What do you love about comics or collecting comics. I have always loved the stories especially when there is no hype around it and you find the book that really impresses you. I do have one pet peeve about some people that get into comics for the wrong reason. That is the people who think they’ll be rich in x amount of years because of their conversation. Number one wrong reason to collect comics; number two the only reason some few books fetch ridiculous amounts of money is because those books are super rare the majority didn’t survive time for whatever reason. So tell me what you love about collecting comics and what irks you about it too. Let’s talk about it we are all friends here.
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Someone once said that every fan’s favorite comic book.is the one they read when they were twelve years old.
Reading Comics is an.experience, mainly emotional, but that makes it hard to talk about them analytically.
Today’s conics are
Sophisticated
Cynical
Violent
Have Very little plot
The Story goes on from.issue to issue, never seeming to end
An Issue may later be found to be a hallucination I am looking at you, Tom King
But there is usually better characterization than the cardboard DC characters of the 1960s
I can sometimes appreciate these modern stories but I don’t love them.
The stories I love make me smile.
They are often in exotic lands like Egypt or the pyramids of South Americs.
The story is complete in one or two issues.
No one is mean to the hero or their alter ego.
At least one person.respects the alter ego.as an admirable person. Often the hero goes home to that person every. night.
As the alter.ego, the character has significant interactions with normal human beings. They don’t just interact with.other super heroes or the villain, as is the case today.
The hero does no harm, or at least makes every effort not to hurt anyone.
They are competentl, smart and level headed, using their brains, not just brute forve to solve a problem.
There is often a feelong of nostalgia when reading these stories.
Three media examples
The unstated tension between Batman.and Catwoman in the 1966 TV show.
Peter.David’s description of liife in 1960s comic books in.issue 79.of his Supergirl aeries.
Finally.the lyrics of the
Superhero Story as a Romance
Four-Color Love Story
by The Metasciences.
Another day at work is nearly
Over
You must’ve seen the whole
thing on T.V.
Seventeen more city blocks
and I can almost smell you
Waiting at the windowsill for me
It’s our 41st anniversary
But we don’t look a day over 23
Not in this life
Not in this universe
And we were still in high school when I met you
If you believe the continuity.
I rescued you from robots and
untied you from the tracks
And you pretended not to know that it was me
We didn’t even kiss until issue
26
And this world still feels like
1963
I love this life
I love this universel
And you’ll keep my identity a
secret
And you will know the touch
beneath my glove.
And I may go out every night
and risk my life for strangers
But you’re the only girl I’ll ever
love.
And Gwen Stacy isn’t dead,
she’s only sleeping
And Elektra isn’t evil or insane
And those bastards in the
pentagon can’t really kill Sue
Dibney
No more than they could kill off Lois Lane
And I swear to god there’ll be
hell to pay
If anybody tries to take you
away.
Forget this life
Forget this universe
You’re everything I need.
You are my life
You are my universe
And they’ll have to go through
me
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Omg that was beautiful actually moved my comic book loving heart; I couldn’t have said it better myself.
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Thanks
It was hard to organize these thoughts
But now they are written down, after I thought about it.
Thanks for asking.
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Your welcome I told my son this hopefully I got 60 to 70 more here left but when I’m gone your going to love those books maybe not because of the comics but because it will be a part of me you will have and will hopefully grow and pass to your kids. I wish my Grandpa knew what he had if he just kept Action Comics 1 !
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I love going to my shop every week and talking with the store owner about everything going on in books or life. I also love going through my books every now and again to remember what was happening in my life when I first read the book. Lastly, I love swapping books with my friends and introducing them to my favorite characters. My biggest gripe is I have no where to keep my books haha.
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I love the stories and I love the art. Like @jsmsiggy and @TurokSonOfStone1950 I love the uplifting stories of heroism and the example my heroes set. I wish today’s comics were more positive. I also love discovering new creators and new to me comics by my favorite creators.
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I love it when there is good art and a fantastic story. Many times it is one or the other, but occasionally you come across magic team ups. Love Perez and Wolfman.
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Interesting topic @jsmsiggy! I agree that those reasons for collecting create two very different “buckets” of folks. For those of us that actually love and feel emotionally connected and invested (beautiful wordplay @TurokSonOfStone1950), we can sense it pretty quickly. I consider us to be the “true” comic fans who fully appreciate everything they have to offer.
Personally, I like to be immersed in the pages of the comic and ultimately a part of the adventure. It’s really unlike anything else (maybe roller coasters? 
).
Excellent point @kalebarmstrong543, I also enjoy thinking about when I first read a book and how my life experiences affected the story. If an issue or arc is really good, I actually miss the characters and being in their world. Those are usually books I add to my collection and reread often.
@TravisMorgan, the art is so important to me too!
@WonderWoman_85, pure magic with Perez and Wolfman!
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@TravisMorgan: Wonderfully put about uplifting examples of heroism being found in comics. But I’ll add another component: The elusive hunt for that rare back issue. Case in point: I only recently discovered that my supposedly complete run of Warlord, Vol 1 is missing issue #123. I will need to rectify that at some future date. I hope the “hunt” will will be fraught with maddening twists and turns.
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Holding a mini art gallery in my hand. Plus all of that historic records it represents. Wow!
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As a kid, comics provided a visual escape out of the boredom I sometimes found myself while living in the 'burbs.
Along with baseball cards, and other items, they were also a thing to be collected that actually had some worth beyond being a shiny object to look at; you could actually read it and be entertained by it.
I reread a lot of my comics I collected from Middle School about a year ago and I realized how much of the material I didn’t understand back then. I enjoy them on a different level now.
Comics show the human condition in action through the use of heroes.
We see how villains and heroes use their powers for different purposes.
We also see how complex characters are. There is no black and white, but a lots of greys.
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I do like owning comic books that are worth something. I know one collector in particular whose collection is worth more than anything I own. He’s a great person, he goes to cons and sets up a booth and lets people handle some of his slabbed books regardless of their intention to buy. Our conversation is usually about buying and selling, and what we’re trying to acquire. I don’t recall talking much about story and art beyond what makes a key issue.
I like to handle comics that are older than I am. I have a few that are worth enough that I can’t handle them a lot. But I like to feel and smell the paper. I like to wonder about this disposable book’s journey that led it to me. I like to see the ads.
The great thing about an app like this is you can really see the way comic books have evolved over time. You can see the trends in art and writing common to a given time period. There’s just so much that’s ready to digest right now.
I was 10 years old in 1990. There was a lot going on in DC comics then and shortly after. A new Robin. Superman died! Batman got his back broken! Hal Jordan went on a warpath ! The new GL blew up OA! I could go on about the awesome Spider-Man stories then and the launch of Image. And the X-men. That was a great era for comics. It was a great era to experience as a bright eyed young boy. And comic shops were everywhere and they were awesome. And we would ride our bikes there.
The stories and art are everything. But comic books were a part of my life. A real bright spot in my overall life experience. I was more into partying and getting in trouble in my later teens than I was into comics. But comics and collecting comics were such a positive part of my life as a kid.
Now we can read anything we want with the click of a button. Research artists quickly and find a whole list of everything they’ve ever done. Binge monthly serials and complete a year long storyline in a few hours. You can order back issues and have them dropped on your doorstep. I have young children and I look forward to seeing their experience with comic books the way it is today. It will be different than mine, but I hope it’s still great.
I have that same experience rereading comics from when I was that age. There’s a sweet spot in comic creation where it’s appropriate for kids, but it’s actually sophisticated adult reading.
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I’ve been at this comic thing for a long time. At the moment, I don’t know if I’m a collector or an accumulator, as I don’t get around to reading most of what I pick up these days, and I pick up quite a bit… and then there’s the stuff I bring home from shows…
I caught the bug in junior high, back in the mid/late 70s. One of the department stores we shopped at had a spinner rack (actually, I think it was three or four), and I found myself drawn to that part of the store. Cover price was 30 cents at that time. So, I found myself having to figure out how many books I could get with how many dollars I had to work with. It could be a difficult experience, because I wanted to get so much, but only had a limited amount of money to spend.
I got to know a lot of “people” through those pages. They became a part of my personal “family.” So much so, I felt a sense of personal triumph when they accomplished something they thought they couldn’t. When tragedy struck, it hit me, too.
For example, two episodes in particular hit me pretty hard, one in the triumph side the other in the heart-wrenching one. I don’t remember exact issues. The first one (and it probably isn’t the first time it happened) was when Bruce presented Dick with formal adoption papers. The other, Lois was reporting somewhere overseas. She got shot, and Clark was clear on the other side of the planet. Just thinking about them even now elicits the same reaction, but for entirely different reasons.
So, when you’ve been a part of these people’s lives, fictional though they may be, they become a part of you. Yes, some storylines may be better than others, this artist might not strike your fancy like the last one did, but even during the times where the book “might not be as good as it could be,” you’re still investing yourself in what’s happening.
And I think collecting comics, to a certain extent, takes me back to the spinner rack, where my wallet was an empty metal Sucrets box. It can be exciting, it’s fun, and it has the capability to take you to the far future, the distant past, and absolutely anywhere in-between.
I want to say I never grew up. To some extent, that’s absolutely true. I just have more aches and pains, as well as disposable income to throw at my hobby/obsession. You have to grow old. That’s an unfortunate fact. Growing up is a choice. Of course, we all do a little of that, even if it’s against our will: it’s necessary to live in a world that you’ve grown old in. I can proudly say I was a comics nerd decades before it became even remotely cool.
Now that I’ve gotten the flowing, nostalgic stuff taken care of, how about some gripes? A lot of them have come along in the last ten years or so.
To start off, let me say: I try not to get too wrapped up in finding out what’s coming down the pipe. I’d rather not (in general) know ahead of time what’s going to be in the books I read. Of course, this leads to problems from:
Speculators. The knuckleheads who buy individual issues of books they may have never picked up before, because of a certain character or occurrence within that one issue, and as has been mentioned, thinking they’re going to get rich. This can lead to a person who normally gets that book - has runs and runs of them - leaving a gap in their collection, that can sometimes take years (and often a ridiculous amount of money) to fill.
First appearance people: People similar - if not the same as above - who are only interested in the first appearance of a character - any character, it seems. Same potential outcome.
Variant covers: This started years ago, and has only snowballed in recent years. Now, I’ve got no problem giving artists work. There are a lot of 'em out there, and a lot of them are truly exceptional. However… If there are going to be four different covers, then when ordering, we, the consumers, should get to see, four different thumbnails, instead of one cover and a note telling us there are other covers available.
And in that same vein: there have been instances where there have been examples of all covers available, and I haven’t cared for a single one of them. Granted, that’s me, but I’m sure there are others out there who’ve experienced the same situation.
(I just went through the latest edition of DC Connect (#24), and I see they’ve done a much better job than they had been of showing the various variant covers. Still a few that claim there are other covers available with no picture, but this one is a step in the right direction… now to get Marvel to get their act together…)
I’m not sure how I feel about making the character in the book look like the character in the movie/TV show. I get that they’re trying to drum up business with the people who might never have read a comic, by making the book look more like whatever alternate media they have experienced that character in. The snag there is, there are few outlets for buying comics these days outside of shops. I know there are some, but they’re scattered, and those comics aren’t prominently displayed in most cases, so I wonder just how successful that attempt really is…
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