A ? for people who recently got back into comics...

[E]

I notice a lot of people (here and elsewhere) who say they collected comics when they were younger but stopped for whatever reason, but recently got back into it, be it because of movies or whatever.

My question is this - do you or could you see yourself quitting again? Like if you quit during the mid-90s because of the major cover price increases, for example, do the current increases worry you that you might have to quit again?

Or if it was the quality of the stories - no doubt that the quality of the stories in the early/mid 90s was sub-par, to put it nicely. They strengthened under Jemas & Quesada. Now they seem to be slipping again. Does this concern you?

 

[thee great one]

I don't see that I would. Things increase in price. I'll drop a book for being crappy. But there will always be someone that writes something incredible.

I don't like the idea of comics going online only. I want something I can hold and read. That's the point of a BOOK.

 

[Victor Von Doom]

Getting back into comics was one of the best things to happen to me. If I didn't have comics, I wouldn't have made it thru my depression. So they play too important a role into who I am now.

And I won't lose that again.



Right now, I read just about anything out there. I understand that most comics are geared towards a target audience that I am rapidly falling out of, but if the quality of stories don't get any better----I could definitely see myself dropping a lot of comics out there and only reading stuff that's of superior quality like Fables, Punisher MAX, Ex Machina.

 

[thee great one]

Getting back into comics was one of the best things to happen to me. If I didn't have comics, I wouldn't have made it thru my depression. So they play too important a role into who I am now.

And I won't lose that again.



Right now, I read just about anything out there. I understand that most comics are geared towards a target audience that I am rapidly falling out of, but if the quality of stories don't get any better----I could definitely see myself dropping a lot of comics out there and only reading stuff that's of superior quality like Fables, Punisher MAX, Ex Machina.

That I see myself doing. But stop getting comics completly. Never.

I don't know how I lived without them.

This is all thanks to Ultimate X-men Vol.1.

Now I have easy well over 1000 comics and about 190 trades with lots more on order.

 

[Ice]

I don't know how I lived without them.

This is all thanks to Ultimate X-men Vol.1.

Now I have easy well over 1000 comics....

Same here. My brother was borrowing the first two trades of UXM, and once I found out where the comic store was at...it all begun from there.

 

[moonmaster]

Now they seem to be slipping again. Does this concern you?

Maybe at Marvel...


See, that's the point. When I first got into comics I was your average Marvel fanboy who wouldn't pick up anything DC. Then HoM and New Avengers happened, Bendis took over the whole goddam company, and everything started to drop in quality. I liked Identity Crisis and Countdown to Infinite Crisis finally pushed me into DC. Now, I'm happy because though Marvel's only still got me reading Nextwave, Ultimates and Punisher MAX, there are plenty of DC books that I find way more interesting.

There's always a back and forth between the two companies, and creatively one is always going to prosper while the other one suffers.

And hey, if both companies start sucking, I can just do the smart thing and start reading indie books.

This is all thanks to Ultimate X-men Vol.1.

My first trade was UXM vol. 2.

It had a cool picture of Wolverine on the cover.

EDIT:

5,000 POSTS MUTHA****AS!

IN YO' FACE!

 

[Lynx]

I notice a lot of people (here and elsewhere) who say they collected comics when they were younger but stopped for whatever reason, but recently got back into it, be it because of movies or whatever.

My question is this - do you or could you see yourself quitting again? Like if you quit during the mid-90s because of the major cover price increases, for example, do the current increases worry you that you might have to quit again?

Or if it was the quality of the stories - no doubt that the quality of the stories in the early/mid 90s was sub-par, to put it nicely. They strengthened under Jemas & Quesada. Now they seem to be slipping again. Does this concern you?

Completely getting out of comics again? No, not likely. However, I have been heavily contemplating dropping everything I get except Ultimates, Fables and Walking Dead. The rest of the Ultimate line is really lacking lately (Although I may wait and see how Clone Saga, Cable and God War tunr out to make a final decision) and I just couldn't get into the "BIG MEGA EVENTS!" of the last two years. Even Civil War.

I may start picking up some more Vertigo stuff, Punisher MAX and Invincible, but that's pretty much it.

 

[Victor Von Doom]

If anything I'll start tradewaiting more stuff and to keep current I'll start downloading comics (which UC does not condone nor support).

 

[Random]

I've never been a big comic getting guy, mainly cause I don't have the money to spend like that. But I've always liked the cartoons and movies and thankfully to good movies finally being made I got back in. First I decided to get Wolverine Origins tpb since it reviel one of the biggest secrets in marvel and when I got it I saw Ultimate Spider-man vol 6 Venom, I thought it would be interesting and I absolutely loved it, one of my favorite stories by far, I got really into USM and picked up every tpb out and got a subscription. And thanks to this site I eventually branched out some and got caught up with all the history that happened while I was out of the loop. So I doubt I'll ever get out of comics since I rarely buy them. It would have to be a downfall of quality so massive in portion it is unimaginable, like Ultimate Iron Man bad.

 

[Ultimate Quicksilver]

Istarted with Dc comics then got to Marvel that was in the 90's. Dropped comics and got back with Ultimate X-men, but with things now perhaps ill be forced to stop buying some comics I was going to get. But not all of them...

 

[David Blue]

I notice a lot of people (here and elsewhere) who say they collected comics when they were younger but stopped for whatever reason, but recently got back into it, be it because of movies or whatever.

My question is this - do you or could you see yourself quitting again? Like if you quit during the mid-90s because of the major cover price increases, for example, do the current increases worry you that you might have to quit again?

Or if it was the quality of the stories - no doubt that the quality of the stories in the early/mid 90s was sub-par, to put it nicely. They strengthened under Jemas & Quesada. Now they seem to be slipping again. Does this concern you?

Yes I could quit again. I don't want to, but it could very much happen. Price could accelerate again beyond my willingness to pay. Ultimate comics could go to mega-crossovers. Quality could fall again. There are very few characters left that I like and want to buy any more. Those could get spoiled too, and that would be the end.

Inferno had a lot to do with me quitting comics. The first thing that happened was that Cyclops, who had been Mr. Faithful True Lover, walked out on his wife - who the firefountain story with Loki had definitively established for me as a good and deserving woman to the core of her soul - and his infant son. That killed Cyclops for me. (My hero is a bum.) And things got worse and worse from there. I liked Madelyne and she was in a real tough spot, so I kept reading, wanting her to get out of it and be vindicated. To put it mildly, that didn't happen. In this and many other ways, the story totally failed to deliver the goods I wanted. (Let's not get started on retcons and timelines.) And buying everything so I could get a complete story was far too expensive - the mega-crossover model was a killer. After I quit buying comics (with rare exceptions like Tom Strong), for years I would ask my friends who still did buy: Is it getting better? And it was only getting worse. So I let the whole thing go.

Marvel could do the same thing with Ultimate Fantastic Four. Increased price, decreased quality, mega-crossover exploitation, and changes to the characters that tainted them for me.

I'd quit. I wouldn't want to, but I would. I'm not going to go through a long ordeal of collecting stuff I hate, hoping for it to turn around, again.

 

[Hibiki]

Big Marvel Pro. But if the stories went below and I had to drop my picks, I would definitely cross over if I wanted a good story. But to answer your question, no I wouldn't stop reading or buying.

 

[David Blue]

Getting back into comics was one of the best things to happen to me. If I didn't have comics, I wouldn't have made it thru my depression. So they play too important a role into who I am now.

And I won't lose that again.

Heh, I can relate to that.

I have a personal theme going - I see the movies over and over, then buy the DVD, the spinoff merchandise, everything. I like to let Fantastic Four and other stuff I like, such as Superman Returns (2006) and Batman Begins (2005), color my life. There's a great spirit of hope in these characters - not just in the comics, which are only one part of the total package - and I'm only too happy soak in that hopefulness, by putting up the posters, sticking all my punched documents (like my Fantastic Four themed work books) in Batman Begins ring binders, and so on.

But if, say, Ultimate Sue Storm goes the way that Marvel mainstream (616) Madelyne Pryor did, or the way Karen Page did (etcetera) I'll just throw all the relevant stuff out, and replace what's become garbage with other stuff that comic companies don't own and can't taint.

 

[MaxwellSmart]

Now I have easy well over 1000 comics and about 190 trades with lots more on order.

I can't imagine having 190 trades. I probably have about a dozen TPBs.

 

[Friday]

I doubt I'd ever quit, but I've been cutting back quite a bit lately. Trimming my pull list down to titles I'm overly enjoying instead of ones I meerly have an intrest in. If things got really bad at both the big two I'd probably still pick up the various smaller press books I get.

 

[Caduceus]

Quite definitely; I've dropped out again now, with the exception of here; money and simple time is a factor, but so is quality. A lot of the stuff that I got into it through- the Ultimate line - is...well, kinda crappy now. Because of the expense here, I never got as into comics as, say, Ice or VD or even MWOF. So...yeah, I could probably drift out again pretty easily.

 

[Seldes Katne]

I can see the possibility that I'll stop reading comics at some point. Even with series of novels that I enjoy, there comes a time when I'm ready to move on to something new. Unless I'm suddenly and violently unemployed, the expense isn't an issue, but the writing definitely is. There are thousands of novels and comic books published every year. It's difficult enough to keep up with the good stuff, and no reason at all to waste time reading something with substandard writing.

Art is nice, but to me it's secondary to the story and characters. I'm willing to put up with pretty much any art as long as the story is good. (And as long as I can tell which squiggle is supposed to be what character.) If the quality of the story drops, however, I'll go find something else to read.

For the people who commented that they'll start reading indies if the Big Two stop producing good stuff, my advice is to start reading indies now. I'm constantly looking at publishers outside DC and Marvel, because a lot of indies publish great books for kids (and kids at heart). There's some pretty solid stuff out there for the older set as well.

 

[TheManWithoutFear]

I notice a lot of people (here and elsewhere) who say they collected comics when they were younger but stopped for whatever reason, but recently got back into it, be it because of movies or whatever.

My question is this - do you or could you see yourself quitting again? Like if you quit during the mid-90s because of the major cover price increases, for example, do the current increases worry you that you might have to quit again?

Or if it was the quality of the stories - no doubt that the quality of the stories in the early/mid 90s was sub-par, to put it nicely. They strengthened under Jemas & Quesada. Now they seem to be slipping again. Does this concern you?

For me, it's all about mythology. If I get hooked on something then I delve in an explore the entire world of it. The difference between everything else and comics is that the comics will always come out monthly. So unless they cancel my entire pull-list (or Cable/Deadpool) I don't see my quitting.

 

[Hellsbuttmonkey]

I got into comics through the movies and the ultimate line. I saw Spiderman (was a great fan of the 90s cartoon) then picked up the british edition of USM (can't remember the number, but it was the final part of the Legacy arc) in my local shop. Then I went back and picked up the Ultimate X-Men issue they had there, which happened to be #1. Then I found my nearest comic book store and started buying all the TPBs to get up to date. Only after a while did I drift into the 616 universe, so that has always been kinda secondary to me anyway (apart from Cable and Deadpool). As long as the Ultimates lines still puts out good stories, I will keep buying.

 

[jeremiahvedder]

I quit because I was a kid and didn't have the kind of money to keep up with Marvel in the 90's. I only read DC a little bit, for DEATH OF SUPERMAN and KNIGHTFALL mostly but I pulled the Kyle Raynor GREEN LANTERN up until #86 or so. I really loved that book. But, yeah, monetary reasons.

I got back into comics because I realized that's what I wanted to do with my life; every ounce of my soul is going towards that end currently. I'm older, make a lot more money than I used to, am smart enough to buy trades to catch up on everything I missed.

The ULTIMATE line really spurred me on, though. Another big reason.