Comics are awesome.

[Shockwave]

McCarthy and Furman came up a few times in the AHM thread.

I used to buy every TF book. But, a lack of money and space forced me to be more selective. After dropping cover variants, (effectively halving my expenses on TF comics), I dropped the UK reprints, (which I have read all of in Titan compilations). I have not dropped any main or movie continuity books. But, I can see myself doing that.

The only reason I remember Furman's name so well is because I made it a point to remember it during that 13 year period i was looking for UK # 85 (part of Target: 2006). I would have had one if we hadn't skipped the country. My father was in the military and we were stationed there. I did pretty much the same thing, dropped variants and the UK reprints (since I obviously have the original issues already, and the Titan collections). Then I had to drop everything Marvel. It really dropped the amount I spend on comics every month. Now I'm down to AHM, Spotlight, whatever movie ones come out, and Buffy. Gargoyles stopped getting produced or I'd be picking that up as well. I was getting three titles of Dr. Who, but after three months of buying them and not getting around to reading them, I dropped them too. (I would say cancelled but there's been no official notification of such).

[Dominic]

A good way to cut books is to not replace comics that are cancelled or that you drop. I did that for a few years, and my reading list and expenses dropped.

When I stopped actively doing that, in '03 or so, my list started growing again. (From 2 to 5 books or so.)

Now, I am again cutting.

Current list:
mainline TF books (usually 2)
movie TF (usually 1 or 2)
train-wreck books: "Action Comics" (for the Captain Atom back up) and "Archie"

This totals out at 6 for the moment. But, the TF books are sporadic enough that I usually subtract "1" from my actual tally.

I recently dropped: "Dark Avengers", and all of the "GI Joe" books. (This was in the aftermath of deliberately inflating my pull-list to accomodate "Countdown", which was basically DC's last chance to hook me.)

When I drop both of the current train-wreck books, I might pick up another. But, until then, I am adding nothing else.

Dom
-slowing down on toys as well for the moment.

[Shockwave]

Dom
-slowing down on toys as well for the moment.

I got you beat there. My collection is in a terminal velocity nosedive. I'm selling off to raise a down payment on a house. Come to think of it, I wonder if Scourge wants his Bonecrusher back.

[138 Scourge]

Come to think of it, I wonder if Scourge wants his Bonecrusher back.

Nope.

[Sparky Prime]

With Marvel's decline in quality stories in the past few years, my list for comics had decreased dramatically, especially with the death of most of the Ultimate Universe... My current list includes: Ultimate (Comics) Spider-man and Avengers, Dark Reign Young Avengers, Blackest Night, Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps, Superman/Batman, a few other Blackest Night tie-ins here and there, Transformers (mainline and some movie series).


So... Any thoughts on Disney buying Marvel?

[BWprowl]

I honestly don't think it'll change anything. I don't really see it as any different from Time Warner owning DC.

THAT SAID, if this somehow leads to Disney producing an Animated Power Pack series/movie, I am SO there!

[138 Scourge]

THAT SAID, if this somehow leads to Disney producing an Animated Power Pack series/movie, I am SO there!

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I was thinking this, too. And just imagine how much Power Pack stuff there'd be to buy once the Disney merchandise machine got ahold of it. Dude, one might find Snarks in Disneyland...

I dunno, I had the knee-jerk reaction of "Oh, GOD no" when I first heard this, because I'm just acclimated to Disney being fail. I mean, when was the last time anything that involved Mickey Mouse was even a lil' bit entertaining, right? (Fantasia, I know, but other than that)? Of course, then I remember Lilo and Stitch (first movie was rad, so whutevah), and then I remember that Pixar's technically part of Disney now, and they still make good things.

We'll see what happens, I guess. It's just a lil' creepy knowing that I'll be giving money to the Disney corporation. I know, I was giving money to Time-Warner with DC comics, but they seem less sinister, somehow.

[Dominic]

I admit, the "Ultimate" books are appealling for being 4 self-contained books that are unlikely to cross-over with anything else.

The Disney/Marvel thing is not going to be that bad. (I remember talking to Scourge when he had his initial reaction. It was....funny.)

Dom

[Shockwave]

Thing I liked about the Ultimate books is that it starts over. The reason I never read any of either Marvel or DC's mailine comics is because they all started like, 100 years ago and who wants to start reading a story in the middle? I mean, if you pick up a comic, it's bound to referrence the stuff that happened before and unless you've read it, you're not going to get the referrence. Ultimate I think gave a lot of people like myself a chance to get into the characters and the setting without feeling like we had missed out on 100 years worth of comic history.

[Onslaught Six]

Conversations of who wrote/drew comics doesn't always come up, look at the AHM thread. Over there we're debating why the scientists in the Sunstreaker story are so retarded, the ultimate answer being that it was a shitty story with shitty writing. But the writer's name only came up once and I don't care enough to look it up.

It was Shane McCarthy, the guy who wrote all of AHM 1-12, who wrote the Sunstreaker story, and--even though it wasn't said--that's exactly what the debate is about. Sparky doesn't like how McCarthy is (somewhat) retconning parts of the IDWverse, and I do, because it mostly sucked anyway before and McCarthy rules and totally knows how to write TF.

Ultimate I think gave a lot of people like myself a chance to get into the characters and the setting without feeling like we had missed out on 100 years worth of comic history.

I was told something once, I think by a film student--or maybe it was someone in a documentary, I really don't know--called the Ten Minute Rule.

Basically, in any given storytelling medium--movies, television, and likely comic books--the viewer/reader should be able to pick literally any point in any story and start reading from there, and within ten minutes, know what is going on. And think about it--this 'works.'

You ever flip through TV and see an interesting movie, and it's already halfway over, but you watch the rest of it anyway? And within ten minutes of coming in the middle of Act 2, you suddenly already have figured out most of the plot.

The same rule should apply to any good comic series. And, in the case of the Marvel Ultimate books, that's probably what they were shooting for--but let's face it, if you're reading the Ultimate books, it's because you already *have* an interest in Spider-Man, and you just don't want to read the cruddy mainline book where he's married and then he's not because he made a deal with Satan.

Point is! The mainline Spider-Man books *should* be written well enough that one doesn't immediately need to know all 100 years of Spider-Man history to enjoy the book. All one really needs to know is that Spider-Man is Peter Parker, he has this set of powers, and here are some of the craaaazy bad guys he fights. The fact that Marvel's mainline books were failing so hard at doing this (mostly due to 90s Comic Writing) that they needed to create an entire new continuity says something, to me.