I also suggest reading through the solicitations every month and keeping a list of what trades you want. You can also do it on Amazon’s wishlists.

That’s what I do. I also use the amazon wishlist, but the Amazon interface for wishlists is really poor when you’re dealing with a list of 200 books!

However, one problem with trades is what to do about the Internet. I like reading CBR and Newsarama and others for creator interviews, reviews, etc, but I’m always about 6 months behind. CBR should make a separate page for trade readers where they post interviews 6 or so months later than regular CBR.

I also suggest reading through the solicitations every month and keeping a list of what trades you want. You can also do it on Amazon’s wishlists.

I think the question might better be phrased as “2009– the year consumers and publishers actually catch up to the creators that have ALREADY switched to trades?”

Yeah, I switched about seven years ago, and assumed that was when the big revolution took place – it went from some things were collected to everything was…

I like to reread stuff in trades or hardcovers, but I LOVE single issues because the serialization is what it’s all about. The waiting is part of the fun.

I thought that was really silly when you wrote it in your column about why Morrison’s Batman was a success in serialization if not story telling, and I think it’s silly now.

I love reading good stories – that’s the fun part.

Waiting for the next installment is something you just do.

From someone who has switched over to the dark side, here are the reasons not to do it.

1. Spoilers… To really appreciate the page turning, who knows what happens next, aspect of comic books, you really need to not read any spoilers. So going onto any comic book website (such as comic book resources) really hurts the impact. Plus, there are spoilers you can’t avoid, such as Captain American being shot.

2. Pacing – Many stories work well because of the slow pace… the build-up… the months of anticipation…. Characters grow in your mind in their absence on the page, and they become more important to you. Digested in one chunk, there is less impact when things ‘happen’.

3. Comic Book Day – There is that inherent joy of walking in on a comic book on the day you are going to pick up your comic books. To see the titles all lined-up, ready for your consumption… Even if you know what the covers are going to look like, it still always made me happy.

4. Diversity – As much as you get more content for the same amount of money, you don’t get the diversity. At $15.00 a pop, you can buy two trades (Let’s just say Fables and Batman) for $30.00. For that same $30.00, you can get 10 comic books and get a diverse assortment of standard superhero, other franchises (like Buffy, Connan, Hellboy), Vertigo series, Humor books, and Independent comics.

5. Falling Behind -Ties in with spoilers, but sometimes there just isn’t any fun reading something after everyone else already has. The difference between 6 months and 2-3 years isn’t much. I don’t feel the pressing need to read trade paperbacks the moment they hit the stores… as it’s yesterdays news…

Just my two bits

Also, trades display really well. Big white boxes and stacks of singles make your room look like a filthy, dorky comic book store. Trades on book shelves makes your room look like a *classy,* dorky, comic book store.

There are a FEW exceptions to this rule. Some books I love so much and know I’ll re-read, so I grab ‘em off Amazon and revisit them every year or two. But the pamphlets? Nah. They take up too much space and money.

What I would love to see are say 6-issue trades that are completely done but haven’t hit the stores. Then a month or two before publication, the publisher prints up issue #1 and sends it to the shops. It costs, say a few bucks (as a loss leader) and if you like the issue, then you pony up for the TPB next month. I f you hate it, you’re out a few bucks for that first issue and you move on. And here’s the crazy part: to make sure you’re giving the retailer your business, if you bring in proof of receipt that you bought the pamphlet last month, you get the purchase price of said pamphlet off of the cost of the trade! Why should you have to pay for the first issue twice, right? Incentive and win-wins all around!

OK, OK… setlle down fanboy. I’m sure there are problems with the suggestion, but hey, it’s my fantasy world so it works for me.

From the corporate side, the current model is a thing of beauty. It’s called price discrimination. They can charge different people different prices for the same content. What else accounts for the overnight $1 price hike? They know some people will pay to read it NOW. The rest will pay for it later in trades.

What we could see is a transition to webcomics-to-TPBs. The econ of webcomics is pretty enticing to creators, thanks to ad revenue.

There are a few things I’ve decided I could not wait for such as Legion of 3 Freaking Worlds Baby or the Bean World holiday special, but even those sorts of things have been getting easier over time. Once Legion is done I’ll be down to Trinity and Captain Britain because I have this horrible premonition that the moment I start waiting for CB&MI13 that it will get immediately canceled.

So, it’s been a l-o-o-o-o-o-n-g process, but I’m pretty much over the hump now, and I’m not planning to look back, but never say never.