Happy New Year! Our staff has some goals for our personal comics consumption in 2022, and we want to encourage y’all to do the same! So, each day this week, we’ll be sharing some of our thoughts and goals for the next 12 months. We’d love you to continue the conversation in the comments or on social media.
Question #2: In 2022, I want to read less…
Kate Kosturski: Social media and news apps/news websites. I have a bad habit of doomscrolling, which I justify as “staying informed.” But too much “staying informed” does not help my anxiety and depression. So when I get sucked into the doomscrolling rabbit hole, I need to pull myself out – – and before my boyfriend calls me on it (which is when it’s become excessive). It’s important to stay informed, but it’s not a hobby. Reading comics is.
Brian Salvatore: Stuff that I feel ‘obligated’ to read. I’m not talking about stuff that I need to review or talk about on a podcast, but things that feel like they’re necessary for the comics zeitgeist. If they’re good enough, I’ll eventually find out about it, but I want comics to feel fun again. I’m sick of feeling a sense of obligation.
Mel Lake: News and Twitter content that isn’t meaningful or relevant to me. I want to stop clicking on articles an algorithm picked for me and keep some of that time for reading content I choose from real people’s recommendations. Less click-bait, more substance.
Ramon Piña: Life-ending crossover events, I stopped reading Spencer’s “Amazing Spider-Man” because it had two events at the same time, (or was it just one? didn’t get it) and it became a very tense book for me to read. Same thing with “Batman”, suddenly we have a ton of new villains and a ton of things happening at the same time, I couldn’t catch up!
James Dowling: Comics discourse. It might seem a little hypocritical coming from someone who writes for a comic site, but I’m definitely hitting a breaking point in terms of exposing myself to a bit too much negativity. I think some wider opinions on texts you’re invested in can be really helpful and can even deepen your enjoyment of a book when done well, but maybe Twitter wasn’t exactly produced for that.
Mark Tweedale: Social media. I’ve caught myself stuck in a scroll way too many times and thought, “I could be reading comics or novels right now. What the hell am I doing?” I just need to start catching myself sooner.
Paul Lai: Metaphor. Though I cherish the power of speculative and supernatural storytelling to expand our imaginations, I also think the pendulum has tipped to a point where American comics’ best storytelling could stand to deal more with near-future realities and potentials, which would take a little more research and outside-of-comics co-creators. Artists who draw with activists. Visual storytellers who partner with scientists. A little less sociology of imagined worlds, a little more sociological imagination of our lived worlds.
Robbie Pleasant: Comics I’m not really interested in but still follow because they’re tangentially related to the publisher’s overall universe. I mean, I like Batman as much as the next guy, but do I really need to follow every single Bat-family comic out there? No, I do not. Similarly, I shouldn’t have to read a “Spider-Man” arc I’m uninterested in just because I’m worried I might miss context for the “Miles Morales: Spider-Man” issue that has them cross paths. Look, connected universes are great and all, but reading all of them should only enhance my enjoyment of each one, not feel like an obligation to get all the details.
Elias Rosner: Here’s the thing about resolutions. They’re kinda terrible. I should be constructing my comic year around a theme, like, the Year of Uncomfortability where I read books in genres I’m not used to or books that push me way out of my content comfort zone. I say this because my resolution here is the exact same as in 2020 for 2021: I want to read less junk.
I absolutely failed to drop any comic that I was not enjoying, with the exception of the King books. I did drop those. Some of that was due to a book being stuck in the zeitgeist (“Crossover”) hate reading (Spencer’s “Amazing Spider-Man”) or because I’m a part of a Marvel podcast and probably should be keeping up with their output (again, Spencer’s “Amazing Spider-Man.”) The rest was just due to my inability to say: this is OK but do I really need to be reading it week to week, month to month? Just so I can maybe have a funny panel for SMP?
2022 may end up being a wash with this as well but by jove I’m gonna try.
