How do you buy and read your comics?
After many years I recently started reading comics again, both Marvel and DC. I don’t have a tablet and reading on my iPhone 5 would be cumbersome. Besides, print is durable, looks really good—in my view better than any screen. I’m also fighting against a screen addiction by engaging in more non-digital activities.
There’s a newsstand close to where iI live that still sells comics, but they do not carry many titles.
Today I went to the doctor that is close to a large mall. After I went (against better judgement, I know...) straight to one of the few remaining large bookstores in the town only to find out that the entire magazines section was wiped out. They now only sell a few overpriced hardcover comic books.
I was giving up hope when I found a little kiosk with all sorts of cool stuff, inclusive a generous assortment of all kinds of comics. I bought a volume with stories of the Hulk, Dr. Strange, and Namor. It’s supposed to be fun. I already bought some stuff online, but I made a decision to support that mall kiosk as much as I can.
Now tell me about you! Do you buy comics at all? How?
Okay, I guess I'll be the one to say it, since nobody else has yet... I mostly pirate my comics, graphic novels, and manga especially (due to fansubs often being the only option, and officially translated copies being so expensive), since I read so many and burn through series so quickly that were I to buy them all it would probably bankrupt me. I download them from various places, and then transfer them to Comic Zeal to read on my iPad.
I still have a pretty decent collection of physical copies of series where I wanted to support the publisher and/or author, or because it's a comic I reread often and adore the artwork for... but overall I'd estimate 95% of what I have read was pirated.
I'm similar. I read pirated due to a limited budget and comics are expensive. I understand why and I buy when I can but I mostly read pirated. I have found that I've enjoyed the first third of some series enough that I've shelled out for a better reading experience and bought the full collected editions (not collectors but omnibus paperbacks of all the ones in a series)
As for how I read them I've really enjoyed reading them on my large screen kobo that's 2/3 a4 size for things in black and white it's so much nicer than a screen.
Have you automated the process? I used to have a nice setup using Mylar to download issues every week. It worked great for a long time but then started silently failing, and I just decided it wasn't worth the effort to figure out what was going on. But when it worked, boy was it slick.
I have not, but TBH I don't really enjoy reading comics week to week anyways (nor watching TV shows that way either), and instead simply stop reading them for long lengths of time then go on huge binges to catch up... so downloading them in big batches works just fine for me.
I used to pirate a lot when I had a tablet too.
I mostly read free web comics via my RSS reader. I’ve also tried buying a few via Kindle, but it didn’t really take.
Cool.
Just so you know, the Kindle Reader is not good for comics. The Amazon tablets are probably great, though.
Edit: the Kindle is not good for full page comics. For comic strips it is fine, of course.
You know what? The current state of comics distribution is probably the biggest reason why I'm not reading comics right now.
I don't like digital comics because there isn't really a good way to read them. There isn't really a good digital reader except maybe the largest iPads. Sure, some of them let you view them panel-by-panel, but that's a poor replacement for having the entire spread in front of you. I'm somewhat OK with comics having DRM so long as they are cheap, but I would be much more likely to buy them if they were DRM-free.
The thing is that I really do want to collect the actual comic books, but the experience is not that great. There's a good number of comic book stores near me, but they're all out of the way - a number of them are in dying strip malls and industrial areas. Specific comics can sell out, and while some stores will hold on to them for you, that means that you have to come visit regularly or they will stop holding them for you.
The best thing in my opinion is a subscription service so that I can get the comics sent directly to my house, but all of the publishers have discontinued these services.
I used to read on a large Android, really big, like 13”? Not sure. Read the entire Gotham Central series on it. It was glorious. But it went to the sack.
Subscriptions are great, I did one for Batman and intend to subscribe to more when I have the money.
As a poor substitute, couldn’t you manually order each release online?
One of the things you may want to look into in regards to format is Webtoons, comics that are designed to be read on a phone, that read like a vertical comic strip, but with dozens of panels. Some publishers recut their existing material to the vertical format and it looks pretty decent.
https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/the-resistance/episode-1/viewer?title_no=404179&episode_no=1
I find that great, but personally I grew up reading full page comics and that degree of expressiveness and freedom to wander through the page is something I cannot give up.
I’d be happy to try webtoons as an addition to my media rotation, but it wouldn’t help me with my goal of reducing smartphone usage (I know you were not answering directly to me :P).
It seems like even comics meant for print would do better to switch to paperback size so the digital version better fits the screens people have. Aren’t manga page sizes smaller?
I have a Kindle Fire and I read comics on it. The Kindle Fire makes a good cheap, large tablet. It's great for reading comics and RPG manuals.
I generally only buy TPBs, usually through Amazon. I don't have the patience to buy monthly issues, so I'll wait for a story arc I'm interested in to complete, buy the TPB, and read it all in one go. The exception to this is Humble Bundles. I've bought the last couple Spawn Humble Bundles, which gave me entirely too many Spawn comics in individual issues.
What are TPBs?
Trade PaperBacks.
Ah I see Iove those too! (But not hardcover those are too expensive here).
Interestingly, regular issues in Brazil are usually comprised of two or more American issues, so it’s not so bad either.
Depends. I usually buy Indiecomics as physical copies from my local comic book store. As for the big one, Marvel and DC: Mostly buy them digitally mostly from Vomixology and read them either on my tablet (using the app "Chunky"), or on my laptop with "YACReader".
I tried Marvel Unlimited for a while, but that only gives access to the old stuff, and I usually read them as they come out.
Right now, I'm using Amazon's Kindle Unlimited which I have a free trial for, Hoopla, a service that my library subscribes to, and whatever's available for free at Comixology.
For dead tree editions, you may also want to look into a local library to see if they have any issues or trades available.
Libraries are not really a thing in Brazil, sadly. And the ones we have probably don’t carry comics.
For those that buy digital editions: do you actually own your copy? How do you feel about this potential issue?
Comixology has the ability to export DRM free versions of the books you buy if the publisher is okay with it. Humble Bundle if you go through them is similar, and there may be similar setups directly on the publisher's website.
If you want access to Marvel/DC stuff, you may be better off going through DC Infinity/Marvel Unlimited or Comixology Unlimited and just treat it like a Netflix.
Why? Just because there’s so much content, or because you think this kind of content has little “replay value”?
Yes to both? At least stateside, they're about as much as a trade a month, and have almost the entire library of Marvel/DC comics. DC's services is retooling for comics only with international service, but Marvel Unlimited is pretty well established, and has guided viewing, so it plays a little better to phone screens as you can go panel by panel.
I see. I kinda want to become something of a colectionist eventually. Kind of a childhood goal. I used to read these comics multiple times, even the silly ones, even as a young adult. I lost most of my collection when a maid (I’m not rich, the middle class used to have maids in Brazil) thought it was trash. It was traumatizing. Maybe I wanna recover now, 20 years later hahaha. But I get your point.
I prefer to read print comics, and I try my best to buy locally.
Grocery stores here in Norway sell comic books, mostly weeklies and monthlies, both native and foreign (translated). I rarely buy these, but grocery stores also sell Franco-Belgian style comic albums, and those I often buy. My last such purchase was the 63rd Les Tuniques Bleues album a couple of weeks ago, and before that the second album of Les Aigles de Rome. I think there's a new one out today actually; a Gaston Lagaffe reprint.
Book stores here sell larger hardcover collected editions, mostly of our native comics. I'm slowly catching up on my Lunch backlog, and I try to buy these books locally, but years-old books are often sold out.
We have few stores that specialise in comics, but game stores usually have shelves full of imported comics. The nearest such store is a 5-6 hours drive from here, so I usually order online from one of these stores when I want to read imported comics. I do this a few times a year, buying a large stack of trade paperbacks; the next book from series I follow, and usually a few new ones as well that I've either had recommended to me, or catch my eye when browsing the store.
I haven't been reading any new comics. I have been reading mostly just the Claremont era X books using Marvel Unlimited. The app is garbage, but when it works it's a great repository of all sorts of older comics. The price point is a little high though at $9.99 usd a month.
That being said it's been a really fun experience reading comics that I read as kid now that I'm in my 40s. My plan is to keep on trucking through to the modern day.