Forgot password?  |  Register  |    
User Name:     Password:    
Blog - Staff Blog   

Jesse Gets Back Into Comics!!!!


On 03/04/2014 at 03:17 PM by Jesse Miller

See More From This User »

When I was younger, one of the ways I bonded with my father was our weekly trips to the local comic shop, a now defunct joint called Comic Crusade. This was during the comic boom of the 90s, and my dad figured that collecting comics was a decent way to invest in a sort of college fund. Image and Valliant Comics had just broken out, and certain books were starting to be worth some decent bucks; especially the newly coined “variant” editions.

Of course the boom was really a bubble, and the bubble burst before the decade was through. My dad and I laugh about it now – how we spent much more money than we could ever hope to make back – because we’ll always have the memories of our weekly pilgrimage to the local shop. It was something that we did together, just us.

Somewhere around the infamous Clone Saga I stopped reading comics. I’m pretty sure there are more than a few of you out there that may have dropped out around the same time.  It was a pretty awful time (creatively and economically) for the comic biz. I couldn’t rationalize spending the money on books I wasn’t reading, and when I was, wasn’t enjoying. My dad and I stopped going to the shop and picked up other hobbies (I was playing hockey with my dad’s pickup league regularly around this time too) to supplant the comic shop ritual.

In the years since I’ve dropped into a local shop to pick up a book or two. World War Hulk piqued my interest, as did certain limited series like Mark Millar’s Wanted, but I couldn’t make the fulltime commitment to the hobby. I’d drop by for a few weeks and then stop. Drop by for a few more and then stop again.

With the birth of my daughter, however, I have found that I don’t have much time for my regular hobbies (brewing/drinking beer, videogames, just going out in general, etc…), and that comics suddenly become more appealing. I don’t really have the time to frequent my local comic shop (it’s a decent ways away), and I honestly don’t want to stuff my closet with more boxes of comics (I already have a ton that I pretty much just lug from place to place and never read), so what makes comics appealing again is digital age.

Digital comics wouldn’t have appealed to me when I was younger. I was more of a collector back then, and having all the physical books is just more appealing than not. But I’m older now, and I don’t really care about having dozens of physical books that I have to be super careful about reading (because I’m anal like that – my physical books have no cracks in the spines, you wouldn’t be able to tell that they’d ever been read), and taking up space. It just doesn’t matter to me anymore.

There are also too many advantages of digital for me to ignore:

  1. They don’t take up space
  2. I can read them pretty much anywhere – on my phone, on my computer, on my Kindle, etc…
  3. Generally they’re cheaper, or at least the same price as the physical book. Older books tend to go down in price, and you can usually find #1s for a buck or sometimes free.
  4. Finding back issues isn’t an issue. I don’t have to worry about having a hard time finding a book that came out weeks or months ago, and I also don’t have to worry about said book going up in price (the reverse is actually true – see #3 above)

So anyways, long story short I’m reading comics again and I’m reading them digitally.  Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be highlighting some of the series I’m reading and I hope to get some cool recommendations from you all out there.

Happing Gaming.


 

Comments

Ranger1

03/04/2014 at 05:43 PM

I stopped after college when my student loans came due, probably around '92 or '93. Unfortunately, Ileft my comics at my grandmother's and I haven't seen them since my sister and her now ex were living there. That means they either got kifed or put in the garage and the squirrels have used them for nesting material. Unless I got lucky and grandma put them somewhere safe...

Matt Snee Staff Writer

03/04/2014 at 05:44 PM

I love comics.  But I can't get into a lot now.  I dont' know where to start with the modern stuff.  I would like to get back into them, but you know, I do enjoy having them in physical form. 

Jesse Miller Staff Writer

03/05/2014 at 09:30 AM

Marvel does this thing called Marvel NOW! that makes it a bit easier to get into books.  They release a new #1 each month (this month it's Moon Knight - huzzah!) and they also have "NOW!" issues in their ongoing series.  These are denoted with a .1, so for example Thor: God of Thunder issue #19 is actually 19.1.  This signifies that it's a good jump on point for new readers.

I actually dig the way Marvel's doing it. One of the biggest issues about getting into comics is no knowing where the heck to start, and this helps to aleviate some of that stress.

Alex-C25

03/04/2014 at 06:04 PM

Curiously, I just bought recently the 3rd tome of The Walking Dead.

Anyway, I'm more fond of the physical medium, but I don't mind going digital. It's nice to have a shelve of books and comics, but space it's always an issue that can't be avoided.

Jesse Miller Staff Writer

03/05/2014 at 09:35 AM

I have the two huge compendiums of The Walking Dead in physical form (both tomes contain issues 1-97).  I haven't gotten to the second compendium yet, but I'm loving the series. 

goaztecs

03/04/2014 at 06:05 PM

I like that story about you and your pops going to the local comic store, having that bonding time. Oh that bubble, my brother and I dabbled in buying those variant covers, upstart comicbooks, and now I have no idea what happened to them.

I like the digital comic, I have a couple on my tablet, and I remember having some on my PSP (the free ones). I wouldn't mind getting back into reading one or two. Like you I'm not into having the physical versions anymore, and I just want to enjoy the content.

Jesse Miller Staff Writer

03/05/2014 at 12:50 PM

Those variant covers were out of control. I remember that every now and then they would appear and it was kind of cool, but after a while it seemed that every damn book had a variant cover - it was annoying as hell.

jgusw

03/04/2014 at 08:53 PM

I go digital if I have to, but I much rather the physical books.  If I miss an issue, I know there will probably be a mass release of a collection down the road.  I can only read digital comics off my computer and I can't take that with me anywhere.  Anything else the screen is just too small.  I like to see as much of the page as possible.  Zooming in and out annoys me.  Most of the comics I read that are digital are fan translated japanese manga and when there is an offical english release, I buy the physical copies.  

Jesse Miller Staff Writer

03/05/2014 at 09:21 AM

I can certainly understand that digital isn't for everyone, especially if your access to a digital library is more or less limited. If I only could access it on my PC, I'd be more loathe to got pure digital.

V4Viewtiful

03/04/2014 at 09:06 PM

He's a list

- Street Fighter (by Udon entertainment)

- The Stuff of Legend

- Wonder Woman (current)

- Mega Man 

- Afterlife of Archie

-  Injustice

- Guardian of the Galaxy/Nova by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning.

- Kick-Ass

- Elephantmen

- Sonic the Hedgehog

- Gotham Central

- Grandville

- Tale of Sand (Jim Henson screenplay adaptation)

- Habibi

- Scott Pilgrim

- JLA: Earth 2

- anything to do with The Spirit

That's all I can think of right now, anymore? Drop me a line. Smile

Jesse Miller Staff Writer

03/05/2014 at 08:58 AM

Thanks for the recommendations!  I've heard nothing but good things about the new Wonder Woman series, and I've actually been reading Guardians of the Galaxy for a bit now (started around the time the film was announced).

I'm also surprised at how many people seem to actually dig Injustice. Usually video game or movie tie-in comics are crap, so it's good to see an exception to the rule.

Nick DiMola Director

03/05/2014 at 09:23 AM

I really like reading comics digitally as well. That was my re-entrance to the medium, shortly after Nicholas was born. It was convenient to read in bed on my tablet and the app I use keeps track of what I've read, straight down to the page, so it's easy to pick up and put down on a whim.

I'm still reading Amazing Spider-Man (there's seriously an endless number of them), The Avengers, and Futurama. Chessa bought me a subscription to the print version of the new Firefly comics, which have been great. There's only 2 so far, but they're written by Joss Whedon's brother and he's doing a great job continuing the story post-Serenity.

At some point I'll move on to some more current stuff, but I love my old school Spider-man too much right now to give it up!

Jesse Miller Staff Writer

03/05/2014 at 12:12 PM

The Superior Spiderman is suprisingly much better than I thought it would - in fact it's downright fantastic. Give that a shot if you ever want to jump into the new books.

Casey Curran Staff Writer

03/05/2014 at 10:02 AM

I don't invest too much time reading comics, but I really love whenever I do. My favorite ones are Ultimate Spider-Man and Walking Dead, the second's particularly good right now with them doing a pretty epic arc.

Jesse Miller Staff Writer

03/05/2014 at 12:11 PM

You know, I haven't read any of the new Ultimate Spinderman. I read the entire original run, but stopped reading comics again around the time that Miles Morales made his debut.  I've heard nothing but good things.

Casey Curran Staff Writer

03/05/2014 at 12:30 PM

I heard it's good too, but haven't checked it out either. I'm kind of interested to see what happened in the Ultimate universe after, but I just don't really want another person being Spiderman. Not sure if I'd go back if they brough Peter back either, I like that Ultimate keeps people dead. Except ironically Gwen Stacy. 

asrealasitgets

03/05/2014 at 11:43 AM

My favorite must reads currently are

Batman (New 52) by Scott Sneider and Greg Capullo


All New X-Men by Bendis
 

Hawkeye
 

Saga
 

Jesse Miller Staff Writer

03/05/2014 at 12:10 PM

Been reading two out of three of those. The new Batman is pretty damn good, and Hawkeye is a fantastic example of taking a lower rung character and developing him into someone whose more interesting that most of other mainstay avengers. I just started reading Saga (got the first trade about a week ago) and I'm digging it.

I'll admit that X-Men has always been more or less an intimidating series to get into because of all the damn series out there! That said, I'm planning on giving them a go at some point and All New X-Men is a book I've been eyeing, along with the Uncanny Avengers (which is only kind of an X-Men series, I guess).

asrealasitgets

03/05/2014 at 05:54 PM

What you should know about X-Men is that after the events of Avengers vs X-Men last summer the core X team has been divided.

Uncanny X-Men
Cyclops is the new leader of the Brotherhood of Mutants and runs an new mutant school with Magneto. He is sort of evil now, after killing Xavier (oops!), which is wierd but I think Cyclops is more interesting now and has a rad new red suit. He is more anti-human now that Charles isn't around to guide him. You can read the Uncanny X-Men series seperately to see whats going down with them.  

All New X-Men
In this series, the original X team is brought into the present, via time travel lol, to try to bring the divided group back together again. This takes place in the Xavier Mansion which is now run by Wolverine and Kitty Pride, and together with the old team, the team is sort of united again. You can read this series seperate from the others. They often fight with Cyclops team.

Uncanny Avengers
After the aftermath of A vs X, Wolverine and Havok, along with Thor and others create a new team to show mutants and humans can work together, err super humans lol. It is also a good series and a favorite of mine. Also, it can be read seperate from others.

Wolverine and the X-Men
This series is also really popular. If you can't get enough of Wolverine, then read on.

Amazing X-Men
Nightcrawler is back. Enough said. 

Dont worry about numbers man! Just find the story and characters you like and stick with it. I love that they brought back the original X-Team and the writers have a lot fun with the teenage X-Men.  

Julian Titus Senior Editor

03/05/2014 at 06:27 PM

No one ever gives Invincible any love, but it is my favorite comic book of the past 20 years. It takes super hero tropes and turns them on their head while combining incredible characterization and epic battles. Oh, and it's from the writer of The Walking Dead, who has worked with the same artist for nearly the entire series.

Jesse Miller Staff Writer

03/06/2014 at 09:49 AM

So Invincible has been on my list of books to immediately check out, and fortune has it that the first issue is free on ComiXology.  Haven't had a chance to read it yet, but that will change very soon.

Log in to your PixlBit account in the bar above or join the site to leave a comment.