Withdrawal
September 19th, 2008 by Esther Inglis-Arkell | Tags: fandomI know there must have been a stage when my interest in comics was something between non-existent and monomaniacal, but I don’t remember it. One day my fingers had never touched mylar, and the next I was ordering long boxes and clearing out my bookshelves.
My obsession began in my mid-twenties, in the mid-2000’s, which was a pretty good time to start the habit. I had a job that paid enough to order everything I needed and I could find what I needed easily, since comics culture was thriving on the internet. I could buy trades, and if they weren’t available, look up what issues referenced what storylines and buy full stories online.
Which is why it was a shock to me the first time I picked up a new issue and realized it would be a whole month before I got the next piece of the story. More than a shock. I think, in fact, we should have a clinic, or a hotline, or an online support service to deal with that.
Over the years I’ve gotten used to the feeling, but there are still comics which give me withdrawal pangs. Lately it’s been Secret Six and Blue Beetle. I’m sure I’m not alone in this. Anyone else?
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My biggest withdrawl pang came with Brubaker’s Cap after I read the Omnibus. I think the second half was about eight months in, so I read that in one shot, but then I realized that I would have to wait a month for the next 22 page installment. It’s a frustrating feeling, and makes me wish that there was some other new way of getting comics to consumers that would cut down on the wait time.
@Jeff: Yep, that’s the exact feeling. There’s a little let-down after you’ve finished the last page of a floppy and think, “that’s it?”
makes me wish that there was some other new way of getting comics to consumers that would cut down on the wait time
With characters like Batman it’s not so bad, since there will be about six books a month of it. Maybe that’s the solution. Flood the market.
Six Batman books sure, but only one has Batman RIP as written by billionaire cowboy poet Grant Morrison. I don’t know if it’s pangs of withdrawal exactly, but when I pick up ‘Tec or Robin there’s a feeling of “Oh, right. This isn’t the same story.”
Ambush Bug though, that I can never get enough of. And apropos of nothing, Gavok & ManiacClown’s parody of Ultimates 3 is a fount of amusement. Thank God they space ’em out over a week.
In terms of single issues I use to feel that quite often when I was younger, and reliant on someone else to get books for me, but not so much anymore. These days, as I leave my store with 15 or 20 books at a time, I have a harder time lingering on the impact of a singular story when I have other favorites still in the stack.
I do feel the burn terribly however when I marathon a run, I read all the Sandman trades in about a period of five days and as I closed the last one, I found myself emotional, not because of the content but because I realized I had essentially run out of road.
I think this is part of why I love the new Amazing Spider-Man model so much. There is usually just a week between issues. Due to extra weeks in this month and the next, there is three, but this will be the first time I’ve ever been more than two weeks away from a new Spider-Man issue in like nine months.
It’s brilliant and I love it.
It is pretty cool David, but Spider-Man, just like 52 and Countdown, are huge coordinated efforts done by companies that are pretty much flooding the market on what they believe is a sure thing. I think the industry would burn itself out pretty fast if it used this system for even just its major properties.
I think it could actually be pretty frustrating for the fans as well. If I jump out of comics for two months, I could jump back in with little problems. If I did that on a weekly system, I may have to break the bank to catch up.