Good-bye, Monthlies

My post title sounds like a bad Judy Blume novel, but the "monthlies" to which I refer here are the comic books I've been buying regularly for the last several years. I suspended my pull list--the regularly published titles I ask my comic shop of choice to reserve for me each month--and said good-bye to the world of regular funny book purchases. I told myself I was going to come into the store to get stuff, freed of the obligation of getting every issue of a title every month. Heck, I even told the friendly comic store guy that. I believed it at the time, but now, a couple weeks later, I'm becoming more used to the idea of, as they say, "waiting for the trade."

There's nothing like the joy of getting a big stack of issues at the local comic shop, and the thrill is even greater when someone goes back behind the counter--or better yet, into a back room--and gets a pile just for you. That jolt was getting weaker and weaker for me lately, though, for several reasons:

* Price: Comics are just too expensive these days. Sure, many things are, but comic books are disproportionately high, with 3 bucks the standard at DC and Marvel and 4 bucks reportedly on the way (already here for many high-profile titles). That price point discourages sampling of new titles and limits purchases. And independent comics, many of which offer less pages for more bucks, offer even less value. I'd love to try different titles and support smaller publishers and non-superhero-based titles, but the cost is usually just too high.

*Storytelling: Bitching about decompressed storytelling in comic books has long been a favored pastime among fans, and this phenomenon finally caught up with me. I've always been a DC guy, though I read and enjoy Marvel as well. So I'm biased, but I think Marvel tends to be a little more decompressed these days, with even the better titles paced to fill trade-paperback-sized arcs, often at the expense of a tighter, faster-paced story.

Yet I must admit DC is guilty of this same thing. I love Geoff Johns' writing, which is good since he writes about half of DC's books these days--but his current "Kingdom Come" saga in "JSA," co-written with Alex Ross, has seemingly stretched since people sported Kerry-Edwards bumper stickers. Furthermore, Johns' character-based, continuity-laden writing is often more rewarding in collected format as opposed to monthly (or greater) installments. Many readers out there are sharper than I am, but the interval just gives me time to forget details and lose nuance.

*Event fatigue: DC and Marvel are in an event-driven pattern, with big miniseries setting the agenda across their product lines. This strategy is sometimes successful, sometimes not. I moved back into the hobby as a lapsed fan just in time for "Identity Crisis" and enjoyed the hell out of it, but I'm weary of these hyped series spreading out and influencing so many other books, to the point where you feel pressured to buy 3 or 4 different tie-ins a month. Yeah, you can ignore the tie-in books, but it's increasingly difficult to ignore these would-be blockbusters.

Having said all this, there is a lot of stuff out there I like and will miss. Really, the biggest consideration for me is price, because if the comics were cheaper, I would be more willing to tolerate and try to adapt to modern storytelling styles. It doesn't look like we're gonna roll back to $1 or even $2 comics anytime soon, though. So though I hope to make it into the comic shop regularly and support entertaining titles that specialize in Done-In-One stories that can be enjoyed in one sitting (like "The Spirit"), I might be at home...waiting for the trade.