I am officially done with the modern comic market!!

[OrangeCrush]

Originally Posted by joy_division

Agreed. I got the Jungle Girl Omnibus & Lone Ranger Omnibuses. Vry good value for money. The original first runs of Army of Darkness & Red Sonja were Great too. And the Art of... HC's are good

Yeah, again the HC art books are books I will continue to buy even from Dynamite. I just got Vol.2 of the Art of Red Sonja for $14.99 through the Science Fiction Book club and you can find pretty good deals on most other comic related art books if you pre order them from some of the companies out there that specialize in the TPB's, omnibuses, and art books. So I don't have a problem buying those as I get most of them at very good prices, I am a big fan of those kinds of books, and I think thier worth the money in the end.

The Artist editions by IDW and Gallery editions by Graphitti Designs are a bit pricey, but I think the prices on those are much more justified, after all they have to go and hunt down all of the original pages and then they do extremely high quality scans of those pages. And the books themslves are actually very high in quality and they are much larger than your normal comic related books. Plus thier unique and really appeal to my love of original comic art. And they aren't printed in massive quantities like most of the other comic related books you see brought to market. So I am 100% ok buying artist editions and gallery editons at thier current MSRP's. In fact, those have become some of my favorite art books on the market over the last couple of years and I honestly think many of those will likely retain thier value as the years go by. I actually got the last 2 Red Sonja Artist Editions for 50% off so you gotta love that!!

The bottom line is I am just not going to throw my money around like I used to simply becuase I want something. I am 100% done supporting flippers, I am 100% done with modern comics and variants, and I am basically done buying anything that has an inflated afttermarket price or a ridiculouly high MSRP price like modern variants. I don't care how badly I want a partciular comic or collecible. And saying no and focusing your attention on other collectibles gets much easier the more you do it. When I first ceased supporting Aspen, it was incredibly difficult especially when I saw prints that I really wanted. Now its incredibly easy. In fact, I don't even visit Aspen's website anymore or even keep track of what thier producing. I think its a lot like saving money. Its really difficult at first especially for people that are used to spending all thier money, but once you get used to saving money, it actually gets easier and easier to do so.

[moon_knight1971]

Try half.com. I find good deals there from time to time

[ReplicantSavior]

Originally Posted by OrangeCrush

The fire was electrical and as terrible as it was, the most important thing is that we weren't at home when it happened so my wife and son, and myself, were not injured by the fire. Had it occured like 4 hours later, we would have all been in bed and asleep at the time and god knows what would have happened then. We were actually just driving back from being out of town. When we got to our sub division, all we saw was flashing lights and fire trucks everywhere. I will never forget the feeling I got the moment I realized it was our house that was up in flames. I still get a sick feeling in my stomach when I think about it even to this day. I was literally in a state of shock for like 2 months afterwards, but again the most important thing is that nobody was hurt and I still think about that all the time, even to this day. I don't know what I would have done had anything happened to my wife or son.

That's terrible. I'm always curious when people have fires in modern society. Did they say what sparked it off?

These variants also remind me of comic cards. I remember people buying full boxes to get full sets, attempting to find rare signed, sketch, or other silly type card designs. I admit falling for it myself on a few like Star Wars Galaxy and Gatchaman. Speaking of Gatchaman, I think Dynamite used to be Dynamic Forces. They always overpriced stuff. I had a Michael Turner leather bound Fathom that was signed with a sketch. I know I paid too much as the sketch wasn't that good.

[MrJones]

Originally Posted by PureInvasion

Omni's and older tpb titles are fun, but I find many of them (especially if you remove any personal nostalgia) just don't hold up anymore. A vast majority are a total grind to get through (mainly anything from the 60's through the early 80's)

I can't disagree. I just read the Dr Strange Omni and by the end of it... it was a bit of a chore. I noticed something about 1/2 way through and couldn't unsee it. But then I switch to something else and it's great. I'm just kind of thankful I have such an archive to choose from. So many stories from the past that I had no idea about.

[Dark-Flux]

I mean, i read comics for good stories. And theres a metric s*** tonne of good stories in comics right now.

Quitting comics because of disarisfaction with Vampirella varient covers is just mind boggling to me.


But each to his own, i guess.

[Pyrotwilight]

Originally Posted by Dark-Flux

I mean, i read comics for good stories. And theres a metric s*** tonne of good stories in comics right now.

Quitting comics because of disarisfaction with Vampirella varient covers is just mind boggling to me.


But each to his own, i guess.

Pretty much this.

There's plenty of stuff I find that are overpriced in the comics and related goodies field.

But the comics themselves? Roughly unchanging within a certain range. Variants have always been roughly more than a regular comic (outside of the even ratios ones) but that's WHY it's a variant to incentivize the comic. There's no real reason to get it unless it's pretty enough to make you want to pay more (or get it instead etc...).

[risingstar]

I remember being turned off by the variant cover fads in the 90s. Nowadays, it's worse than ever, especially now with the grading companies getting involved in the mix. Collectors need to decide why they read comics; to be a completist, for the stories, or both. If you're going to be a completist or variant-cover chaser, well, I hope you have your Ativan ready. All this to say, I wonder how many variant covers are chased a year after release. I imagine it's the far greater minority of them.

[MrJones]

Originally Posted by risingstar

I remember being turned off by the variant cover fads in the 90s. Nowadays, it's worse than ever, especially now with the grading companies getting involved in the mix. Collectors need to decide why they read comics; to be a completist, for the stories, or both. If you're going to be a completist or variant-cover chaser, well, I hope you have your Ativan ready. All this to say, I wonder how many variant covers are chased a year after release. I imagine it's the far greater minority of them.

I don't really understand the variant craze either. I bought one variant comic and that was Thanos #1 because it was inspired by a rap album cover of a group that I have followed since day 1 so it meant something to me. I have zero intention of selling it or anything, which I can only assume the variant collectors eventually have plans on doing?

[nbr3bagshotrow]

Cone on you guys. You are collectors. How can you not understand why someone might want variants? Hell we have people here who have to have every Iron Man/Batman/Hulk/Superman statue. We have people who get every Hot Toy of the same characters. It's collecting. Just because it's a comic doesn't make collecting any different. Different artists and there are fans of wanting all the different covers of a given comic.

You and I may not be interested it the variants but only interested in the retail version to read but surely you should "get it". Collectors are collectors. We just collect different things.

[Y3E]

Originally Posted by nbr3bagshotrow

Cone on you guys. You are collectors. How can you not understand why someone might want variants? Hell we have people here who have to have every Iron Man/Batman/Hulk/Superman statue. We have people who get every Hot Toy of the same characters. It's collecting. Just because it's a comic doesn't make collecting any different. Different artists and there are fans of wanting all the different covers of a given comic.

You and I may not be interested it the variants but only interested in the retail version to read but surely you should "get it". Collectors are collectors. We just collect different things.

And I say

See ya



I'm going digital with most of my books now. It's just too costly at $5.25+ cdn/book.