c/comic-book-fans

Got in a shouting match at a con over first printings

At Baltimore Comic Con last fall, some guy told me my 1st print of Swamp Thing #37 was fake. Said the cover gloss was off. I stood there while he pulled out a loupe and checked the UPC box. 15 minutes of back and forth over paper stock. Turned out mine was a later printing from a different plant. Guy was right. Now I bring a cheap loupe to every show. Anybody else have a collector school them on details you never noticed?

Remember when comic shops had those longboxes full of quarter books you could dig through for hours?

I was at my local shop last Saturday and realized they don't even keep back issues on the floor anymore, everything is bagged and priced online now, and I keep wondering where the joy of finding a random Spectre issue from the 80s went.

Found out Stan Lee's first comic work was a filler page in 1941

I was reading an old issue of Captain America Comics #3 and saw a two-page text filler about the evils of tobacco, and the byline was Stan Lee. Blew my mind that the guy who created Spider-Man started out writing stuff like that for $8 a page. Any other fan historians know his least known early gig?

I finally read Watchmen after 10 years of hearing it's the greatest comic ever

Picked up the trade paperback last month at a shop in Austin. Everyone online says it's this perfect masterpiece of storytelling. But I gotta be honest, I found the pacing kinda slow and the characters hard to care about. Dr. Manhattan is cool I guess, but Rorschach is just annoying. Am I missing something or is this just one of those things you're supposed to say is great?

I finally hit 1,000 issues in my longbox last week

I was moving my collection to a new shelf and decided to actually count everything. Turns out I've got 1,023 single issues sitting in my closet, mostly from the 90s. That number caught me off guard since I never set out to collect that many, it just piled up over time. Has anyone else done a full count and gotten a number that surprised them?

Warning: my comic book inventory app just deleted 6 months of data

I use this app called Comic Geeks to track what I own and what I need. Last Saturday I opened it up and everything from the last 6 months was just gone. Hundreds of entries for issues I bought back in March and April, poof. I spent Sunday afternoon trying to restore from a backup file on my laptop. Has anyone else had their digital collection just vanish on them?

Rant: That one guy at Midtown Comics who wouldn't stop gatekeeping

Was at the Midtown Comics store on 40th Street last Saturday flipping through some back issues when this older guy in a Deadpool shirt walks up and tells me I'm holding the book wrong. He said I was gonna crease the spine and ruin the value lol. I've been collecting for 5 years and never had anyone call me out like that. Has anyone else run into a total stranger correcting how you handle your comics?

Hit 500 floppy disks in my collection this week

I was just sorting through a box I got at a garage sale in Ann Arbor and counted them up for fun. It's not a huge number compared to some folks but it felt like a real milestone for me since I started collecting last March.

Wasted $35 on a variant cover that was just a sticker

I picked up this 'limited variant' at my local shop in Austin for $35, thinking it was something special. Got it home and peeled back the corner to find it was just a sticker slapped on a regular cover, not even printed. Anyone else get burned by fake variants or am I just too trusting?

The comic shop clerk who told me to stop reading variant covers

Last Saturday at Golden Age Comics in Denver, the guy at the counter said I was wasting my money chasing ratio variants. Told me about a regular who dropped over $600 last year on covers he never even opened. Got me thinking about how the hobby turned into a collectible market instead of just reading good stories. Anybody else feel like the variant cover chase killed the fun of just picking up a random issue?

Overheard a guy at the shop say reading comics digitally is 'lazy' and I still can't shake that opinion...

He was flipping through a beat-up copy of The Killing Joke and said anyone who reads on a tablet doesn't really appreciate the art, which got me thinking about where the line is between convenience and actual fandom, so what do you all think - does the format change how much someone values the story?

Unpopular opinion: gatekeeping new readers hurts the hobby more than bad comics ever could

Had a guy at my local shop in Portland tell me last month I wasn't a 'real fan' because I started with the MCU movies and didn't read the original 60s runs. His criticism made me realize I was doing the exact same thing to my buddy who just picked up his first Moon Knight trade. Why do we act like every new reader has to pass some test before they belong?

Used to think gatekeeping was good for comics, but a convention panel changed my mind

I was at Phoenix Fan Fusion last month and sat in on a panel about new readers. This guy stood up and said 'I got into comics through the Marvel movies and people told me I wasn't a real fan.' Hit me hard because I've been that guy rolling my eyes at people who didn't know who Romita Jr. was. Made me realize I was pushing people away from a hobby I love. Anyone else had a moment where you caught yourself being that gatekeeper?

Warning: I used to think liking old comics made me a real fan, but after getting roasted at a con for not knowing any modern indie titles I switched to reading 5 new series a month.

Back in 2019 I only read silver age reprints but now I follow Image and Boom books after a guy at my local shop in Portland told me I was missing half the craft, has anyone else had to rebuild their whole pull list to stay relevant?

Finally broke down and bought a CGC graded comic at a convention

I spent $75 on a 9.8 copy of Amazing Spider-Man 300 at the local comic con last Saturday. It killed my budget for the month but I've been wanting a nice copy for years and every time I see prices go up I regret not jumping in sooner. Has anyone else had better luck buying graded books in person versus online auctions?

Lost a big collection sale because I didn't check the grading first

Last weekend I had a guy drive 2 hours from Milwaukee to buy my old Amazing Spider-Man run, like issues 150 to 200. Turned out three of them had color breaks I never noticed and he walked away after offering half what I was asking. Now I'm wondering if I should invest in a cheap loupe or just start cross-referencing with Overstreet more carefully. Anyone else lose a sale over something dumb like condition issues you overlooked?

Rant: I used to mock graded comics until I saw a beat-up ASM 129 sell for $300 raw

For years I thought paying for a slab was a waste. Why lock up a book you can't even read? Then I watched a guy at my local shop in Pittsburgh try to sell a CGC 9.0 copy of Batman 423 for $400 while a raw one in similar shape sat for $50. The graded one sold in a day. Now I'm torn between thinking it's a scam and admitting it protects value. Anyone else flip on this or still hate grading?

Finally hit up that comic shop in downtown Portland last weekend

I drove about 2 hours to get to this place called Floating World Comics that I've been meaning to check out for like a year. The whole shop is tiny, maybe 300 square feet, but I noticed something cool - they had a whole section just for local indie creators. There was this one guy who hand drew a 12 page mini comic about his cat getting lost in the laundry room. I ended up buying it for $5 and read it in the car before driving home. Has anyone else found a hidden gem like that where the owner actually remembers your name after one visit?

Stop calling every indie comic an 'Image clone' just because it doesn't have capes

Went to the local con in Springfield and the main artist alley was just t-shirt booths

I was hoping to find some cool indie books or original art, but it was just wall-to-wall generic superhero merch. Felt more like a pop-up mall than a celebration of the medium. Anyone else's local scene getting overrun like this?

I finally tried reading a full comic run online versus hunting for single issues

I spent the last month reading the 2018 Immortal Hulk series on Marvel Unlimited instead of trying to find each issue at my local shop in Seattle. Having the whole story ready to go kept me way more into the plot, and I didn't miss any key issues because they were sold out. Has anyone else found that digital reading helps you stick with a character's story better than the old way?

I was sure the new comic shop in Springfield was just a cash grab

When 'The Panel Page' opened last month, I figured it was another pop culture store that would fold in six months. But the owner, Mark, is a real collector who set up a whole back issue wall organized by character and year, not just price. He even runs a local artist showcase every other Saturday. Has anyone else found a shop that actually surprised them by being legit?

Hot take: I just found out how many people actually read digital comics now and it's crazy

I was reading an article on ComicBook.com yesterday that said digital comic sales made up over 40% of the market last year. I always thought it was a small thing, but that's almost half. It makes me wonder if the local comic shop I go to in Dayton is seeing that drop. Are most of you guys buying digital now, or are you still holding out for the paper copies?

Can we talk about the time a kid at a con told me my 'reading order' spreadsheet was stressing him out?

I was at Phoenix Fan Fusion last spring, showing a buddy my color-coded spreadsheet for getting into the X-Men. It had tabs, links, footnotes, the works. This teenager next to us at a booth just goes, 'Dude, that's a whole second job. My uncle just told me to start with 'Giant-Size X-Men #1' and have fun.' It was so simple and blunt. I deleted the whole file that night. Now I just pick a cool starting point and follow what looks interesting. Anyone else get some brutally honest advice that actually helped?

Watching a kid pick up his first comic totally changed my view

I was volunteering at a library in Toledo three years ago, helping with their summer reading program, and saw a boy around 10 get super excited over a worn copy of 'Ultimate Spider-Man'. He just sat right down on the floor and started reading, completely tuned out. It hit me that we're not just collecting stories, we're passing on that specific feeling of discovery. What was the comic that gave you that pure 'wow' moment for the first time?