You think that’s bad? I was collecting The OMAC Project, a six-issue miniseries that spun out of the events of the Countdown To Infinite Crisis one-shot. Now you expect a miniseries to be self-contained, right? Wrong. In all their wisdom, DC editorial decided to create an extra four chapters in the middle of the story, in the three Superman titles and Wonder Woman, featuring key events that took place between OMAC Project #3 and #4. By the time I picked up #4, I realized I had missed some important stuff, and DC didn’t even advertise the “required” tie-ins very heavily. But instead of picking up the four comics I don’t usually buy, I said “Screw this!” to OMAC Project and DC. Now I don’t even care what happens, I’m selling the issues I already bought, and I think Greg Rucka and DC editorial (including the snippy, bitchy assistant editor, who personally took me to task on another message board for pointing out my discontent in a more polite manner) really dropped the ball on this one. It’s stuff like this that gets me fed up with collecting comics.
See, reading your analysis of this just saved me $30-odd bucks for gas.
I might pick up a discounted OMAC trade later down the line, but now? No worries.
A trade is due as early as November or December, and I believe it will include the Countdown one-shot and also the key Wonder Woman issue. For all I’ve complained about OMAC, I must admit Countdown was awesome as a stand-alone story. It is probably the best Blue Beetle story of all time, and he has always been my favorite superhero.
I have been following Villains United, another post-Countdown miniseries, and so far I’m enjoying it. But a trade for that one is coming in December as well, I believe.
The problem I see with TPBs is that you don’t have that episodic feel to them. If it’s a good storyline, then waiting a month between issues builds up the thrill of anticipation.
For instance, Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta. When it first came out, you had a month between issues to speculate on what was really going on and to analyze the clues. When it’s all bound together, the thrill of aniticpation is gone. In a few minutes, the mystery is solved, rather than a few months.
Frank Miller’s Daredevil run. Matt Murdock is out of a job and is constantly getting pounded in the ass thanks to the Kingpin’s actions behind the scenes. It seems like Daredevil is constantly on a downward spiral and will never recover. How could he possibly work his way out? He’s broke, evicted, and nobody trusts him. Stay tuned till next month and find out. You don’t get that kind of drama with a TPB.
That’s all well and good for when you have good writers like Moore and Miller, who could write issues that were thrilling on their own, and even better when read in sequence. But almost all Marvel and DC comics now are “written for the trade,” which means stories that could be told in two issues are stretched out to six or eight, and it seems like very little happens from one issue to another. There are often two-page spreads that come across like glorified pin-ups, and multiple pages with little or no dialogue. You can read the individual issues too quickly these days, and they almost always seem disappointing on their own. For comics like this, such as Sleeper (which I actually liked), waiting for the trades is definitely the best way to enjoy them.
Any other dopers who want to get out of the comic book collectinf hobby - can I have your stuff?
I’m going to be listing some big chunks of my collection on eBay throughout September. I just want to be rid of a lot of my personal possessions, but I want to get SOMETHING for them. Probably not quite the answer you were looking for, though.
Well, let me know when you list them. I’ll be sure to look and see if there’s anything I need.
But for others, I am generously willing to open up my home to your cast-off comics, sight unseen. 
I’ll arm-wrestle Candid for 'em. That’s currently where I do most of my collecting these days.
I still buy floppies, but I’ve solved the problem by not buying crap anymore. (Although I did get suckered in to some of the Countdown stuff. :o) I don’t buy titles that cross over, so I don’t have to worry about crossovers. I don’t buy books just because they feature a character I like, because any character can be cool or a doof depending on the writer. Instead, I get stuff that I’m glad I’m reading.
–Cliffy
I have to disagree. I think that DC advertised the “Sacrifice” storyline plenty well. You were warned at the end of OMAC #3 to pick up the storyline if you wanted to know what happened. If you can’t be bothered to be observant about what is happening with the comics you are buying, that isn’t DC’s fault. Especially considering the fact that they offer “Crisis Counseling” on their website that summarizes the events in the different issues they put out each week that tie in directly or indirectly to the upcoming Infinite Crisis, which means you don’t even have to buy the issues to stay informed.
And another thing, that 4 part mini-series was not required reading. The entire thing was summarized in OMAC #4. You didn’t miss anything, other than the greater detail of the events in the entirely optional miniseries.
As to the OP, you do what you feel is best. However, if we all did this, there would be no trade paperbacks, because nobody would be buying the comics. It is a Catch 22 with the way comics are developed today.
Nu-unh! I got dibs! Dibs, I say!
I’m slowly but surely going the full trade route. I still buy some comics weekly (well, actually I go into my comics shop every couple of months and walk out with a stack, but same principle) but I started buying trades at a much higher rate and I started skipping out on a lot of single issue comics to wait for the trades. I’m much happier overall.
The only thing I’d suggest you watch out for is picking up a series in that’s already been fully collected in trades because you might get hooked. I burned through Preacher, Starman, Sandman, New X-Men and I don’t know how many others in under two weeks apiece. My wallet took a definite hit.
I’d also like to add to the bitching about the whole massive crossovers and multiple covers shtick that Marvel and DC are doing: didn’t we learn anything from the 90s? DC’s 52 event has to be one of the lamest ploys to suck money out of fanboys wallets that I’ve seen in a long time and I hope it fails miserably costing DC a nice hunk of change.
Yeah, I only read trades, and these days only Vertigo stuff, or stuff that won’t have every single plot point undone by another writer in 3-6 years to boost sales.
I don’t give a crap about monthly anticipation, I like sitting down and reading Transmetropolitan from issue #1 to #60. I hate having to read a story 20 pages per month, especially when it takes me about 5 minutes to read those 20 pages.
I do make an exception for Y - The Last Man and The Walking Dead just cause I got suckered in and don’t want to wait for the trades to find out what happens next :).
Cry me a river. If it stopped comics being published in their current form and started them being published exclusivly as novel length books I’d be quite happy.
I don’t know if I like your tone. For those of us who preorder our comics, it is a bit difficult to read the minds of the editorial staff months in advance, and when I signed up to receive all of OMAC, I had no idea they would stretch the story into four books I don’t collect. I am quite observant, thank you very much, and I’m well aware of the information on DC’s website, but I still feel it was a “bait and switch” because the tie-ins were announced after early issues were solicited. And while DC often cries out for fans to pick up other books, it was not reasonably foreseeable to think the story would be interrupted midway through a six-issue miniseries to carry over into four other books. Other than the most tenuous tie-ins, all the other post-Countdown miniseries have been self-contained.
I’m about to. Whilst I was picking up the new House of M #5, the proprietor of the shop asked if I wanted to sign up for the new DeciMation line (get it. Capital M to tie in to the House of M line. It’s clever damnit!!). The very first paragraph I read said that
“What came before House of M is no more. It cannot be fixed.” That means Mary Jane and Spider Man are no more. Uncle Ben is alive. Every bit of continuity gets flushed down the toilet because a few writers had boners for Gwen Stacy and they just couldn’t take it anymore. :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:
For me, that is just too much of a dump on the work of the previous writers. I can deal with people dying and coming back every other day (I think Wolverine kills Magneto at least that often, and twice on thursdays). I can take a lot. THat’s just way too much. If that happens, I’m done with comics.
I get the best of both worlds – I mooch free reads off of my brother, and then buy the TPBs when they come out later.
Well, I apologize for my tone. I’m just a very big DC fan who happened to disagree with your opinion of how DC handled the crossover tie-in. I have to pre-order my comics too, but my comic book store owner looks out for me and lets me know what else is happening that I might be interested in purchasing, especially if it ties in to another comic I’m reading. I see your point about the “bait and switch”, but I still see the tie-ins as optional, since they were summarized in OMAC #4.
I disagree. (surprised?) It’s no worse than these 4 mini-series leading up to Infinite Crisis. And you can be sure that it will be collected in TPB form, so no skin off your nose.
I’d be willing to trade my comics for PS 2 games, board games, Call of Cthulhu stuff, and other odds 'n ends. A suit of Greek armor along with a shield and spear would be dandy.
Marc
This is true, but I don’t think anyone other than the truly die hard DC fans are actually picking up all 4.