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I used to not only pre-order, but pre-pay. I've stopped doing that because . . . well, there's no gentle way to say it — Diamond sucks. Every other week (and this is no exaggeration, it happens literally every other week, at least) books will arrive from Diamond damaged. I've found when that happens and Dan has to place a re-order, I only have about a 75 percent chance of the books ever being replaced. And when the books don't arrive damaged, they don't arrive at all. Almost every week Diamond will short the order, leaving Dan with fewer copies than he actually ordered, or they'll simply send no books at all. There have been times when I've watched Dan open the UPS box, seen there are none of a certain title, and yet Dan has shown it to me listed on the invoice.
So, as they say, pre-ordering comics is an inexact science.
Still, the real trick is staying under budget. The amount I spend on comics each week hasn't changed all that much in decades. Back in the early 1990s, when comics were $1 each, I spent $20 per week on comics. And, up until last year, I was still spending $20 per week. That only changed when Maine instituted sales tax on periodicals and Sainted-Wife Sheila allowed me a raise. So, these days my budget works out to $120 per month. For that princely sum, I will be getting 33 comic books. Here's what they are:
- Astro City #29 (Vertigo)
- Batgirl #46
- Batman #46
- Bat-Mite #6
- Bizarro #6
- Cyborg #5
- Dr. Fate #6
- Harley Quinn and Power Girl #6
- Justice League #46
- Justice League of America #6
- Prez #6
- Scooby-Doo Team-Up #13
- Starfire #6
- Superman #46
- The Twilight Children #2 (Vertigo)
- All-New All-Different Avengers #1, 2
- Amazing Spider-Man #3
- Doctor Strange #2
- Hercules #1
- Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #1
- Ms Marvel #1
- Star Wars #12
- The Mighty Thor #1
IMAGE COMICS (five titles)
- Autumnlands #7
- The Fade Out #11
- Jupiter's Circle Vol. 2 #1
- Nameless #6
- Paper Girls #2
IDW PUBLISHING (five titles)
- Back to the Future #2
- Donald Duck #7
- Mickey Mouse #6
- Uncle Scrooge #8
- Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #725
ARCHIE COMICS (two titles)
- Archie #4
- Jughead #2
DARK HORSE COMICS (one title)
- Rebels #8
DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT (one title)
- Will Eisner's The Spirit #5
That all comes to $123.69 retail, or $114.91 with discount. Adding in Maine's 5.5 percent sales tax makes the total hurt $121.71. I went a little over budget, but I'm okay with that as I had to cut 11 issues of 10 titles from my order to get there. Excised off the first draft were:
- DC Comics Bombshells #4 and 5 (DC)
- All-New Hawkeye #1 (Marvel)
- Black Knight #1 (Marvel)
- Vision #1 (Marvel)
- Black Science #17 (Image)
- I Hate Fairyland #2 (Image)
- Stray Bullets: Sunshine and Roses #10 (Image)
- We Stand On Guard #5 (Image)
- Black Hood #7 (Archie)
- Hangman #2 (Archie)
In addition, not even making it to the first draft was Star Wars #13 and the point-1 issue of Amazing Spidey. With the exception of the point-1 issues of the last Amazing Spidey volume that featured Clash, "the amazing sultan of sound," I've never seen much in Marvel's point-1 gimmicks to divert my collecting dollars. In fact, I more often resent Marvel trying to hit me for extra issues of an ongoing title I may be buying that are unrelated to the main storyline. Star Wars I decide to drop because Issue No. 13 is part of a multi-title epic and, already in a position to make cuts, I knew I wasn't going to have room to add two additional titles in Star Wars: Vader Down #1 and Darth Vader #13.
It should also be mentioned that a number of Image launches fail to make the cut. I'm a pretty big fan of Jason Aaron, but I'm also kind of a prude about by comics and don't feel swear words add anything to them. With so many words blacked out of the preview pages of The Goddamned #1 from Image, I decide to pass. Also failing to capture my interest from Image, which lately has followed the Infantino flood-the-market publishing model, is Huck #1 (though by Mark Miller, only 17 words on three preview pages makes it seem this will be too quick a read for $3.50).
At DC, Vertigo also has been trying to reinvent itself, and I really want to give the imprint a chance, but decide to pass on Jacked #1 (looks interesting, but ultimately too depressing), Red Thorn #1 (solicitation copy just didn't grab me while the teaser image says nothing), Slash & Burn #1 (I didn't think much of the writer's last "hit series," Bodies, which I dropped before it was done), and Unfollow #1 (haven't loved Martian Manhunter by this writer, and thought Royals: Master of War was a real mess).
Working backwards, starting at the books I cut to stay under budget: Hangman was an impulse order last month that I decide I don't have room for this month, due mainly to the new Marvels I added. If I end up liking the first issue, I may back order what I missed. Initially I was going to give Black Hood another try. I ordered the first three issues, but so far have only read the first one, in part because it was a title Diamond kept shorting my retailer on. I finally got the books months after release, and not in the order they were released, but which time I'd dropped the title from my pre-order list. Now, having dropped Hangman, I decide to continue the pass on Black Hood.
We Stand on Guard is a similar Diamond screw-up. I still haven't got the second issue, while the first, which had to be re-ordered, sits on my desk unread. Screw it. I Hate Fairyland is the same story as Hangman, an impulse order I don't have room in the budget to continue ordering without knowing how much, it at all, I'll like it. Black Science and Stray Bullets I cut, although it sort of kills me to do so, just because they've gotten old. I loved both series once, but the seem to be the same thing every month. I don't mind variations on a theme, or maintaining characters at a certain status quo — genre, escapist fiction sort of depends on that — but Black Science seems to just keep hitting the same plot points without going much of anywhere, while Stray Bullets, tonally, just wears me out.
Black Knight as been a favorite since I was a kid, but I decided I just didn't know enough about the characters involved to take a chance. Vision also is a long time fav, but I found Tom King's Greyson to be kind of a hot mess and fear more of the same. All-New Hawkeye almost made the cut just because Jeff Lemire's run on Green Arrow was my, to me mind, his best work. Ultimately, however, I decided All-New Hawkeye is probably going to read like Same-Old Ollie.
I liked the first issues of DC Comics Bombshells, but thought the art in the second issue was pretty weak, while the story wandered from a coherent plot into a seeming attempt to introduce bombshell versions of every DC heroine. The solicitation copy for Issues 4 and 5 makes it seem as if they'll more closely resemble Issue 2 than Issue 1, so I decided to cut my losses. If DC had solicited just one issue for November, I might have stuck it out one more month, but two issues is too big a swing at the budget to resist.
Going back to what I did order, All-New All-Different Archie is, admittedly, an experiment. Given the $4 price point, I'll probably drop the titles in another month or two, once the novelty wears off. The Disney books I really enjoy, however. Yeah, they're "kids books," and just reprints (albeit some published in the U.S. for the first time) but they are clever and a good value. I mean, when a $4 Disney comic takes 20 minutes or more to read, versus the average DC or Marvel book that can be read in about eight minutes for the same price, that's not a hard buying decision at all, really.
The Image books are all books I've been buying for a while, save for Paper Girls, which I decide to keep where other impulse orders from last month were cut simply because I liked the Stand By Me with girls vibe of the initial solicitation.
Although Marvel has a lot of No. 1s on the order, must of the titles are books I was buying previously. I must say, however, I am annoyed that Ms Marvel #1 is a $4.99 book. While it has become one of my very favorite comics on the stands today, it must be said I only every gave it a try because of the $2.99 price point. If Marvel had launched it at the same $3.99 cover price of all its other books at the time, I would have skipped it, I'm sure. Of the two new books, Moon Girl's solicitation art looks just too fun to resist, while Hercules is something I'm completely taking a chance on. I expect to be disappointed, if only because no Herc book could ever live up to the glory of the Bob Layton mini-series from the 1980s, but based on fond memories of those books, I order against my better judgement.
And, finally, DC, the mainstay of my collecting preference for more than four decades. Frankly, I may be over it. The company just isn't producing much that I'm interested it, and only habit keeps my buying many of the titles I order this month. Bat-Mat I would have dropped if it had not been a mini-series. Same with Prez, if it had remained an ongoing, or even a 12-issue series. Dr. Fate I would drop, but I expect it to be canceled soon, so I might as well have them all. And Superman I had intended to drop, but the swap of Howard Porter for John Romita Jr. buys the book one more month. Cyborg really isn't grabbing me and Batgirl has begun to wane, while Batman will probably fall off my list once the Mr. Bloom intro story is over. Oh, and speaking of Batman, Frank Miller's new Dark Knight series will probably top the sales charts by a wide margin. But Miller's last DK mini was no very, very, very awful, there's no way in a hundred hells I'm even going to bother.
With so many DC comics about to end, or teetering on the fence for me, next month could be an interesting one. Might it me the first month since the late 1970s when I actually buy more Marvels than DCs? Come back next month to find out . . .
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