So I looked into getting rid of a bunch of back issues and a few tpbs on ebay. I wasn’t expecting much for the tpbs. Apparently I shouldn’t be expecting much for my issues either.

I never started reading comics because I wanted them to appreciate in value, but I have doubles of things. I don’t need doubles and I don’t have room for doubles.

For a long time I stopped buying issues (I mean years!)… I started again when a friend got me reading The Red Star (though it could have been Zero Girl…), now I buy issues regularly and if I really like something, I’ll get the collected version as well. I need to stop doing this but I’ve become impatient, even with trades coming out so fast.

So anyway…

I had a brief chat with the owner of my favorite comic shop in the world, and apparently nobody is buying back issues. He thinks it is from trade paper backs coming out too soon after issues are printed. Basically there is not enough time for issues to become sought after, or for something to be missed.

We talked a little (5 minutes or so) about what the future may hold. We both agree that we like having a thing with pages, in our hands to read. We also agree that issues are great, but not as pleasing as having a whole story all at once. We also agree that books look a lot better on a book shelf than having a room full of long white boxes.

Then a friend of mine pipped in that issues should be made available online and that collections should be put out in book form, which I think is a great idea. The owner of the store thought so as well, but the way he said it sort of made me think he was afraid of the idea. Which I can’t blame him. He makes money every week from people buying issues that cost a 2-5 bucks each. It is probably a good chunk of his biz. In general I don’t like reading comics on my computer, but I could probably adapt. I can imagine replacing a book or issue with a psp or other hand held, in practice that’s another thing.

Scott McCloud has predicted that issues will die and so will all forms of printed comics. Ashley Wood seems to be in the same boat at the moment, and really if there is one person who could lead the push to digital it would be Ashley Wood. His stuff screams to be multimedia. People have tried going all digital and it keeps failing. I mean does anyone other than me remember CD-Romix?

I’ve seen some great online comics, but I haven’t seen anything that was done by someone I recognized. And I’ve yet to see anything online from what I’d call a ‘real comic press’ (Marvel, DC, Image, IDW, Oni, Avatar, Dark Horse). Another thing about digital comics is I don’t think I could stand to have an iTunes type of service for my comics… though I’m sure one is on its way. Could you imagine DRM for comics??? Yeesh.

So I don’t know where I’m going with this, and really I don’t know what the future will hold for comics. I originally started typing to complain about the lack of interest in comic back issues on Ebay.

Welcome to my brain…

This has given me an idea though. I want to start interviewing comic book store employees and owners. Also, I’ve decided to do a comic “page of the week” feature on this site.