Ever buy comics and not read them?

[outlander78]

Every now and then I sell a batch of comics on ebay to free up space. When I do that, I tend to put in a blurb covering who wrote the issues, who drew them, and which characters appeared in them. It's usually easy to do, since I've read them. Or so I though.

I was going through a series that went from brilliant to crap over a range of three writers, and realized that I hadn't read #28 through #40! That about $50 worth of comics I bought, waited for an arc to end, and then couldn't summon the energy (10/min per issue, yet more) and to read them.

Does this happen to you? Do you buy comics and then for one reason or another not read them? I find with longer arcs, which I wait to have complete, that this happens more and more often.

cheers,
Andrew

[MarkSullivan]

Once in a blue moon, but never to the extent you describe. There have been a few back-issue runs I started collecting somewhat half-heartedly, usually because I got a few issues cheap. After years of not finding much to complete the run, I've given up. But even then I've usually read what I had before adding them to the "sell" pile.

[stealthwise]

Nope, never happened, but there's been books I bought and only read about once because they didn't do anything for me (ie, the last arc of Hellblazer).

[dancj]

I'm currently fighting the habit of buying comics a lot faster than I can read them. My unread pile is currently probably about 10 feet high, and will be absolutely huge by the time I die. Even if I ever do beat the pile down I think it's unlikely that I'll ever find the energy to read the run of Don McGregor's Sabre that I've got - it looks terrible. I also think there's a chance that I'll wind up selling my complete Nexus collection without reading it. It's just too damn big!

[roguespirit]

nope never, sometimes it takes a short while to get round to them but I haven't got an unread comic in my house for longer than a couple of weeks

[Huh?]

Most of the back issues I buy I don't read for a long time after their purchase. And many of those never get read. I do sometimes buy the end of an arc before dropping a book just to make it easier for me to get rid of them.

[mike rok lok]

I always read them ALL. It just takes some time. I bought some books last June at Wizard World in Philly that I still haven't read. And what makes scenario more difficult is that I have been to almost 5 cons since! But all ingood time I'm sure everything will be read.

[Jamie]

Yep. I'm still not sure what the last issue of X-Force/X-Statix I read was. I'm currently working on picking up lengthy back-issue runs of series that look interesting and then reading them through. Generally when it's more expensive or impossible to pick them up in trade form.

Sometimes, like with Finals, this results in me owning a complete miniseries that was really pretty mediocre.

But nowadays, if I buy it new, I read it ASAP, because I don't want more building up.

[Baron Banter]

Only on the occassion where I decide to try something and hate it so much that I don't finish the issue. And then I'm stuck with possibly two or three more issues depending on when my books were shipped. I buy my books 2 months in advance so I usually buy both 2 and 3 before I read the first issue...

[JimmyDee]

Every now and then I sell a batch of comics on ebay to free up space. When I do that, I tend to put in a blurb covering who wrote the issues, who drew them, and which characters appeared in them. It's usually easy to do, since I've read them. Or so I though.

I was going through a series that went from brilliant to crap over a range of three writers, and realized that I hadn't read #28 through #40! That about $50 worth of comics I bought, waited for an arc to end, and then couldn't summon the energy (10/min per issue, yet more) and to read them.

Does this happen to you? Do you buy comics and then for one reason or another not read them? I find with longer arcs, which I wait to have complete, that this happens more and more often.

cheers,
AndrewI haven't done that in about a year, but I used to do it too freaking often. Took a friend to tell me to stop buying crap out of habit. I'm down to about 6 or 7 books a month now, and I love them all.

[SuperJoe]

I used to buy about $30 a week worth books and I'd have stacks by the end of the month not read. Now I just buy what I have to have. So I spend about $12 a week. Now I only buy the ones that I can't make it home before reading.

[shawnh]

I'm like Dancj. I have at least a couple thousand unread comics, maybe more, and thanks to cheap back issue hunting I buy much faster than I read by something like a four to one ratio. The best I can do is keep up with my weekly new comics while reading a few back issues and trades once in a while. I'd have to take time off to catch up.

[ironchefmike]

Happened to me for the first time last week.

I've been collecting Rex Mundi from Image. Was okay when it first started, but this last issue was just so dialogue heavy (not like Alan Moore "From Hell" heavy, but almost) and getting convoluted, I was like "enough." Enough to probably drop the title from my pull list.

[C.O. Jones]

I thought The Savage Dragon was the greatest comic up until 1995 around the 40's, but when it did those 'Mars Attacks' tie-ins it went downhill for me really fast, yet I still collected it out of habit for the next 10 years!!!---even though it did nothing for me. I finally broke the habit with last week's 121.


I bought Hellblazer on the strength that I was such a big Moore/Veitch Swamp Thing fan, yet I only read 3 entire issues out of 90 that I've collected: the 1st one and the 2 tie-ins with the ST run. Somehow I don't think those are gonna be a waste once I finally do get to them.

I also collected JSA well into the 50's without reading a one, yet when I finally started reading them for the 1st time I thought the dialogue & story were so not 'my cup of tea'---yet there I was with 50+ issues already...

Yet, I'm glad I did it with Bendis' DD---I bought 26 through 42 before I finally read them and was so thrilled once I started that I had them all in front of me at the same I coulda wet myself. The same with PAD's Captain Marvel, Lee & Loeb's Batman, & Millar's MK Spider Man run.

Below are entire runs I have yet to tackle:

Ultimate Spider-Man
Sandman Mystery Theater
Fables
PAD's Aquaman
Len Kaminski's Iron Man
100 Bullets
Priest's Black Panther
Young Justice


And a near complete run of the old Tomb of Dracula series from the 70's.

[Sleeper]

Previously, before the culling of the herd, there was a point where it was holding up an expanse of at least a dozen issues between current and the last for a few titles. Spread across five series, that was a startling thing to have to confront. But, with time found in the morning, it was brought back. Only to see it now on a six month stretch of buying and reading.

[comic_lover]

Every now and then I sell a batch of comics on ebay to free up space. When I do that, I tend to put in a blurb covering who wrote the issues, who drew them, and which characters appeared in them. It's usually easy to do, since I've read them. Or so I though.

I was going through a series that went from brilliant to crap over a range of three writers, and realized that I hadn't read #28 through #40! That about $50 worth of comics I bought, waited for an arc to end, and then couldn't summon the energy (10/min per issue, yet more) and to read them.

Does this happen to you? Do you buy comics and then for one reason or another not read them? I find with longer arcs, which I wait to have complete, that this happens more and more often.

cheers,
AndrewNope.I've read em all.

[Smell]

Be I ever so vigilant, still a comic may pass me by!

Actually, I'm not that vigilant, and I'd say about 1 in 10 of my collection are unread.

Dom

smells bookworms

[Shellhead]

I'm currently fighting the habit of buying comics a lot faster than I can read them. My unread pile is currently probably about 10 feet high, and will be absolutely huge by the time I die. Even if I ever do beat the pile down I think it's unlikely that I'll ever find the energy to read the run of Don McGregor's Sabre that I've got - it looks terrible. I also think there's a chance that I'll wind up selling my complete Nexus collection without reading it. It's just too damn big!

You should give Sabre a try, Don McGregor was one of Marvel's best writers, and he was still at the top of his form when he left to do Sabre.

[PanzerMega]

I have some complete runs I found on Ebay that I've had sitting at my parent's house for years without ever reading.

The entire run of Shade The Changing Man, Peter Milligan's Egypt, and Minx, and the second half of Suicide Squad.

Some day.

[dancj]

You should give Sabre a try, Don McGregor was one of Marvel's best writers, and he was still at the top of his form when he left to do Sabre.

Hmm - I don't know. I've got the Sabre graphic novel he did with Paul Gulacy that was reprinted in the first two issues and I didn't really enjoy it so I haven't felt much urge to go onto the comics

[GremlinClr]

I really try to keep up with new stuff because a couple years ago it got really bad, like buying 5 or 6 comics a week and reading 1 bad. I literally had issues #44 through #91 of Nightwing sitting unread. But I buckled down and I'm almost completely caught up with everything.

The only things I don't read as soon as I get them are miniseries. There's only one comic shop around here and while I have my books pulled, sometimes they miss a couple and someone else grabs them. So I wait till I have the entire mini before reading it. It sucks to have a 6 issue mini and miss issue 4. So I've got about 7 mini's missing issues I have yet to find and a couple that just finished up last week I haven't started, but I would say 98% of my collection I've read.

Comics are for reading, if you're not reading what you buy then I don't see the point.