No One Likes Comics Anymore

It seems to me that no one is interested in liking comics anymore, just hating them. I've gone to countless web sites ranging from big to small and all of them had one thing in common. If I were unfamiliar with comics and with the reviews in general I would not guess that the people reviewing comics were in fact fans of them. In fact I wonder if comics have stopped being fun for them. This is a discussion that my friend and I have almost with every new issue of Previews. (The monthly magazine released by Diamond listing all the comics available for purchase the next month) We literally ask each other if comics are fun anymore. The answer is yes, but we're in too deep. We're to close to the subject matter. It's like coaching your own kid, or being the boss of a friend at work; their always better to you than they may actually be. It may just be that the readers are all in fact tired of reading comics but that they can't stop themselves. It may be the nerd in them, or that conversation that arises when they meet someone knew for the first time and they say, "You read comics?" It's almost as if it's a nerd trophy. For some it might be the collector in them, wanting to finish a run of books no matter the storyline or art. Is that why I can't stop buying the ever sagging Ultimate Spider-Man? Or why I read DC books just for the fact that Batman and Superman are so commonly known? One thing all these reviews sites have in common is that they don't know how to score a book to save their life. On the larger sites that are getting paid by the publisher to write the review, they are overly peppy about the book and then give it inflated score. On smaller sites they destroy the book ripping into to every detail but then still give it a high score. But then it all depends on the reviewer.

It was eight years ago that I got into comics Hardcore, that is to say that I started going weekly. At first I didn't know the schedule they were released on I just bought everything I could afford to buy. In retrospect maybe that's why I enjoyed them more, I had to be selective with what I choose because I didn't have much money. Once I figured out the schedule of Wednesday releases I stopped wasting time and gas going in twice a week to see if anything new had come out. Before the trips to the comic shop I use to get all my comics from the grocery store Safeway, even as a teenager I would accompany my Mom to the store to get comics. Now on a weekly bases I buy on average 30 comics a week and my collection will be right around 10,000 issues by the end of the year. But why? In the last month there's probably only a couple of books that I've been excited for. Even my joy for Secret Invasion has been short lived. It seems that first issue wow me and third issues bore me.

The more I read peoples sites, the more I talk to people in comic shops it really just seems that people are tired with comics but to scared to quit. They don't want to give up that one nerd treasure and would rather complain about how bad it's gotten then to stop. Maybe that's why I still read X-Men and Superman. I tell myself I like the books but really I'm not reading anything that I haven't read before and done better. Occasionally theirs a book that comes along and changes everyones minds about comics, the Kingdom Comes, the Earth X's, the Planetary's, the Watchmen's and Sin City's. The books that every comic fan reads because someone else told them to, and when they finally did they fell in love with comics again. My problem is, where's the next one? Planetary is over and really shouldn't there be more than one in the last eight years? It seems to me I was late showing up to the party and all the good books have checked out.

Perhaps the next time you go to pick up a copy of Grant Morrison's Batman you'll ask yourself, "Am I getting this because I think it's good?" or are you getting it because of the name of the writer? or for the short lived death of Bruce Wayne? or because you've been buying it for years and remember liking it at one time? For me I've decided that since I can afford to buy everything, why not? Well because it isn't fun anymore.

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