Robin Gravel's Blog

I didn't start doing comics until my 20s. I started with Alan Moore's Miracleman. I went a little more mainstream with the Marvel-verse and the X-men, New Mutants and even Power-Pack, but when I realized I was starting to spend $30 a month on new books (not to mention purchasing back issues) that I cut myself off.

 

What was killing me was realizing that one can't read just one series anymore without being tempted into all of the other cross-over series. This was happening 15 years ago just as it is today. Look at Marvel's Civil War series. Not only could a person read the core books, any character in the series would cross-through the series in their own comic line. $$$$ being spent. I respect that Marvel is a story-telling business and the longer their stories are the more money they make, but I just can't afford to enjoy them anymore.

What was killing me was realizing that one can't read just one series anymore without being tempted into all of the other cross-over series. This was happening 15 years ago just as it is today. Look at Marvel's Civil War series. Not only could a person read the core books, any character in the series would cross-through the series in their own comic line.

 

That's why I only buy the graphic novels. At first I bought the "Death of Superman" novels and then the "Life After Superman" novels. After that I expanded to books like "The Watchmen" and the Dark Knight series. Most of the graphic novels have a concise ending so I'm not tempted to buy a bunch more of them.

 

Currently I'm reading the Marvel Essential series. Specifically I finished the second volume of the Essential Classic X-men. They haven't published the third volume yet and I'm getting a little ticked off. In the meantime I'm reading some of the Alex Ross graphic novels I've been buying (Kingdom Come is next).