As DC's continuity-altering Infinite Crisis comes to an an end, One Year Later (OYL) already started and 52 beginning in a few weeks, I am coming to a comics buying/obsessing-about crossroads that I haven't been at in a long time.
DC’s July solicitations came out this week. I think its official. I won't be buying regular comics anymore, except for 52 (which is weekly, so I'll still be going to the shop every week -- at least at first) and All Star Superman (bi-monthly). Everything else I buy will be trade paperback (TPB) only. It's been coming for awhile, but DC has made it easy to make a clean break.
Everything that’s coming out that I want is stuff I know will get collected – Morrison and Dini on Batman and Detective, Busiek on Superman and Action. Meltzer on JLA, so I will wait. I may be done with Titans -- the OYL stuff doesn’t seem that interesting. Don’t know what’s going on with Flash yet. JSA is getting cancelled (to be relaunched, but don’t know by who). Still need at least one more Teen Titans trade and 2-3 more JSA. I foresee buying TPBs of Batman, Detective, Superman, Action and JLA for at least a few arcs. Don’t know beyond that.
Of course, this will make it easier to buy more TPBs -- no shortage of those. It’s time to get rid of some though. Time for me to figure out how to sell stuff on eBay. I probably have at least 10 trades I could get rid of and not regret later. Man, do I need the room.
I'm sure I’ll be buying a lot of trades at WizardWorld Philadelphia (June 2-4th) so that will probably hold me for a long while. I’m starting to wonder if the convention will burn me out further. It might finally be time to go for one day only and not the whole weekend.
I'm scaring myself here (well, not really), but something's gotta give.
I'm thinking about refocusing this blog too -- way too superhero-centric. I think it's time to write more about books, music and other pop culture, particulalry things that have nothing to do with superheroes (cartoons, movies, TV, etc.). But we'll see. Like I said, I'm at a crossroads.
Personally, I think it's just that I realized that I can't top "Jan and Dean Meet Batman"
1 comment:
You gotta figure that DC has done the business calculus on this and come to the conclusion that they make money nonetheless on folks transitioning to TPBs instead of the weekly habit. Nonetheless, your plans are indicative of many folks, and that doesn't seem like a good thing for the industry. Is there really a market for both the weekly periodical junkie (like me) and the more patient TPB buyer? Or will the latter overwhelm the former?
I'm not much of a Marvel zombie, but I do agree with Joe Q., who said that "if you can wait for the trade, we're not doing our job."
Just out of curiosity from a marketing standpoint: do you wait for the TPBs purely from a financial standpoint? or are there additional considerations?
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