Shockwave wrote:Well I'm still actually getting all IDW TF books each month and regularly enjoying them. But apparently I'm the only left here that's still actually getting them every month.
My night shift job and erratic days (along with my girlfriend often working 2-to-8s; we share a vehicle) makes it difficult to get to my most local comic shop even the same week something I would want comes out. I really badly wanted to grab Superman: American Alien the day it came out, and then the day after and then later that week, but an opportunity never manifested itself. This is especially frustrating because A) this shop is literally a 2 minute drive from my job, but the hours are so incompatible (I get off work at 7am and the store doesn't open until at least 10am on some days; there is NOTHING to do in this town for three hours straight) and B) the shop seems like it only really orders enough books for the amount of people who usually come in to buy comics, which is a fine business model if you aim to serve only the specific amount of people in your area who buy general comics every month, and makes it harder for a walk-inner with more specific tastes (which is what I consider myself) to get exactly what I want. Which is fine, on some level--it probably is what's keeping the store afloat in this economy and area--but it's still shitty, right?
Like, I have a pretty specific amount of Things I like, in terms of comics. They tend to be more offbeat, typically licensed properties (TF, TMNT) or non-"capes" books. If I am buying a "cape" book, it's typically because the concept interests me (Scarlet Spider), I have heard great things for a long time (Flash Thompson Venom), or because it's an "outside" writer who I've enjoyed before (Max Landis on American Alien; the upcoming GI Joe vs. Street Fighter by Aubrey Sitterson) and want to support. I'm not buying Secret Wars because I could not give a shit less. I loved the Daredevil Netflix series (and old Daredevil comics), and saw a brand new Daredevil series with its first issue on the stands today, and had absolutely zero inkling to even flip through it. Maybe I'm too quick to judge or maybe I've been burnt too many times, but the major point I'm making is that I have more specific tastes.
Now, let's say I'm the same way with, as an example, general books. If I am looking for a relatively obscure, non-mainstream book, there is a pretty good chance that I can find it in any given Barnes & Noble, and if I can't, it's likely in the one the next town over--because there is one in the next town over. Except for the apparent Comics Mecca that is the Boston area, where Dom can afford to just up and take his business to a different comic shop, the nearest comic shop other than the one in my town is over an hour away in any direction. (And, his shops do pull files! I actually asked if I could start one at the shop today, and the cashier girl had no fucking idea what I was talking about. I explained, I tell you the books I want, you order them for me, you set them aside for me, I come in later and buy them. She looked at me like I was a crazy person, and by all rights, I fucking am. Imagine walking into a Target and asking them to order you a case of Combiner Wars, and to set it aside for you to come grab later. I know video games and movies have preorder periods, but this is beyond that.)
Back to my point, there are no other comics shops. If I walk in to the store and I'm looking for a comic, and they don't have it, I guess I'm just not going to buy that comic. I wanted to buy an issue of TF today--any TF; formerly RID, MTMTE, even fucking Windblade or that weird Dinobots...
thing that I'm not interested in and costs $7. I might have even bought Sins of the Wreckers, despite saying in the other thread I was specifically waiting for the trade! But they didn't have any of it! And I know it's not because they didn't have any to begin with--they have back issues, some MTMTEs in the low teens and stuff, a few RIDs and a bunch of Ongoing stuff I don't care about, plus all of IDW's other stuff like TMNT and Godzilla. But no TF! On a Thursday, the day after New Book Day! What a crock of shit. But that's what my store is. That's my only option. All this because I don't want to buy Green fucking Lantern every month.