Total Number of Ratings: 19
Talk Amongst Ourselves: How Do You Read Comics?
Wednesday, March 17, 2010 2:47 PM
It's time for another intermittent installment of Talk Amongst Ourselves where I ask a question and you answer it!
The Question: How Do You Read Comics?
Why I'm Asking: To incite a riot and generate enough comments to kick jim's internet blues article off the top of murmur's homepage, naturally.
Not really...at least not the riot part. I've wanted to ask this question for a while, but I've struggled with the how to ask it without sounding like an idiot or like I'm disparaging comic readers. With the recent mini-resurgence in the "how do I get my friend into comics?" talk (and whether it's a thing to do), I figured this was a good window. After all, in one particular case, I am the friend in question. There are several reasons why I don't read comics regularly, and the biggest is not knowing how to read them.
Here's the thing: I feel like I'm doing it wrong, or there's an aspect nobody's taught me to appreciate, or some other level of value that I can't attain without your help.
I'm not exactly questioning the cost, but that's a key component into why I think I'm missing something. I'm on board with the idea that a story that's made of words and pictures (and pencils and inks and colors and lettering) is more costly to create than a story that is mostly words. I get that I could just go to the library or a used book store or beg from my friends to keep my costs down. That doesn't help me overcome the gap between what it "costs" and how I use it. I'll blow through an $18 graphic novel or trade in a couple of hours and while I'm entertained, I suddenly have this book in my hand and an $18 hole either in my pocket, or of the pocket of the friend who bought it for me. I brought a few of the Buffy trades with me on a week-long vacation and had to stop reading so I wouldn't be done by the end of the first night.
And then there are single issues. This is where I fall apart completely. I can read 3 or 4 of those in the time it takes to drink a latte that costs about the same price as one of them and then I've got this sliver of a magazine left over. What do I do with them now? Don't say "buy a long box". That path leads to hoarding and doesn't add any actual value unless I'm doing something with them. Single issues have another ...issue as well. As near as I can tell each issue isn't a complete "episode" and I'm faced with a week or month-long commercial break. I'm impatient and I have a short attention span. How do you bridge the gap? Do you re-read last week/month's episode before you crack open the most recent? I know I could wait for trades, but if I'm reading a current series, I don't want to be spoiled, you know?
With either books or single issues, I feel "done" long before I feel like it's time to be finished. So help me out. What do you do? Do you re-read them? You must, right? What are you looking at the second time? If you read single issues (I know not everyone does), how do you bide your time before the next one comes out? Help me.
Why I'm Not Asking on iFanboy: Because I'm not a staff member over there, naturally.
Again, I kid. I'm asking here because you people know me here and hopefully trust that I'm being sincere. For what it's worth, I don't think I'm alone on this score, either. You comic-reading folks have an opportunity to help out us edge-cases, who aren't a part of the iFanboy community. You'll take my question for the serious query it is, won't you?
Kelly doesn't have a problem finding the "right" comic to get her hooked. There's already a mental stack of "someday when I read comics regularly, this is where I'll start" series queued up. However, she will take recommendations for what to add to that stack via twitter.
Usually, I read them from left to right across the page, from the top to the bottom, and then I turn the page, starting from the cover, left to right. This process is reversed for Manga....
thanks again for all these answers/discussion. (did i even say thanks the first time? thanks :)
you've collectively convinced me that i'm not missing a step or anything, which is what i was really after. i believe there are a lot of stores out there i'd like to consume, if i could just get them delivered to my doorstep for free. not because i'm cheap, but because my discretionary income is soaked up by other things :)
I'm one of those people who has been reading since i was 9, and still sometimes catch myself blowing through my comics, but i do the same things with prose. And while i enjoy both forms one of the great things about reading comics is that you can slow down the experience. I can look at the same sentence in a novel for 10 minutes, but I don't get anything extra from it, with comics you can pour of each panel and study it, and in my view I do appreciate it more. The weight of the line work, the tiny details in the faces, figures, or backgrounds, the colors, the layouts, they can all add something if you let them. My advice (since the weather's finally getting nice in the Midwest) is to take a few comics, or a trade, sit someplace nice outside with your favorite tasty tasty beverage and make an afternoon out of it. For some reason being outside always helps me slow down when reading and let the experience breath.
I'm someone who's big on story, but sadly not so much art. I mean, I definitely appreciate the art, don't get me wrong, but I typically just motor through the story for the text. I get addicted to a book's story and will just keep on reading. Eventually though, once I've hit a wall (i.e., I get up to a current issue on a book or am trade-waiting) I'll go back and read all the previous stuff I own and actually indulge in it. I'll spend a good 30 seconds on each panel, just looking it all over in detail.
I'm relatively new to comics in the grand scheme of things, so I'm always discovering something I enjoy. I'm a heavy trade reader for the most part, but the single issues that I do buy are for books like Scalped, Batman and Robin and Ultimate Spider-Man.
Now I just read more about what you're looking for...and I say....start at the back and read forward. :-)
Here's what I do: I buy 3-5 comics weekly. Every week, I read the previous month's issues of that certain title. I usually read one a day leading up to Thursdays which is when I get my comics. So, if I'm going to get Siege #3 on Thursday, I'll read Siege #2 again the day before. It refreshes my memory, and allows me to justify that feeling that I just spent $4.00 on 15 minutes of entertainment (now it's 30 minutes!).
In terms of trades and graphic novels, I use my public library like a fiend. Whenever I hear someone talking about a series or a GN that is popular, I check if it's at the library. In cases where it's not, I ask my librarian to order it. Thanks to sites like iFanboy, I got the librarian to order Asterios Polyp, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and the Johnny Cash graphic novel that came out last year. So not only am I doing myself a favor, but I'm also stocking my public library with awesome comics!
Typically, I buy issues of mainstream DC books and trades for other series, but that has started to change recently.
I don't have a specific reading order. I generally have to read books between child related activities, so I read what fits the time I've got to work with. (Fables is typically a rather quick read.)
I am more than ready to make the digital transition.
I am going to try and get through my points as quickly as possible, because, well... I wrote my Master's Thesis on Comics and Education and a a few pages were devoted to how exactly one interacts with comics. So suffice to say, I have a bunch to say and I don't want to waste anyone's time!
First, an anecdote. I began reading comics at the ripe old age of 4! My mother picked me up from school each day and brought me to work, and to occupy my time she would buy me coloring books. We quickly ran through the local newsstands' array of coloring books, so my mother figured "What's the harm in Batman or Superman?" I really was that able of a reader, but I was fairly adept at coming up with "The Words" for the panels I was seeing. So I learned how to read comics by observing the art first, and applying the words second. My relationship with comics lasted until I was 8, and then was reignited at 14. I've been reading non-stop for almost a decade now. As to the issue of reading books month-to-month, as many iFanboy users can tell you, I'm a bit of a content maven. Without obsessing over the issues - and frequently only having read them once through - I can remember plot details from issue to issue. It's odd, and probably means my memory of other things is slowly dissolving into ether (Though I can remember Star Trek episode plots like this, too) but I've been indoctrinated in this crazy hobby.
Comics - as defined by Scott McCloud - at their simplest, are the juxtaposition of words and art, in sequence to tell a story. The idea is that one reads/observes either one first and then finds out how the one works to enhance, correlate, contradict or extrapolate the other on the single panel. Indeed, it can be said (and has been by academics!) that comics create their own language (and thus their own literacy) - The Language of the Page. Comics demand that you not only juxtapose words and art in a single moment (like a painting) but that you continue to do this over the course of multiple pages! In his work, UNDERSTANDING MEDIA, Marshall McLuhan calls comics a "cool medium." That is to say that comics are a low definition, high participation medium. Comics are low definition in that they capture only a single moment and that the moments they string together need not be a coherent sequence. Comics are high in participation because the reader has to use their knowledge of the comic form and their imagination to "fill in the blanks" between two panels. McLuhan and McCloud both refer to comics as a "do it yourself" medium. The onus is on the reader to make the end product work!
For example, a two panel sequence can consist of a first panel depicting Cyclops of the X-Men pulling back his fist to punch someone, and the next can be a fist connecting with someone else's face. With a caption saying "We got him!" You the reader assume that Cyclops has punched the other man - the eponymous Him. However, the sequence can also be run as Cyclops gearing up for the punch, with a second panel of a man sprawled on the floor, with a caption saying "Got him!". In this instance we don't see a punch given, but we assume it has occurred by comparing the two panels. A final example I could give is: Cyclops gears up for a punch, and the next panel is a guy in jail with the the same caption as Got him. This is a little more abstract and plays with the idea of a lot of time passing between panels, but the same message is being conveyed in each sequence!
Comics allow you to engage each sequence for as long as you want. If you want to blow through a book, you can. If you want to slow down a sequence to study the art before moving on to the next, you can. In this way it's similar to a book, you can "pause" the story to postulate what will happen next mid-story. In this sense it's a little different than TV and Cinema (Though DVR and DVDs are changing this but not in the same way.). In general, it takes me 15 minutes to get through a comic. Some of the Vertigo or Indie books, which tend to use the art in a more decorative than functional way can take me longer.
Okay, I'll let that sit for now, cease my academic ramblings. I hope this helps, in some way! I know it's a little messy, but I'm trying my best to not veer into unnecessary stuff and get to the heart of "What exactly do I do with this panel!?"
For those curious about learning more about how comics work, I'll include a short list of good articles and books to check out.
Allen, Kate and John E. Ingulsrud. "Reading Manga: Patterns of Personal Literacies Among Adolescents." Language & Education. 19(4): 265-280. 2005. (This also has some great information about how manga readings get interested in reading manga in the first place!)
Bitz, Michael. "The Comic Book Project: Forging Alternative Pathways to Literacy" Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. 47(7): 574-586. 2004.
Mallia, Gorg. "Learning from the Sequence: The Use of Comics in Instruction." ImageText. 3(3). 2007. http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/v3_3/mallia/
McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art.
Peeters, Benoit. "Four Conceptions of the Page..." Trans. Jesse Cohn. ImageText. 3(3) 2007. http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/v3_3/peeters/
As well, Comic Book Comics by Fred Van Lente & Ryan Dunlavey is a great source for Comics History.
According to McCloud's definition which do you observe and interpret first, the writing or the art? I tend to go over the writing first and take in the art more slowly.
@Jestr McCloud leaves his definition open, as each reader will bring his/her own biases to the way they approach the book. Someone versed in a primarily typographic mindset will probably focus on the words first, someone with a more visual background will focus on the art first. In the end, it comes down to what the reader brings with them.
However, there are often clues left by the creators in how you're to approach a panel, sequence or page. The creative positioning of caption boxes, word balloons and thought bubbles might cause the reader to start reading the text, than "switch" to the art and then "switch back" to the words. And this will always change with shifting Writers, Artists, Letterers, Editors and Readers. Each new book will subtly ask its reader to reorient themself to the way *this* comic wants to be read!
Great insight, I didn't think to break it down like that. I guess it is true to "flip-flop" on the art and writing based on the creators and even the panel work.
I don't know about typographic v. visual in terms of background. I consider myself a creative/visual person growing up playing music and drawing but still tend to read the word balloons first before absorbing the art. Actually, I think maybe I tend to go to the word balloons first because I want to spend time viewing the art. However, your right about creators leaving clues. This can cause one to switch back and forth on art and writing.
I should mention that years ago, I began reading with a magnifying glass for a while. I caught myself reading through the text while breezing past the art. And when I say "I caught myself," what I really mean is that I kept seeing people discussing things I'd read pointing out things like, "It was amazing, the way he drew her standing right behind him the whole time!" and thinking, "She was standing right there? I didn't see that. I didn't see his hand bleeding. I completely missed the foreshadowing, and the background, and most of pages 11-13, as it turns out." By using the magnifying glass, I forced myself to pay more careful attention to what I was looking at in each panel, and it helped me to train myself to appreciate things a little more.
I was joking with Ali about this, and really another way to phrase what you're asking (and I mean the substance of the question itself, not your tone would be):
Dear friends, I can't help noticing that many of you like to smoke crack. I am non-crack-user myself, but seeing the level of your excitement has made me curious. However, I can't help noticing that the high is over *really* quickly, and honestly it seems pretty overpriced for the value you're getting. So, now -- can you explain what goes through your head when you light up a bowl?
(Err, in other words, I can endeavor to explain my hobby but I'm not quite sure I can recommend it to healthy people, and my involvement is less a cost-for-value decision and more a compulsion. Take that for what you will! ;))
But seriously, I do think that learning how to appreciate the good stuff is never a bad thing, even if you're not going to develop the habit. (Unfortunately, there's no real way to make this a metaphor about hard drugs. Maybe if we were talking about fine wine vs. Thunderbird).
I usually sort out what I want to read in terms of anticipation for the week. Like this week 'Azrael' was first because it was the 'least' forward looking book for me. While 'Brave and the Bold' was last because I wanted to savor the most anticipated book. That's not to say I'm buying bad books or anything, Azrael isn't a bad comic. Just that when you look at the pile of books you need to read, you just sort out what you wanna read first.
nonononono.
you guys aren't listening to me. :p
not that this hasn't been interesting and helpful in its own way and obviously y'all are free to do what you want with it (murmur's what you make of it, even if it's in the comments of someone else's article), but if you really want to help me, you're doing it wrong ;)
it's not "what form do you take your comics in?" or "how do you justify the costs?" it's literally "do you do something special when you put your eyeballs on a 'comic' page than on a page of a book that's just words?"
i think, sadly, the answer might mostly be "i've been doing this since i was 9. you may as well ask me if i do anything special when i exhale."
I haven't had time to write a full-on response yet, BUT I can tell you I started picking up comics in a serious way at around age 21 ... so I can attack the questions as someone who hasn't been doing it forever.
I tried to explain some of this in my first comment below? Because I'm another one who didn't start looking at this stuff until I was in my 30s. To me 'understanding more about how the art and craft of it work' has a lot to do with appreciating it.
Scott McCloud's 'Understanding Comics' is supposed to be the definitive text on this -- I found it a little dense but there's interesting stuff in it. There's also an amazing coffee table book that you *might* be able to get at your library, "Maximum Fantastic Four", which reprints the first issue of the Fantastic Four comic from the 60s. It has an essay by the author Walter Mosley about the cultural influence of this comic and blows each of the panels up to full page size so that you really get a chance to look at the images and see how they're working. Another thing to do is just take a book and go through it without reading the word balloons, just paying attention to what the images are doing, panel by panel -- and if you don't get much out of that, it's probably not a very well constructed comic.
I'm aware that not everybody approaches the stuff so, errr, academically but this helped me move from a shallow to a deeper (by no means expert) understanding.
@caroline i know. i over-generalized for effect and tried to be funny. going back over the responses, i can see a lot of what i was looking for in most of them. mea culpa :)
Some comics are about staring at the art on the page for a while, taking them in like a narrative painting. Others really are about going through the words and taking in the imagery as a simple story telling device or series of gestures. It depends on the rhythm of the story or the scene. The best books can still be digested pretty quickly, if you're just looking to get the essential plot. But there's usually reason to go back for another look.
Think of it like video games. Rock Band has some cool visual elements, but much of it is just mechanical. You're not absorbed in what the band is doing. You just want to hit all your notes. There are comics like that, where you focus on the word balloons and simply use the images for momentum. This doesn't mean the art is bad. It's just simple. That's the intent for a lot of comic creators. Some don't even like really detailed art because it distracts from the story. A splash page or double page spread will usually stop you in your tracks and demand close inspection, so a good comic's not gonna have too many of those. It'd kill the pace. It's like eight consecutive pages of scene description in a prose novel. All those page layouts have to be carefully orchestrated. There's a method to how many panels there are on a page, or how they're broken up in size. It's all rhythm.
Paul, that video game comparison was so much better than my 'hard drugs' metaphor. Thank you.
(Do you even smoke crack out of a bowl? I guess you smoke it out of a pipe. I need to rewatch THE WIRE).
@paulm i'm not going to be "that guy", because i understand exactly what you're saying with respect to video games and like caroline, i think that's a great analogy. in fact, the "comics are like video games" analogy works on multiple levels.
BUT i love dressing up my rockband characters almost as much as singing with them :)
@magnetgirl et al -- that's a good point. I've never been a gamer (don't so much dislike it as never invested in it) and now I'm kind of curious for an article about how people appreciate/process that experience. Paul's comments are really interesting!
I'm glad you responded with this, Kelly. I came away from the original piece thinking it was almost more of a "Why do you read" piece -- probably because there was the bit at the end about the cost and the amount of time it takes.
But given that you're literally asking if we do anything "special" -- something you're not doing -- I think my answer would be: nope, you're doing it right. I think you're reading the way most of us read on a weekly basis.
I mean, you're reading them and understanding the story as it is presented. As long as you're not having literal problems with the way panels progress or captions are read -- and it doesn't sound like that's the case -- then yeah, you're pretty much reading them like I am. Sure, there are certain books where i stop and study the art. And sometimes I look for the symbolism in the panels, etc. But mostly not. ;) For the most part, I approach a comic book as a hybrid of a movie and book. I read the text for the poetry of the dialogue or the captions (if there is any), and I study the art as though they are still frames from a film. You know, like "wow that panel captures a high speed car crash in just a single moment of time" or "wow, the way the artist captured all the shadows in the room really adds to the gloomy 'feel' of the scene." But just as I don't do that with every frame of every film I watch, I don't do that with every comic I read. If it hits me, it hits me, y'know?
Yeah, there are academic studies (as others have cited) that will tell you how the brain takes in the info, and how you can do things with panels of a comic that you can't do in a film, but you don't NEED to be aware of this. You'll appreciate it when it's well done. Just like you don't need to go to film school to appreciate a film. Sometimes it's just a gut reaction.
So, yeah, you're doing it right. And if it feels like its not worth the effort, then it may not be. We've all noted our reasons why it's worth it for us, whether its a lifelong compulsion or a weekly community book club or an academic study, but in the end, it's just a personal choice.
I think it's cool that you're investigating the world of comics. And I hope you find things you like and feel are worth the cost. But it certainly doesn't sound like you're doing it differently than most of us.
Honestly, as long as a book is done well, you really don't have to think about the process of reading. Good artists, letterers, and writers will work together to get your eye to flow from one dialog ballon to the next without any trouble. They also understand what layout works the best to make sure you notice the action in the panel before you notice the text. However, I have read some very awful books that have messed up there layouts so badly that even a long time reader has trouble understanding the flow.
Like most people I read alot of comics, but unlike most people I read them three different ways. The comics that I am really excited for I get the issues every WED. at the story. The comics that I really can wait on, or I want to check out I get from dcbservice.com once a month and save alot of money. Buying using DCBservice I realy dont mind if you spoil Blackest night or Siege because buy using it I can get almost every book that comes out.
My trade buying is different. The trades I want I will order from dcbservice.com or when my lcs has a sale. Most of the time I wait for a convention to pick up at least 150 dollars worth of trades.
Being on the graveyard shift as a nighttime mangager/ securtiy guard I have a lot of time to read. if its a good book I read it normal if its bad I try to pick a soundtrack with the ipod.
If I didn't review books and write comics news posts for iFanboy, I probably wouldn't buy single issues. I'd stick with a nicely bound trade paperback that can stay in my little library until I want to revisit it (which I do). Then again, I do love being part of the daily conversation. And knowing that the latest installment of a favorite ongoing story is out there RIGHT NOW makes it difficult to wait for the 'season set.'
I read both trade and monthly books. I don't have enough cash to read a lot so I have to be picky. I normally pull 5-7 books a month and grab a few others if buying a trade is worth it.
As to the longbox problem, or becoming a hoarder. I normally sell off most of my singles once a year or so. Or I give them away to my little cousin or little kids I know (if they are appropriate at least).
I use the trades for books I think I will re-read or lend out. Trades for me are keepers, at least most of the time. I have been gambling over Twitter with a few people, and the stakes are shipping a trade we don't want to the other each time.
i think i may have accidentally stumbled upon why those who evangelize comics do so: because y'all enjoy comics as extroverts and the more people you have to chat about them with, the more value they have for you.
ima genius!
I think you may be on to something. Discussion exponentially increases value. And when I think on it, some of my favorite comics talk has been hanging out with dudes at the comic shop on a Wednesday. And the conversation may start with comics, but it always branches out to politics, sports, movies, etc.
In fact, I think I started to like the iFanboy podcast when I really felt it was a similar experience to the Wednesday night shop talk. ;)
It's been a while since I timed my reading-- and if you're doing that or noticing it, you may not actually enjoy doing what you're doing-- but I know that the amount of time I spend reading the book is only one component of what I'm doing. I'm listening to podcasts where people discuss and debate the merits of the books, and sometimes I'm even recording those podcasts. I'm reading people's comments; it's a vehicle for engagement. Sometimes, that greatly enhances the experience. Other times, of course, it makes me end the day feeling as though I have torn off a chunk of my life and thrown it down a time-hole. Know When To Say When, kids!
addendum: I don't know about you, Little Miss Free Time, but whenever I get to the end of a book stack or DVR queue in a short amount of time I feel like I just finished the Race for the Cure, and I won the cure.
@jimski it's not that i'm timing it as much as when i finish something, i realize that much less time has passed than i expected. or, in the case of the buffy trades, i inhaled them in the course of one evening when i'd expected them to "last" for a week.
One reason I have little idea how long it takes me to read a comic is that I frequently have to stop to send emails or texts in the vein of "OMG SIEGE OMG STEVE OMG YAY!" (actual text of an email I may or may not have sent in the last hour or so). This would probably support your interactivity theory, yes ;).
Wow, this is a fantastic question, Kelly, and one that is not often asked. All I can say is thank god it's not another article on "how to get girls to read comics." ;)
So, I've run into this before, especially with single issues of comics. If you loan someone who doesn't usually read comics, they may actually really enjoy it -- until they realize they have to wait an entire MONTH to read the next chapter. So, you're definitely not the only one.
I think the HONEST answer for me was that I was trained from a very young age to digest bite-size pieces of this kind of popular serial entertainment. When I was a kid, I could read to that last page, knowing that I had to wait a month, and then I could go back over the whole thing, studying the action, the drawings. Then I could invent my own scenarios about what would happen. Or I'd go off and write/draw my own comics, my imagination stimulated by this little bite of entertainment.
No one ever really cites this, but I think one of the reasons there is so much of a comics community is NOT just because there's a specialty market for these books, but because we started off as kids, and as we got older, the community became our way of re-living and speculating on what we've just read. I think that's why so many adult comics readers are GLUED to marketing teases and solicitations. We KNOW we have to wait a month, but the smallest little teaser image can stimulate our minds enough to keep us occupied while we wait.
Now, to flip it around: if you ARE NOT raised on comics, then it's a different value proposition. You're used to a $10-$20 book that provides you with hours and hours of entertainment. OR, you're used to serialized television, which takes an hour a week, and IS FREE. So I think what you're really noticing is that those of us that read comics on a regular basis have made some kind of choice that we VALUE our $4 entertainment each week, which may seem outrageous to someone in comparison to the alternatives.
For me, I tend to think the closest comparison is going out to a movie in the theater. In this case, I'm spending $20+ for two tickets, a joint experience that last two hours and then evaporates. Comics issues are similar. For roughly the same cost, I can buy maybe 4-6 comics, but I can also chat with friends who also bought them, and then I can also re-read them if I want (bonus over going to a movie!). A trade paperback or graphic novel is similar to me to a DVD. It's about the same cost, and then I can put it on a shelf and recommend it to people or re-read it or whatever I want. How often do I re-watch DVDs in my collection? Why did I buy it in the first place? Is it a trophy? Is it something I want others to see? Is it something I will re-watch once a year? Twice a year? I think the answers to those questions are similar to my answers regarding the trades I buy.
The bottom line in any hobby is that the money you spend is worth the enjoyment you get. For me, I love to pore over the art, to speculate on the stories, to chat each week with a like-minded community who also can't wait to soak up that next chapter. It's money well spent for me, but I can see how it really depends on the reader and how he or she reads for entertainment.
So, if I draw comparisons, that's how I do it.
The first series I picked up in issues was Amazing Spider-Man. Long story short, the overall story had just reset itself and the book was being published 3 times a month. It taught me to read comics in issues. It helped me get used to pace and how panels flow together. And the publication schedule was a bit like training wheels so you get used to having to retain the story until the next issue comes out.
As far as cost and consumption, I see comics more like movies than books. For example, if you go see something at the movie theater it costs you, let's go with $10. You go in for an hour and a half, maybe two hours, and that's it. If you want to see it again you've got to buy another ticket or wait to buy the DVD (and how ofter do you really rewatch DVDs). So yeah, I'll drop $15 bucks on a trade that I may only read once, but I dropped that much to see Avatar in 3D IMAX.
For me, the cost and the overall ephemeral nature of comics isn't an issue. It doesn't bother me that I dropped $3.99 on something I will most likely never read again. I'm OK hoarding short boxes. When I read a good issue, even though I'm done with it in 10 minutes, the enjoyment I get from it makes it all worth while for me. I adore comics, that's how I read them.
I love this question! I like to ask these things, too, and love reading the responses (I have so many wonderful responses to my comic book reading survey).
I don't "read" trades -- I buy trades of my most favourite issues because they are more permanent. So there, yes, I re-read them and in fact purchase them with that specific goal. To re-read and re-love, like a TV series on DVD.
Single issues, I read only a very few titles regularly. At the moment, actually, I read ONE title regularly (because the other has ended, sadface), New Avengers. If I love an issue it goes in an accordion case (organised by character). If I don't love it it goes in my closet where it gathers dust until I need a scan for a Fangirls article or I use it in my or my daughters' art projects (collage is my favourite art form) or something.
For those month long commercial breaks, well, I'm an obsessive personality -- I talk about it, I make up stories, I post pictures, I make playlists, I theorize ad nauseum, I cast the movie, I create the ballet, I write articles, I babble some more, I watch wholly unrelated fanvids and make them relate -- and because I'm me, to me, all my madness is just as good as "canon" so it's okay when I get the next issue and it contradicts.
I've changed my mind. I am also following New Ultimates regularly (issue 2 hasn't come out yet so this hasn't been tested but it is my intention). And Siege if it counts.
To the title question, however, my short answer is: haphazardly and yet obsessively!
You hit on something that I forgot to say in my answer -- I never think about how it takes 10 minutes to read a comic if it's going to be a comic I'll spend an hour talking about with you and Jen and Sigrid. Not that everybody is or should be the person who does that (and not that every comic gets the same response) but it's definitely part of the community appeal.
Interesting: For me, I buy a bunch of single issues and trades. The money is and can be an issue, that is true. But for me (it also helps that I'm young and have minimal responsibilities at the moment), I feel like I work rather hard and am willing to throw down money for the things I enjoy, being comics and movies. It's true that it's hard to reconcile a 2.99 price tag for ten-thirty minutes of enjoyment. (which is why I buy on DCBS, much less money). I do re-read these things as well, or at least as often as I can. I tend to give it time though, I just re-read Wolverine: Enemy of the State for the first time since it came out some 4 or 5 years ago, reading with that much time in between felt like reading it again for the first time. As for the time in-between, I find it depends. The reason I like buying trades and single issues is so I can pass that in-between time with longer, finished stories. It's like watching an episode of 24 and then watching a couple of movies in between the week before the new episode. Also I find it great if you're reading a "family" of books to look at it taking place within the same "episode" or something. So if you read Wolverine and then X-men, think of it when they jump from character to character within a given TV show, sounds silly, but it's something. Now if you're reading a book that has no family book (an indie/ creator owned title, or a stand alone superhero with no ties) then I'd say find a trade or something with similar feel to kill the time between issues. For me these are simply stories, drawn (and maybe a bit expensive) or other. I'm a big story whore, whatever can give me a interesting character moments, I'll check it out, be that comics, TV, movies, or whatever else.
Granted this is coming from a 23 year old with no kids and somewhat disposable income, so take that as you will.
It sounds primarily like you are a trade reader and there is nothing wrong with that. I read both singles and trades. What I like to do is read single floppies mostly. Instead of reading all my new comics for the week the day I get them, I space them out throughout the week. I read one here and there, on a lunch break, or in the morning getting ready for work. Anytime I want to knock one off I read an issue.
If I just want to relax and have a long reading session I bust out a trade. Sometimes I'll pull out a run or story arc from my comics (in my long boxes) and read it all. This is where I think I get the most out of my single issue floppies. I like to read them sporadically and after I've collected a large amount reread them all together when there is time.
If you would like to try more single issues, I would suggest you buy comics that done-in-one. That way you don't have to wait for the next issue. One of my friends has gotten in the habit of buying old and recent back issues. This is a great way to get into single issues and save money. You can buy issues normally for $1 and buy complete story arcs. It's the best of both worlds. Good luck and keep reading.
I love that picture!
I don't know if I have a really good answer about issues vs. trades, or how much they cost or what you do with them. I think that's individual for everyone.
But. I think the notion of not being sure how to read them -- do you read the words or look at the pictures? how long is it supposed to take? -- is something a lot of people go through. At least, everybody I know who started reading comics as an adult (like I did) goes through. And I don't think it's a question that gets acknowledged enough, in discussion, maybe because a lot of the discussion is with people who read comics regularly as kids and so don't give it any thought.
Having said all that, I don't have a really good answer except that I enjoyed the experience of learning to read comics and figuring out how they do things with storytelling that you can't do in other media. It reminds me of the 'Six Feet Under' episode where Claire was in art school and they talked about learning to 'break your eye open' and see things in a new way. That's one of the reasons comics became interesting to me (and why I have to occasionally move on to other things in order for them to hold my interest).
So I guess my answer is -- and this is what worked *for me*, it may be different for other people -- is that comics started clicking for me as a medium when I learned more about comics. I found some trade paperbacks that were well done -- either that people who liked comics told me were good, or that just caught my eye -- that had extra material in the back, where the writer and artist talked about how they created their effects. I read and listened to interviews with people whose work I liked, and who knew what they were talking about, that taught me more. I read about the history of the medium and the business of comics to find out more about where this stuff fit in culture and what about it mattered beyond the adventures of a handful of people in capes and tights.
Again, this might not be a good approach for you; I didn't do it this way because somebody assigned me homework or because I wanted to be able to talk about people who knew more about comics than I did -- I went out and found people who knew more than I did because I almost-by-accident, figured out that I wanted to know this stuff. But to me, the answer was to discover more about the craft that went into putting the words and pictures together so that I could get more out of the experience. Also, it was gratifying to look back later and say, "Oh, the reason I had trouble reading that book at first is that it was A BADLY DONE BOOK."
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I look at it this way... Why should I spend $5 or whatever on a latté when I can get a few comics for the same price. It's all a matter of perspective. And collecting is NOT hoarding, despite what some would have you believe.