How do YOU read comics?!

[Gotham]

Hi ya! Hope you all had a great Christmas.

So, Our World at War was super cheap at a local comic shop and I was in the mood for an epic even if it's a dumbed down comic. I got immediately pulled in and I realized that I was missing a lot of the good art (I like the more cartoony art in this story-a break from the more serious/adult art I've grown accustomed to) because I was just pounding through the story aspect. This got me thinking...how do YOU read a comic? Do you tear through the story and ignore the art then go back? Do you read a panel then concentrate on the art in that panel? Do you read an entire page then go back and concentrate on the art? Maybe you skim the story and just stay on the art?!

The stuff I read usually gets read and reread dozens of times...sometimes a dozen times in a week depending on how good I thought it was. I was just wondering how you all here at YABS read a book.


Later all!

[hellokittykat]

I read 'em with my eyes.:D

Allow me. (http://www.ilovewavs.com/Effects/Music/RimShot.wav)

[Gotham]

Hahaha. Nice!

[The Ray]

Naked. With my member slapping on the page.

[Red Jack]

left to right, mostly, unless it's manga.

[Jack Zodiac]

I read 'em with my eyes.:D

Allow me. (http://www.ilovewavs.com/Effects/Music/RimShot.wav)

You can't rimshot yourself! :p

I read 'em slow, I usually take a little over a minute with each page on even just a typical comic book (if the art is really, really great, I could spend minutes examining the page). I don't like missing anything in the art since a great comic is told as much in the character's facial expressions and body movements as it is with their words.

[Pink Bat Max]

Naked and suspended over the crater of an active volcano.

Sorry, that's just how I roll.

[The Ray]

Naked and suspended over the crater of an active volcano.

Sorry, that's just how I roll.

Will you Interwub marry me?

[Infra-Man]

Usually I read a comic straight through paying attention to both the writing and the art and then go back to really look at the art and how it functions from panel to panel.

If a comic is really good, I'll usually read them again aloud, making voices for the characters and even doing the sound effects.

With McCay's Nemo, I've noticed that I tend to look at the entire page first like a painting, look at the art from panel to panel, read the comic, and then step back and view the entire page again.

[Pink Bat Max]

Will you Interwub marry me?

Well, okay......

....keep in mind that nearly all of our income will go to renting helicopters to suspend me naked over the crater of an active volcano. I mean, that's not cheap.

[The Ray]

Well, okay......

....keep in mind that nearly all of our income will go to renting helicopters to suspend me naked over the crater of an active volcano. I mean, that's not cheap.

As long you don't mind converting to my religion (http://www.venganza.org/)

[Pink Bat Max]

As long you don't mind converting to my religion (http://www.venganza.org/)

I dunno.... I'm pretty devoted to mine. (http://subgenius.com/)

[Jimmy Starburst]

Naked. With my member slapping on the page.

Naked and suspended over the crater of an active volcano.

Sorry, that's just how I roll.

i'm not even gonna try and top these....

sometimes when i'm reading a comic with amazing art and layout (such as Promethea) i end up lingering on a page, but i sometimes i feel it interferes with the pacing.

music is another factor, but i find it next to impossible to find something to match the changing mood over the course of an issue. once i'm a few pages in, however, i just zone out and no music is necessary.

[The Ray]

I dunno.... I'm pretty devoted to mine. (http://subgenius.com/)

Heretic! May his soggy arms of wrath crush you! May you find yourself in a meatball flavored hell of your own making! Cast down into a chunky sauce of perdition where only the foulest blasphemers go!

There is no god but the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

[Pink Bat Max]

Heretic! May his soggy arms of wrath crush you! May you find yourself in a meatball flavored hell of your own making! Cast down into a chunky sauce of perdition where only the foulest blasphemers go!

There is no god but the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Well, luckily "Bob" doesn't care who his followers worship, as long as he gets paid. In fact, he encourages one to take other ShorDurPerSavs.... (Short Duration Personal Saviors.)

However, I have a place reserved for me on the Pleasure Saucers of the Sex Goddesses from Planet X and eternal salvation or triple my money back, and that's a damn fine deal.

[Sgt. Fuzzy]

Why, oh why did I have to be drinking tea when I was reading this? My nose still burns with agony and my keyboard will never be the same.

Anyway, what I usually do is read the story while not really paying attention to the art, then after I finish the story I'll go back and have a look.

[Dazzler]

Strangely, I read em like a novel (pretty much words only first), and pay very, very little attention to the pictures. Then I read it again, skimming the words and paying super close attention to the pictures.

I have no idea why i do it, but that's howz I rollz it.

--Dazz

[The Xenos]

When I hear about people rereading a comic muliple times in the same week.. I realize I read waaaaay too many damn comic. Then again I think I'm actually keeping my little local shop afloat.

I have piles on unread comics, manga, and graphic novels. I have to sort comics into ones I can read right away and ones I haven't read the previous issue or issues of. I know, I'm terrible.

[Jimmy Starburst]

blah blah blah

[Gilda Dent]

I tend to read it looking to the art and text just enough to get the relevant story information from them, which is to say I'll look at the art, but on a first reading seldom for the purpose of aesthetic appreciation unless there's something really striking about it.

I have found as I get more mature in my comic reading that I tend to slow down and appreciate the art more, but it's still mostly about getting the story the first time through. If it's worth revisiting I'll pay closer attention to the art on a second reading.

[Winslow]

I read the art and prose together . . then only time i have the segregate the two is if the artist has poor storytelling skills and I can't figure out what the heck is going on.

I tend to read slowly, like Jack . . but I'm not analyzing as I'm reading, I'm just getting lost in the storyline. Sometimes I'll re-read with an eye toward critiquing later.

[Spike-X]

I have a bad habit of rushing through the story and not paying enough attention to the art.

[Cam63]

Naked and suspended over the crater of an active volcano.

Sorry, that's just how I roll.

I hate those days.

[Tyr]

Naked. With my member slapping on the page.

Dear god in heaven man! You'll ruin it! I mean your going to get the coners all bent and everthing! :eek:

I read mine on the can, might as well sit and read something I enjoy while I attempt to lose a few pounds, and if I don't enjoy the comic, well then lets just say I'll save money on toliet paper. :evilsmile

[CutterMike]

Dear god in heaven man! You'll ruin it! I mean your going to get the coners all bent and everthing! :eek:

I read mine on the can, might as well sit and read something I enjoy while I attempt to lose a few pounds, and if I don't enjoy the comic, well then lets just say I'll save money on toliet paper. :evilsmile

Which was another advantage to those cheap old pulp-paper comics. The new paper just isn't as absorbent.

[Spike-X]

Naked. With my member slapping on the page.

Dear god in heaven man! You'll ruin it!

Well, maybe not ruin, but think of the paper cuts!

[cedardryad]

I read a book several times over. Preferably on the can.

Once to just get the basic story and art down, a second time to read through it more thoroughly, and finally a third time to look at the art. Feels like a dollar per read.

[Gilda Dent]

With newer, heavy, large format books like the Complete Calvin and Hobbes, Marvel's Omnibus books, or DC's Absolute editions, I like to sit at a table in the comic book room and spread it flat on the table. Some are just too big and bulky and heavy to hold in one's hands or even rest in one's lap to read, especially the aforementioned Calvin and Hobbes books and the Absolute Sandman books that are coming out.

[Jimmy Starburst]

actually, my favorite is smoking a fat bowl, then dropping a fat shit while I'm reading. It feels so good i sometimes feel ashamed, but let's not get into that...

[MartinRedmond]

Naked. With my member slapping on the page.

That's how most creative teams at Marvel DC Image etc wirte draw and edit them too!