"The high cost of being a comics fanboy"

[Eric L. Sofer]

You'll want to check this out on Bob Rozakis' blog... "The high cost of being a comics fanboy"


http://bobrozakis.blogspot.com/2010/10/high-cost-of-being-comics-fa...

One of the admins ought to ask Mr. Rozakis if he'd consider doing a regular (monthly?) column for us.  He's certainly got the qualifications and the stories!

I remain,
  Sincerely,
Eric L. Sofer
The Silver Age Fogey
x<]:o){

[Mark Sullivan (Vertiginous Mod)]

Doc Beechler said:

And, geez, who in the world would want to buy ALL of a companies monthly output? Even at my most crazy, I never did that.

Good point. But at one time there were fans that did that, the Marvel Zombies especially. Captain Comics used to do it! I pretty much do that with Vertigo, but I stopped trying to keep up with their OGN output.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

When comics were 60 cents a piece, I tried to hold myself to a budget of $20 a week (and I didn't always make it). so I was buying like, what? 30 comics a week (or the equivalent)? Even then I wasn't buying everything, but I was buying nigh everything (at least everything I cared to). Back then one could afford to. It wasn't that big of a deal to buy comics I merely liked because it was all disposable income. Being a serious comic book collector these days requires real money!

[Doc Beechler (mod-MD)]

Yeah, but serious comic readers can also do what I did...go to the library. Even in the 70s and 80s, my local library seemed to stock a good selection of comic collections and it's even better now. And, by checking out those books...especially new material, you are helping those creators by showing an interest and guiding future library purchases.

[Philip Portelli]

At my worst, I did buy practically every Marvel and DC book during the 90s, including reprints, plus several independents. This was when comics were from $1.25 to $1.75. And by this time, I was buying multiple copies of each series' first 6 issues, crossovers, annuals, gimmick covers, not to mention at least three copies of every Batman, Detective, Amazing AND Spectacular Spider-Man, Uncanny X-Men and X-Men. It was bad.

Now I buy a lot but not all and no doubles, but I am reading them all now and will drop those I don't. But it's still not cheap!

[Cavaliere (moderator emeritus)]

"Newsstands were everywhere back in the ancient days but now they have been replaced by connivence stores and comics did not make the transition to those stores."

Mark, that's just plain wrong. All of my earliest comicbook purchases--I'm going to say 1980 to 1985--were from convenience stores. Whether is was a Circle K, 7-Eleven, or the Barview Jetty Store (in wonderful Barview, Oregon!), I had no problem finding comics. Not just a few comics, either, but terrific selections. Even after that, I could often count on newsstands to have something that I missed at my LCS. Sure, it was a couple of weeks later but better late than never.

I also remember as an "adult" that a local 7-Eleven made a big deal about adding a spinner rack. This would have been around 1995. They even had an official Spider-Man appearance. Granted, it didn't last but that's not a terribly big shock.

These days, you can count on chain bookstores to have a decent-to-terrific selection of graphic novels and manga. I don't know about the entire chain but the local Borders has a great selection of current comics. Fred Meyer, a local chain of department stores, has a pretty pitiful selection of comics but at least they have 'em.

[ClarkKent_DC]

Mark's right; it's rare to find comics in convenience stores such as Walgreen's, RiteAid, CVS or 7-Eleven today. Maybe 10 years ago, but not now.

I do see comics -- regular ol' comics, not just trades and manga -- at Barnes & Noble and at Borders, and I've found the new Life With Archie magazine at (one) CVS, and the Archie Digests can be found at the checkout counter at some supermarkets. But that's about it.

[Philip Portelli]

I work for Rite-Aid and we have the Archie digests and Life With Archie. We used to get Wizard and Shonen Jump but that stopped recently. But we do carry MAD!