Funnybooks with Aron & Paulie - Trimming the Fat
Topic: Comics
ARON:
After my long hiatus, I am now caught up on the INCREDIBLE HERCULES. One of the best comics out there, BTW. Guardians of the Galaxy #2 also good.
For the first time since Suzanne and I married, I have all my comics in one place. I have somewhere around 10,000 comics, which seems a bit excessive. Too many. Way too many. I plan on cutting that number down to something more manageable.
I am also looking to cut way back on my pull list... when I think of what I *have* to have, here's what's coming to mind...
- Thor
- Incredible Hercules
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- New Avengers
- Mighty Avengers
- Green Lantern
- Green Lantern Corps
- Booster gold
I know there's some I am missing, but they are not coming to mind.
I've decided to pick Justice Society up in trades only.
PAUL:
I have FINALLY decided to cut back on my comics.
ARON:
Really? What have you trimmed down to?
PAUL:
That's still up for debate. I know I'm dropping Batman monthly, and probably JSA. Booster got hit too, as did most Marvel books except for the Avengers and Secret Invasion books.
ARON:
I haveta' tell you, I had a hard time NOT picking up issue 2 of Final Crisis. As much as I hated issue 1, I hate not knowing.
PAUL:
I'll probably stick it through. Issue 2 was better, but it still reads as pointless to me. An epic story affecting an entire universe shouldn't be so confusing, nor so abstract.
ARON:
You know I heard a review of the current Batman RIP storyline that used the same word. "Pointless."
PAUL:
Yeah, Batman RIP is going nowhere, it makes no sense, and, honestly, it's just...well, bad. Especially when compared with Detective Comics, which is excellent. For me to drop my favorite comic character's comic in the middle of an "important" storyline, not giving a crap about how it ends, it has to be THAT bad.
I'll stick with Green Lantern and the Corps. I'll drop Nightwing, even though I'm kind of enjoying it, but not that much that I'd miss it. Probably dropping Trinity. I don't hate it, but it hardly seems worth my 12 bucks a month. Superman/Batman gets dropped now that Shane Davis left. So yeah...GL and Detective Comics. Go DC.
ARON:
Wow... You pick up a bunch of indie stuff, tho, right?
PAUL:
I do. I'll keep on with Invincible, Walking Dead, Grimm Fairy Tales, Witchblade, and The Darkness. Witchblade, surprisingly, is probably one of the best titles I read right now.
ARON:
I've not ever bought a Walking Dead floppy. I pick that one up in trade only. I've not ever liked Witchblade. But it's been a loooong time since I looked at it.
PAUL:
Now that Ron Marz is writing it, it's been EXCELLENT. The last three issues were a jumping on point (check it out), with the new artist. I was pissed that the storyline ended in three issues - it could have been double that. I never say that!
ARON:Wow, that's really saying something. I've always liked Ron Marz.
PAUL:
I have too, actually. Very underrated. I guess I never realized how good he was.
ARON:
Why the reconsideration of your buying habits? Gas prices? Or is it just time to trim?
PAUL:
Both, really. Plus, we'd really like to do some work on the house.
ARON:
Yeah... In the move, I became rather disgusted with myself as I totalled up something in the neighborhood of 10,000 floppies. It just seems too much. On top of that, I've been looking at the monthlies I picked up when I was a kid for 30 cents and am now paying three bucks for roughly the same thing. That's a one thousand percent increase! We live in a world of four-dollar-a-gallon-gas and where so many comics are just bad (cough COUNTDOWN cough FINAL CRISIS cough HULK cough BATMAN cough).
I love comics.
I love the medium.
But with the exception of just a few titles, I'm gonna have to make some deep cuts. And pick up the good stuff in trade fully aware that such buying practices are bad for the business. If nobody's buying the floppies after all, it ain't likely it'll make it to the trade. Still, I think I gotta do it.
It's too much money. It's too much stuff.
PAUL:
I'm with you. I hate to not support comics more, and I hate to cut back, I really do. But at the same time, I can't just keep spending 3 to 4 dollars on mediocre books. I wouldn't purchase a bad movie, or watch a bad TV show.
Sad sad state of the industry. But it seems like the harder DC tries to make up for their mistakes (Countdown, One Year Later), they make all new ones! And Marvel...I don't know. Marvel just seems very heartless lately. Like they're not even trying. Give me the indies!
ARON:
Dude, you're totally a Skrull!
Aron Head
www.EvilBastard.net
Posted by Aron Head
at 9:09 PM CDT
Updated: Tuesday, 8 July 2008 9:08 PM CDT
I received a tweet from Richard Neal, proprietor of Zeus Comics in Dallas:
Press Release:
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I'm really digging Secret Invasion, but finishing up issue 6 last week I have to say that the Skrulls are not nearly as much fun as you'd expect them to be. They can change shape into whatever in the world they want to, yet they're all dour and religious bent on galactic domination. Kind of like Scientologists. Why if I were a skrull...
Superman is 70 years old this month and with the exception of a few (dismal) deviations, he has pretty much been wearing the same damned thing for seven decades. Well now's your chance to play dress up with the last son of Krypton! That's right, 
I went to the