The Issue with Issues

I’m not one to complain or start a fuss, I pride myself on being easy going and not picking fights with the internet. However, in this post I will not hold back on the sass I have an issue with comic issues and I need to rant.

Nearly since their inception comic books have been released in the issue format. It has built up cultures of collecting and commentating on the new releases this week that isn’t necessarily representative of all comic readers. I love to support my local comic shops but I don’t have the time, money, or patience to go every week. I stop by every so often to pick up graphic novels instead. I was told that the readers of G33KPR0N like a take no prisoners attitude so, prepare yourselves.

I don’t like single issues of comics. I don’t buy single issues from a comic shop and I don’t get digital copies either. Most of the time I just wait for the graphic novel. Here is why (most deterrent reason first):

1) Price – This shit is expensive! $3-$4 for 36 colour pages is a total rip off! Especially since you have to get the whole series to understand the issue and you might as well buy the cross overs & tie ins through that universe – now you are up to about $12 a month and around $144 a year – to understand just one whole series!

I know this isn’t the case for every issue but this post is more in regards to the big two publishers – Marvel and DC.

2) Advertisements – On top of that price tag you have to flip through the issue and try your best to focus on the comic and not the advertisements fighting for your attention. I understand you have to supplement your cost with ads, but then lower the price – it doesn’t make sense to me.

3) Storage – I have one long box filled with comics & I already hate myself for it. I can’t store it under my bed – if my place floods that stuff is toast – so I have a shelf for it and it is the biggest eyesore!  There are people with dozens of long boxes full of comics – what do they do with it? It isn’t even presentable? If you have enough you can pay to rent a storage locker for it -woohoo!

4) Episodic Content – I like whole stories, it is as simple as that. There isn’t enough time to develop enough of a story in an issue to keep me entertained enough to buy the next issue the next month. In cases where I have bought a series in issues I end up saving 4 or more up to read all at once – when it comes to that point I should just wait and buy the graphic novel.  This is really a matter of preference – when it comes to most TV series I find they have enough of a self contained plot in an episode (with bits here and there speaking to the season arc) to keep me coming back every week.

5) Investment – Anyone that tells you ‘buy that comic it will be double in 10 years’ is lying to you -flat out. Comics are mass produced and thosewho collect spend more on getting their collections then on cashing in on them. Yes if you have a first edition of Walking Dead #1 from forever ago with Robert Kirkman’s signature on it -you made a good investment. But no one knows what will become a hit or flop – it’s all a gamble. Chances are that if your comic is worth more today then it was a decade ago it is because the cost of inflation or that one guy needs that issue to complete his set. It is a crapshoot and you will spend more money collecting and storing all these comics then you will reselling them.
Don’t believe me – ask a collector – I DARE YOU!

There are a couple downsides to not buying comics in issues. Firstly, I am not supporting the comics industry or my local store with my cash. That is a trade off I’m willing to make. I still buy lots of comics from my local shops, I just like getting them in graphic novel format so at least I have a presentable bookshelf that isn’t full of ads. The other is that I am not up to date with whats hot with Marvel & DC that month, which could be an issue for a (somewhat) public comics figure like myself, but I decided a long time ago that I just don’t care. Marvel and DC don’t do a good enough job to get me to care about it enough to keep up to date – in my opinion they are always introducing some new universe changing event that never really matters in the long run- so there is no reason for me to care anyway.

The flip side is I can’t say I will never buy an issue again, or that I will throw out my current issues – because it is just not true! Another part of my comic reading habits is that I very much like to see creator owned comics especially from Toronto, and these people don’t necessarily have time or money to release a graphic novel. Some release an issue a year, or an issue every 2 years, and the only way to read these comics is through the issues.  So what can I do if I wanna read Pope Hats? I will buy the issues, not wait 5 years in hopes of a graphic novel.

Perhaps if comics were bought and used the way they were in the 40’s I would buy them weekly. The good ol’ days when you could get an issue for 10cents at a newspaper stand read it and toss it every week. Personally I don’t get  the whole issue culture – it is just not the way I want to read comics.