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What keeps you reading comics?

Started by TheRealVenom,

39 posts in this topic

TheRealVenom

TheRealVenom

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Iv'e been collecting a long long time now, My pull list use to have over 40 titles on it! But in the past couple of years iv'e gotten more and more into the business side of comics, be it flipping or getting convention exclusives for people who can't attend or just plain attending more conventions.

 

I've found my love of actually reading books has dwindled significantly lately. I used to pick up my books on new comic wednesday every week and read them all that night, now I have a full long box of books I haven't read yet and my pull list is down to about 8 titles.

 

I find because of my job and other things I have less time to read but even when I have time now I don't.

 

I feel like spending 50$ a week on readers is kind of a waste now when I can invest that money on slabs and sigs. Doesn't help with all the relaunches and titles that don't even reach #20 before getting relaunched or cancelled.

 

So what keeps you reading? I love comics but kinda feel like my love is fading..

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oakman29

oakman29

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I used to be at my LCS every wed too,and was always on the hunt for the big variants. Specially my ASM run.I just got burned out on chasing variants, and the next big thing.I havent been to my LCS in a couple years now, and really not missing it at all. Actually saved me money to use on my Frazetta obsession. (shrug)

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exitmusicblue

exitmusicblue

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My usual reading pace = a handful of comics weekly, including non-Modern. I can appreciate the good parts of even an underwhelming story as long as I don't binge-read. So OP, maybe the answer is moderation?

 

I have enough vintage "reserves" that I only need to pick up about $15 worth of Modern a month, if even that. To turn the slab narrative on its side, I'd prefer spending ~$180 on comics over a year for reading rather than using the same money on one more slab or two.

 

...plus sometimes those "reader" comics get big, here's to you Monstress #1. : )

 

It really helps to choose series with killer artists and writers. I could read 5 issues of Afterlife with Archie in one sitting. I can hardly get through one bad story, though.

 

 

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catman76

catman76

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I know this is about new comics, but I have no interest in them, besides some independent, self published, underground type new stuff, but I just like old comics. Basically anything printed on actual newsprint, like pre1980. That's part of the appeal to me, that feel and look and smell and of course the artwork. If it doesn't have artwork I like then I have no interest in reading it and modern mainstream comics have no art that interests me that I have seen. Plus the thrill of the hunt, finding some comic I never heard of in some antique shop or flea market. There's an endless variety of them out there from the last 80 years, it's great. That's what keeps me reading comics and going after them and I haven't gotten tired of it yet in 30 years of being into them.

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rjpb

rjpb

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I'm down to couple comics a month, crime titles, and I no longer go regularly to my LCS. I still collect a few older books, but not like a used to. I do read the ones I buy. I still love the medium, but definitely at a lull in terms of my level of interest.

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Mercury Man

Mercury Man

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Whether it's the most recent issue of Daredevil, a 1990's Justice League comic or a 1971 copy of Fantastic Four, I read them all. It's fun to see the tone difference too in comics, obviously a reflection of the changing times and social mores.

 

Admittedly it's getting harder and harder to read Modern Comics, because they are phasing out the characters I grew up with, and replacing them with other people (I'm looking at you Marvel), but I read everything I buy.

 

I read them, because I just still thoroughly enjoy the Medium. That's what they are printed for, reading right?! The stuff in between the covers has panels with balloons and words in them, telling a story.

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Jayman

Jayman

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How it's changed for me:

Admittedly it's been years since I've gone to my local comic shop weekly on Wednesdays to pick up my books. Although I don't collect Moderns anymore and have stayed focused on vintage material, I do visit my old comic shops every couple of months as they are on the way to my dentist. I have been buying books for my grandkids such as Scooby Doo, Batman Adventures and even some dollar bin older reader books like Richie Rich, Hot Stuff and some good old Marvels.

 

To me I find it refreshing not visiting every week like I used to. Now I see so much new material on the shelves. I always wind up picking up two or three books for myself because there always seems to be some very good books out there mixed among the drek.

 

When I get home I wind up reading my books and the ones I bought for the kids before I give them to them. :devil::shy:

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Brandon Shepherd

Brandon Shepherd

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Whenever I read a popular series or storyline for the first time, like Alan Moore's run on Swamp Thing for example, I always wonder to myself how it must have felt to see these issues on the stands for the first time when they were new arrivals. I happened to be at my LCS last year at the right time when all the first DC Rebirth issues were released. These covers stood out to me and so I bought new books off the rack for the first time in almost a decade. Now I have a pull list and go every week or two.

 

What really keeps me is the nostalgia. Every time I go to pick up my new books, I almost always flash back to going to my LCS as a kid.

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NoMan

NoMan

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Whenever I read a popular series or storyline for the first time, like Alan Moore's run on Swamp Thing for example, I always wonder to myself how it must have felt to see these issues on the stands for the first time when they were new arrivals.

 

It was awesome! Time of my life! Reading Miller's Daredevil run, month after month. Moore's Swamp Thing. Dark Knight Returns was exploding. The Watchmen. Batman Year One.

 

It really was something else.

 

But by 1989 or so it crashed. Crashed hard. Got burned so bad I left the hobby for 27 years.

 

 

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aerischan

aerischan

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Story and art.

 

I have a few slabbed comics for preservation but I also have either raw, TPB or digital (sometimes all of the above) to actually read.

 

It's fun to see the tone difference too in comics, obviously a reflection of the changing times and social mores.

Being relatively on the younger side, writing on comics older than the 80s actually make me cringe sometimes. Granted, there are plenty of moderns that make me cringe, too, due to bad writing and/or art. However, we're getting hundreds of new comics a month and there are gems among the drek if you look.

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adampasz

adampasz

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In the last year I've become fascinated with vintage comics. They are little time capsules. Pick up any old book, and you can be fascinated by the ads, the paper, the creators' point of view, the historical context, and whatever your own nostalgia adds to the experience. Lately, I'm finding this way of reading comics so compelling, that I've given buying or reading anything in trades. There's something special about experiencing the original.

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