Hitting a Slump in my Comic Collecting

[Beyond Batman]

I've been consistantly reading comics for the last seven years. Off-and-on before then as a kid. Lately, I've found myself going to the comic shop less-and-less these days. And when I buy comics, I've been limiting what I buy. I mainly read DC, and I've been hooked on DC's IC. However, my enthusiam for comic book Wednsedays have been slowing down. It feels like I'm hitting a comic book slump. Have any of you guys experienced this?

[Antiyonder]

I've been consistantly reading comics for the last seven years. Off-and-on before then as a kid. Lately, I've found myself going to the comic shop less-and-less these days. And when I buy comics, I've been limiting what I buy. I mainly read DC, and I've been hooked on DC's IC. However, my enthusiam for comic book Wednsedays have been slowing down. It feels like I'm hitting a comic book slump. Have any of you guys experienced this?

I'd say no. Since I came into comics around 1998, I've prefered picking up back issues. Or TPBs reprinting back issues.

Since I mostly collect comics/TPB ranging from 1939-1999/2001 I have years of stories to check out. You might consider doing the same. Stories from that range are more creative and as Kim Possible would say "So Not The Drama".

[Arkangel]

I've been consistantly reading comics for the last seven years. Off-and-on before then as a kid. Lately, I've found myself going to the comic shop less-and-less these days. And when I buy comics, I've been limiting what I buy. I mainly read DC, and I've been hooked on DC's IC. However, my enthusiam for comic book Wednsedays have been slowing down. It feels like I'm hitting a comic book slump. Have any of you guys experienced this?
Yes.

I stopped reading comics entirely at the end of 1992. Ten years later, inspired by the DCAU cartoons, particularly Justice League, I decided to check out some JLA comics.

I discovered TPB collections, something that didn't exist when I was a kid, riding my bike to the comics shop. I started ordering TPBs from Amazon, or getting them on eBay. It allowed me to catch up on old storylines, or entire series, that I had missed. I dropped the collector's mentality completely and now buy colected editions exclusively. While there are a few ongoing series that I collect (like JSA or JLA) I also spend a lot of money on Essentials or other reprints from the Silver Age, or works by top creators like Alan Moore or Kurt Busiek which take place outside of the Marvel or DC universes.

So right now I am loving comics, and it's been almost four years since I started again. Of course, it's possible that I burn out again, who knows? Suffice it to say, I think a break is a good thing for comics fans and, with the proliferation of collected materials, catching up again is easy.

[Ed Liu]

Howdy,

I've hit comic slumps at least twice in my life. Some days I feel like I'm on the verge of another one. Comic book burnout happens all the time. If I can indulge in an inappropriate analogy, I think a lot of comics end up being like drugs. Over time, you need more and stronger stuff to give you the same charge that you got out of them before.

I can think of a few ways to get out of the slump:

1. Take a break. It's OK. Despite the doom-and-gloomers, I say comics will still be here when you come back. I'm pretty sure anybody who's read comics here for any length of time can point to gaps in time when they weren't reading comics, for any number of reasons. Comics may not be what you recognize, depending on how long you decide to branch off, like how Antiyonder commented that his return was via the growth of TPBs rather than as single issues.

2. Go historic. The TPB market means you have more opportunity to go back and read some classics. The legendary stuff that people always talk about. Listening in on the State of the Industry panel at NYCC, both DC and Marvel fully recognize the value, financially and artistically, in making older stuff available again. You can go to DC's Chronicles or Showcase series or Marvel's Essentials and pick up a monster-sized chunk of comic book love for cheap and see where it all came from. Plus, since they are book-sized, it'll be easier to find them at your local bookstore, where they don't look at you cockeyed for previewing stuff in the store as some comic shops will.

3. Get Meta. Meaning start reading ABOUT comics rather than just reading comics. You can go historical (a great start would be Gerard Jones' Men of Tomorrow (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0465036570/qid=1141314837/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/002-9332269-5729662?v=glance&s=books)), or you can start on stuff about the craft, like Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/006097625X/qid=1141314862/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-9332269-5729662?v=glance&s=books) or Will Eisner's Comics and Sequential Art (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0961472812/qid=1141314888/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-9332269-5729662?v=glance&s=books). I had a lot more fun than I thought I would reading Comic Book Lettering the Comicraft Way (http://www.comicrazy.com/e/env/0001ZTcggJbaTKsmT49Q3h8/comicraft/catalog.html?link=/comicraft/catalog.html&item=comicrazy:cbl1), if you can believe that. Knowing about the business and about the craft means I can get a lot more enjoyment in a comic book. It gives me things to look out for, and also helps me understand why something happens in the biz or why I like or don't like something in a book.

4. Go Broader. Start experimenting. Pull a book you've never heard of off the stands of your Friendly Neighborhood Comic Book Shop or book store and start reading it, or go look at a preview on-line that you wouldn't have otherwise. Sweep through our "What do you recommend?" thread (http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?t=93653), pick a book at random, and see if it's worth the hype. Visit your library and see if they have graphic novels, and if not, ask them to get some; it's free, and free is good. If I picked up on anything while I was at the New York Comic-Con, it's that there is a LOT of stuff out there, but comics as a field is not so immense (yet) that you can't wrap your brain around almost all of it. And there's some really amazingly cool stuff out there. My Great Discoveries at comic-con were Mouse Guard by David Peterson (http://www.davidpetersen.net/mouseguard/index.htm) (bad-ass mice with swords! Cool!) and Mom's Cancer by Brian Fies (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0810958406/qid=1141314931/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/002-9332269-5729662?v=glance&s=books), which I read when it was on-line and raved about (http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?t=139430&highlight=mom%27s+cancer) at the time. The links in that review won't work any more, but it's out in book form now and it's still some incredible stuff.

This went longer than I thought it would. Hope this helps!

-- Ed/Ace