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A Return to Single Issues.

Everyone knows I’ve always been into comics. My love affair started when I was a child, but it wasn’t until I discovered Usagi Yojimbo and TMNT in fifth grade that I started spending my own money on new comic issues. Like many children, my allowance was based on how many chores I performed each week. My parents had a weekly table that listed all the chores and my theoretical maximum allowance (I think it was $7). For every chore I missed, I would lose a few cents. I tried to get them all done, but inevitably I came out closer to $5 than $7 and that meant that comics were a luxury that I could only barely afford. But I did the best I could and I collected all the way up to high school.

I gave up comic collecting for two reasons. Primarily, I lost interest in superhero comics. This isn’t very surprising as the ’90s were a dreary time for comics. Everything became so extreme and gimmicky. The other reason is that I discovered the joy of making music and I needed every dollar for gear. Comics sort of floated in the back of my mind, but I didn’t spend any money on them.

Then sometime in 2004 or so I discovered Marvel’s Ultimate Universe. All the series were relatively new and I could easily keep up with the continuity. I still didn’t have cash to spend on comics, but by then I was using bittorrent and I found the DCP comic scans. My appetite for comics became voracious. As time went on I started buying trades of the Ultimate X-Men comics and then the Fantastic Four. But via DCP, I was already dipping into the original Marvel titles and even some DC. The addiction deepened.

The final straw was last year (I think). My friend Shad (from LiveJournal) sent us a box with an instant collection of comics. It had 52, Batman, Superman, X-Men, and many others. Many I’d never heard of. I had gotten used to reading comics on my PC (which I still do), but I totally forgot what it was like to hold and read single issues in your hands. I missed the little obsessive pleasure of putting a crisp new comic in a bag and board. I found myself thinking about the joy my old comic collection brought me and I realized that I was finally in an economic position that a weekly trip to the comic shop was no big financial burden. So I picked up the latest arcs for my favorite titles and I haven’t looked back.

Trades are nice. They look nice on the shelf and are easy to loan to friends. But I don’t like waiting for them. If you want to read a recent arc, you usually have to wait few months after the last issue is printed and even then you have to avoid comic sites and podcasts unless you want to have the stories spoiled for you. I love the Wednesday trip to the comic shop  to pick up the next issues in the various titles I’m collecting. I’m only following 5 or 6 comics right now and that breaks down to less than $10 a week. I usually spend more than that on burritos! I’ve also found that comics go for pennies on ebay. I recently picked up a complete run of Shadowpact and 36 issues of X-Men Vol. 2 for under $30.

If you haven’t been to a comic shop in a while I suggest you do. It’s a great time to be a comic fan.