Gail Simone asks the question “How has the internet affected your comic reading?” and the fans answer:

“It hasn’t caused me to stop reading anything, but I have found some titles over the net that I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. Plus, the internet allows me a place to discuss my passion for comics, or (more often) bitch about them. It’s win-win for me.”

“Thanks to CBR, Newsarama, and a few other sites, I’ve learned far more about comics than I had since the early 90s, without the Wizard bias. Online ordering makes it more affordable to get books I want, and various interviews and articles have turned me onto far more book than any word-of-mouth. The message board here also gives a sense of community and a source for conversation that I also couldn’t get elsewhere. Without the ‘net, I wouldn’t be reading comics.”

“Iwas on the internet before I was reading comics. I got into comics when the shows I was watching, like The X-Files and Buffy dried up, and I wanted more of that instead of reality shows and Law and Order. I’d grown accustomed to discussing what I watched on the internet, so the same seemed appropriate for comics. Despite the negativity that tends to pervade discussions of comics on the ‘net, it really does not disuade me from comics, even when it has merit. If I like a book, I may acknowledge it has flaws, but I still basically like it. I do, however, occasionally try new stuff because of word of mouth.”

“It’s mostly made me much more careful about my purchases. If there’s a change in the creative team or I run across something new that sounds interesting, I typically hunt down a preview to get a feel for it. No preview usually means that it goes on a list of books to check out more closely or it goes ignored. I figure that if the writing doesn’t grab me in 4-8 pages, the rest of the book won’t either. Lately, I just can’t afford to be dropping cash on piles of books that turn out to be average or outright crap.”

“It’s helped my comics reading immensely. I now know exactly what books creators are working on, when the fill-ins are happening, when writer x is leaving book z, what they are moving on to, what smaller press stuff they are doing. It’s amazing, and getting into discussions with other people that read comics is awesome.”
The thread is surprisingly empty of cynicism and grumpiness. Go read, but keep the snark to yourself for once.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008 at 4:33 pm and is filed under Fandom, News & Views. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.