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What's Your Ritual?
WiseManTobes
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
What's your ritual.
I've noticed over the years at this forum, some have switched to digital, some still old school, but the main thing we all seem to have in common is regular reading and a love for what we choose.
So I was curious, what's everyone's buying/ordering/reading ( and others I haven't thought of ) rituals.
Buying/Ordering:
This is the same for me, I've had the same LCS since my early teens, and am treated like family nowadays by the 2nd owner, ( mostly because I'm one of the few customers who treats his disabled wife like a person, and I never understood why others didn't cause she's an awesome person, and can downright kick my ass at M:tG, something even the owner can't say)
So these years of relationship has given me a LCS owner that knows my traits better than me, ( and I call him a bastard for it some days, cause he'll always have something I wasn't expecting to buy, but he knows I can't resist heh)
I do my comic stack pickup usually Bi-monthly, on heavy work months I will let it go monthly so I have a big chunk when the days off finally hit.
And every time I still wince just a little when I first notice how overflowing my pull bin is.
(And my LCS guy, loves you guys even tho he's never visited the forums, cause he knows you are where a lot of my Indy additions to the pull, and the slow inclusion of DC that's now on the same pull rate of Marvel)
Reading:
I will resist all temptation until I know I have a good hour or 2 to dive in
I'll do a quick sort, putting any 2 issues that may have built up in a series, then into a reading order, then I will just plow thru like a kid on a halloween sugar high getting the gist, then will start over with a re-read proper and slowlike. ( even bad stuff, it's very rare I won't reread a comic at least in this first stage, and won't mention what didn't make a 2nd read, cause both rare, and off topic anyway)
Any new Cliffhangers/Resolved Cliffhangers send me to the storage room, where the boxes of proof of addiction await!, and dig out a few previous issues or if I have it a connecting tpb ( I buy in singles, but prefer to grab TPB's as well when I can for the stuff I know I'll read a lot)
Then after 2nd/3rd read and I am ready to collapse in a Comic Overdose Bliss State, time for the Boards!
Board Aversion:
Weds are my aversion days for the boards, especially if it's not a week I pick up, you guys are great with spoiler tags, but I am not so great at resisting clicking them!
So what's your rituals?
I've noticed over the years at this forum, some have switched to digital, some still old school, but the main thing we all seem to have in common is regular reading and a love for what we choose.
So I was curious, what's everyone's buying/ordering/reading ( and others I haven't thought of ) rituals.
Buying/Ordering:
This is the same for me, I've had the same LCS since my early teens, and am treated like family nowadays by the 2nd owner, ( mostly because I'm one of the few customers who treats his disabled wife like a person, and I never understood why others didn't cause she's an awesome person, and can downright kick my ass at M:tG, something even the owner can't say)
So these years of relationship has given me a LCS owner that knows my traits better than me, ( and I call him a bastard for it some days, cause he'll always have something I wasn't expecting to buy, but he knows I can't resist heh)
I do my comic stack pickup usually Bi-monthly, on heavy work months I will let it go monthly so I have a big chunk when the days off finally hit.
And every time I still wince just a little when I first notice how overflowing my pull bin is.
(And my LCS guy, loves you guys even tho he's never visited the forums, cause he knows you are where a lot of my Indy additions to the pull, and the slow inclusion of DC that's now on the same pull rate of Marvel)
Reading:
I will resist all temptation until I know I have a good hour or 2 to dive in
I'll do a quick sort, putting any 2 issues that may have built up in a series, then into a reading order, then I will just plow thru like a kid on a halloween sugar high getting the gist, then will start over with a re-read proper and slowlike. ( even bad stuff, it's very rare I won't reread a comic at least in this first stage, and won't mention what didn't make a 2nd read, cause both rare, and off topic anyway)
Any new Cliffhangers/Resolved Cliffhangers send me to the storage room, where the boxes of proof of addiction await!, and dig out a few previous issues or if I have it a connecting tpb ( I buy in singles, but prefer to grab TPB's as well when I can for the stuff I know I'll read a lot)
Then after 2nd/3rd read and I am ready to collapse in a Comic Overdose Bliss State, time for the Boards!
Board Aversion:
Weds are my aversion days for the boards, especially if it's not a week I pick up, you guys are great with spoiler tags, but I am not so great at resisting clicking them!
So what's your rituals?
Steam! Battlenet:Wisemantobes#1508
WiseManTobes on
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I generally try to stay away from GV on Wednesdays unless I'm subbing for one of the regulars who do the MoTW threads, or unless I read about a particularly good moment and HAVE to contribute right then and there.
I have no idea how I'll survive if that's disrupted next semester.
What it was when I first got back into things, and what it is now, is that I have a local LCS that I've been going to since I was 11 or so. I didn't get into buying single issues until late 2008/early 2009, so I used to go there all the time for Manga, then trades, the collectibles. Now it's just for single issues from them. I have a pull there, but long before I had one I was usually able to come in around lunchtime on Wednesday and get what I wanted. I'm normally there around 1 or 2 PM, and even when I worked I was normally able to pop in and out quickly around that time.
Once I have my books, I might stop for thai food if I have the cash, and then I immediately go home and read everything, usually with my most-excited for book at the top of the pile, and my second most-excited for book at the bottom to keep myself psyched the whole way through.
When I transferred to a four year school in Fall 09, I didn't have a reliable LCS up there so I used HeavyInk for almost two years (and then TFAW for a few months after we found out the owner was insane). The first semester this worked well, because my classes were easy and I had a more relaxed social life, so I would get my comics about a week late, and spend most of an entire night reading through them. The second semester my classes were still pretty simple, but I met my ex-girlfriend and another friend of mine moved in with me, so my social life became a bit more hectic and I had to find room to squeeze my books in. On holidays, HeavyInk's awesome order cancellation policy let me pick up books at my LCS.
My second and also last year of university was another story. My classes became much more difficult, and although I kept buying a large pull of books, I literally didn't have time to read many of them. At first I kept reading things I was super excited for (the ending of Batman & Robin, Brightest Day & JLI:GL, Fantastic Four, Green Lantern, Avengers), but once Batman and Robin ended I more or less stopped reading and let everything stack. That last Fall was the most difficult time of my life academically, and so the ending of Batman & Robin timed super well with me just being slaughtered by school work.
So I didn't have time to catch up on my stuff until May when I graduated and used the last few weeks of my lease to catch up on my books.
During that whole two year period, I'd avoid threads on the forums for things I was really excited about, as well as all MotW threads.
During summer I moved home and hit my LCS between shifts again. Then I moved to a new city with a university that I had hopped to attend for grad classes in the spring. They had the biggest, nicest shop I have ever been to, and their pull customers get 20% off of any new products (all products) that come out each week. It was an awesome place, but it was so sprawling and they also had their well-attended M:TG nights on Wednesday, so buying books each week became a small hassle. Either way, getting books weekly again for the summer and fall let me get back into the forum even more, and I was able to start the DCnU threads and keep up with everything on Flashpoint and the relaunch.
Unfortunately after two weeks in that new city, my GF/roommate left me for my very best friend, totally crushing my dreams and forcing me to move back home. So I'm back to my original LCS again, picking up my books each Wednesday and reading them immediately. None of my options right now allow for me to leave this area at all (I am still locked into my old lease indefinitely), so I'll be sticking with this for awhile.
I use comixology a little now, and I've started buying the JLA combo packs. Moving so often (3 times in four months) made me realize how hard it is to keep ongoing singles organized, and how much of a total pain in the ass trades are to move around with me. I'm hoping to get a kindle fire by Christmas, and if I manage that, I will be moving most of my trade-wait reading over to digital.
TL;DR: I have an LCS that I have used at home since childhood into my community college years. As an undergrad in a rural town, I used Heavy Ink, but eventually got too busy to read regularly. As a grad student in waiting in a medium city, I found my dream shop, but lost it when my relationship disintegrated and I had to move back home. Now I'm back to my first LCS, but considering moving some stuff to digital.
For digital titles I feel no pressure to buy them all on Wednesday (and besides, I'm a month behind anyway to get them all for a dollar off). I get them on comixology on my iPad throughout the week whenever I have time and feel like reading a new comic. It's nice that way.
For trades I order from Amazon since they always offer steep discounts and deals.
But now with digital I'm kind of up in the air about how to go. The only reason I'm really buying some DC floppies is because I have to go to the store to buy some Marvel stuff anyway, so why not buy the newest Batman that is totally going to be worth a million dollars in fifty years. But now with Marvel announcing day and date too, and Image and the smaller publishers being digital, I guess I'd go to the LCS only when I'm hunting for some back issues or looking for a trade or HC. Even crunching the numbers financially it's up in the air, because the discount I get on my comics equals roughly the sales tax I don't have to pay going through comixology plus the convenience of not storing floppies.