fujishig

Quick question about this book... I recently got it for my birthday, but I haven't read any of the other Fables GNs (recently picked up the first one but haven't read it yet). I know this is a prequel, but will it still spoil some events of the series?

Ah, the Warren Ellis X years... that was back when I was still a diehard x-fan, but looking back, the whole line of books had been screwed up for a long time. The many, many, many reboots finally took it's toll and I stopped reading them altogether, though I did later go back and get the Morrison hardcovers.

PalmerJoss

It won't spoil a thing. That's the beauty of it - newcomers can read it as in introduction to the series and to the characters.

bishop2knight

Question: What percentage of your comic purchases are super heroes? And what percentage of books you buy come from Marvel, Image, and/or DC?

Trevor

Probably 65-75% superhero.

Maybe 50% DC, 10% Marvel, 40% non-Image independent.

Very little Image, but they sucked a few years ago when I started my sabbatical. Do they put out good stuff now?

PalmerJoss

It used to be that I purchased superhero comics almost exclusively, but lately I've been shifting away from them. Now I'd say that about 45% of what I read is non-superhero.

I also used to be a huge reader of Marvel comics, now I read 3 books of theirs: Captain America, The Hulk, and Uncanny X-Men. The only reason I read those titles is because of the writers and when Ed Brubaker leaves Cap and UXM I will drop both - the same goes for Hulk with Greg Pak. I also read only a couple DC superhero titles - All-Star Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and JLA. When each titles respective writers leave the title, so then will I drop the book.

For the most part I read Vertigo comics and a couple indie books here and there. I'd say that my company breakdown is like this: DC - 35% Marvel - 20% Vertigo/Wildstorm/non-superhero indie - 45%

dadaluholla

Hmmmmm....

Hulk = Marvel
Captain America = Marvel
Daredevil = Marvel
Astonishing X-Men = Marvel
Punisher = Marvel
Walking Dead = Image

Looks like around 66% actual "superhero" and only 16% non-Marvel.

lukewarmwater

Probably:
10% superhero - invincible, detective comics
50% DC - Jonah Hex, Detective Comics, Y the last man, 100 bullets, any darwyn cooke/paul pope books
10% Marvel - Punisher by Ennis, Criminal
10% Image - Invincible, Walking Dead
20% Other companys, Top shelf, pantheon, oni, darkhorse, etc.

fujishig

Actually, I'd say more than 60% of my purchases (by cost, if not by volume) is manga, the vast majority of which is from Viz (a turnaround from a couple of years ago when Tokyopop was dominant in my monthly orders).

If we're talking just the monthly comics (non tpb), I'd say it's pretty much 100% superhero, 90% DC (for some reason, I still pick up that Marvel Universe A-Z, and I had to try the Eternals). I know, I know, I'm killing the comic book industry, but if they're going to collect everything in trades, and write for the trade, then I'll read everything in trades. Same goes for stuff like Y the Last Man and Ex Machina (which I guess is still superhero), I'll just wait it out.

bishop2knight

Lots and lots of hero readers here. I'd say money wise, most of my books are Marvel or DC hero books (and Invincible from Image). However, since most of my hero books are hardcovers, that's why. If you look at numbers instead of costs, I'd say at least half my books are non-hero. I love Oni's digest sized books. And I'm slowly getting into manga with probably a book each month (this month was LINE....it started very good, but dwindled into cliche).

Quake1028

From my latest DCBS order:

Superhero: 49
Non-Superhero: 19

Marvel: 33
DC: 29
Image: 3
Dark Horse: 3

bishop2knight

This looks fun:

resinrats

100% non DC/Marvel
100% non-superhero

50% IDW / 50% Devil's Due for companies.

The only comics I get are GIJoe and Transformers comics.

I used to get Spiderman and Batman but gave those up years ago. Noticing the issue #s, I'm surprised how long ago I dropped them. For Batman, it was just after the Earthquake storyline and Spiderman had just released Ultimate Spiderman 6.

MovieExchange

I've been trying to hard to stick with 52 until the end, but it gets worse and worse and fucking worse every week.

Avengers 24 was a complete waste of time as well.

Don't even get me started on Civil War - Whose Side Are You On. A $4.99 fucking advertisement for other books.

I'm about ready to go 100% downloading until the quality improves. Right now these books are in the category of "read once and then never care about them again." I can download and delete if that's the case.

boredsilly

I'm pretty much in the same boat as you. The stuff I read month to month is superhero (and mainly the stuff I discuss here), but over all I read 60% Superhero, 40% other stuff. I don't really care to read indy books as monthlies, cause for one they hardly are monthly so I forget what's happening from issue to issue, and for two they are the comics that I like to loan out to show people comics are "more than tights".

And I will never buy that "killing the industry" line. If you're buying the products they're putting out, how is that hurting anything? I bet it's true for you, like it is for me, that you buy things in trade that you wouldn't buy in single issues. Am I right on that?

Superboy

I dropped 52 around week 12. I'm not sorry about it either. The idea seemed great until I started having flashbacks of Action Comics Weekly. Having second stringers was a great idea, but the execution was very poor. I also didn't like how each issue lacks substance. You'd think by at least the 4th issue we would have some idea where the story is going. Alas, a great concept that just didn't work, and I wonder how the editorial change at DC is going to affect storylines coming in a year.

OYL is over at DC and i'm offically disappointed. Most titles disappeared altogether, a lot of them lost steam, and i've dropped so many DC books I read on a consistent basis that I read almost NOTHING every month. JLA, Teen Titans, Flash, Nitewing, etc etc. At least sales are going strong for them though.

Civil War is something i'm still not sure what to think of. On the one hand, I hate big crossovers that are pointless and have no tension. On the other hand, the artwork is great and the writing is actually decent, if not the main story itself.

On the bright side of things, the last issue of Planetary came out today. It was a great issue and concluded the series extremely well IMO. It's been a worthwhile journey.

Justice, as always, a great read. It's amazing to read this book for me because it seems like something out of a dream.

NextWave, always funny, always witty, and reminds me why I started reading so many Marvel books in the first place. 10 years ago, I read almost NO Marvel books. Starting around 2001, they had a HUGE creative resurgence, and it seemed like they spun gold left and right. Loved it. Since then though they've gone back to very traditional and somewhat flat storytelling. Sigh.

Wildo1966

In regards to Image comics I stopped buying them earlier this year. I was only buying Spawn for the last 2-3 years and now Spawn is downright terrible. I admit I was a Image zombie for many years but when they raised prices and let just about anybody release a book I said see ya! I don't know how Image Comics survives, my local CBS orders so few copies anymore, it is truly amazing how Spawn use to be one of the best sellers and now it is a complete mess..

Superboy

Only after so long can a title retain that type of mad fanboy-type following. That's why I think the comic industry is in for a brutal turn in the next few years, becuase it keeps losing readers and cannot attract new ones. That kind of slow uphill battle of attrition will eventually reach a dark turning point. The crash of the 90s was probably the worst we'll see it, but I think eventually the audience will disappear altogether.

PalmerJoss

This week I picked up The Fountain graphic novel, Captain America #23, and Seven Soldiers #1. I had completely forgotten that the conclusion to Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers maxi-series came out this week. I mean it's been months since the last issue of the last mini came out. I'll need to reread the entire series before I can read the final issue.

The Fountain graphic novel came out last year in hardcover, but the big price tag prevented me from purchasing it then. I picked it up this week in paperback for $20 and that was definitely money well spent. The story is wonderful and sad and Kent Williams' painting is just sublime. I'll probably read it again this weekend, it was that good.

Chew

Is there anybody that thought either OYL or 52 turned out well? All of the titles I enjoyed before the one year jump are either gone now or suck.

I lasted longer than most on 52, my last issue arrives this week. Granted, I had 12 issues pre-ordered by the time I decided to drop it.

MovieExchange

One of the bigger problems about OYL and 52 is the total lack of planning. OK, so the main DC heroes were gone for a year. Now we're finding out what happened during that year. The problem is that all of these second stringers and new characters have not appeared in regular DC comics and won't until 52 is over. So now after having a "lost year" of activity for Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, we have a year of "lost activity" for all the characters of 52.

The whole OYL thing was just another irrelevant gimmick in the end. Batman got his new attitude, but did anything else really big happen? It seems that everyone is pretty much back to where they started from.

boredsilly

I made it into the 20's before dropping 52. I still kind of care what's going on, but not enough to read it. I would much rather just read spoilers. It's a lot faster and cheaper .

OYL on as a whole hurt a lot of the books I liked, by making what I thought were unnecessary changes. Now don't take that to mean I don't like change in my comics, far from it, it just seemed like a convenient way for changes to made to books without showing how it happened. Like I said last month, I'm most unhappy with Teen Titans OYL. Superman and Batman books are pretty good though, but that has to do with the creative teams, not OYL changes.

PalmerJoss

Thing is, I liked 52 when it started. The first few issues were great, but after a few weeks the plot just seemed like it was on autopilot. Nothing big was happening and entire plotlines seemed lost only to be picked up after weeks and weeks of nothing. I lasted until issue 23, which was generous if you ask me. I've since given it up and if the series turns out decent then I may pick it up in trade. Otherwise, I'm not sad that I dropped it.

fujishig

That is true... if not for TPB collections, I might not be collecting comics at all at this point. Back in my college years, I had access to exactly one comic shop, and they were less than reliable in getting issues in, so I had huge gaps in my collection that almost convinced me to quit right there... I did take a long sabbatical from most things comics related. What helped me get back into it? The two things that are killing the industry:
1) Mailorder comics: ordering online meant I didn't have to trek to a comic store, and the discounts (and wanting to get the most for the shipping price) made me expand the number of books I got
2) TPB collections run rampant: usually, I'd have missed a whole bunch of issues and just give up on a series... but TPBs were an easy way to catch up. I had always loved TPBs as a kid, mostly because I would lose individual issues, but I could always find that Dark Phoenix or Return of Galactus trade. But now they were making more of them!

I had totally forgotten about Planetary: there's a book that reads so much better in trade form, but that I love so much that I still pick up the individual issues.

Gamblor187

So am I the only one left reading 52 ?
Not that I'm actually enjoying it. I just keep telling myself that it's bound to pick up, and I don't want to miss it when it does. If only I could actually believe that. Anyway, I'm trying to stick with it to the bitter end. I'll let you know how it all turns out.

For me, the worst moment of 52 so far (other than hating the way that they're portraying The Question was

Is anyone else reading Batman and the Mad Monk ?It's just as good as Batman and the Monster Men . Nobody these days writes Batman better than Matt Wagner.

MBoyd

I am enjoying 52, Batman, Detective . . . Wonder Woman when it comes out. Ive been getting Superman and Action but have been pretty lukewarm since Johns left. Havent read Johns and Donner yet. Hope it will be good.

I've dropped Green Lantern Corps, Aquaman, Hawkgirl, Birds of Prey. . . suffered thru Nightwing to get to Wolfmans run. 1st issue was okay.

Tried 1st issues of most everything new at DC and never went back.

I can't believe I'm saying this . . . but I am enjoying Marvel so much right now.

Oh the Classic Battlestar Galactica #1 was pretty lame. Seemed to borrow heavily from the new series. Starbuck on a mission to a museum on a Cylon infested planet. LOL - who'd thunk that.

I'm really liking Marvel's new Premiere classic hardcover line. The collector in me (bishop2Knight you reading this?) digs the spine numbers on the limited dust jacket versions of the books - 9.99 at DCBS. And I havent read any of them so far in single issue form.

I started slowing down on DVD buying a couple of years ago in anticiaption for HD and comics caught my fancy again. Now that I am into the HD DVD scene I can see myself slowing down on the comic front. Maybe going for select trades and events. I think I will always get Batman and Superman titles though. Looking forward to WW Hulk.