Survey on comic book reading.

[The Natural]

I just wonder how you read comic books past and present knowing we have a lot of people here who do.

 

When I was younger my first introduction to comic books was The Astonishing Spider-Man, a UK publication reprinting Spider-Man stories past. I got the series on and off. FYI the title still exists today. Sadly there wasn’t a Batman equivalent until a lot later, it would have been my preferred option.

 

I started getting into the books that collected comic book issues at bookshops from 2005 with the release of Batman Begins in the cinemas either I paid for or as gifts: Batman: Year One, Batman: The Long Halloween, The Killing Joke, The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Hush and The Amazing Spider-Man: Coming Home.

 

I hadn’t gone to the library in a long time till 2011 learning the library (cymbal crash) had built up quite a collection there and on the online library catalogue encompassing the wider local area. Thanks to the library I’ve managed to read books without spending my own money only to find out a book was a bust. I’ve read some books which were so brilliant, I got my own copies either as gifts or I bought myself. The books: Batman R.I.P., Batman and Robin: Batman Reborn, Batman and Robin: Batman vs. Robin, Batman and Robin: Batman and Robin Must Die, Batwoman: Elegy and American Vampire (Vol. 1-3).

 

I still regularly use the library. I also get Batman, a UK publication which reprints recent Batman stories. Batman usually prints three issues and it isn’t that far behind, four months which is fine. The Astonishing Spider-Man doesn’t compare well, it’s a lot behind as the latest issue printed The Superior Spider-Man #17 so it’s nine months behind! The Superior Spider-Man ended recently at #31. I get The Astonishing Spider-Man sometimes.

 

There is a comic book shop but it’s difficult to get to because of circumstances. I didn’t think one would come closer. By chance in late Feburary of this year, I went into town which is about fifteen minutes where I live and to my surprise/delight found a comic book store in the underground market was preparing to open the week after in early March.

 

With the comic book shop opening, I had to think about what to do as I was behind with my American Vampire and The Superior Spider-Man reading. Do I catch up and then get the single issues or jump ahead and catch back up? I decided to do the former for American Vampire as I only have one volume left before the current American Vampire: Second Cycle series. I’ve done the latter for The Superior Spider-Man as I’m three volumes behind. I read everything from Dan Slott as head writer on The Amazing Spider-Man/The Superior Spider-Man prior to it.

 

Since the comic book store opened I’ve ordered American Vampire (Vol. 5) getting it earlier than the place I used to go before this store arrived, bought a book I missed out on and some issues for my sick Mum.

 

The biggest thing of all took place last Thursday and that’s buying a comic on release for the first time from a comic book shop, The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 3)! It’s going to be something reading in real time as it happens. I’ll probably keep buying The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 3) as a big fan of Dan Slott’s Spidey run and Spider-Man: Learning to Crawl. Spider-Verse is a likely other. All these depend on quality and if I have the money for them.

 

Didn't expect this to go long like it has!

[odessasteps]

How i get my books now

1. Digital

2. LCS for trades or non digital issues

2-1/2. Amazon for expensive HC/tpb

3. BN for reading stuff i dont want to buy

4. Library

[The Z]

I've been reading comic books since around 1994/1995 and since I'm German, I read the German translations for the longest time.

During that time I visited the comic shop at least once a week, sometimes more often. That was pretty insane actually, since I live in a smalltown that obviously doesn't have a comic shop, so I had to take a 30 minute train ride to the nearest city and most of the time I would go just to the comic shop and straight back home.

 

I made the switch to the English originals somewhere around 8-9 years ago for a multitude of reasons:

1. Translations suck. Something always gets lost in translation.

2. Many books that interested me were not published in German and

3. The German comic books were getting more and more expensive and what you may not know is that we have a law here called the "Buchpreisbindungsgesetz", that basically forbids price reductions of books and magazines. That means no matter where or when you buy a book, you always have to pay the price that's printed on the cover.

 

Since making that switch I also made the switch to trade paperbacks and buying everything online, which is just the easiest and least expensive method for me. But ever since making that switch, I've also been lagging behind and still haven't been able to get caught up again.

 

Still not a fan of digital comic books, but I'm sure there'll come a day, when there's no way around it.

[Bustronaut]

I work behind the scenes in TV, thus I am poor, so:

 

1. "sharing with my peers"

2. Library

3. Comixology

4. Friends' Kickstarters

 

Although, most of the Big 2 output has fallen in quality that the kickstarters are rapidly gaining ground on the rest.

[The Natural]

Thanks everyone. Nice knowing how you go about reading comic books.

[WholeFnMachine]

I stared reading comics when I was 11, so we're talking 1987. There was a local comic book shop called Memory Bank (it's been gone for years) as well as an indoor flea market (which is no a Burlington Coat Factory) that had a great little book shop called Book Worms. The guy who owned Book Worms, Hal, was such a cool dude. They had a great selection of comics and role playing games and dice. My parents would go in there on my birthday & Christmas and he would hip them to all the shit I was into.

 

I stopped reading comics around 1990 or so and the DC New 52 reboot hauled me and my best friend back in. I walked into my local comic book shop, Best Comics International, had a chat with the guys there who were super nice & helpful. They suggested all the best of what I had missed while I was gone and my wife & family got me tons of trades from Amazon for Xmas and Birthdays. I picked up some back issues that I wanted from Midtown Comics as well as http://www.mycomicshop.com/.

 

I now have a ridiculously large pull list, I go to the shop every Wednesday and get my fix. I still get the occasional trade through Amazon or digitally from them or Comixology. I don't really get back issues anymore, but if I do I get them digitally for both cost and space reasons. 

[MushroomJones]

My only financial vice these days is comics. I'm a 95% print guy as some Monkeybrain stuff is digital only (so far). My purchases are primarily at my local comic shop, but I do dip into DCBService.com for some crazy deals on trades, hard covers and shirts.

[twiztor]

i don't really do the trade thing. i'd rather have the individual issues.

that being said, the only monthly books i buy are Nightwing/Grayson and Batgirl. and the MiracleMan reprints.  i will usually wait for a miniseries to end and then pick the entire thing up as well (recently, Wolverine Origins 2)

like Zeidler, most of what i read is thru "sharing with my peers", which has allowed me to read the entire history of Batman (starting with 1939, i'm currently in 1990), along with a TON of other things.

before i got a Kindle, i checked out a bunch of stuff from the Library (Alan Moore's complete run on Swamp Thing, for example)

 

i take my Kindle Fire with me everywhere. at work, i get 2 15 min breaks and a half hour. i will generally read an issue on each 15 minute break, and 2-3 on my lunch period. it's fantastic.

 

 

edit:

oh, i forgot to add my favorite comic, Batman '66. i purchase this digitally for every issue (bi-weekly). i also can't recommend it strongly enough.

[OSJ]

I'm not actually reading anything current for the first time in about forty years. I've found that it's much easier to wait for the trade paperbacks of stuff that I'm interested in. I did hear that there's yet another Moon Knight series, so I'll have to get that as he's the one character that I have the complete appearances of. (Why? I don't know, it seemed like a good idea at the time...) I'm having trouble even keeping up with the Masterworks that I'm interested in. Somehow I managed to miss Avengers #12 and much to my annoyance  it went op almost overnight and is now commanding goofy prices. I may just say the hell with it, as Vol #10 finishes replicating my original collection (and then some, since my Avengers collection started with issue #8, so the Masterworks fills in those early issue that I missed out on. Didn't actually buy any comics until 1967, but I was lucky enough that an older kid down the street was dumping his collection for cheap.

 

Far as contemporary stuff goes, I follow Astro City, but since everything comes out in hardcover, I've learned to be patient. Something will likely come along to draw me back in, but it will have to be JSA or Hawkman/girl related from DC or if Marvel gets smart and does either a Blazing Skull series or brings back a semblance of the original Thunderbolts. I have no interest in Avengers that don't feature Hank Pym or Thunderbolts that involve red Hulks. Never was a Fantastic Four guy, but thanks to the Masterworks I've been catching up on all of Kirby's awesome work on that book.

[supremebve]

I'm exclusively a Comixology user, and I'm probably more invested in comics now than I've ever been.  I have a Kindle Fire and it's to the point that I will try just about any comic I'm remotely interested in.  The comics I'm most invested in right now are Saga, The Wake, and Ms. Marvel as well as catching up to Thor: God of Thunder, Superior Spider-Man, and Batman. 

[Bustronaut]

twiztor, on 07 May 2014 - 11:21 AM, said:

like Zeidler, most of what i read is thru "sharing with my peers"

 

You send packages of comics to friends in a chain-letteresque comics club too?  Neat!

[Cliff Hanger]

After 16 years of having a pull list consistently no matter where I lived or how little money I had, I went digital-only in 2012. (I would've done it in 2010 when Longview, TX's only comics shop closed down, but instead I tried and failed to survive off Hastings and mail order until I moved to Austin the following spring since same-day digital wasn't a thing yet.) My list is significantly smaller than it was ten years ago, but I still spend about $75/month just keeping up with Atomic Robo, the Transformers books, the half of Valiant that I read and the 4-5 Marvel books I still follow (though I'm pruning a lot of Marvel as arcs end; pretty soon I'll be down to Daredevil, X-Factor, Avengers Undercover and wherever Hank Pym ends up now that AvAI is dead). Every once in a while I swear I'm going to cut back to being 30 days behind to save money, but something always comes out that I jump on to read at lunch or on the bus and I end up catching up on everything. I also keep swearing I'm going to buy more non-cape, creator owned stuff, but aside from new Bagge or Dorkin I always end up waiting for a big sale. (I still need to get Buddy Buys a Dump)

 

I also subscribe to Marvel Unlimited, which is the main reason I'm not buying *more* Marvel books. If other publishers did something similar at a similar price ($70/yr) I'd probably sign up for those too. (Hell, I was a charter subscriber to Crossgen's Comics On the Web) I generally find well-produced digital WAY easier to read than print, since most of my print finds itself under a CCTV enlarger anyway. The problem is that so much of it is poorly transferred, guided view tends to suck on almost any non-Comixology platform and a lot of what I'd really like to get has fallen into rights holes or just generally has a potential reissue audience of one. And since the bigs are so reluctant to offer bundle pricing on long-past back issues, that $2 an issue of LSH would cost me is the same as a back issue of Saga or Revival or whatever other Image book I keep meaning to close my gap on.

 

ETA: The history thing! First comic I ever remember getting was a Casper when I was 4. I don't remember anything about the comic, just that it had Casper on the cover. Transformers was the first thing I ever bought two months in a row, when I was 9 or so, and I was an irregular reader for the next decade. I'd go to the grocery store until they stopped carrying comics, then Waldenbooks or Hastings later, and if I saw an issue of Quasar or Guardians of the Galaxy or X-Factor I'd buy it. My first attempt at being a weekly customer was in August of 96; I bought three books, all of which ended up being the final chapters of stories (Karl Kesel and Cary Nord's Mr. Hyde story in Daredevil, "Race Against Time" in Flash and the Emerald Vi saga in LSH). It's weird, but I think getting the last chapters of those stories before the first did a lot to hook me in a way that getting on the ground floor might not have. I was at worst a monthly supporter of the shop wherever I happened to be, and weekly when bus routes, work, etc. permitted it, until digital finally got to the point where I could no longer justify a 50-minute bus ride each way twice a month to get from the ass end of Austin to 51st.

[Justin877]

Long story short, I started reading comics as a kid 3rd-4th grade.  Mainly picking them up at flea markets, yard sales, and of course trips to the minute market which had a spinner rack.  I read them off and on, but stopped seriously collecting until I found Wizard Magazine and the whole IMAGE comics thing brought me back in.  For the most part I began a strong collecting hobby again.

 

I have had breaks off and on since then ( due to $ issues, not finding anything that interests me , etc....).  Between my utter disdain for the guy who runs the LCS and my intense desire not to give him much of my money and DC New 52 (which subsequently killed any DC purchases).  I just buy sporadic issues mainly.  I am a life long comics fan but I am out of the "addict" phase

[JRGoldman]

Once Love & Rockets went trade only, I decided to go trades only for everything. Because of that (plus not really enjoying Fraction's run on DD) I stopped picking up super hero titles for a long time. Now I buy so infrequently that I can afford to pay a few extra dollars and support the LCS over Anazon for my needs. I basically buy L&R, Fables, and anything that gets a stellar review. Saga, for example.

[Swift]

 

3. The German comic books were getting more and more expensive and what you may not know is that we have a law here called the "Buchpreisbindungsgesetz", that basically forbids price reductions of books and magazines. That means no matter where or when you buy a book, you always have to pay the price that's printed on the cover.

 

I'm curious about this. I presume by "price on the cover" you mean the recommended retail price. Does it apply to second hand book shops? Charity book sales?

[The Z]

 

 

3. The German comic books were getting more and more expensive and what you may not know is that we have a law here called the "Buchpreisbindungsgesetz", that basically forbids price reductions of books and magazines. That means no matter where or when you buy a book, you always have to pay the price that's printed on the cover.

 

I'm curious about this. I presume by "price on the cover" you mean the recommended retail price. Does it apply to second hand book shops? Charity book sales?

 

 

Yes, the publisher has to set the price for the book and the retailers have to sell it for that price, whether it's Amazon or the Mom and Pop bookstore next door.

It only applies to commercially sold books. If I as a private person want to sell a used book on ebay or at a flea market, I can sell it for whatever price I want.

There's a loophole for retailers, too, which allows them to reduce books in price. Basically they are allowed to sell books cheaper, if the book has some kind of faults and a scratch on the cover or something like that is already damage enough for that to apply. So, obviously they just scratch the books themselves a little and sell them as "damaged books". I don't know, if the law loosened up a bit in that regard, because when I was young I didn't see that a lot, but nowadays when you enter a bookstore, there's always a large bin with "damaged" books.

 

The idea behind the law is pretty noble actually. It's supposed to level the playing-field between popular books and books by lesser known or new authors. The idea being that a book by an unknown author wouldn't have a chance on the market, if Harry Potter was sold for cheap. I don't know, if it's ever been proven that this actually works, but it's been around forever.

[bobholly138]

Been reading comics for right at 36 years now. Started off just grabbing stuff at the grocery or drug store.By the time I was 5 I had subscriptions to 10 or so titles from Marvel. It wasn't until I was about 12 that I found a comic shop. It was right at 1 1/2 hours away. So I wasn't there often.

 

Before the comic shop my local library had a comics trading box.I would hit yardsales and talk to friends. Getting all the old comics they didn't want and trading them for stuff.

 

Once I was out of the service I moved to Texas and had 3 good shops near me. But once I moved back to MS my nearest shop is almost 2 hours away. So now I get all my trades and hardcovers from Instocktrades. Single issues I order from Mycomicshop, Or just wait and grab them at a con.

 

Haven't went digital yet. Doubt I ever do.

[Justin877]

Since May things have changed quite a bit.  I still buy a few comics here and there.  Not a monthly Previews guy that has to know what is coming out and all the hype behind it.  The last comics I bought were the first 2 issues of The Shadow/Grendel crossover (hey it is Grendel and Matt Wagner pencils/writing)

 

I have bit the digital bullet somewhat.  All of the Marvel comics I have read since August have been entirely on the Marvel Unlimited App.  I love it and wish that DC would create such a platform (more of a DC reader than Marvel anyway, or at least I was)

[OSJ]

Things that could make me start buying again:

 

Roger Aubrey finally calls it quits and we get a new Destroyer.

A Blazing Skull series. Hell, let me write it (Marvel, are you listening?)

DC throws out their latest reboot and gives me back my JSA.

 

Of course, none of this is likely to happen so I'll go read my Spirit Archives... (Just finished the set!)