Every Wednesday new comic-books, trade reprint collections, and graphic novels arrive in comic shops around the country and every Wednesday comics readers flock to their local stores. Some people have pull-lists with their beloved weekly series marked down for the retailer so they never miss an issue. Some people are trade-waiters, taking a peek at the ‘floppies’ just to see what’s interesting to get an idea of what they want to pick-up in trade-paperback months later. Some people like to peruse the wall of new individual issues and trades just to see what feels right today.
I just read Jonathan Hickman’s “S.H.I.E.L.D.” #1 from Marvel Comics. Literally finished it late last night. I read the first page months and months ago, but I read everything from page two to page thirty-four last night. “S.H.I.E.L.D.” #1 came out over a year ago. I can’t keep up with the amount of comics that drop on any given Wednesday, let alone with the comics from a month or a given year and many comics are released daily as webcomics or released only by creators with small print runs in person at events like tomorrow’s Pete’s Mini/Zine Fest at Pete’s Candy Store in Brooklyn, NY. (Seriously, you should check that out if you can. Let me know how it is, I have to miss it.)
I write an annual ‘Best of the Year’s Comics’ post over on The Long and Shortbox Of It, but that post comes with a big caveat: ‘the best comics I read this year’. NOBODY can read them all.
The question then becomes, if you’re an adult who grew up reading comics and you’re already spending a great deal of time MAKING comics: Should you even try?
I thought I knew the answer, but I’m not sure anymore. When professional creators are asked what they’re reading right now they often can’t answer. They don’t have time to read comics because they’re too busy making their own. And that strikes me as a good thing.
Solutions anybody?
~@JonGorga