Auditing The Stack

Last week, DC took a hard look in the mirror and decided some things just weren’t working for them. They needed a new look, and it was time to trim some fat down at the bottom. It was time to try something new, but some things had to go.

I totally know how that faceless publishing company is feeling. Who among us hasn’t had that staring contest with the mirror, especially around New Year’s resolution time?

I’ve been using the start of 2012 as an excuse to practically audit my life. It’s about time I stopped letting so much garbage in, from the garbage I eat to the garbage I listen to. This weekend, it occurred to me far too slowly that I needed to change my relationship with caffeine after weeks of suffering from what the household had taken to calling Screaming Brain Syndrome. “I am so goddamned irritable and distracted. And jittery. And sleepless. I feel like I’ve seen this list of problems somewhere before.” [Chugs entire carafe of Dr. Pepper]

Luckily, I assessed the problem and made some changes, and I already feel ten times bettttttttthkslfgotghotiot

.

Sorry. Passed out on the ol’ keyboard for a couple seconds. What are we doing? Comics?

Just like DC, I am also reassessing my comics. It’s definitely time to try something new, and it is definitely time to give some slackers the old heave-ho. Because it’s almost as if I’m trying to be a character on The Big Bang Theory or something, I recently put my credit card statements into a spreadsheet and figured out how much I was spending on comics. I recommend you do this, and I also recommend you never ever do this. You want to talk about a hard look in the mirror? It turns out I drop an average of $36 a week in that shop. And lately, I might add, I’ve been handily beating that average.

Most of the books are worth it, of course. At least, I presume they are. I haven’t opened a comic since before Christmas.

Above: what I "do" for "fun."

Yes, I go to the store, buy a bunch of comics, and promptly put them atop a dust-covered pile. Don’t you judge me. You know you have a shelf of Blu-rays that are still in the shrink wrap.

Anyway, I am assuming these books are still as good as they were last time I looked at them. Some of them, though, have a long overdue date with the axe. I don’t exactly keep buying bad books hoping they get good again, but when I decide I like a series, a “Like” box gets checked in my brain and it keeps getting an automatic pass long after I lose interest in it. I “Like” Fables, so I keep reading it, but when really pressed I have to admit I haven’t really enjoyed it or been excited by it since around #75. And it’s on, like, #112. That’s a dumb way to beat your $36 average. So, that’s it for Fables for a while.

Luckily, it looks like a lot of my hard decisions are being made for me this spring by these cold-blooded mercenaries who put the books out. My pull list is like a cancellation detector. I was reading Blackhawks, and Black Panther, and Ghost Rider and Hercules and poor Alpha Flight. (Will you never win, little Alpha Flight?) This cutthroat economic death spiral is really going to save me a bundle.

At the same time, I have a nagging sense that people have been raving about series I haven’t touched, and it’s time to start investigating what they are. Animal Man was a non-starter for me, but there are another handful of New 52 books that people adore that I have yet to try. Perhaps I shall get the trades, from my grandchildren, for my 100th birthday. (That is a joke about DC’s trade publishing program. Also a joke: DC’s trade publishing program.)

Seriously, though: what should I get? Do you have a pet book that never gets enough love, a book that none of the iFanboy Founders Three reads, so the only remaining chance you have of ever seeing anyone talk about it here is lobbying me? I am all ears at the moment. Help me fill the Fables-shaped hole in my heart.

 


Jim Mroczkowski recently discovered that the “Energy Formula” multivitamin he was taking to be healthy was not so much an “energy formula” as it was a “vitamin with a shitload of caffeine in it.” You know, for health.

Comments

  1. I know exactly how much I spend on comics, it is between $60 and $80 a week depending on how many 1 shots are out that week.

    • Holy shit you’re a) either a millionaire or b) eating gruel three times a day… 0_o

      I spend an average of 20-25$ per week and think it’s a lot! lol

    • I spend $60-$80 also. In a month.

      I desperately try to stay around 20 books per month – ideally 5 Vertigo, 5 Marvel, 5 Indie, 5 DC [yes i count vertigo and dc separately]. I leave a little wiggle room for once a year books. Surprisingly I am only one over [6 Vertigo]. It makes trying new series tough though.

      A trio of indie recommendations for you: BPRD [in my opinion this has far surpassed Hellboy]; Wasteland [post-apocalyptic black and white goodness from Oni gets a $1 “relaunch” this month to celebrate it becoming a monthly book]; Rachel Rising [beautiful black and white Terry Moore art, a fantastic horror mystery, what more could you want?]

    • I spend anywhere between 80-110 a week depending if I decide to grab that weeks variants or not. Its a lot more tempting for me because I work at a shop and get a nice discount. I will say that since I’ve become a dad a year ago that my reading gets backed up. My only time to read is weekends and even then its a pain to find quiet time. By the time it rolls around, I can barely keep my eyes open. Still tho, I can’t help not buying my goodies every week.

    • J-Wunn – re: being a new dad and trying to read comics. Don’t worry, your time to read will return soon. Then it will go away again when you become the center of attention. Then it comes back yet again around age 7-8. That’s as far as I know.

  2. My biggest problem isn’t how many books I read, but what, really, is the level of enjoyment I get from those I do purchase. The Bang/Buck qualifier, I guess. It’s funny you’re printing this article today, as over the weekend I made of few hard decisions to drop a few books. Some may think me crazy- but I am really only enjoying the horror and fantasy books in my stack. I am setting free Wolverine & the X-Men, Wolverine, Uncanny X-Men, New Mutants, Voodoo and Red Hood & the Outlaws. One side note, I am adding Journey Into Mystery. I guess I like going to my special crying place (between the wall and my bed) and reading scary books.

    • Horror books tend to attract more talented writers than the average superhero book does. No shame in realizing that. Plus the fact that a vertigo or indi book allows a writer freedom that they would not get from DC or Marvel (i assume writing with company rules can affect quality of the product).

  3. I’ve found that i like the characters in the abstract more than the actual books, so maybe i buy them longer than i should. I’ve noticed also that when i have a “big week” which is getting more than the 6-10 books that is my comfort zone, i rush through them, and they become this chore instead of enjoyment. Its the $5 cappuccino that i only drink half of before tossing out. Kind of a waste.

    I need to cut back and find the few titles that i love and stick with them in issues. I’m still a trade type reader at heart, so i’m thinking that i might just hold back on some titles, see what people say, and then pick em up digitally all in one go and read em that way. I’ve found better reading experiences that way.

    • Ya when i get over 10 books a week i start to rush through them too… thanks DC 52… .. and it does affect enjoyment … unless i keep telling myself to slow down.. I have to coach myself though.

  4. I cannot recommend Sergio Aragones Funnies enough. It’s a mix of pantomime comic strips, autobiographical short stories and little fantasy stories. Really great stuff.

  5. I can’t believe you’re coming up on being a month behind! Christmas break (I got two weeks off!) threw my comic reading cycle. You would think with more time, I would read more comics. But I fall into a pattern and didn’t make it to the store on Wednesday, which goofed me up.

    Yeah, there are books I should cut. But a lot of the ones I am reading are limited series. Several (Punisher Max, The Boys) are coming to a close as well, so I put it off. I think any book that I rate “3” (or God forbid lower) for two consecutive months should get culled. I don’t have the time or money to read things that are average.

    • Oh, durrr. What AM I reading? Well, if you aren’t reading Batman, Swamp Thing, and Animal Man, you are missing out. Those are kind of mainstream. PIGS is picking back up – I almost dropped it, but it is getting exciting again. American Vampire is always good. I’m loving All-Star Western too. I’d also recommend The Sixth Gun, Green Wake, Spaceman, and I, Vampire if you are not reading those.

  6. Thoroughly enjoyed this article, made me laugh. I have a system where I put my week’s comics in order of enjoyment after reading. Anything too long at the bottom (usually ‘must keep up with what’s going on’ titles) gets dropped. It’s not just about money or time: If the stack gets too big it feels like a chore.

    • This always fascinates me, how people sort their books. I usually put mine in order before reading them with the ones I am most excited about at the bottom. That way, it’s an incentive to read the ones I am less excited about. Guess I should take a harder look at what’s at the top of my stack, eh? For example, I Zombie is usually near the top, but I generally always enjoy it, I’m just not excited about it. Zatanna was that way too – I wasn’t dying to read it, but I was never sorry for buying it.

      I usually put them in alphabetical order in boxes after reading, but maybe I should sort them by enjoyment initially. Might save me some time and money.

  7. I’ve been auditing my currents for a while now, first out of dire economic reasons, now out of “am I really enjoying that?” reasons. It’s a decent system although my obsessive completion gene still calls out once in a while (“you need that for a complete run!”) I’ve overcome it.

    Fortunately, Josh answered a question of mine on the podcast months ago, about collecting a book just to keep a run vs. if I’m enjoying it or not. His answer, that his title series were full of holes where he stopped and started, encouraged me to let go of that pesky albatross: numbering. It has indeed reduced stress, although my “replacements” for said dropped titles becomes a juggling act. But that also means I’ve been able to try a lot of new things.

    On the other hand, Conor CAUSED a problem for me: On a recent podcast, Conor said DC’s renumbering made quitting Detective Comics easy because there’s no stress about quitting it as a new series. I decided, yeah, I’ll do that as well because i wasn’t thrilled about the series. Now it’s announced Tec will soon have more pages and enhanced with cool story. Thanks Conor! I had to go back to buy the last issue and put it back on my list. (Kidding)

    Now the big question: How do I fit Batwoman AND Catwoman into my monthly allotment?…

  8. Switching to digital has made me much more merciless with my pull list. When I was having to order books 3 months in advance I’d be in a perpetual “Well, maybe it’ll get better next month and I already ordered it for the next few months so I’ll stick with it”. Now that I have to actually click “Buy” on every comic I read I think about it each time as opposed to just getting a big anonymous stack of mixed quality from my pull list

    As for other books to check out, I’d go with Xenoholics or Atomic Robo, I think the Three have talked about both but not enough for my money.

  9. Personally my stack is rather ‘lite’ but that’s mainly because I’ve only recently returned to comics. At the moment I’m content with Animal Man, Swamp Thing, Wonder Woman, Daredevil, Defenders, The Strange Talent of Luther Stroud and Spaceman. I’ve just added Fatale and I’m looking to jump on board with Uncanny X-Force and maybe Wolverine and The X-Men in the next week or so (new job pending!).
    I tend to find that I read all the books I buy so that in itself justifies the cost. The relatively low number of books some weeks leaves me a little time to catch up via reading trades. Or just some time to read something other than comics!

  10. Luckily for me now ive made trimming my stack a little easier by dropping certain titles and going back to grab the back issues when a comic store in my area has a 40%-50% off back issue sale which happens every few months or so when i go and try to find all the ones i missed out on which i ended up hearing continued to be good but i was forced to drop.

    • My store doesn’t have back issues sales very often. In fact, they usually mark them up by $0.25! Seems like that defeats any chance of unloading back issues. Gotta watch for those sales.

      If there’s one near you, Half-Price Books is your friends. Most things are 1/2 of cover, unless they are really collectible. Also, they often have bundles of issues at bargain prices (like $1.00 per issue or less), and one store has 25-cent boxes with very recent stuff!

    • Its funny you mention that i didnt want to get into it that much but i do have a similiar type of store near my work downtown which is a used book store.

      They also carry trades for half price off the cover price that people or shops sell them of their overstock items and also every week they have new issues from 2 weeks prior of most of all the current Marvel and Dc books for half price!

      My guess is since its downtown by a couple of popular comic stores that the stores sell them their overstock or whatever they wernet able to sell which is a great way for me to continue following dropped series or to try certain ones out. Only issue i have here is if i lose out if soemone else purchases them before i get there or that the shop doesnt get the ones im looking for in but most titles have been coming consistently so thats another way to save cash and still grab the books i want.

  11. I spend about $20 a week on comics plus another couple hundred on trades throughout the year. I’m pretty cut-throat with my pull list these days, as I just don’t have any interest in collecting more and more paper if I don’t actually love what I’m reading.

    Since my pull list is pretty small (about 20 books) it’s easy for me to keep track of my interest level. I have the books that are gonna be around for a while (Batman, Wolverine and The X-Men, Ultimate Spider-man) and it would take a lot to get me to drop them, others have my interest for now but haven’t completely sold me (Uncanny X-Men, Batwoman, New Mutants) while others are on kind of a short leash and could get dropped at any time (Stormwatch, Nightwing) and there are books I’m still kind of sampling during a light week (Journey into Mystery, Captain America and Bucky).

    And it’s rare that I go more than a couple days without reading all my books. Having a stack of unread books would drive me nuts.

  12. Maybe it’s just selective hearing, and I’ve missed them talking about it, but “Sixth Gun” from Oni is pretty awesome. If you have any love for westerns and/or things supernatural it’s definitely worth a shot.

  13. You know what, though? I’m glad that you say that you read comics for “fun”. When I see someone refer to comics as an addiction, it just saddens me.

  14. I average $8 a week between my Vertigo titles and anything Mignola puts out… Life is good.

  15. $10-15 per week.

    books that dont get enough love: JIM, baltimore, punisher, red lanterns and star wars:dark times

  16. I am $50 to $70 a week (occasionally it is more). My gf is very supportive and understanding, but I’m reaching a point where I really need to grade my comics a lot harder. Marvel and DC piles will get the biggest trim. It’s starting to get easier to drop the DC books. I tried out a lot of the new 52 books and met with some pleasant surprises, but many books that are changing from creative teams I like to creative teams that are indicative of an era in comics that, in hindsight, are not as good as my child-mind thought they were at the time. DC is doing some things right, but I can’t go down the Liefeld road. I respect that guy greatly as a businessman but his style just isn’t for me.

    My selections for third party/creator owned titles have also gradually increased. I don’t plan on dropping these. For 2012 I want to go down to the bare bones of my DC/Marvel books and gradually increase in creator owned material.

  17. Bllu-Rays, hell. I still have DVDs, HD-DVDs, and even CDs still shrunk-wrapped. God Damn that completest gene.

  18. I usually spend about $12-$16 a week on my pile. It depends on how many comics out per week because sometimes I can get as little as $8 a week.

    It’s going to get tough now with only a few weeks left at my internship and job….I literally might be out of a job in a few weeks which would make my comics spending down to $0. Which really depresses me.

  19. I am forced to really do self auditing by trying to stick to my budget of about $30 dollars a month. I just try to keep a self quota of x amount of indie publishers books(which means besides the Big 2). Not including vertigo, though it’s technically a part of DC.

  20. I’ve been thinking the exact same thing recently.
    I’m already on a student budget and tried to limit myself to five books a week, I originally said it would be two, that didn’t last.
    But I’ve now got other costs coming in so I’m back to two books a week and buying trades instead.
    I’m not the biggest super hero fan anyway so I’m dropping all my Marvel and DC books except, Daredevil, Wolverine and the X-men and All Star Western (for now).
    I’ve made the tough decision to trade wait Buffy and most indie books that look like they’ll make it to trade except Near Death (because it’s just so fun to read in issues).

  21. I like to keep my weekly in-store purchase down to about 30 dollars. It can be as low as 10 or as high as 50 without freaking me out, because a week will come along where it swings the other way or just sits comfortably at thirty bucks.

    I buy a lot of Marvel now, having paid my art/indy/elitist dues in other eras. I’m also buying 8 or 12 DC books, which is way more than it should be. A few will be getting dropped, but DC announced a couple of books I’m interested in, so more titles need to be culled.

    I don’t read all of my books every week. In fact, I started immediately filing issues back in the 80s. I read stuff when I feel like there’s enough of a pile. If I’m also buying trades, why do some books need to be read the week they come out? I was already reading old comic books when I started reading comic books, way before I started buying comic books.

    I also subscribe to nine Marvel titles, which locks you in for a year at a time, so for half-off, you hope that that year’s-worth doesn’t suck.

    I’ve moved to short boxes for the current Marvel, with two boxes of continuing series and a box of minis and canceled series. The DC and indy stuff goes in a bag in the closet to get added to the appropriate long box when the pile in the bag is too big to put more in. Indies get filed when they get finished, and not always read first. I read the library’s copy of the trade, or read runs out of the boxes.

    The “New” Marvel Short Boxes (not stored in the closet with the main long box collection, for now):

    The new “new” box gets the most immediate reading, in an attempt to be fairly current with continuity. DD, new Cap, ASM sub, Avenging, Venom, Scarlet Spider, Defenders, FF, F4, Mighty Thor, UXF, post-Regenesis mutants like WatXM, UXM, XM.

    The old “new” box is Heroic Age Avengers/T-Bolts/Cap & Bucky/Iron Man, stuff that gets read in library trades, or I pull out a year’s worth to read in a weekend, or I leave an arc in the nightstand. The post-500 DD/BP/MWoF/MDMA collection will die in that box, too.

    The “minis” box is actual mini-series, maxi-series, limited series, canceled series, series where the labeling/solictation changed (and/or flopped back again), and other such marketing demand creation, market transformation, trial balloons and/or quick-strikes. Everything from New Avengers: Dark Reign to Legion of Monsters, through X-23 and Marvel Adventures Super Heroes, with stuff like Heroes/Villains for Hire and Alpha Flight. That box will be full when Avengers: The Children’s Crusade wraps up.

    Trades get shelved immediately, as I’ve often already read the library’s copy of the HC. I read all of Secret Warriors the minute I could get my hands on their copy. I’m still waiting for the TPB of Volume 6 to be released.

    So, yeah, $30-40 a week, thank God for the public library and I buy it and store it in semi-recent chunks, for eventual reading and/or dead storage, depending on whether I got to that pile or not yet (or already read the public library’s copy of the hardcover).

  22. @ Kill I am neither, my wife is a pharmacist. Really it is Marvel and IDW that kill me with their 3.99 titles. Getting all of the G.I Joe titles every month adds up. I am thinking of cutting back and if I do it will most likely be some of the DC titles I added when they relaunced.

    • I got ya. I was just making fun of the situation though, I am quite aware that some of us have different budgets for comics and some of us spend a lot on that hobby and others buy just a few issues per week.

      I guess I’m the average Joe at my LCS but I’ve seen guys there with 6 inch stacks, every week. 😉

      As long as your fine with it and your wife is too, I don’t see the problem hehe! 😀

  23. I like try to keep my spending between the 30 and 40 dollar range, but oddly this month it has risen to 40 to 50 dollars because some of the books I read this month were 3.99 instead of 2.99. I have decided to drop Spawn and Invinvible Iron Man because I’m just not feeling it, and with the cancelation of Static Shock I’ll have an extra 2.99 in my wallet. Now I can afford to start reading Batman!

  24. I have liked all of the Batman titles but then again Batman is my favorite character.

  25. I generally spend about $70 or more a week on comics and it’s at the point where I have to audit my stack or stop paying those pesky bill things. I started this week by dropping hawkman and frankenstein, over the next couple of weeks I hope to drop at least another couple of books a week. It’s harder than I thought though.

  26. Invincible is the best superhero book there is (and my favorite overall), and Skullkickers and Near Death both deserve more readers, seriously, try them out.

  27. I realized two weeks in a row I spent $37 then $42 and at the end of the month that’s car note (something decent w $2000 down but still) or an energy and cable/internet bill, so since then I have cut it down to about $20-$25 a week sometimes less and that’s okay when they’re all books I enjoy and the occasional “I’ll give this a shot too” impulse buys. What I have been enjoying the most are Scott Snyder’s Batman….Batwoman, Batman and Robin(creative team has really surprised me), Animal Man and Swamp Thing, Demon Knights, Stormwatch, IVampire and am loving the Shade maxi series. One of you guys wrote an article a cpl months ago about not getting so caught up in keeping up w the new and that’s something I abide by as well which led me to Shade whilst collecting James Robinson’s Starman omnibus series. I love almost all things connected to the classic multi generational JSA and am excited for Earth-2 and Worlds Finest. That sounds all DC and is but was always a Marvel guy and still am just changing it up for awhile and am still reading and would recommend Uncanny X-Force but seen its praise on ifanboy. Couple other recommendations I’d be happy to add are Locke & Key, Hellboy, B.P.R.D.(Plague of Frogs HC) and Lobster Johnson trades. Fatale, Incognito and Criminal from Brubaker and Philips and was really enjoying Captain America w McNivens excellent pencils, DD is another good book I’d recommend and ifanboy acclaimed but am dropping, not cause I want to but like many good titles its being over shadowed by ones I am enjoying more.One more for the road, an unlikely “impulse buy”, Star Wars Crimson Empire lll. This title appealed to me by the cover alone and love that although I’ve only read one Star Wars mini ever (Boba Fett:When the Fat Lady Sings), it didn’t matter as within the 1st issue I was familiarized w what was going on w/out needing to read Crimson Empire’s previous stories, was introduced to a cpl interesting characters I’ve never seen and surprised to see ones I already love, that’s it in a nutshell, so here’s to keeping things in check! And hoping Crimson Empire doesn’t disappoint in the last two issues.

  28. Personally I plan to read more comics than ever in 2012, hell yes!

    As for recommending some good stuff, well Savage Dragon, Invincible, Judge Dredd (2000AD), Hack/Slash, Catwoman, G.I. Joe, Witchblade

  29. My weekly book pull can range from $30 to $80, depends on how many titles come out that week.

    I found that what used to drive up my weekly cost, was the “Limited Series”. I have pretty much dropped getting most of the limited series comics, and noticed a $10 to $20 dollar drop, which has led to me trying out new books and titles.

    Got a decent job that pays okay, wife gets paid okay as well, life has settled down for me and I don’t do as much as I used to do, that comics are one of my few indulgencies I have.

    It’s funny and sad that 20 years ago when I first got married, I had to give up comics as we barely had enough money to put food on the table and pay the bills, now that we have gotten things taken care of and no longer in that what is coming next state of mind, we have a bit more expendable funds to use. I guess I could use the money for other things, but at my stage in life I am content with what I have, and enjoy reading the comics.

    Don’t get me wrong, if the book is starting to nose dive, I will no longer stick it out for years and years, it will quickly get put into my discontinue list after a few issue’s of garbage.

    Books to check out, Journey Into Mystery, Wolverine and the X-Men and Batwoman. I find these titles to be the best bang for my buck currently. Also Rachael Rising is an interesting read.

  30. I used to be comfortable with $30 a month, 10 DC titles straight up. Flashpoint literally killed my wallet and I fell for almost the whole miniseries. I readjusted my new 52 pull list and in month 2 of that had to settle for $20 a month. That slowly became 3 marvel books, Black Panther, Avengers Academy and Venom, and 4 DC books, Animal Man, Swamp Thing, Green Lantern, and Batman. Dear god it was hard for me to drop Legion of Super-Heroes and Legion Lost! I want to read books of quality but also truly want to read what I find fun. It is a very tough decision that I have to end up making every month. Now my income is practically nothing and my pull list is severely downgraded. I am dropping Venom before the February .1/.2/.3/.4 extravaganza and Avengers Academy at the end of this arc (#26). Then I need to decide which 4 DC books to continue out of the 17 or so I started in September. Static and OMAC are cancelled so those will fall by the way. Stormwatch and Legion Lost have only 1 issue left before they get dropped due to writer changes.

  31. 15-20$ a week which is pretty easy to do because I’m really just a fan of IMAGE and DC titles. Thinking about dropping X-Force because I’ve read 1-18 which was amazing but with the X vs Avenger thing coming up I thinks is’s a good time to drop off .

    One of the things I do too save money is by not starting a pull list with my LCS, that way I don’t feel forced too keep getting certain titles. I’m not obessed with the whole numbering thing so it’s ok for me to have holes in my collection.

    Plus I’m done supporting 20pg comics with a 3.99 price tag so that has helped me alot. They’re so many websites now devoted to comics you can pretty get much get the jest of the story without wasting hard earn money on them.

    It is very cool that some of you folks are spending $80-$100 a week on comics, you’re definitely keeping the LCS afloat.

  32. I can only hover around $10 a week, since I’m in college. I’ll be graduating (hopefully) this March, so I’ll buy more when I get a good job.

  33. I try to keep mine at around the £20 mark, but some weeks it’s hard. Over the month it tends to average out with fluctuating busy and quiet weeks of pulling.

    I was talking to a work colleague about the cost of comics and he couldn’t believe the £2.99 cost of a book (as ever, he compared it to the price of a paperback novel). I asked him how much he spent a week on his habit: cigarettes. End of argument.

    As for dropping comics; a lot of the new 52 started strong. Not all of it continued in that vein. Now a story arcs are starting to wrap up I’m dropping about half a dozen books from my monthly pull.

  34. I altered my pulls last week to accomodate some new books. So that I can get SCARLET SPIDER and WINTER SOLDIER without too much disruption to my “diet”, I dropped RED HOOD + OUTLAWS, TEEN TITANS, DETECTIVE and swapped them for ACTION COMICS, BATWOMAN and WONDER WOMAN. I’ve been reading JUSTICE LEAUGE and FLASH since the relaunch, and one of them has to go. Probably Flash. (It’s going to be Flash).

    However, I am getting into the Cobra Civil War, so I’m now buying all three GI JOE Civil War titles. I just eBay’d Bendis’s SCARLET backissues and am going to be picking that up going forward. I’ve been collecting THE STAND for my wife and now that’s over, I’m thinking of getting her LOCKE & KEY.

    I need to drop some Marvel books. I dropped CAP & BUCKY already. I may drop INVINCIBLE IRON MAN. I picked up Wolverine 300 and enjoyed it and may continue. I don’t pull them (yet) but I have been buying Rucka PUNISHER, Remender X-FORCE and VENOM, Hickman FUTURE FOUNDATION, Waid DAREDEVIL and BENDIS MOON KNIGHT since their respective issue 1s. Same for SECRET AVENGERS. WIth Remender on that book, I’ll at least give it a try.

    And then there’s my subscriptions: CAP, AVS, NEW AVS, UNCANNY X-MEN, BATMAN, BATMAN & ROBIN, NIGHTWING< GREEN LANTERN.

    Guh…

  35. My wife and I have a combined income over 100k annually and I feel that I need to audit my weekly stack that is typically $25. That adds up to $1300 a year. I buy a new LCD TV’s worth of books every year.

  36. DC made my decision easy, because they announced Earth-2 and World’s Finest.

    That makes me very happy that I took a chance on the Huntress mini.

    It means that I’ll be keeping BoP and dropping just about everything else.

    Batwoman stays on the pull list. It’s just that beautiful.

    THUNDER Agents, of course, I’ll stick with because it’s pretty much its own thing.

    So, I hope BoP ties into Earth-2, then I’ll only be getting 3 or 4 titles.

    Budget-wise, time-wise and continuity-wise, that’ll be so nice.

    I’m a much bigger Earth-2 fan anyway. I hope those books don’t suck.