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The Act of Reading Comics
Lucascraft
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I've been wondering how other people read their weekly comics compared to how I read mine. This thread will probably never see much attention or many posts, simply because it is a topic that is probably very easily exhausted. But none-the-less, I will post my thoughts on the subject of reading comics and see what other people have to say.
First of all, some questions:
Are there certain comics that you prioritize each month as being the first comic you will always read, no matter what?
As a follow-up to the above question, here is a second: Are there certain authors, artists, characters, or labels that you always read first? What about special event comics such as Secret Invasion and Final Crisis? Do these comics receive special treatment?
Do you read your entire weekly pull in one sitting, or in one day, or do you pace yourself and make them last until the next Wednesday?
Does your interest in which comics you read first depend on your interest from the previous month, or is it based solely upon the current issue? Does the cover art influence your reading order? Do comics with a really cool cover design get a higher priority than one with an average cover?
*************************************************************
Now that I've asked my questions, here are my own opinions and habits.
I tend to favor comics, not based on the writer, but based on the character. Daredevil is always my highest priority. Period. If I get a DD comic in any given week, it will always be the first thing I read. Green Lantern is my second highest priority and Captain America is my third.
Outside of those three, my second instinct when reading comics is based on my interest level from previous months. Currently I'm pretty hooked on the Batman RIP story arc, and I tend to favor reading Batman over others, since my interest level in the story is high. But in months past, before RIP, I was not in the habit of reading Batman first.
As far as author favoritism goes, I would say that my favorite writer currently is Ed Brubaker and my second favorite is Geoff Johns. It works out rather nicely that my favorite writers are also writing my favorite heroes. But I would still read Daredevil first, even if Brubaker was not on the book. However, because Brubaker is writing Uncanny X-Men, and Johns is writing Action Comics, I tend to read those sooner than other books, simply because I know I'm in for a good story.
So how about the rest of you. What actually goes into the act of reading comics for you?
First of all, some questions:
Are there certain comics that you prioritize each month as being the first comic you will always read, no matter what?
As a follow-up to the above question, here is a second: Are there certain authors, artists, characters, or labels that you always read first? What about special event comics such as Secret Invasion and Final Crisis? Do these comics receive special treatment?
Do you read your entire weekly pull in one sitting, or in one day, or do you pace yourself and make them last until the next Wednesday?
Does your interest in which comics you read first depend on your interest from the previous month, or is it based solely upon the current issue? Does the cover art influence your reading order? Do comics with a really cool cover design get a higher priority than one with an average cover?
*************************************************************
Now that I've asked my questions, here are my own opinions and habits.
I tend to favor comics, not based on the writer, but based on the character. Daredevil is always my highest priority. Period. If I get a DD comic in any given week, it will always be the first thing I read. Green Lantern is my second highest priority and Captain America is my third.
Outside of those three, my second instinct when reading comics is based on my interest level from previous months. Currently I'm pretty hooked on the Batman RIP story arc, and I tend to favor reading Batman over others, since my interest level in the story is high. But in months past, before RIP, I was not in the habit of reading Batman first.
As far as author favoritism goes, I would say that my favorite writer currently is Ed Brubaker and my second favorite is Geoff Johns. It works out rather nicely that my favorite writers are also writing my favorite heroes. But I would still read Daredevil first, even if Brubaker was not on the book. However, because Brubaker is writing Uncanny X-Men, and Johns is writing Action Comics, I tend to read those sooner than other books, simply because I know I'm in for a good story.
So how about the rest of you. What actually goes into the act of reading comics for you?
Lucascraft on
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Unless it's Powers. Powers comes first because it's Powers.
Recently I've been finding myself becomming less and less interested in my comics so I pretty much read the few I'm excited about and then the rest end up laying around for a week to a month. I've also begun just putting the ones I don't want to read too badly in the bathroom. Because, as I poop, I am a captive audience.
I do this a lot. Especially since it's so rare to find satisfying stories that are done in one issue.
When I get them home, I pick a few that I really want to read or am looking forward to, then split that pile in two. Half goes on the top of the main weekly pile to start me off, half goes at the bottom to give me something to look forward to / work towards.
As for priority, author very rarely factors into it, but character does heavily. Anything involving Iron Fist or the Thunderbolts will get read first, followed by X-Men and Spiderman, after that its pretty much just what order they happen to have been put in the bag.
Do you do this weekly? If so, that has to be a shitload of comics, and money.
I hate don't like being behind, and hate later finding out about good comics I missed that aren't collected in trades, but I don't read singles at all. I think the last single that I bought was an x-men comic that had wolverine and nightcrawler talking in a bar. The cover was a poorly drawn, jagged picture of just nightcrawler's tail and bamf smoke. I read it in BAM one day and thought the story was exceptionally good and stand-alone so i bought it. then later lost it.
What are comics nowadays, 3 bucks, 3.50? Do they still print adverts in comics?
Captain America, Green Lantern, Criminal and Glamourpuss are the things which I read first nowadays (if they're out). Unless I've bought a TP or an OGN, in which case I might crack on with them.
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
Now I buy comics a lot less frequently, usually on the order of once a month. There are still books that I'll read as soon as I get them (right now, Echo, RASL, and Perhapanauts are the ones that come to mind), but a lot of my other comics just go into a huge stack that I read through (by series) when the stack gets too huge. And to give you an idea of how big the stack gets -- more than once I've had a full year's worth of issues. I should really just switch to buying trades, but after almost two decades of subscribing at one store, it's hard to pull the plug.
I'm on the fence right now about what I should really follow from month to month and what I should just buy in trades. I tend to favor art first and reliable writers second, but on something like Cable or X-force that I just want to look at, I just wait for the trades.
I ended up buying the first 7 trades of new avengers, for instance, then started following them monthly. It seems weird to have 7 trades and then a bunch of bagged single issues. If I end up buying the following trades, what do I do with these singles? Give them away?
Alternatively, pay a bookbinder to collect your issues into hardcovers. People actually do this, especially for books that will probably never be collected (Hitman is a popular one among the people I know).
I'm a bit depressed that I just found out four of my current favorite books (Manhunter, Blue Beetle, BoP, and Nightwing) have been canceled by DC, so in the future the amount of single issues I get will definitely be going down.
It's like sex for your eyeballs. You start out slow, and then work your way up to the climax. It's all about the pacing.