I really got into comics with the New52, I’d buy the random collection here and there but single issues were not really my thing up to that point. Even when they “were my thing” via Comixology it wasn’t a big pull list. I’d eventually fall out of habit with DC and Marvel, but with the rise of the MCU and DCEU (or whatever it is they’re calling it) on all the screens did I really break a habit or did they just takeover pop culture? That takeover would be a positive for me as it has helped give me an object of study to focus on as I go through graduate school.
The biggest change for me as a reader over the decade has been dropping single issues, $3.99 and more for 20 pages is not a good deal when you can be patient and buy collections for cheaper than the price of single issues(that’s without figuring in ComiXology Unlimited discounts.) With recent data leaks from Diamond the direct market seems even more like a market rigged for self-dealing and exploitation on all levels, not the cultivation of a customer base that actually reads books on the part of publishers. All I really want to do is read comics, write about those comics, and make some fanart out of them highlighting the queer characters out there, not buy a dozen variants out of some strange kleptomania.
That desire to read comics is why publishers like Image or Boom!, webcomics, and other alternative distribution methods have become more interesting to me. The wider variety of art style and content are novel and unique compared to Marvel or DC putting a faint generic spin on one of their cape books. It’s easier to read something and find something that is different on Line or Tapas on my phone with the flick of my thumb than go through the hordes of weekly releases from Marvel. James Tynion IV wrote recently about one of his younger family members being excited but not that interested in his writing “Batman,” and more into what they are reading on Line. Crowdfunding has also become a bigger aspect of where my money goes for comics, there is no way something like “Cuentos: A Bilingual Latinx+ Illustrated Story Anthology” or “Silk and Steel” would exist within normal publishing. Spike Trotman and Iron Circus Comics has been one of the publishers to watch grow this decade as they used crowdfunding to create books and find an audience that the mainstream market either didn’t realize existed or did not care to serve.
In terms of content I’ve largely turned away from cape comics, or at least the traditional sort of superhero book. I need a strong character hook, generic hybridity, or creative team to get me interested. That isn’t some shocking desire, it’s the basics. Superhero books are not inherently bad or lesser, the larger apparatus that surrounds them just gets in their way most of the time from actually telling a story. For all the ill will Tom King’s “Batman” run has generated I consider it a marvel for how silo’d DC let that book be other than a tie in to the Rebirth meta story “The Button” – which King used to reinforce one of the core thematic points of his run – it didn’t recognize or reference much else. He somehow got them to let him use a rotating cast of top artists to do a series of surreal dream one shots!
Without the siren call of Cape comics, but still the fascinated with their popularity, fandom, and symbolism, I went towards more independent. Stories that ended, sometimes abruptly. Over this decade I would say the biggest change is if not turning fully away from Big Two style comics, it’s the active search for smaller titles that are outside the norm. It’s the thing I would hope more people do either through platforms like Line, Tapas, Tumblr, other publishers like Image or even a trip to SPX with all the zines and minicomics Warren Bernard is saving for the Library of Congress. There is so much comics out there that if you don’t like something you shouldn’t read it. Take a break go read “Lore of Olympus” or “Punderworld” with the flick of your thumb or something I have no idea about but you love.
