Comics: No More Monthlies, Back To Trade Paperbacks

About two months ago I decided that after years of buying trade paperbacks I’d sample the world of monthly comics, knowing full well it was a more expensive option but wanting to experience comics the way they were originally intended. There’s no denying that it’s nice to receive a new update of a story on a more regular basis, but the amount of story I actually get in one issue is not enough, and I’m left wanting more. I realise this is the point of a monthly comic, to get people buying again next month, but I prefer to read a decent chunk in one go.

There is also the price. I can buy a Manga comic book for £4 which has 200 pages, and for that amount of money I can’t even buy 2 issues of the cheapest comic I’ve been collecting. One of the titles I’ve been collecting monthly issues of is Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne which costs me £2.75 an issue. If I were to buy the trade paperback I’d probably pay around £10, but collecting it in single issue format it’s going to cost me £16.50. Consider that price difference for all the titles I’ve been collecting on a monthly basis and I’m wasting a lot of money.

American Vampire and I, Zombie

One good thing that has come out of my monthly comics experiment is the discovery of new comic titles. Two Vertigo titles, American Vampire and I, Zombie, have become firm favourites and carry on the great tradition of quality Vertigo acquisitions. There’s also the new DC story arc of Brightest Day which I never would have heard of, let alone sampled, had it not been for me getting a monthly comic recommendation from the guy in my local(ish) comic book shop. I think Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne is the only title I won’t carry on with – it’s the only Batman comic apart from The Killing Joke that I’ve not liked.

The ironic thing is that I will have to carry on with the monthly comics until issue 6, of those I want to still follow, because it would be cheaper to buy monthly issues to that point than to buy the trade paperback when it comes out! The economics of comics, who knew it could be so complex?