Today, I'd like to discuss a service offered by most comic-book shops that is used by many customers: the "pull list." I'm going to discuss that service because of an argument I started having on a comic-based blog, and the irresponsible attitude taken by one or two of the folks there.
First, a little history. Originally, comic-books were printed on pulp paper, very cheaply, and sold for a few cents. When I was growing up, comics could be had for 30-40 cents, depending on the exact year. They were mass-marketed through news stands, much like regular newspapers, and the rules for selling and distributing were very similar. The distributor would bring the news stand its allotment, and the news stand put them out. The news stand owner could return all unsold copies, and was not financially responsible for them. Now, to be sure, the owner wanted to sell them -- he made a small profit on each one, so comics did make him some money. But if he didn't sell some, it was no skin off his nose -- ultimately, the cost of unsold comics was borne by DC, Marvel, and the distributors.
Then in the 1980s, comic-book specialty shops started springing up with more and more frequency (I remember when the first one opened in around 1981 in my local mall). These shops were not news stands. They would get comics directly from the companies (these were called "direct sales"), and sell them to the customers. Because of the differences in distribution, direct-sales shops could not return unsold quantities of comics. Therefore, they had to order the number they wanted, pay for each one they ordered, and then hope to sell each and every one. Unlike the news stand, comic-shop owners took a loss from every unsold copy.
Showing posts with label Comic shops. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Comic shops. Show all posts
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Digital or Paper? What’s the best way to read comics?
When comic-books first started being published, they were produced on cheap, pulpy paper -- the same type of material used by newspaper companies. In those days, it never occurred to anyone that comic-books would become a collector's item. They were, like newspapers, something most people read once and tossed aside, usually making it into the trash or the stack of newspapers destined to be recycled. Therefore, companies continued, for many years, to print comics using the cheapest methods available. Comic-books were mass produced, delivered in large volumes to news-stands, just the way newspapers were, and unsold books were returned to the distributor for destruction (a fact that has made many modern comic-book collectors weep whenever they think about it). As time went by, and the cost of printing and distributing comic-books slowly increased, the price of comics went up. What started out costing 5 cents rose to 10 cents, then 20 cents, and beyond. By the mid-70s, comics cost 35 cents. By the early 80s they were 60 cents, then 75 cents, and by the early 1990s they were $1.00.
As the price increased past 60 cents, however, other things changed about comic-books. The more expensive books were printed on higher-quality paper, which held colors better and lasted longer. By now, comic-book companies and readers alike realized that these products were collectibles, and comics were no longer treated as throw-away items. At the same time as better materials were being introduced, the comic-book companies shifted distribution methods to direct sales, eliminating the middle-man and selling their product directly through specialized "comic shops." Gradually, comic-books became a high-quality specialty item.
Over the years, the quality of paper and the color fidelity of the printing process have increased, and along with those things, so has the price. Today, a new comic-book costs $3.99 generally (though some are still offered at the lower $2.99 rate), four times what they cost in 1990, and 80 times what they cost originally. But along the way, something different and interesting began to happen: comics started going digital.
For the last several years, major publishers have been offering most of their titles in two formats - the standard print format, and the digital format. Digital comics are offered for sale directly from the company's website, and read using their app, or they can be purchased from a third-party vendor who offers products from many companies. Probably the highest-volume third-party vendor is +comiXology , which offers comic-books for sale the same day as print availability for all the major companies, including +DC Comics , +Marvel Entertainment , Image, Valiant, Dynamite, IDW, and others. Comic-books can be read through a web browser, or can be viewed using ComiXology's app on both Android and iOS systems.
There are many differences between print and digital comic-books, and like many people, I have vacillated back and forth between which one I prefer. Each format offers both advantages and disadvantages. So which one is right for you? Below, I will discuss the different aspects of comic-book collecting and which format I think has the advantage in each category..
There are probably other aspects of reading and collecting comic-books that I haven't mentioned, but I think I will stop there.
Hopefully, my list makes one thing clear: the digital/paper question has no easy answer. Each format wins about half the categories. Print seems to have a slight edge, but I would argue that the edge is illusory, because at least one category, "displaying the collection," only applies to a handful of people. For example, I have it in the back of my head to one day make a large display of Supergirl comic-books and paraphernalia, but how many people have both the space and the desire to do so? I suspect that the "display" category applies to so few people that it is not worth a full "point" in favor of the print format. Therefore, the two formats are essentially tied. Neither is clearly superior to the other.
So what does that mean for me? Well, for the moment, I am a hybrid collector. The majority my current collecting is done digitally, with only three exceptions right now - Supergirl, Batgirl, and Justice League (and of those, JL may not stay "print-worthy" for long; I'm on the fence about it). All the other current books I'm collecting are digital. For back issues, I am getting digital versions of some (those that exist), but I have no choice but to obtain hard copies of the older Supergirl volumes (1, 2, and 4). Supergirl volume 5 exists digitally, but also can be found in relatively inexpensive trade paperbacks, and since I am going to make a Supergirl display, I will probably get that series in print (though 51-67 do not exist as trades, so those may end up being electronic purchases). Therefore, I see strengths and weaknesses of both formats, and until one is a clear winner, I will continue to collect comic-books both ways.
I hope, gentle reader, that you found this article informative and useful, if you are trying to make up your mind about digital vs. print format for your comic-books. Feel free to leave comments if you would like to add your thoughts on the matter.
As the price increased past 60 cents, however, other things changed about comic-books. The more expensive books were printed on higher-quality paper, which held colors better and lasted longer. By now, comic-book companies and readers alike realized that these products were collectibles, and comics were no longer treated as throw-away items. At the same time as better materials were being introduced, the comic-book companies shifted distribution methods to direct sales, eliminating the middle-man and selling their product directly through specialized "comic shops." Gradually, comic-books became a high-quality specialty item.
Over the years, the quality of paper and the color fidelity of the printing process have increased, and along with those things, so has the price. Today, a new comic-book costs $3.99 generally (though some are still offered at the lower $2.99 rate), four times what they cost in 1990, and 80 times what they cost originally. But along the way, something different and interesting began to happen: comics started going digital.
For the last several years, major publishers have been offering most of their titles in two formats - the standard print format, and the digital format. Digital comics are offered for sale directly from the company's website, and read using their app, or they can be purchased from a third-party vendor who offers products from many companies. Probably the highest-volume third-party vendor is +comiXology , which offers comic-books for sale the same day as print availability for all the major companies, including +DC Comics , +Marvel Entertainment , Image, Valiant, Dynamite, IDW, and others. Comic-books can be read through a web browser, or can be viewed using ComiXology's app on both Android and iOS systems.
There are many differences between print and digital comic-books, and like many people, I have vacillated back and forth between which one I prefer. Each format offers both advantages and disadvantages. So which one is right for you? Below, I will discuss the different aspects of comic-book collecting and which format I think has the advantage in each category..
- Space - Probably the largest advantage of digital comic-books is space: electronic space is easy to come by; you never run out of it; and it takes up essentially no physical space in your house, apartment, or condominium. For those of us pressed for space, or even people with space who hate the idea of having stacks of ugly comic-book boxes in their house digital comics offer the ability to store hundreds or thousands of comic-books in a space no bigger than your Nexus 7 (or your laptop, or desktop computer, etc). Winner: Digital. (Score: Digital 1, Print 0)
- Print quality/fidelity - With the ultra-high-resolution graphics available on most of today's tablet PCs, smartphones, and computers, the image quality can be extremely high, and is usually equal to or in some cases even superior to print resolution. Misprints, smudges, color-bleed-through, and other errors that can occur on the printed page do not exist in a digital comic-book. At this point, if you want to see the image exactly as the creators intended it to look, digital is your best bet. Winner: Digital. (Score: Digital 2, Print 0).
- Condition - Another great thing about digital comics is that they will forever be in mint condition. There is no fading, degrading, folding, tearing, bending, loosening of staples, or other damage possible to a digital book. You can read a digital comic 1,000 times and it will still be in the same pristine condition as the first time you read it. The same simply cannot be said for a physical comic-book. Winner: Digital (Score: Digital 3, Print 0).
- Single-panel reading - At some point or other, every comic-book fan has had the suspense ruined by turning a page and seeing something a few panels ahead that simply stands out too much not to notice it. The eye can take in panels "out of order" on a printed page. Reading apps for digital comic-books can be set to only show you one panel at a time. This allows you to zoom into the individual panel, magnifying it even past how large the printed size would have been (for small panels), and prevents you from accidentally seeing "spoilers." Winner: Digital. (Score: Digital 4, Print 0).
- Gap-free runs - Most comic-book collectors try to get "runs" of comic-books -- long sequences of consecutively numbered issues (for example, I have a run of 45 straight Thor issues from #337 - #382). When you are collecting digital comic-books, it is not possible to miss any issues. You can buy them any time, and download them immediately. Twenty issues behind on Detective Comics? No problem, just go to the Detective Comics series page and buy the missing ones. With digital comics, you won't have any gaps in your runs. With print comics, having long, gap-free runs becomes more difficult the longer the run lasts. Winner: Digital. (Score: Digital 5, Print 0).
- Sense of accomplishment - On the other hand, although the OCD in me likes having gap-free runs, I have to admit that the sense of accomplishment one gets from having physically located and purchased every single Thor from #337-#382, or every single one of the New 52 Supergirl issues does not exist in the digital format. There's no challenge to collecting a comic-book digitally. There is a certain "thrill of the hunt" feel to searching through racks of back-issues to find that last, missing copy that completes your run. For example, when I started physically collecting the new Supergirl, it was on issue #15. My comic-book shop had most of the back-issues, but they did not have #7 or #14. I was able to order #14 online, but not #7 (at the time). I then went to three other comic-book shops nearby, and finally, after a month of searching, I found one last remaining copy of #7 at the last shop I visited. It was like finding buried treasure, in a way. That sense of accomplishment simply does not exist for digital comics. Want it? Download it. And I like the sense of accomplishment. Winner: Print. (Score: Digital 5, Print 1).
- Lack of digital oldies - Although the comic-companies are slowly uploading digital versions of older titles (and +Marvel Entertainment is doing a much better job of this than DC), the fact remains that many older titles simply do not exist in digital format yet. If you want to read The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl, for example (from 1982), you will not find it online. And although many X-men issues have been uploaded, at the time of this writing, #70-#100 are all missing, as are many in the 100s, 200s, and 300s. So if you are interested in older stories, many can only be found in print format (either original issues or, in some cases, reprinted as trade paperbacks or bound collections). The fact remains that 100% of all published comics can at least theoretically be found in print (though of course, not always easily), whereas only a tiny percentage of the older books (and by "older," I mean anything more than about eight years old) have yet been digitized. Winner: Print (Score: Digital 5, Print 2).
- Sense of layout - Although you can (and I do) set your comic-reading app to show you the entire page before going on to the next one, one of the disadvantages of single-panel reading is that it obstructs the sense of how an artist lays out the entire page, or the two facing pages, that you are reading. Today's artists often do some very clever and innovative things with the panel layout to help the story along, but these are hard to appreciate on a tablet or even the computer screen. One can avoid the single-panel reading method, but that loses one of the big advantages of the digital format. Thus, the printed page still gives the best sense of the layout. Winner: Print (Score: Digital 5, Print 3).
- Splash pages - Splash pages (when the whole page is one panel) and double-splash pages (when two facing pages are combined to make a single panel) are impossible to appreciate fully on a tablet or a smartphone, and even on a computer screen are hard to truly appreciate. Similar to getting a sense of the layout, it's much easier to appreciate a full-page spread on the printed page. Winner: Print. (Score: Digital 5, Print 4).
- Cost - Digital comics have absolutely no value. They cannot be loaned, borrowed, traded, swapped, or sold. You own them forever. Therefore, there is never any chance of your comics increasing in price and being worth enough to sell. On the other hand, digital back-issues never cost any more either. You want that first issue of Uncanny X-men from 1961? The physical copy will probably cost you $1,000 or maybe even more (depending on its condition). The digital copy costs $1.99. Conversely, if you had a print version of X-men #1 you could sell it in the future and make some money, whereas the digital version is effectively unalienable. Winner: Draw. (Score: Digital 5, Print 4).
- Sharing/Loaning/Borrowing - Once again, at this time digital comics cannot be traded, swapped, borrowed, or shared. This is a huge disadvantage relative to print, perhaps one of the biggest (and is bad policy by the companies). I became a Thor collector in the 1980s because my friend +Stuart Johnson loaned me his Walt Simonson Thor issues, and after reading a few, I became an enthusiast. Over the next few years, I haunted comic-book conventions, comic shops, and mail-order catalogs until I finally bought all 45 back-issues. If Stuart had not loaned me his comics, I never would have become a Thor fan, and both Marvel and the back-issue dealers would have lost the chance to make money on me. My hope is that digital comics will one day go the way of the Nook app and allow people to "Lend me." But until they do, print comics win this category. Winner: Print. (Score: Digital 5, Print 5).
- Displaying the collection - One thing some folks do (for example, Sheldon on the TV show The Big Bang Theory) is display or "show off" the books in their collections of which they are most proud (or just the ones the like the most). Admittedly not many people actually do this -- most of us just keep our comic-books in an out-of-the-way place, stored as compactly as possible. But if you happen to want your comic-books out on display, only print comics can do that. Digital comics can't be displayed in any way -- not really even online (there's no easy way to share your digital collection online for people to see it and browse it). Winner: Print. (Score: Digital 5, Print 6).
There are probably other aspects of reading and collecting comic-books that I haven't mentioned, but I think I will stop there.
Hopefully, my list makes one thing clear: the digital/paper question has no easy answer. Each format wins about half the categories. Print seems to have a slight edge, but I would argue that the edge is illusory, because at least one category, "displaying the collection," only applies to a handful of people. For example, I have it in the back of my head to one day make a large display of Supergirl comic-books and paraphernalia, but how many people have both the space and the desire to do so? I suspect that the "display" category applies to so few people that it is not worth a full "point" in favor of the print format. Therefore, the two formats are essentially tied. Neither is clearly superior to the other.
So what does that mean for me? Well, for the moment, I am a hybrid collector. The majority my current collecting is done digitally, with only three exceptions right now - Supergirl, Batgirl, and Justice League (and of those, JL may not stay "print-worthy" for long; I'm on the fence about it). All the other current books I'm collecting are digital. For back issues, I am getting digital versions of some (those that exist), but I have no choice but to obtain hard copies of the older Supergirl volumes (1, 2, and 4). Supergirl volume 5 exists digitally, but also can be found in relatively inexpensive trade paperbacks, and since I am going to make a Supergirl display, I will probably get that series in print (though 51-67 do not exist as trades, so those may end up being electronic purchases). Therefore, I see strengths and weaknesses of both formats, and until one is a clear winner, I will continue to collect comic-books both ways.
I hope, gentle reader, that you found this article informative and useful, if you are trying to make up your mind about digital vs. print format for your comic-books. Feel free to leave comments if you would like to add your thoughts on the matter.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
New Comic-book Night - 1/23/13
It's Wednesday, which means it's "New Comic-Book Night" (a phrase I picked up from +The Big Bang Theory ). Most weeks of the month, since I buy comics digitally and I am still working on issues from 10+ months ago, "New Comic-Book Night" is not very important to me. But I am collecting three titles in hardcopy form right now -- Supergirl, Batgirl, and Justice League. Last week, Batgirl #16 came out, so I had to stop by the shop last Wednesday to make sure I got a copy. This week, both Supergirl and Justice League #16 came out, so again, it was time to make a stop by the shop. It'll be a few weeks before I need to go on a Wednesday again, because nothing else that I'm collecting comes out in print for about three weeks.
In addition to picking up the two new comics, I also wandered into the back-issue section to look through the Volume 4 (Matrix) Supergirl back-issues. Before today I had #1-35, and #37-45 (I'm still missing #36, which is apparently very rare for some unknown reason). Acme Comics (the shop in Greensboro that I have been patronizing) had #46-48, so I picked up those three back-issues, bringing my total number of Matrix Supergirl issues to 48 out of 81 (if you count #1,000,000, which I sort of don't). All in all, it was a decent haul for under $20:
Next week, I will probably pick up a few more Matrix Supergirl issues (at least to #50, and perhaps beyond). But I don't know if I will bother to go on "New Comic-Book Night," since I can get those any old time, and I'm not aware of any physical copies coming out next week that I will need to buy (it's too soon for Batgirl to cycle around again -- her book just came out last week).
I have to admit I'm having somewhat mixed feelings about the print copies. On the one hand, I really do prefer reading comics on the printed page, the way they were "meant" to be viewed. I still feel I get a better sense of the layout and panel dimensions that way than I do electronically. And I do enjoy the feel of going into the shop for "New Comic-Book Night" and seeing the next issue of my favorite title there in a nice, crisp, mint-condition form, waiting for me to pick it up. There is a sense of satisfaction one gets from getting there "in time" to pick up your copies before the book sells out (this is mostly fictional, since most books never sell out, but the thing is, you never know if one will or not ahead of time, so there's always that little bit of adrenaline rush when you walk into the store, wondering if your favorite mag will be there for you).
On the other hand, I can live without the hassle of the crowded shopping mall parking lot, and the crowded store full of people who want to stand around and talk about comics instead of moving the line forward so they can buy them. I don't mind talking comics on a Saturday morning, but on Wednesday evening after a long day of work, I just want to buy my stuff and get out of there so I can come home and make dinner. And I also appreciate the fact that digital titles can be bought "whenever." There may be less sense of "accomplishment" in amassing a digital collection (all it takes is money, assuming the digital versions of your title exist), but there's also no chance of annoying gaps, or having to read things out of order. It's all there fore you, whenever you want it. A part of me likes that.
This is why, right now, I am hyrbridizing my print vs. digital copy purchases. I definitely want to keep getting Batgirl and Supergirl in hardcopy form, because I have plans for those series, involving a nice curio display cabinet, a bunch of statues and action figures, and a "Steve's favorite heroines of the DC universe" type of display. I have been toying with the idea of a Justice League display as well (it would give me an excuse, as if I need one, to buy statues or figures of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman), so that is why I am buying those physically. For everything else, though, I think that just reading the stories (not necessarily having the issues) is sufficient, and I am sticking with digital for everything else. Hopefully I won't end up changing my mind and wanting to re-buy everything in hard copy like I did with Supergirl!
In addition to picking up the two new comics, I also wandered into the back-issue section to look through the Volume 4 (Matrix) Supergirl back-issues. Before today I had #1-35, and #37-45 (I'm still missing #36, which is apparently very rare for some unknown reason). Acme Comics (the shop in Greensboro that I have been patronizing) had #46-48, so I picked up those three back-issues, bringing my total number of Matrix Supergirl issues to 48 out of 81 (if you count #1,000,000, which I sort of don't). All in all, it was a decent haul for under $20:
Next week, I will probably pick up a few more Matrix Supergirl issues (at least to #50, and perhaps beyond). But I don't know if I will bother to go on "New Comic-Book Night," since I can get those any old time, and I'm not aware of any physical copies coming out next week that I will need to buy (it's too soon for Batgirl to cycle around again -- her book just came out last week).
I have to admit I'm having somewhat mixed feelings about the print copies. On the one hand, I really do prefer reading comics on the printed page, the way they were "meant" to be viewed. I still feel I get a better sense of the layout and panel dimensions that way than I do electronically. And I do enjoy the feel of going into the shop for "New Comic-Book Night" and seeing the next issue of my favorite title there in a nice, crisp, mint-condition form, waiting for me to pick it up. There is a sense of satisfaction one gets from getting there "in time" to pick up your copies before the book sells out (this is mostly fictional, since most books never sell out, but the thing is, you never know if one will or not ahead of time, so there's always that little bit of adrenaline rush when you walk into the store, wondering if your favorite mag will be there for you).
On the other hand, I can live without the hassle of the crowded shopping mall parking lot, and the crowded store full of people who want to stand around and talk about comics instead of moving the line forward so they can buy them. I don't mind talking comics on a Saturday morning, but on Wednesday evening after a long day of work, I just want to buy my stuff and get out of there so I can come home and make dinner. And I also appreciate the fact that digital titles can be bought "whenever." There may be less sense of "accomplishment" in amassing a digital collection (all it takes is money, assuming the digital versions of your title exist), but there's also no chance of annoying gaps, or having to read things out of order. It's all there fore you, whenever you want it. A part of me likes that.
This is why, right now, I am hyrbridizing my print vs. digital copy purchases. I definitely want to keep getting Batgirl and Supergirl in hardcopy form, because I have plans for those series, involving a nice curio display cabinet, a bunch of statues and action figures, and a "Steve's favorite heroines of the DC universe" type of display. I have been toying with the idea of a Justice League display as well (it would give me an excuse, as if I need one, to buy statues or figures of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman), so that is why I am buying those physically. For everything else, though, I think that just reading the stories (not necessarily having the issues) is sufficient, and I am sticking with digital for everything else. Hopefully I won't end up changing my mind and wanting to re-buy everything in hard copy like I did with Supergirl!
Thursday, January 10, 2013
From the ashes, like a phoenix - Part 1
Greetings!
Welcome to this new blog, which I call "Statues and Superheroes" (S&S for short). I am an old-time comic collector (my first comic-books were dated 1975 or so) who ceased collecting comic-books almost fourteen years ago, and has just gotten back into the hobby in the last month or so. This blog will chronicle my journey back into the world of collecting both comic-books, and associated collectible materials, such as superhero busts, action figures, statuettes, and the like. I love to write, so over the coming months, I will hold forth on a variety of topics such as what I think of today's comic-books, which comic creators I like (or dislike) the most, and which action figures or statues I think are worth buying (or are best avoided). But today, I am going to start by explaining why I quit reading comic-books in early 1999, and what caused me to return to the world of comic-book collecting about a month ago, in 2012.
I began reading comic-books in around 1975, although you really couldn't call what I did "collecting" back then. I was barely old enough to read, and I had no concept of serialization. The idea that comic-books were numbered sequentially, and that it might be desirable to have a long "run" of comics in numerical sequence (say, ten issues in a row), never occurred to me at that age. Then, in late 1976, by sheer luck, I ran into Godzilla, King of the Monsters #1, which was published by Marvel Comics. I loved monsters, and Godzilla was my all-time favorite, so the idea of a comic-book about Godzilla was like manna from heaven.
However, at that point, I did not yet understand that comic-books, like magazines, were published monthly. Buying comics was a random event -- I would happen to be with my father at the news stand, and he would say, "Steve, would you like to buy yourself a comic?" Then I would go to the rack and spin it, looking for a cover that interested me. One month it might be Action Comics starring Superman and Supergirl. The next it might be Brave and the Bold starring Batman and the Metal Men. And this time, it was Godzilla #1. And so, although I enjoyed the comic and read and re-read it until I wore out the spine, it never occurred to me to go looking for #2, #3, and so on.
My father, however, knew I liked Godzilla, and so occasionally he would see one in the news stand and pick it up for me. He got me #5, then #8, and finally #10. At this point, I started to realize what was going on. I was nearly a year older. I noticed that some of the events in issue #5 had follow-ups in issue #8, and so forth. At that point, which I believe was late 1977 or early 1978, the idea of collecting "every issue in a row" finally hit me, and I got every Godzilla comic from that point until the series ended (on #24). From that point on, I was not just a reader of comics; I was a comic-book collector.
As the years passed, I expanded my horizons from comics about monsters and toys, to superheroes. I collected Thor and X-men, Avengers and Captain America. Until 1981 or so I was a loyal Marvel fan, refusing to even look at a DC comic. But then a friend introduced me to the Legion of Super-Heroes, and those books happened to guest-star Supergirl, a character I had always liked, and who really grew on me during that series, probably due to the excellent writing of Paul Levitz. I then began to collect Supergirl's series, The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl, which even though it wasn't very good, turned me into a die-hard fan of Kara Zor-El (the original Supergirl).
As time went by, my tastes slowly evolved. I began to dislike the expansion of the mutant storylines in Marvel, from X-men into nearly every book they published by the late 1980s. I stopped collecting Marvel Comics except for Captain America (since I had an unbroken run of over 100 issues in a row), and switched entirely over to DC. I followed DC comics until 1999, at which point I stopped collecting them.
Why, though, did I stop collecting comic-books? There were several events in the late 1990s that killed my interest in comics. First, many of the series I was collecting had gone downhill. By 1996, I was collecting only a handful of comics (Legion of Super-Heroes, Catwoman, Power of Shazam, and the new Supergirl series). I tried a number of other series but none of them caught my eye. And so I was already starting to become a little frustrated with comics.
The mortal wound, however, came in 1996. I was in graduate school, in a small one-bedroom apartment with very little room, so I had left my collection of nearly 2,000 comic books in my old room in my mother's house. In early 1996, however, mom retired and moved to a smaller place, and no longer had room for the comic boxes. My sister had just moved into a large house, and had room in her basement, so she took them for me temporarily, with the understanding that the next Christmas, when I came home in my car, I would pick up the boxes and haul them off to my own apartment (and where I would have put them, I have no idea). Unfortunately, before this could happen, there was a terrible rainstorm, and my sister's basement flooded. Although she was able to salvage a box or two (perhaps 200 comics total) the vast majority of my nearly 2,000-comic collection was destroyed.
Needless to say, this was a devastating blow to a collector. After spending more than two decades and thousands of dollars collecting new issues as well as back-issues, and buying protective bags and boards to store and defend my comics, nearly everything was wiped out, and I was back to square one. The comics I was currently collecting were not immune... LSH was up to issue 80 or 90 at the time, but 1-50 had been in my sister's basement, destroying my nearly 100-issue run of that title. Catwoman met a similar fate. I almost gave up on comic-books completely at that point. But not quite.
The collector in me had been mortally wounded but was not yet dead. I still had a few series I was enjoying, particularly Supergirl and Shazam. But I began to struggle to keep the series going without gaps, in a way I never had before. In fact, I only succeeded in doing so with Supergirl. What happened was difficult to understand at first. You see, I knew what day was "new comic day" (back then, I believe it was Thursday). I would go to the shop each week (though I could not always make it "on the day"). I knew on which weeks the series I collected were published. For example, I'm fairly sure Power of Shazam came out on the 3rd week of every month. I would make every effort to drop by the comic shop each week and pick up my titles, but sometimes I missed them even so. This became very frustrating to someone who likes to collect unbroken runs of issues.
I eventually discovered that the reason behind this was a new ordering practice that was rapidly becoming common. Comic shops, barely able to make a profit, could not afford to order extra copies of issues that did not sell. And so they would only order enough to fill their in-store subscriptions (the so-called "pull lists"), and perhaps one or two extra. Thus, the issues would sell out almost immediately -- which was great for the comic shop (no waste) but terrible for a browser like me. Finally, I realized that if I wanted to maintain unbroken runs, I would have no choice but to subscribe to the in-store pull list. And so I did.
However, although that worked for a few months, eventually even that failed me. For a few weeks in a row, when I walked into the shop and asked for my comics, I was told my folder was empty. Then one week, I was told I had no pull folder. I asked what had happened, and they claimed I had not picked up my comics in over a month, which had led them to canceling my pull list subscriptions. After arguing with them, and explaining that I had been in every week and they had screwed up, they offered to re-institute the pull list, but the damage had been done. I had missed every one of the most recent issues for the last few series I was collecting, and I was so angry at the shop that I no longer wanted to do business with them. I walked out of the store and gave up on comic-books.
Over the years since, I occasionally would see comic-books in a book store or at a news stand and flip through them, but I always felt so confused and lost that it was overwhelming to think about going back. I also didn't like what they were doing to some of my favorite superheroes ("Matrix" Supergirl being a prime example). And so I stayed away, until a month ago, December of 2012. For almost 14 years, I continued to enjoy superhero movies, like Spider-Man and Batman Begins, and even to play superhero video games, like City of Heroes and Champions Online. But I never bought any comics until last month.
What happened to change my mind, to cause me to rise from the ashes, like Jean Grey/Phoenix? I will explain that in the next article... stay tuned!
Welcome to this new blog, which I call "Statues and Superheroes" (S&S for short). I am an old-time comic collector (my first comic-books were dated 1975 or so) who ceased collecting comic-books almost fourteen years ago, and has just gotten back into the hobby in the last month or so. This blog will chronicle my journey back into the world of collecting both comic-books, and associated collectible materials, such as superhero busts, action figures, statuettes, and the like. I love to write, so over the coming months, I will hold forth on a variety of topics such as what I think of today's comic-books, which comic creators I like (or dislike) the most, and which action figures or statues I think are worth buying (or are best avoided). But today, I am going to start by explaining why I quit reading comic-books in early 1999, and what caused me to return to the world of comic-book collecting about a month ago, in 2012.
I began reading comic-books in around 1975, although you really couldn't call what I did "collecting" back then. I was barely old enough to read, and I had no concept of serialization. The idea that comic-books were numbered sequentially, and that it might be desirable to have a long "run" of comics in numerical sequence (say, ten issues in a row), never occurred to me at that age. Then, in late 1976, by sheer luck, I ran into Godzilla, King of the Monsters #1, which was published by Marvel Comics. I loved monsters, and Godzilla was my all-time favorite, so the idea of a comic-book about Godzilla was like manna from heaven.
However, at that point, I did not yet understand that comic-books, like magazines, were published monthly. Buying comics was a random event -- I would happen to be with my father at the news stand, and he would say, "Steve, would you like to buy yourself a comic?" Then I would go to the rack and spin it, looking for a cover that interested me. One month it might be Action Comics starring Superman and Supergirl. The next it might be Brave and the Bold starring Batman and the Metal Men. And this time, it was Godzilla #1. And so, although I enjoyed the comic and read and re-read it until I wore out the spine, it never occurred to me to go looking for #2, #3, and so on.
My father, however, knew I liked Godzilla, and so occasionally he would see one in the news stand and pick it up for me. He got me #5, then #8, and finally #10. At this point, I started to realize what was going on. I was nearly a year older. I noticed that some of the events in issue #5 had follow-ups in issue #8, and so forth. At that point, which I believe was late 1977 or early 1978, the idea of collecting "every issue in a row" finally hit me, and I got every Godzilla comic from that point until the series ended (on #24). From that point on, I was not just a reader of comics; I was a comic-book collector.
As the years passed, I expanded my horizons from comics about monsters and toys, to superheroes. I collected Thor and X-men, Avengers and Captain America. Until 1981 or so I was a loyal Marvel fan, refusing to even look at a DC comic. But then a friend introduced me to the Legion of Super-Heroes, and those books happened to guest-star Supergirl, a character I had always liked, and who really grew on me during that series, probably due to the excellent writing of Paul Levitz. I then began to collect Supergirl's series, The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl, which even though it wasn't very good, turned me into a die-hard fan of Kara Zor-El (the original Supergirl).
As time went by, my tastes slowly evolved. I began to dislike the expansion of the mutant storylines in Marvel, from X-men into nearly every book they published by the late 1980s. I stopped collecting Marvel Comics except for Captain America (since I had an unbroken run of over 100 issues in a row), and switched entirely over to DC. I followed DC comics until 1999, at which point I stopped collecting them.
Why, though, did I stop collecting comic-books? There were several events in the late 1990s that killed my interest in comics. First, many of the series I was collecting had gone downhill. By 1996, I was collecting only a handful of comics (Legion of Super-Heroes, Catwoman, Power of Shazam, and the new Supergirl series). I tried a number of other series but none of them caught my eye. And so I was already starting to become a little frustrated with comics.
The mortal wound, however, came in 1996. I was in graduate school, in a small one-bedroom apartment with very little room, so I had left my collection of nearly 2,000 comic books in my old room in my mother's house. In early 1996, however, mom retired and moved to a smaller place, and no longer had room for the comic boxes. My sister had just moved into a large house, and had room in her basement, so she took them for me temporarily, with the understanding that the next Christmas, when I came home in my car, I would pick up the boxes and haul them off to my own apartment (and where I would have put them, I have no idea). Unfortunately, before this could happen, there was a terrible rainstorm, and my sister's basement flooded. Although she was able to salvage a box or two (perhaps 200 comics total) the vast majority of my nearly 2,000-comic collection was destroyed.
Needless to say, this was a devastating blow to a collector. After spending more than two decades and thousands of dollars collecting new issues as well as back-issues, and buying protective bags and boards to store and defend my comics, nearly everything was wiped out, and I was back to square one. The comics I was currently collecting were not immune... LSH was up to issue 80 or 90 at the time, but 1-50 had been in my sister's basement, destroying my nearly 100-issue run of that title. Catwoman met a similar fate. I almost gave up on comic-books completely at that point. But not quite.
The collector in me had been mortally wounded but was not yet dead. I still had a few series I was enjoying, particularly Supergirl and Shazam. But I began to struggle to keep the series going without gaps, in a way I never had before. In fact, I only succeeded in doing so with Supergirl. What happened was difficult to understand at first. You see, I knew what day was "new comic day" (back then, I believe it was Thursday). I would go to the shop each week (though I could not always make it "on the day"). I knew on which weeks the series I collected were published. For example, I'm fairly sure Power of Shazam came out on the 3rd week of every month. I would make every effort to drop by the comic shop each week and pick up my titles, but sometimes I missed them even so. This became very frustrating to someone who likes to collect unbroken runs of issues.
I eventually discovered that the reason behind this was a new ordering practice that was rapidly becoming common. Comic shops, barely able to make a profit, could not afford to order extra copies of issues that did not sell. And so they would only order enough to fill their in-store subscriptions (the so-called "pull lists"), and perhaps one or two extra. Thus, the issues would sell out almost immediately -- which was great for the comic shop (no waste) but terrible for a browser like me. Finally, I realized that if I wanted to maintain unbroken runs, I would have no choice but to subscribe to the in-store pull list. And so I did.
However, although that worked for a few months, eventually even that failed me. For a few weeks in a row, when I walked into the shop and asked for my comics, I was told my folder was empty. Then one week, I was told I had no pull folder. I asked what had happened, and they claimed I had not picked up my comics in over a month, which had led them to canceling my pull list subscriptions. After arguing with them, and explaining that I had been in every week and they had screwed up, they offered to re-institute the pull list, but the damage had been done. I had missed every one of the most recent issues for the last few series I was collecting, and I was so angry at the shop that I no longer wanted to do business with them. I walked out of the store and gave up on comic-books.
Over the years since, I occasionally would see comic-books in a book store or at a news stand and flip through them, but I always felt so confused and lost that it was overwhelming to think about going back. I also didn't like what they were doing to some of my favorite superheroes ("Matrix" Supergirl being a prime example). And so I stayed away, until a month ago, December of 2012. For almost 14 years, I continued to enjoy superhero movies, like Spider-Man and Batman Begins, and even to play superhero video games, like City of Heroes and Champions Online. But I never bought any comics until last month.
What happened to change my mind, to cause me to rise from the ashes, like Jean Grey/Phoenix? I will explain that in the next article... stay tuned!
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