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Been noticing this myself. Time was I would get four or five books a week (it's a sickness I tell ya, a sickness!!), but now I'm lucky to have 2 or 3. I put this down to the fact that the books I like are not regular (not enough bran?). Planetary (where the fuck?), NXM, Authority, Amazing Spider-Man are all suffering from shipping problems, as are 7 Guys of Justice and some other small-press stuff I like. The stuff that ships regularly seems very "assembly-line" to me. Even stuff by "good" writers, like Ennis or Bendis, is just run-of-the-mill super-stuff.
I shy away from the out-growing the genre idea, as I don't believe that any genre is inherently predisposed to being outgrown. Pick up a Previews catalogue every month and you'll see that there are more comics in there than you could possibly read, ever. I try to order at least one oddball thing every month, just so I can see if there is something of some value out there.
Suggestions: Liberty Meadows by Frank Cho, pub. by Insight Studios. Comic Book, published by Comics Conspiracy (first 5 issues soon to be collected in "Trade Paperback"). Girl Genius by Phil Foglio. Battle Pope from Funk-O-Tron.
I'm trying to cut down on my mainstream stuff because I begin to feel I'm just getting it for the sake of getting it, rather than I look forward to it. I think the trouble is that you've got to find somewhere that offers a good variety of comics. I know first hand how hard it is to keep well-stocked. No matter how much I'd like it to be different, Marvel sells to the kids, DC to the twenty-somethings and Image to the art-lovers. That's about how I can break down my sales. Indie stuff doesn't sell well, hence many places won't carry it. I still will, but that may end up being the death of this place.
Mainstream comics have been slowly going downhill for decades. I think it hasn't been noticed because every now and then a really great comic will come along that makes the whole lot of them look good. Look how many of us bought Uncanny X-Men because it was part of the same re-vamp that gave us Milligan's X-Force and Morrison's X-Men. But really it was just the same old crap. I'm no different, as I'm still holding out hope that Casey's going to pull out something cool.
True that about the Gaiman rejects. I never even liked that character.
ABC is alright. Top Ten was great even, but I've not enjoyed much else. Alan Moore's "new" Glory series is quite good, though I think only really enjoyable if you're familiar with the rest of this Awesome output, and if you can get past the god-awful Avatar art.
There ya go, Ganesh. If you want to find a really good mainstream super-hero comic, and it might not be easy, track down Alan Moore's run on Supreme. #'s 41 - 56, and then Supreme:The Return #1 - 6. Absolutely bloody stellar comics.
Final thought. I rarely leave a comic shop empty handed. If nothing else I go to the cheap bin, pull out the strangest thing there is and get it. Sadly I usually end up understanding why it was in the cheap stuff.
Zoom.
p.s. sorry, just re-read this post and it seems very disjointed. Not sure if I really addressed what you were talking about.
p.p.s gonna stop apologizing now. |
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