
http://www.comics2film.com/FanFrame.php?f_id=24778
Synopsis: An anoymous scooper deemed to be a source of “good information” in the past has claimed that ‘Casino Royale’ star Eva Green may be up for the part of ‘Wonder Woman’. Reporting site hedges its bets by reporting she is one of several actresses under consideration.
IMO she is beautiful, with eyes that could kill most motral men … but is she big enough to pull it off? I guess we are going for the much smaller Wonder Woman.
Also Joss Whedon is off the project. And it seems I was wrong, this movie is a long way off from being made.
I don’t pay any attention to casting rumors, so as to avoid tormenting myself =)
As for the Joss thing, yeah I heard about that. Came as quite a shock, and I was thinking that it would going to push the release date back a LOT. OTOH…it *was* taking a suspciously long time for the plot to be finished up and casting begun. It’s possible that this movie will actually start moving now. Whether or not it’ll be good is another matter.
Either way, I’m trying not to get too emotionally invested in this movie, because, well, I’m not very fond of Hollywood. But I want it to be good, oh I do…