c/comic-book-fans

PSA: I found a local comic shop that lets you trade in old issues for store credit way better than selling online

Stopped by Cosmic Comics in Portland last Saturday and traded 12 beat-up Bronze Age books for $45 credit after the owner said he likes having stock for the quarter bin, has anyone else found a shop that doesn't lowball you on trades?

Serious question, does bad art ruin a good comic story or is that just me being picky?

I was at my local shop in Portland last Tuesday flipping through a new issue of some indie book. The writing was top notch, deep characters, cool plot twists. But the art looked like a 12 year old drew it in 10 minutes. I put it back on the shelf. My buddy grabbed it and said I was missing out. So which side are you on? Can a great story survive ugly drawings, or does the art make or break the whole thing for you too?

Watched a kid at my LCS try to flip through a key issue with one hand... felt ancient

I been going to the same shop in downtown Austin since 2003 (back when they had bins full of 90s junk for a quarter each). Last Saturday I saw this teenager grab a first print New Mutants #98 and scroll through it on his phone like an Instagram story, no bag, no gloves, not even looking at the cover. I had to bite my tongue so hard. It hit me that my entry point was bagging and boarding every single issue before reading it, even the crappy ones. He probably paid $40 for that thing and treated it like a napkin. Is it just me or did comic fans used to respect the physical book a lot more back then?

Can we talk about that moment you realize you've been bagging comics wrong for years?

I was at my local shop in Portland last month and the owner looked at my longbox and said 'you're suffocating the books dude'. I had been sealing every single bag with tape right at the opening instead of leaving a tiny air gap for breathing. Has anyone else had that 'oh no' moment where a simple habit turned out to be doing more harm than good?

Saw three dads in matching capes at a convention last Saturday

Switched from DC to Marvel after years of loyalty

I was a hardcore DC guy since I was a kid. Batman trades on my shelf, the whole deal. But last month a buddy handed me his copy of Immortal Hulk #1 and I couldn't put it down. The horror angle and the way it handles Bruce Banner's trauma just clicked for me in a way DC's recent stuff hasn't. Now I'm 3 volumes deep and actually liking Marvel more. Anyone else ever jump ship like this?

Just realized my reading order was killing my enjoyment of 90s X-Men

For years I jumped around between Uncanny X-Men and X-Men (vol 2) trying to read them in release order. It felt like a chore and I kept losing track of the story. Then I tried reading Uncanny arcs straight through and catching up on vol 2 later. Huge difference. The pacing just flows way better and I get more invested in each plot. Anyone else have a series that works better when you ignore the standard reading order?

Shelled out $60 for a set of variant covers that ended up being worth less than the face value

I saw the hype online and grabbed a full set of those foil Batman variants from my local shop, thinking they'd skyrocket. Turns out everyone and their brother bought them, and now they're sitting in dollar bins. Anyone else get burned chasing the variant cover craze?

Overheard a guy at my LCS say he ranks comics by how many times he cried reading them

He had a whole numbered list going from 1 to 50, with "The Death of Gwen Stacy" at number 3. I was just there to grab the new Ultimate Spider-Man, not get a full emotional breakdown of someone's pull list.

Tried reading a Silver Age Fantastic Four issue after only knowing modern comics

I picked up a 1963 Fantastic Four #33 from a booth at my local shop last Saturday for $8. I figured I'd breeze through it since I read the Hickman run and thought I knew the characters. But the whole thing felt like a different universe. Reed Richards spent three pages explaining a machine with boxes and arrows, and everyone kept yelling THINK at each other. The dialogue was super dramatic and they narrated every single punch. By page 10 I realized I had no idea what was actually happening in the fight scene. I learned that old comics move way slower and expect you to read every word balloon like a novel. Has anyone else picked up an older issue and felt completely lost?

How a comic convention in Portland changed my whole collecting style

I went to Rose City Comic Con two years ago and saw this guy with a long box full of dollar bin books. He just walked around handing them to kids for free. I asked him why and he said he'd rather see comics get read than sit in a bag. That moment hit me hard because I had like 30 boxes of stuff I never touched. Since then I've sold off about 4,000 of my 6,000 comics and only keep runs I actually reread. Has anyone else had a moment at a con or shop that made you rethink how you collect?

Went to a comic con in Portland and spotted something wild about the crowd

I was at the Portland Retro Comic Con last Saturday and wandered through the artist alley. What caught my eye was how many fans were carrying stacks of the same 3 indie comics instead of the big DC or Marvel stuff. One guy had like 15 copies of this small press book called "Lucky Dog" which I guess is about a groomer? lol. It made me wonder if people are just burned out on the mainstream or if indie comics are actually getting that much better. Has anyone else seen this shift at their local shows?

Picked the 90s X-Men omnibus over the Claremont run at my local shop and finally got to read the full Age of Apocalypse

I chose the thicker book with the shiny cover instead of the older collection and ended up loving the weird alternate universe stories more than I expected, anyone else prefer those big crossover events over the classic arcs?

I finally realized the guy at the comic shop was right about back issues

Overheard a guy at my local shop in St. Paul last Saturday telling a kid that bagging and boarding your comics doesn't matter if you just throw them in a box sideways. He was going on for like 5 minutes about how gravity warps the spines over time. I got home and checked my longbox of issues from 2016 and sure enough, half of them have that curve at the bottom. I've been storing them wrong for years. Anybody else notice this or is this guy just being too picky?

Serious question, is back issue hunting better than trades or am I doing this wrong?

I tried collecting single issues for a full story arc for the first time last month. Hit up three different shops in my area and spent about $40 tracking down seven issues of a series. Two of them had creased covers and one was missing the back page. Meanwhile my buddy just buys the trade paperback for $15 and moves on. I thought digging through bins would feel more authentic but honestly it just stressed me out. On the other hand, there's something cool about owning the original printing with the ads and letters pages. Has anyone else switched from floppies to trades and felt like they got a better deal?

Unpopular opinion: The Walking Dead comics are actually better than the show

I know everyone always talks about how the show went downhill after season 5 or whatever, but I just got done reading the full comic run for the first time. Found the compendiums at a used bookstore for $30 each, three of em. What surprised me is how much faster the story moves in the comics. Negan shows up way earlier and the whole arc with the Whisperers is totally different. The show dragged stuff out for seasons that the comics wrapped up in a few issues. I get why people like the show actors and all, but the pacing in the comics just felt more real somehow. Anyone else feel like the books get overlooked because the show got so big?

Found a guy at the comic shop who had never heard of the Claremont run on X-Men

Was at A Comic Shop in Orlando last Saturday flipping through some back issues. This kid maybe 19 or 20 next to me asks what I'm looking at. I said the Dark Phoenix Saga trade. He goes "who wrote that?" I said Chris Claremont. He just stared at me. I asked if he knew the 16 year Uncanny run. Nope. Nothing. I ended up pulling out my phone and showing him the cover of X-Men #129 just to prove this stuff existed before the movies. He bought a copy of God Loves Man Kills after I talked it up for 10 minutes. Has anyone else bumped into a fan who skipped the 70s and 80s entirely?

Why does nobody talk about reading a comic backwards?

I flipped through an old issue of Uncanny X-Men from the 80s in reverse order last week and noticed the artists intentionally hid small details in the background that only make sense if you look at it that way... Like a stray character walking off panel or a joke in the corner that builds to a payoff earlier in the story. Has anyone else tried this and noticed weird stuff the creators planted for reverse readers?

Hit 500 issues in my collection last weekend and it hit me different

I was just organizing some boxes in my basement and decided to count everything. Ended up at 503 total after I found a stack I forgot about in a tote. Most of them are from the 80s and 90s, a few golden age ones my dad passed down. What number did you hit that made you stop and think about how long you've been doing this?

TIL comic book fans treat back issues like stock investments

Last week at a shop in Phoenix, this guy spent 15 minutes arguing with the clerk over a $3 price difference on a 1993 X-Men issue. It hit me that some fans aren't just collectors, they're basically day traders with polybags.

Tried single issues vs trades for a year each - trades are way better for reading

I spent 2023 buying floppies week to week and felt like I never got a full story. 2024 I switched to trades and now I can actually follow the plot without waiting 30 days for the next part. Anyone else find trades easier to read?

TIL some collectors store comics in pizza boxes for protection

I was at a con in Portland last weekend and a guy showed me his graded comics packed in clean pizza boxes. He said it saves money on expensive bags. Has anyone else seen this storage hack work out?

Why does nobody talk about people who call every indie comic a 'graphic novel'?

I was at my local shop in Denver last weekend and this guy kept pointing at issues from a $3 bin calling them graphic novels. I mean, a 22-page pamphlet with staples is not the same as a bound book that tells a complete story. It bugs me when fans mix up format and quality. Does anyone else have a pet peeve about comic terms getting used wrong?

Overheard a guy at my LCS say he only reads comics for the variant covers

He told me he hasn't actually read a full issue since 2019, he just buys 3 or 4 covers of each book for their resale value, and it made me wonder if I'm the weird one for actually caring about the story over the art on the outside.

TIL that most indie comic artists make less than $100 per convention weekend after table fees

Was chatting with a guy at a show in Portland last month who had some gorgeous prints and a self-published graphic novel. I complimented his work and asked how the weekend was going. He said he'd made $180 total but paid $150 for the table and $40 for parking. So basically he was negative before buying food. I see so many aspiring artists dreaming of doing cons full time and I never realized how tight the margins really are. Has anyone here actually made a living off smaller shows or is it just like a side hustle that breaks even?