Current Comics

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With the economy the way it is and probably not going to get better before it gets worse I've cut back on some of my comic book spending. And with certain companies (Marvel) raising the prices on some comics to four dollars an issue (ok, really $3.99) it's getting easier to decide what to drop. I'm a big fan of Brian Michael Bendis, he got back to reading Marvel Comics with his Daredevil issues, but it's hard to walk out of the comic book store after spending twenty dollars and have only four comics to show for it. Yes, it's only a dollar increase over what we were paying, but it's just getting so hard to justify spending that much on comics every month.

I did pick up an issue of Mighty Avengers and found it basically unreadable so that will be an easy one to drop. I haven't picked up Secret Warriors, even though I'm tempted. I'm on the fence with the New Avengers. Dark Avengers I passed on, even though Bendis is writing it. At the moment I'll probably continue to buy it, but it won't take much for me to drop it.

I've dropped Captain American, even though I was enjoying Brubaker's writing it was starting to lose some interest for me. Daredevil is about to change writers soon, so I'll probably buy a few with the new writer, Andy Diggle, before I make any decision to continue or drop it. Daredevil has always been one of the cornerstones of my collecting so it'll be hard for me to drop it.

At the moment comics that I buy every month (or whenever they come out):

Echo
The Boys
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Walking Dead
Daredevil
New Avengers
Spiderman Loves Mary Jane
Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade
Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam

And that's about it. I might have forgotten a few, but I don't think so. I'll pick up an odd issue here and there of something that might look interesting. Right now I've been buying Greatest Hits but that only has one more issue to go and than that's over.

I find myself buying trades of books that I don't pick up on a monthly schedule. I was buying the trades of DMZ but have missed the last two. I plan to go back and get them, that is a title I've been enjoying. I just ordered the hardcovers of Swamp Thing and the second volume of Starman. I also just picked up the second and final volume of Bill Loebs' collected Journey.

Buying these hardcovers and trades is costing me the money I could spend on montly comics, but I feel like I'm getting a better deal with these volumes. And I'm enjoying the comics more.

If there's anyone out there that's still reading this blog after my terrible absence of not blogging for so long, tell me if the economy has made you cut back on your purchases. Or tell me about a comic that I just have to buy because it's so good. I'm always looking for that comic that I can't live without.

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Walking Dead

I know I'm way behind in even trying to talk about the latest issue of The Walking Dead. But I have to make a comment on the latest issue, the end of the attack on the Prison. Kirkman has been saying before this storyline started that there were going to be big changes in store for the comic and not all the characters would make it through. That was an understatement. I can't think of any comic that basically wipes out over half the cast in one storyline.

I don't want to give too much away, just in case anyone hasn't read the end of the storyline yet. The effect of not knowing hits you like a bat upside the head. No matter who I thought was going to die I was still taken by surprise.

For readers who see this series as a zombie comic you're doing yourself a disservice if that's the reason you don't pick it up. Yes, there are zombies, but they are not the focus of the series. Some issues go by and you don't even see a zombie. This is a character driven series, a story of people coping with loss and trying to survive in a world that is completely changed from what they know.

This is one of my favorite comics being published today. It is published by Image Comics. The above imagine is of the newest trade collection that should be out soon. It's the eighth trade. The series is coming up to its 50th issue. How many comics from the Big Two make it to issue 50 nowdays? Much less one from one of the other publishers.

If you haven't tried this comic yet, you really should. It's not what you expect and I really think you'll be surprised by how much you end up liking it.