HudsonPhillips

Josh, your thoughts on trimming down DC & Marvel are great.  It would be an industry driven by story, not by sales... (which is why it will never happen.) 

I would also like to see a line (like All Star or Ultimate) where they don't just create a new continuity, but where there is no continuity.  A line where creators can come in and do whatever they want with a character.  To be free to tell a story without the boundries of decades of continuity.  A story could last for 6 issues and then it would be reset with the next creative team.

It's true that there is no wrong or right way to collect comics.  It's all what you feel like doing.

However, the idea of "following the player" is something most people are used to.  You might read everything by Stephen King.  If someone writes a sequel to a Stephen King book, you may not buy it... because it's not King.  And sometimes his books aren't good, but you give them a shot anyways, because he has a track record that you enjoy.

At the same time, people give new authors a chance all the time. You might pick up a book and it has a great premise, you think "maybe this is the new Stephen King."  

I personally think comics should be "author-driven" like this.  I have a friend who I recommended Watchmen to.  He'd never read a comic before, but enjoyed it, so he wanted to read more Alan Moore.  He went to Barnes & Noble and couldn't find any of his books because they are organized by title instead of by autho, even though every other section is by author (except maybe biographies?)

I think new readers gravitate to following authors more than characters and I think publishers & retailers should be more sensitive to this.   At the very least, with the independent books.