How do you collect?

[Radjack]

I was wondering how do you guys do about collecting stuff that's been out for some time. Do you buy one series at a time or multiple?

Example: If you were interested in buying Walking Dead, Chew and Invincible (all series that have more than 5 volumes and are still coming out). Would you focus on just one series until you catch up of would you buy a few trades of each and read them all at the same time?

[Gabe_Falcao]

I had the same question as you before. What I decided for me was to focus on a couple series to catch up (American Vampire, Fables) and one or two more series depending on the month. Now, that I am completely caught up with them I will start trying to catch up on a couple other.

[Jorge]

At this point, I am a big fan of reading finite series all at once. I'll go three or four years of only following one or two books like Walking Dead and Morrison's Batman (as each trade came out). Then at some point I get an urge to read lots of comics and I'll pick up a bunch of series.

Over the last 5 months of last year I read the entire runs of

Y the last Man
Scalped
DMZ
Morrisons Doom Patrol and Animal Man (second time reading)
The Boys
Incorruptible
Irredeemable
Preacher (second or third time reading)

I bought all of 100 Bullets and then hit a wall around volume 7. It was around the same spot I stopped reading when the original issues were first coming out. I like story I just hit a wall for some reason.

This year I'm on a Batman kick - since the beginning of the year I've reread the entire Morrison run and read all the Snyder stuff and most of the new 52 Batman books as well as a bunch of Paul Dini Animated universe stories.


The biggest change is that around December I switched to all digital comics. At this point I am so used to the size and clarity of Comixology books that I literally have a hard time reading paper books. I guess that what happens when you hit 40.

[Legion564]

I'll start at the current volume then work backwards. Like I started reading new 52 stuff then if the characters interested me I would look for sets of previous runs.

[NZ_InFerno]

I was wondering how do you guys do about collecting stuff that's been out for some time. Do you buy one series at a time or multiple?

Example: If you were interested in buying Walking Dead, Chew and Invincible (all series that have more than 5 volumes and are still coming out). Would you focus on just one series until you catch up of would you buy a few trades of each and read them all at the same time?

I'd pick up the first trade of each and see if I like it, if I do like it then I would grab the rest. If you don't like it then it hasn't cost you a lot and doesn't look out of place on the shelf.

[Michael24]

If it's a series I'm already familiar with and like, I'll trying to get at least a couple trades at a time, starting from the beginning.

If it's something I'm checking out for the first time, I start by only buying the first volume. If I like it, then I'll get the second one, and so on. If I don't, then I've spent the money on only one book and just hang onto it until I have an opportunity to off load it.

[victorxd1999]

I currently have a lot of series where I have about half or less of the series. I really want to buy the rest but with my short attention span, something else will spring into the spotlight and then I buy that

[Balakin]

I want to buy whole series in one purchase. I have a short attention span too, I want a different book every other day, also I like to read stories in big chunks.

[Dorktron]

I generally buy the first volume of a series, read it, and if I liked it, I will buy all the rest of the volumes if more are available. I generally limit myself to about 3-5 long series to collect (I'm working on Fables, Walking Dead, Invincible, DMZ) right now and also collect about 15-20 shorter or newer series in trades.

[DebkoX]

Well yesterday, I decided I'll get 2-3 monthlies.

[canadianaidan64]

I'd say it depends on the series. With Y the last man you really need to read the whole thing at once because it's one ongoing story, like a novel. On the other hand, with something like Hellboy you can read any volume out of order and get a complete self contained story arc.

Although I recently started recording what I read on goodreads and now I'm more likely to finish a book/series off before starting a new one. I just don't like having 40 books on my currently reading list.

Certain books I try to read only one issue a month so that I get the same effect as if it was just being released, but that never lasts. I'm trying to do this with Wednesday comics right now, I read one page from a few stories each day.

Another thing that influences what books I buy is my local library. They have a huge shelf of graphic novels and they carry most of dc's titles. I bought new 52 justice league vol. 1&2, but then starting with vol. 3 my library began carrying it so I haven't bought it since.

I've been thinking recently that I should pick up a bunch of vol. 1s of series I want to read because they're usually the first ones to go out of print.

[jpwinn88]

A friend of mine told me about chew so I thought I would give it a go so I bought volume 1 and 2 and decided if I liked them I would get the next 2 and carry on like that. I didn't want to get them omnivore edition as I don't like hardbacks. I actually enjoyed vol 1 so much I ordered 3 and 4 straight away though

[ohmshalone]

I've bought omniboo and entire collections at a time and I've realized that that's not the way to go for me. I prefer variety rather than seeing the same art and reading the same author for months, even if it's a story I know and have read an enjoyed before.

So now I just wait to see if the hunger builds up in me to move ahead in the story. If it does, I buy a trade or two, and if it doesn't, at least I didn't spend the money. You could say I'm in the middle of maybe 15 different runs, and my brain seems to be handling it okay, lol.

This is a little off topic, but I don't feel you should ever be obsessive about collecting an entire run [edit: for the only sake of HAVING an entire run]. Buy and read only what you enjoy, unless your plan is to open a comic-book museum or something...

[Noodle]

If I'm reading multiple series at a time, I'll usually start at the beginning and alternate volumes. Like say, if I'm reading Ex Machina and DMZ, I'll start at volume one of both, then get volume two of Ex Machina, read it, then get volume two of DMZ and read that, alternating. I've found it helps with longer series so that you don't get burned out on it all at once.

As for how I collect in general? If it looks good, I'll read it. That scale slides depending on price, though. If it looks "meh" but I can get it for $2 at a comic show, I'll still most likely read it.

[ukbondraider]

I seem to be collecting more than reading. Have bought loads of Omnibuses/Absolutes/OHCs/Library Editions etc but haven't actually read 95% of them. Problem I have is that if I buy 1 OHC/Deluxe, I have to complete the collection. Being such an expensive medium meant that I did not have access to comics as a kid. Read my first comic at the age of 25. Now I have a small library of them. Just need to find time to read any of them.