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Paul W. Sondersted, Jr.
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 276
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| Posted: 03 July 2015 at 3:28pm | IP Logged | 1
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I've read here & there that people stick with their favorite characters just out of a sense of loyalty to that character... For lack of a better term.
Seems kind of silly to me & a waste of hard-earned allowance (back when I was a kid last week!).
I enjoy the Hulk character. I enjoyed Bill Mantlo's run for a while, but around before issue 300, I lost interest.
Can't recall what brought me back to the title, though! Hmmmmm.
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Paul W. Sondersted, Jr.
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 276
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| Posted: 03 July 2015 at 3:31pm | IP Logged | 2
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Oh... And then there are the completists, who have hissy fits when they have "gaps" in their collections.
That's just weird. When you have a bad tooth that needs extraction, do you keep it just so you have a complete set of teeth?
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
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| Posted: 03 July 2015 at 4:04pm | IP Logged | 3
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That one utterly mystifies me -- and if have been known to keep buying a title after I stop actually reading it. But to buy when it's BAD? Because it might get good again? And the issues skipped would have to be picked up as back issues? BIT THEY'D STILL BE BAD!!!
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Andy Mokler
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Joined: 20 January 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 2799
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| Posted: 03 July 2015 at 4:57pm | IP Logged | 4
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Doesn't puzzle me at all. The whole industry is now more than ever based on the obsessive compulsiveness of it's fans. Many don't buy because they want to, it's because they have to.
Missing an issue is cause for a mental break of some kind. It has nothing to do with the content, it's the number on the cover.
Also, I think many fans suffer from worrying that they're going to miss something that then becomes valuable.
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Anthony J Lombardi
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 January 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 9410
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| Posted: 03 July 2015 at 6:50pm | IP Logged | 5
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It was when I realized that I had a years worth of books I haven't read that I decided to stop collecting on a regular basis.
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Kevin Brown
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 31 May 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 8958
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| Posted: 03 July 2015 at 8:27pm | IP Logged | 6
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Anthony, I had 6 months' worth. So I'm right there with you.
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Anthony J Lombardi
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 January 2005
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| Posted: 03 July 2015 at 10:27pm | IP Logged | 7
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Kevin, my mindset was. If I didn't read the comics I'd always have something there to read. But I wouldn't read them cause if I did. There would be nothing left to read. Oh the strangeness that is the passages of my mind.
Edited by Anthony J Lombardi on 03 July 2015 at 10:28pm
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Stephen Churay
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Joined: 25 March 2009
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| Posted: 03 July 2015 at 11:30pm | IP Logged | 8
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I was once stuck on the numbers on the covers. Funny, the
continuous relaunches finally broke the addiction.
Then I was finally able to divorce myself altogether when I
had a son. I'm reading Brubaker's run on Captain America
when he asked to see it. I realized that the content was
such that I couldn't let him leaf through. I was 10 when I
started and my son wasn't allowed to look at the latest
adventure of a superhero he had come to love. That's when I
really came to understand just how broken the comics were
and the damage the current regimes had caused.
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Steve De Young
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 01 April 2008
Location: United States
Posts: 3508
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| Posted: 04 July 2015 at 1:06am | IP Logged | 9
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And the issues skipped would have to be picked up as back issues?
----------------------------
That's the one thing I like about the constant new #1's these day, JB. For a guy with mild OCD like me, it frees me up from any kind of completism.
As for when I quit, I didn't let it drag on for months. I came home one Wednesday with a big pile of books, read a grand total of two of them, and realized I had no desire to read the rest. And that was that.
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Eric Jansen
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Joined: 27 October 2013
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| Posted: 04 July 2015 at 1:26am | IP Logged | 10
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When I started, a lot of the Marvels were in the 140's or so (the DCs' numbering was a lot more varied) and I enjoyed tracking down back issues, and things like MARVEL TALES and MARVEL'S GREATEST COMICS filled in the important gaps. Reading a complete run of your favorite series seemed doable.
Now that most of those have hit over 600 (of course, you have to calculate all the restarts!), I can't imagine anybody STILL doing that! Though I have come back to some of them in recent years, I have skipped entire decades of SPIDER-MAN and X-MEN and feel no need to fill in the gaps.
Now, 40 years after I started, I'm FINALLY reading the complete Lee & Kirby & Ditko runs (thanks to the MARVEL MASTERWORKS) of all the 60's Marvel greats! (No luck on the DC side, since there's no way I'm paying $60 each for their hardcover Archive Editions!)
Edited by Eric Jansen on 04 July 2015 at 1:27am
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Rick Whiting
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| Posted: 04 July 2015 at 5:10am | IP Logged | 11
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Here is a perfect example of how aiming a former all ages Big 2 superhero character at adults, and giving those adult readers what they want by telling stories that should have never been told, can hurt the long term sales and popularity of a popular character. Before his origin was told,before he joined the Avengers,before he became the headmaster of the X-Mansion,before he led his own hit squad of mutant heroes (which was suggested and fully sanctioned by Cyclops of all people),before he was revealed to have kids,and before his comic ceased being suitable for all ages (his solo books have been carrying a Parental Advisory rating for over the last 13 years) Wolverine was a very popular character and his solo comic was a regular top 25 seller. After all of those things that I listed were done to the character, his popularity has dipped and his comics (excluding the stunt issues) have been selling at an all time low for the last several years and has been relaunched several times over the last several years. Even the Wolverine series written by the "critically acclaimed" Jason Aaron didn't sell well. Of course, this little fact seems to be over looked or ignored by the Big 2,most of the fans turned pro,and most of the current adult fans.
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Andy Mokler
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Joined: 20 January 2006
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Posts: 2799
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| Posted: 04 July 2015 at 12:06pm | IP Logged | 12
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Comic book companies certainly can't be considered unique in over-saturating the market with what's popular but they may take it to new levels.
The first character that I recall getting this treatment was the Punisher. Then Wolverine. To me, it the Curly rule. Or the Joey rule. These characters should all be used reservedly but in powerful doses.
Make them the star and tell us everything about them and <poof!> character eventually...quickly dies on the vine.
Mysterious characters should remain mysterious and as PT Barnum said: "Always leave them wanting more".
Marvel and DC are profoundly unwilling to embrace either of these.
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