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What is your monthly budget for comics?
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42 posts in this topic

6 hours ago, TwoPiece said:

I haven't taken a stab at Daredevil. I'll take a look next Wednesday. I also haven't had a chance to grab (Immortal?) Hulk #1. Venom just doesn't interest me.

Iron Man and Thor both being duds really bothers me. The Iron Man writing is so bad and the Thor artwork doesn't look good at all IMO. Those turned me off to giving ASM a chance for a whole month. ASM and X-Men have given me more hope to continue looking at Marvel titles, though.

Yeah the Thor artwork is an eyesore. It's a shame. I've been reading this story which started way back at the beginning of Aaron's run on God of Thunder so it's going to be like 7 years in the making when the War of the Realms ends. I can't stop now. I just read it & try to avoid looking at the art lol. Iron Man is pretty boring lol. You should check out Hulk, the first TPB came out a couple of weeks ago along with Venom. Venom is unlike any Venom you've ever read to be honest. Did you read Thanos? Cates wrote 13-18 (Thanos Wins). It's pretty awesome. Never been a fan boy of particular writers, but that's changing with Cates. Daredevil just ended, but worth a read on Unlimited. I thought it started slow, but it was really good by the end. I need to check out the X stuff. I bailed back when Bendis was there.

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30 minutes ago, Not A Clone said:

Yeah the Thor artwork is an eyesore. It's a shame. I've been reading this story which started way back at the beginning of Aaron's run on God of Thunder so it's going to be like 7 years in the making when the War of the Realms ends. I can't stop now. I just read it & try to avoid looking at the art lol. Iron Man is pretty boring lol. You should check out Hulk, the first TPB came out a couple of weeks ago along with Venom. Venom is unlike any Venom you've ever read to be honest. Did you read Thanos? Cates wrote 13-18 (Thanos Wins). It's pretty awesome. Never been a fan boy of particular writers, but that's changing with Cates. Daredevil just ended, but worth a read on Unlimited. I thought it started slow, but it was really good by the end. I need to check out the X stuff. I bailed back when Bendis was there.

I took a look at a few Venom issues and just didn't see or read anything compelling.

I have not read Thanos. That's another one I have to take a look at.

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3 minutes ago, TwoPiece said:
52 minutes ago, Not A Clone said:

Yeah the Thor artwork is an eyesore. It's a shame. I've been reading this story which started way back at the beginning of Aaron's run on God of Thunder so it's going to be like 7 years in the making when the War of the Realms ends. I can't stop now. I just read it & try to avoid looking at the art lol. Iron Man is pretty boring lol. You should check out Hulk, the first TPB came out a couple of weeks ago along with Venom. Venom is unlike any Venom you've ever read to be honest. Did you read Thanos? Cates wrote 13-18 (Thanos Wins). It's pretty awesome. Never been a fan boy of particular writers, but that's changing with Cates. Daredevil just ended, but worth a read on Unlimited. I thought it started slow, but it was really good by the end. I need to check out the X stuff. I bailed back when Bendis was there.

I took a look at a few Venom issues and just didn't see or read anything compelling.

I have not read Thanos. That's another one I have to take a look at.

I'm gonna 2nd Immortal Hulk, it's the best book Marvel has been putting out since the Fresh Start initiative.  Plus it's got Alex Ross covers so you can't argue with that.

Thor is well written, but del Mundo's art just does not fit at all.  Honestly, to go from the likes of Coipel and Dauterman to now del Mundo?  The quality in artwork has been jarring.  If not for the strength of Aaron's writing and the time invested reading the story to this point, I probably would have dropped the title by now.

Cates run on Thanos was nothing short of amazing.  He's become one of a handful of artists who I will buy books from blindly on the strength of the writer alone (the others being Brad Meltzer, Geoff Johns, and Jonathan Hickman).

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I still buy new comics, but I don't know why. 

At the beginning of '17 I still picked up every new : X-Men, Wolverine, Iron Man, Archie, Jughead, Betty and Veronica, Aquaman, Batman.

Today: Archie and Aquaman.

I absolutely hate the new Archie, but I have been buying it for so long that I can't justify stopping for sentimental reasons. I gotta know what the gang is up to! Garbage though....

Aquaman is really good. I am enjoying it a lot. I haven't always been a fan of the art, and at times the story wanes, but it all seems to come together to keep me involved.

The rest of the titles I dumped cold turkey haha. Iron Man was total unreadable garbage, as was X-Men. Wolvie went in a direction I didn't care for and I sincerely regret dropping Bats. 

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12 hours ago, ExNihilo said:

I'm gonna 2nd Immortal Hulk, it's the best book Marvel has been putting out since the Fresh Start initiative.  Plus it's got Alex Ross covers so you can't argue with that.

Thor is well written, but del Mundo's art just does not fit at all.  Honestly, to go from the likes of Coipel and Dauterman to now del Mundo?  The quality in artwork has been jarring.  If not for the strength of Aaron's writing and the time invested reading the story to this point, I probably would have dropped the title by now.

Cates run on Thanos was nothing short of amazing.  He's become one of a handful of artists who I will buy books from blindly on the strength of the writer alone (the others being Brad Meltzer, Geoff Johns, and Jonathan Hickman).

Agree 100% on Thor. I've been reading since God of Thunder, so 7 years or so leading up to War of the Realms. I'll see it through. Hopefully the event brings in someone else. What does Meltzer write? I know Johns & Hickman (loved his Avengers run through Secret Wars).

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1 hour ago, Not A Clone said:

What does Meltzer write? I know Johns & Hickman (loved his Avengers run through Secret Wars).

Meltzer wrote the controversial Identity Crisis.  I'm not as familiar with DC characters and their history so I wasn't as bothered by characterization issues as others were.  There were elements of his writing in that series that I found really enjoyable and on the strength of that, I picked up his run on Justice League of America.  To get a sense of how he is as a writer, I think JLA #0-#12 are the books to read.  I felt he captured the bond between the Trinity really well.  One of the arcs had an emotional element that I enjoyed.  And there are times where his writing style follows a repetitive cadence to build up to a moment at the end of an issue.  That plus Ed Benes on art and Michael Turner covers?  Great run.

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15 hours ago, ExNihilo said:

[…] If not for the strength of Aaron's writing and the time invested reading the story to this point, I probably would have dropped the title by now.

Off topic and I don’t want to sound scornful, but… could you tell me precisely what you find of "strong" in Aaron's writing?
The little I have read I find truly poor, no consistency at all with the characters (but this has been going for 95% of Marvel for years) and (IMO) very poor background, especially when he deals with serious existential themes, be them of faith, religious or philosophical.
As, I seem to recall, in the "Wolverine in hell" story arc.

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$0.  When I got back into collecting a few years back, I was in grad school and had 2 kids.  I told my wife I wouldn't let my hobby have any negative impact on our financial situation.  All of my collection is paid for with profits from comics that I have sold.  I spent even more time looking for deals that I could flip than I did adding books to my "keeper" stack.  I remember going into a local shop my first month back into the hobby and seeing a raw ASM 122 for sale for $50.  It was in nice condition. I wanted to keep it, but ended up letting it go and using the profits to buy other books.  I ended up with all the Ditko Spidey books, then sold to help with the down payment on my first house.  I added a bunch of them back, then sold them to start collecting golden age.  I have seen some wonderful books leave my possession, but it was necessary to keep the collection going.  I don't really buy and sell to make money any more.  I don't have time these days.  I still strategically down-grade sometimes to get funds for another issue.  I guess my point is, you can have fun in the hobby and get some nice books even if you don't want to spend anything.

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7 hours ago, vaillant said:

Off topic and I don’t want to sound scornful, but… could you tell me precisely what you find of "strong" in Aaron's writing?
The little I have read I find truly poor, no consistency at all with the characters (but this has been going for 95% of Marvel for years) and (IMO) very poor background, especially when he deals with serious existential themes, be them of faith, religious or philosophical.
As, I seem to recall, in the "Wolverine in hell" story arc.

"Writing" was a poor choice of words as he doesn't bring the same literal history as a Tom King (like what he did with a Batman flashback issue), or the philosophical undertones as an Al Ewing (as we've seen from Immortal Hulk), nor does he have the same knack for universe building like Hickman.  "Plot" would have been a more apt word as I've felt his Thor run has been largely consistent for quite some time now.  Which has been far more than could be said for a lot of Marvel titles since the end of Secret Wars.  Like I've said before, my only qualm has really been the fact that this "War of the Realms" has been dragged out much longer than it probably should have, but the book itself has had enough enjoyable moments to keep me interested.

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for me it depends on where it's spent

i put 200 a month and let that build till i find something special though i always take the whole amount with me to shows since you never know (i've made it to 600 before then i found something), and once a month i go on ebay to find a 30 or lower book that is paid out of that money....................currently 2 books away from uncanny x-men run and about 12-13 if you include variants/con books so saveing till i find a good copy/right price of the expensive one of the 2

when i go to shows i take 200 and that's my spending money for the show and am very strict on that lv even though i have more on me, for cons imo if you can't take a few thousand (2k+) there's no point in going and for myself haven't been to a con in a few years

at lcs i grab whatever seems intresting from the preview so that might be 10 books or 1 or nothing for the month, i only hit once a month and spend 50+ but that could mostly be back issues/hole filler, wall books or supplies...........lol i tend to buy that 1st issue as a test to see if i like it as most do and even if i like it i kinda forget to let them know to start pulling it for me so unless i remember to grab the next issue off the shelf, well lets just say i save quite a bit bc of this reason

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On 12/21/2018 at 1:29 PM, ExNihilo said:

"Writing" was a poor choice of words as he doesn't bring the same literal history as a Tom King (like what he did with a Batman flashback issue), or the philosophical undertones as an Al Ewing (as we've seen from Immortal Hulk), nor does he have the same knack for universe building like Hickman.  "Plot" would have been a more apt word as I've felt his Thor run has been largely consistent for quite some time now.  Which has been far more than could be said for a lot of Marvel titles since the end of Secret Wars.  Like I've said before, my only qualm has really been the fact that this "War of the Realms" has been dragged out much longer than it probably should have, but the book itself has had enough enjoyable moments to keep me interested.

I had to check to make sure I wasn't mis-remembering when God of Thunder started, but #1 was out September 2012. So by the time War of the Realms wraps up next year we're talking about a 7 year story. Would really like to see this whole thing put into a couple of Omnibus. 

Speaking of Tom King, his Vision series was pretty awesome. 

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51 minutes ago, Not A Clone said:

I had to check to make sure I wasn't mis-remembering when God of Thunder started, but #1 was out September 2012. So by the time War of the Realms wraps up next year we're talking about a 7 year story. Would really like to see this whole thing put into a couple of Omnibus. 

Speaking of Tom King, his Vision series was pretty awesome. 

Amazing amount of heart considering the book is about an android.  With Mister Miracle now wrapped up, I'm about to dive into that one.  Hoping it's as good as Vision.

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When I was a kid in the early 70's, I spent all my paper route money on comic books... mostly current issues, and back issues of Spider-Man. I bought all the way back to #27. Then, upon reaching high school, I sold the entire lot of comics for a crappy stereo. LOL... not one of my best investment decisions. ;)

Fast forward to 2002. I had a windfall of about $40,000, and decided to buy comics. At first I was buying like a collector... runs of Marvel... (Spider-Man, Strange Tales, Hulk, Avengers, daredevil, X-Men, Captain America, Iron Man) then I decided to go more toward key issues, acquiring first appearance books of all the key Marvel superheroes. Wound up with about 10 long boxes full of comics... with the value of the group being centered in about 10% of the books. Almost all my books I bought raw. CGC had just started, and the premiums were enormous. People were slabbing everything and getting huge returns.

Both my boys got into Spider-Man at that time... I bought the B&W collection books of Spidey up through 150 or so, and they read them all. That was cool. :) 

Fast forward to now: CGC'ing the core of my collection, while selling off the runs and non-keys to pay for it. Really enjoying looking at each comic as I put it up for sale/bid... the Marvel writing and artwork is a blast. :) Bought a few books this year... but only to fill in on long runs... i.e. buying Daredevil #255 so I can sell a run from 250-350 as uninterrupted. 

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This really depends on one’s annual income and or many other factors. I have been spending a lot recently (1-2k) but that’s only because I just started collecting again will come down. I have no interest in new issues and am only collecting issues from my childhood that I never managed to find or could not afford back then. I read very few of them nowadays... I just read Sercret Wars from the 80’s..... god was that awful haha but I remember reading that as kid and remembered loving it! I did read Marvels Godzilla from 1977 recently too and found that enjoyable. To each his own!

Edited by Xenosmilus
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On 12/19/2018 at 7:26 AM, bc said:

Haven't bought a new comic since the cover price went from 50 cents to 60 cents-think that was around '81-'82.

So 100% of the monthly budget is on back issues typically purchased from ComicLink, ComicConnect, the Sales fourms here or one of the many reputable dealer sites affiliated with this board. feeBay is the least preferred option. I also frequent several local conventions every year.

The $1.25 to $1.50 jump is where I ended things.  Early to mid 90's.  Spider-Clone killed my interest in my favorite books, Captain America had already gone downhill, and Batman's 4 year knightfall/knightquest/funderal for a bat saga just slowly got old.  

 

Currently dropping about 5-8% of my income on comics, mostly ebay auctions when I see something I like.  I don't buy new comics, I keep trying to get back in, but just don't find much to be interesting, and the books seem expensive at $4 each.  Although a friend did lend me Saga, which seemed decent.

Edited by waaaghboss
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