read all of my comics

I went over to my friend’s place on Sunday morning and we did nothing but read comics and eat breakfast for 2 hours. I thought I would be able to get through a lot of comics then, but I only re-read my Final Crisis (a recent series that broke my brain the first time through). Next month, though, there will be another brunch, and I will PLOW through those babies!

I’ve also started reading 5 trades/series of single issues over the past 2 weeks, thanks to my new system, so that’s going well too. Some (limited) progress, finally!

So, my 10 trades in 30 days plan didn’t work, and another plan for my friend and I to get together and do nothing but read comics for an afternoon didn’t fly either. I’m getting a little frustrated in my inability to get a good start on this goal, so I’m putting my foot down. I’m going to have a legitimate, serious plan, with a suggested timeline and a number of short-term goalposts, by the end of next week. Then I’ll take it from there. But considering how many new comics I got over Christmas holidays, I’m going one better: until I make this timeline and make some serious progress on it, I will buy no more back issues or trade paperbacks. I’ll still buy the new weekly stuff, because I’m still addicted, but I’m not going to make this goal any harder than it already is.

On one of the comics forums I frequent, one of the members suggested a reading challenge: read 10 collected editions or graphic novels in 30 days. I have more than 10 unread comics on my shelf, so I figured I should sign up. So that’ll help towards this goal.

(As for single issues, though…I need to work harder on it…)

According to my collecting software, I have nearly 3100 single comic issues. According to my ListsofBests, I have approximately 90 unread trades/hardcovers on my bookshelf. I thought a good challenge for myself would have been to get this all done by December 1 this year, because that way if I don’t like something I can give it away as a Christmas exchange or sell it and try and get Christmas money. That means that I would have 158 days, which I’ll round up to 160. That means that I would have had to read 20 comics a day and slightly more than two trades every three days. That is NOT enough time.

BUT. If I read a minimum of 8 single issues per day, plus a trade here and there, I will be done in a year. I will try to keep to that schedule. And try and get as many done as I can by December.

Manga short stories. Funny and cute but nothing stunning or amazing.

Ah, I remember the days when I would just buy books on impulse based on catalog descriptions… the 4+ shelves of TBR books have stopped that!

The two trade paperbacks I had of the early Nexus weren’t sequential. (Huh?) I had the first few issues and then somewhere in the 50s. Which was fine.

A well written book. Much more serious in these early days than the more wacky God Con and so on that I had read before.

I enjoyed it a lot but don’t feel an overwhelming urge to seek out the rest of it.

So in the two months that it’s been since I wrote an entry here I’ve probably read…114 of my old comics. And at the Comic & Toy Fair last weekend, I probably picked up at least 80 more. So I’m not really making much of a dent. I need to dedicate a lot of time to this, which a) shouldn’t be THAT hard and b) sounds RIDICULOUS when you think about it, but I have all these old comics just sitting there, and what good are they if you don’t read them? I should try pulling that excuse on my wife one of these days. She wants me to do some chores around the house, and I say, “Oh no, honey, I’m WAY behind on reading my comics. I don’t have time to do that.” I bet that would work really well.

There are times I question how much I limit what I expose myself too, how many movies or shows I just say “No way” too based on what I think they may contain. Am I overreacting?

And then something too disturbing for me gets through and the strength, the overpowering reaction, and the duration of the damage it does makes me say again, “No. I’m right to avoid this.”

This comic had some things in it that were too disturbing and too horrible for me. And, since it’s very well written, and very well done over all, it’s sticking with me in a painful way. That always seems to be the way of it, the better made it is, the harder it is to dismiss it. Why do I still carry the scars of AI and Pulp Fiction? Because they engaged me enough that they crossed the line where I couldn’t just dismiss it as fiction. Ah, art.

Anyway, This arc of League was more upsetting than the first and also a more predictable plot. I can’t think how there could be anymore after this.

Here’s the thing – the comic is great, if you aren’t bothered by things. But I am. So I wish I’d never read it.

New all ages graphic novel from Chynna Clugston. Got if for my birthday and read it in about 2 seconds

I love her art style and her point of view, but this is pretty derivative. It’s Mean Girls with psychokinesis. Great for tweens, but not so much for me.

I read Top Ten way way a long time ago and immediately put it on my mental list of favorite comics ever.

Smax is a spin-off miniseries and makes me want to reread Top Ten before I read it’s sequel. Because Smax is also really really good. Tragic and funny and scary in bits. Incredibly well drawn and well written.