Do you all have a system for what comics you are going to read?

[babyblob]

I love making lists and organizing. I have to live by organization and lists, I cant work well with out a plan or just winging it. One thing I do with my comics is plan far in advance of what I am going to read, I make lists on index cards and tape those cards to the wall by my desk. As I read I mark them off.

I currently have 8 cards. 3 cards are for comics from Marvel 1965-1970. I have another for my Spiderman titles starting in 1971 and going to 1980 they include Amazing Spiderman, Peter Parker Spiderman and Marvel Team up. I have a card for more modern comics in Marvel like my Spiderman's and Avengers. Captain America etc.. Starting at 2009. One for my Ultimate Comics I am reading and other Misc Marvel issues, the 2 for Dc. A golden age/Silver Age card and a New 52 Card.

At the start of the day I decide what I am going to read from these lists. The Lists give me a huge selection of what to read so I wont get bored on one or two titles or one era. This system has worked for the past couple months and I found I am very happy about it.

Do you guys have a system or is it just a pick up whatever is around?

[CaptCleghorn]

I don't. My usual procedure is to hit the LCS as a Wednesday Warrior and then grab a nice lunch while I read the week's book(s). I have frequent plans to put a few trades/sets together and enjoy a nice relaxing afternoon reading but these plans rarely come to fruition. It seems adulting gets in the way of my reading fantasies.

[Iron Maiden]

I make mine simple. I buy things that feature Doctor Doom. Oh, I still buy the Fantastic Four even when I've not liked the creative team working on the title. It's for sentimental reasons since Fantastic Four #39-40 were the first Marvel comics I read.
These days I try to buy more for the creative team than the title. Right now I avoid the Avengers since I tried Jason Aaron's run and dropped it. I didn't like how She-Hulk was being treated in that. I liked the Scarlet Witch solo from a few years back. One of the issues is featured in this week's contest and I've used one or two myself in the contest. One guilty pleasure I've read over the past couple of years is the Gerry Duggan/Patrick Zircher Savage Avengers. Where else can you read a story where Conan, Doctor Strange and Doctor Doom team up to battle Kulan Gath?

[Catlady in training]

I have a huge stack of books and comics that I have not read yet. And I had to write down all TV shows and movies that I plan to watch or are in the middle of watching, because there is so many of them and I started to get lost in that. I used to make plans on when and how much I was going to read or watch (not written down, just in my head), but I have now abandoned it, because I never reached the goal and only felt bad about it afterwards. So no specific plans now, I try to make it more spontaneous, what I am in the mood for at the moment.

[TheRay]

I read by chronologies or master recommendations.

[Mister Mets]

I probably have lists but I keep forgetting about them.

Over the last year I've discovered Letterboxd in film, and I'm wondering if a similar approach can be applied to comics, so that people can write reviews and make reading lists and rankings.

[TheRay]

I also have a soft spot for whatever comic is being discussed by people that I talk to frequently.

[MRP]

I have a huge backlog of unread back issues, trades, current comics, and prose novels and short story collections. I also have legal access to large digital libraries of comics through my Marvel Unlimited subscription and via the hoopla service my public library offers. I've tried making reading lists in the past, deciding what I would read in what order, and it never works. It ends up feeling like a chore or a syllabus or required reading instead of entertainment. I've come to realize I am a mood reader-I like to read what I am in the mood for, and when that mood changes, my reading material needs to change with it. So I read stuff when I am in the mood. If the mood strikes me for some Silver Age Marvel, I pull up Marvel Unlimited. If I feel revisiting a favorite run I pull out the issues or trades. If I feel like diving in to a novel series, I will pull them off my shelf. When my mood changes, I stop reading those and turn to something else, as I have no shortage or options. When the mood returns, I will come back to the runs or series I put down. I find I read far more this way than when I try to force myself to read something because I put it on a list and am no longer in the mood to do so. I have a lot of options and I read for entertainment, so I read what I am enjoying, and if that changes, so will what I am reading.


-M

[GOLGO 13]

Scour youtube end of the year "20-- Top 20 Comics & go from there. If it's horror related, if the artwork is attractive, if the stories/writer is getting "hyped" then I'll look further into it.

I'll blind buy damn near anything Conan related in HC. Really, any black/white, Hard Cover collected book like Ninja Turtles, Manga collections (Berserk, AKIRA) I'd snatch up. Starting to chase those black/white/red books that I come across every now & then.

[TheRay]

Anything done by Bendis.