Had to drop plenty — or at least, put a lot of purchases off.

Used to be trade paperbacks were a cheaper alternative, but not so much anymore, and most of the companies are publishing collections in hardcovers before they come out in paperback. I bought the hardcovers for a while to be able to read the story sooner, but I can’t afford it.

The Paul Dini Detective trades started in paperback, so I’ve stuck with paperback even though they’re now out in hardcover first. I bought one Brave and the Bold hardcover, but there was just no reason to read those stories so quickly, so now I’m on paperbacks only for that series.

It doesn’t help that comics prices keep going up even as economic times get tougher.

I’ve been (un)lucky in that many titles I enjoy tend to be low-sellers and my pull list is made up of titles that have been cancelled, put on hiatus, or broken up into the occasional mini-series. I’ve only ever dropped two comics (and one of them is now cancelled, anyway)

Because of this, my LCS doesn’t actually give me any sort of discount on comics that I reserve and I’m considering quitting them completely in favor of purchasing them online because the discount I recieve would encourage me to try out new titles.

I’ve dropped several Marvel and DC books lately for three main reasons: A) rising costs, B) being more interested in books from DDP, Boom, and Image, and C) my sons getting into more titles so I have to get their favorites. Even though I order from mailordercomics and get a great discount through there, I still had to cut.

The hardest to drop recently were Uncanny X-Men and X-Men Legacy. I’ve been buying X-Men for 23 years now, so it was a rough part. But neither book is delivering like it should, in my opinion, and there are several books I enjoy much more.

There’s a lot of stuff coming out I still sort of like but had to drop for the reasons above…or stuff I was kind of interested in but didn’t get the first time around. Between shops that have cheap back issue boxes and the tons of cheap bins at cons, it’s becoming a lot easier to find these books down the road. I don’t mind waiting 6 months or so to find those books. I’ve gotten nearly the whole series of Iron Fist and almost every issue of Ghost Rider I missed since dropping that book early in its run for 50 cents or $1.

I have no doubt I’ll find some of the stuff I have missed early this year for those same prices (or sometimes even less) at cons this summer.

The bad economy and a price increase aren’t the best mix for consumers. Personally, I have about $100 a month to spend on comics. Price increase or not, that’s all I have, especially after I got a cut in pay recently. I switched to DCBS about 8 months ago to make that $100 go further, but even then, I’ve had to make cutbacks.

My cuts have mostly included higher-priced minis, but I’ve also cut several ongoings I wouldn’t have ordinarily dropped.

Oh, I forgot to add to the drop list “Wolverine” after Millar’s run. Don’t like this “Dark Wolverine” thing. I buy Wolverine for Wolverine stories. But, that’s $24 in savings! Thanks, Marvel!

Oh yeah and Trinity/Wednesday Comics I’m getting also, but may not get the next weekly after Wed. Comics if it’s not spectacular.

I’ve dropped all my Marvel titles, but mainly due to how much I hate Dark Reign and not due to the economy. I haven’t cut back on my DC comics, as I’ll probably wind up getting all the Blackest Night releases. I’ll probably shell out the money for Wednesday’s Comics, and for the DC titles that will have the Question, Blue Beetle, and Captain Atom back-up features.

I’m dropping (and will not be buying) any of Marvel’s $3.99 books….more out of principle than purely economic reasons. Same goes for DC when they start sneaking over that line later this year.

First one for me to actively drop was Thor, which…as good as it is….just isn’t worth the cover price. It just isn’t. I’m tired of paying JMS’s salary.

Dropped Thor after 600. Used that money for Dark Avengers.

It’s not so much that I’m dropping books when they go up (I’m still buying Savage Dragon at $3.50 — that’s a dense book for the most part).

But I’m not buying *new* stuff that is at that $3.99 price point. Some of the new mini-series look interesting, but not at that level.

Green Arrow/Black Canary is on my “eh” list — when it goes to $3.99, it’ll make it that much easier to drop.

Pretty simple, any book over $3 that is regular sized I don’t get. The only exception to this was X-Men First Class: Finals, which I kind of regret.

I’m just waiting for Mighty Avengers to cross into $4 due to some last minute solicit change Marvel always does.

Shriner I hear ya…I am reluctant to pick up new books at 3.99 and am preferring to wait until extraneous books i.e. tie in minis get collected into trades before touching them…

This insanity has to stop….

I’m dropping all my titles (mainly Marvel) after the end of their respective story arcs and going the trade route through amazon. The $3.99 price was one of the biggest reasons for this. Part of this is money and the other part is principle. The $3.99 books just used to be mini-series but now it is Thor, Hulk, Dark Avengers and so on. Sooner or later, it is going to be Captain America and X-Men. During this dry spell until the trades will come out, I’m making an effort to read a lot of older issues I haven’t read in years. I found some mid-90s Marvel newstand books that were cheaper because the paper quality wasn’t as good as the direct market. I don’t think this lasted very long. Its a shame Marvel didn’t decide to do this instead of raising the price.

I dropped Cable and X-Force…but mostly just because they were getting annoying. Same with Thunderbolts – the continuing horrible turn away from the original theme/concept was just too much.

I was tempted to drop X-Men Legacy because it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, but the previews of post-225 convinced me to hang on.

I also dropped Young X-Men because it was shoddy product, but it got canceled anyway .

Still, even with all that there are titles I wish I could buy but just can scrounge the cash for – Incredible Herc & Iron Fist are very good & I would like to be able to get the Blackest Night stuff, but I won’t.

I’ll drop a book if I don’t care for a new author’s approach. To a broader extent, that also means dropping or ignoring tie-ins to big events. Easier to drop one book than to pick up three additional minis to get the whole story.

And lately, I’ve been reading trade-collected series like Preacher and Transmetropolitan in lieu of current issues. Purchasing a few volumes a month is cheaper than buying current issues every week.

And yeah, the $3.99 price increase made it easier to drop Marvel titles, that’s for sure. I hope Fraction’s Iron Man stays 2.99 for a while so that I can keep buying it.

Let’s see, I dropped Batman and Detective because I felt RIPped off. I might pick up Morrison’s book because of Quitely, but probably won’t put it on my pull list. I dropped Wonder Woman… I had high hopes, but I just don’t feel like there is any real movement forward. I’m on the verge of dropping Hulk – the art is great, but issue after issue of Rulk and Hulk fighting isn’t advancing the character. And Mighty Avengers is on the hit list as well.

But overall I’ve probably picked up more books than I’ve dropped lately. I’ve notice how the $3.99 covers have increased my weekly tally, but I’m still enjoying the stories, like supporting my local comic shop, and don’t have any other expensive hobbies or vices.

I’ve dropped nearly every marvel title, Spidey I dropped after OMD but gave the trades a shot, only liked “New Ways to Die” out of all of them. Dark Reign had me intrigued but it feels like a story that should be over by now, dropped New Avengers last month, will likely drop Dark Avengers after the first arc. Thor is the only marvel title I’m really having trouble dropping, JMS has a really interesting story going on.

DC titles were easier, Johns left JSoA so thats off my list as is Booster Gold. Superman’s not staring in his titles so I dropped those too. Dropped Secret Six after issue #7, #8 didn’t grab me at all. Only get Batman in trade.

Currently I’m only buying GL, GLC, Supregirl (not for long though), Trinity and New Krypton. I’m debating Superman: Secret Origin and Blackest Night, since I’ll likely buy the trades anyway. Lo3W has two issues left, when thats done I’ll see how it leads into Adventure Comics before deciding.

I’ve wanted to move to trades and Hardcovers for a while and this is just making that easier, there are only a handful of characters and writers I want to read.

Ya know, rthis is fun to talk about everyhting to drop. Didn’t know Teen Titans was going up to $3.99. That’s on the hit list now. Mighty Avengers is kinda boring. That’s needs to be dropped. More savings for me! But, ya know, I would never consider “Walking Dead” or “Thor.” Props to Kirkman and JMS. Speaking of JMS, dropping Squandron Supreme too. Since JMS left, it’s gotten stupid.

About 6-7 years ago, I transitioned from monthly titles to collected editions. At the time, my thinking was that I would pick up all the titles in trade that I had picked up in monthly format.

The hardest transition for me was the Superman family of titles. I had (and still have) every title in the Superman family from Byrne’s Man of Steel through the Our Worlds at War storyline. For the completist in me (and in most of us, I’m assuming) it was almost physically painful to make the decision to go to collected editions.

But then something happened. I don’t know what it was–maybe I was getting older, maybe the books just weren’t as good anymore–but I enjoyed a lot fewer of those trades than I thought I would, and I ended up dropping the majority of trades I bought due to lack of interest.

Now, instead of dropping $100 on monthly titles, a big month for me is $25 after shipping, and the vast majority of that is going to older stories (Showcase, Essential, Visionaries, etc).

I’ve been dropping stuff, too. I’ve gotten to a place where I can’t justify adding new miniseries and only add titles if I’m absolutely positive that I’ll enjoy them. No more taking a chance on a new series type thing.

It doesn’t help books were raised from 2.99 to 3.99 without adding pages.

yeah, i dropped incred. hercules. I started reading around 116 or 117 when secret invasion came out. It was interesting till about the last few issues. It just got kinda boring.

Your industry will die. Your Hate will consume it.

I haven’t had to drop any titles, but I’ve been slowly cutting back on books that I don’t enjoy as much because, seriously, why buy something I don’t like?

For example: after realizing I’d gone 5 months without actually reading an issue of Fables, and didn’t feel particularly inclined to catch up, I finally dropped it.

Yesterday, my fiance and I went to the come shop. When I was handed my pulls, she noticed I had only three books. She actually said, “Wow! Don’t you usually have 2-to-3 times that many?”

That’s how things have been going. The Marvel line (for the most part) going to $3.99, on top of all the titles going “Dark” made me really re-evaluate how much I felt like buying from them. I’ve enjoyed Bendis and his Avengers work for the most part, but I gave it up at the price change. The only Marvel books I’m buying these days are Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain Britain, X-Factor and Runaways. Books that stand on their own pretty well, and also haven’t price jumped (sans extra content). If they get a hike in cost, well… I’ll think about if I want to stick it out or not. Certainly, Marvel’s public messages on the reasoning for the price hikes (talent could make more elsewhere) doesn’t make me feel any loyalty to them. It’s the creators only at this point.

DC, there’s been some cuts simply because I’ve noticed certain books were becoming a chore to read, instead of what I’d look forward to reading. I made it well passed the halfway mark on Trinity, and I realized (finally) that I just didn’t care for it. The Titans books and Green Arrow/Black Canary, and this week with JLA, I just can’t see the reasoning to support the books as they are now. They’ve lost all appeal to me, even with characters I want to read about.

It should be said, when I stood there with a fraction of the comics I would normally buy in hand, I went looking for something to fill the pile. I bought the last 3 issues of Batman Confidential (the King Tut arc) because I’d heard some good things about it in various reviews. I’m not dropping books because I don’t want to buy. I just want them to be worth my investment. The dual-character DC books at $3.99… most of those I’ll get (or at least try). Paying more and getting more works for me. Marvel really should look into that.

I’m moving to all trades. Even with the great prices at DCBService.com, monthlies are getting too expensive.

I look forward to digital distribution that will (hopefully) make monthly comics afordable again.

I get a really good discount at my LCS because I work for them in my spare time and help them out, so my pull list is very large at the moment…but only because I get my books at cost. Whenever that ends, my list will be cut drastically.

The 3.99 price hike does indeed suck, but it’s not the only motivation for me to consider dropping a book. Generally, I will pay for quality. I would pay 3.99 for a quality book over paying 2.99 for a sub-par book. To me, saving a dollar isn’t as important as being properly entertained.

Having said that…I buy a lot of titles right now that aren’t necessarily great, but I buy them just because I can get them cheap at the moment. Once that ends, so does my purchase of sub-par books.

I’ve dropped a lot of titles lately. I’m slowing pairing down to not getting any, which is kind of sad seeing as I’ve been getting comics for the last 31 years.
I have two reason for dropping titles:
1. Cost. Why buy a 6 issue story arc at $4 a pop ($24 total) when I can wait about 6 months after a storyline and get the TPB for about $20 (that’s if not bough through Amazon). Trades also seem easier to resell on ebay if I didn’t like the storyline.
2. Content. Let’s face there is and always been a lot of crap on the market. I was more willing to wade through a bad issue or two at $1 or $2 a pop in 90’s, but now a poorly drawn and poorly written comic which I can finish in 5 minutes doesn’t stand a chance at $4 a pop. Tie-ins also kill my interest. Some of these mythos are getting so out of hand. It take reading four or five other issues of other characters to understand what happening in the title you follow. (JSA was a big culprit of both of these-the magog/kingdom come storyline was too long-good but too long and didn’t need the 3 other “stand alone” tie ins.

MurrayC-”Has anyone else noticed that [so far] no one has mentioned dropping Marvel’s ULTIMATE titles or DC’s VERTIGO titles?”

Funny, my son got all the ultimate title s and dropped all of them except Spiderman.

Of all the titles, I dropped so far, the only two I kept were “house of secrets” and “Madame Xanadu” both vertigo titles.

I’m wavering on a bunch of titles; I don’t buy a huge amount, probably 10 or so a month, but there’s a couple I’m beginning to question — New Avengers, Booster Gold, JSA.

One way I’m dealing with the financial pinch (and all the $3.99 craziness) is by actually subscribing to titles (i.e. by mail). It’s true, you don’t get them right away, but the cost is so much less. I have bought a couple $3.99 monthlies from Marvel, and it bugs me every time. For a special event, OK, but in general, I find it ridiculous. Even DC’s offer of additional content, which is a clever way of packaging it, is mostly unattractive. I’m thinking about Doom Patrol because I want to see Kevin Maguire’s work, but in general I will probably end up dropping DC titles or not trying out titles because of the steep price change.

I have cut books I’m not longer excited for. Before it was ok to hold on to a book in hopes it would go somewhere but nowadays if its at the top of my pile (I read from good to best) I just ask myself is it still worth it?

I dropped all Marvel titles after Secret Invasion. I’ve scaled back my DC titles to just the ones I really like. There are plenty I was supporting out of the hope that they’d get better. But all of those titles had to go. I can’t really see them ever coming back unless some of the titles I’m reading fall off in quality.

32 pages for $4.00 = DROPPED

Dropped most of the titles that went to $3.99. Unfortunately, I want to read most of them for the story content and feel no real ownership of the physical copy. I’d be happy to pay a lower price for digital copies of the comics but Marvel and DC seem to want to suffer the same fate as the recording industry.

I been dropping books because of money for a while and other reasons. I didn’t pick up Hulk and Thor. Gotten bad and the stupid price jump to 3.99 made me drop them. New Avengers I didn’t read at all because of the fact that it is the worst Avengers team ever with Wolverine and Spider-Man. I don’t care just doesn’t work and now there screwing up Doctor Strange. Dropping Ms Marvel because it’s now Ms Moonstone which doesn’t interest me. Dropped wolverine titles other first class because I am really tired of billion monthly appearences of him. X-Men books had been okay until Messiah Complex crossover and then the move to west coast and what happen with shadowcat. To many actually characters being thrown out or not being used or killed for lame d level mutants like pixie and armor and northstar. May or may not drop X-Force post Cable crossover depending on what happens. I dropped Morrison’s Batman because it was just horrid. It was like freddy kruger came up with a nightmare for batman fans and published it in real life. By the way I probably won’t be picking up Batman and Robin book. I didn’t pick up the rest of the mess that was Final Crisis and Secret Invasion. DC and marvel are two train wrecks just waiting to crash. You can’t look away and dc is the one moving faster but Marvel is picking up speed. After the lastest Marvel Family debacle that DC train is really picking up speed. I don’t read Captain America because Steve Rogers belongs as Cap not Winter Soldier. Boring! I’m not totally sure I want to read the rest of Flash Rebirth. Not to interested in Barry’s return. I can’t even pick up Amazing Spider-Man because I fell like my intellengence and all fans are being insulted by post One More Day. Anyone picks up this is embarrsing comics and insulting everyone who ever worked on Spider-Man.

I dropped Superman and Action when they started crossing over with Supergirl. Not because I wasn’t interested in Supergirl, but because I couldn’t afford another book and this allowed me to drop two. I’ve been wanting to slowly switch from monthlies to trades and this seemed like the perfect point at which to do it. Same goes with Battle for the Cowl; I dropped Batman, Detective Comics, Nightwing, Manhunter, and Birds of Prey (3 of which were dropped for me) and will wait for the trade for all of the new Bat titles launching soon. Likewise, I dropped the Flash and will be waiting for Rebirth to hit the trades.

My wife and I aren’t fans of the boxes of comics around the house whereas a bookshelf of trades will look so much better. Trades are generally cheaper, they usually contain complete stories, and are free of ads. It seems like the only trade off is having to wait months for the books to come out. In most cases, the rising price of comics makes this wait more and more bearable.

That being said, I still have Wonder Woman, Booster Gold, (and like many others here) GL, GLC, and Blackest Night on my pull list because I can’t just wait for those titles!

Thanks to those who recommended the mail-order services. I just signed up with Heroes Corner a few minutes ago….and saved about $15 for my June comics (paying $1.79 for a regularly $2.99 comic book…minus my state taxes as well).

I could get used to this.

I’m not dropping anything (yet), but I don’t think I’m gonna buy new ongoings this year and gonna buy less minis and one-shots, that’s for sure.

Peace.

I’m doing fine for money, but have still dropped plenty of titles recently… awareness of how much my hobby is costing me has led me to be that much more likely to drop anything that might have been considered borderline before.

I’ve also been dropping (and will continue to drop) the series that replace the main character, (Ms. Marvel, Wolverine, Hulk, etc.), with the exception of Captain America, which is good enough to make it worthwhile anyway.

I have the same comics budget I’ve had since 1987 – $20 per week. I preorder my books from the local comics shop and am currently contemplating my July order.

this month, with the release of several new series at $3.99, two GL issues, and price hikes on my Marvel books, I’ve had to make some cuts. Things may change when I get my copy of Previews, and place my order, but here’s where things stand right now.

Dropping:
Batman: Brave and the Bold
The Brave and the Bold
The Mighty
Solomon Grundy
The Unwritten

July order:
Action Comics 879
All-Select Comics 70th Anniversary 1
Batman and Robin 2
Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam! 6
Blackest Night 1
Booster Gold 22
Captain America 601
Detective Comics 855
Fantastic Four 569
The Flash: Rebirth 4
Green Lantern 43,44
Justice League: Cry for Justice 1
Justice Society of America 29
Last Days of Animal Man 3
Power Girl 3
REBELS 6
The Spirit 31
Supergirl 43
Superman 690
Superman: World of New Krypton 5
USA Comics 70th Anniversary 1
Wednesday Comics 1-4

After looking through the comments I realized that there wasn’t any input from a comic shop. So here’s my two cents.

I’ve always encouraged my subscribers to stay within their means. It does me no good to try and pry every cent from their hands that I can the minute they walk in.

My advice on cutting down the has always been to take all of the titles you buy in one month and list them, spread them out, whatever you like. Count how many titles you’ve got. Divide by three.

Pull the stuff you absolutely read without fail. Those are keepers. The second tier is the stuff that you have to decide if you want to keep it or move that to trades. The bottom tier (stuff that takes you a while to read) is the stuff you drop or definitely wait to come out in trades.

I would rather lose the sale on a couple of 3.99 books than lose a customer. If I’m doing my job, then my orders are tight and someone putting back a couple of books isn’t a big deal. That’s one part of how this impacts comic shops.

Here’s another problem that I’m sure other shops are having, but may hesitate to talk about it. When a shop has been working with someone for a while and every single time they’ve been in there has NEVER been a problem and they suddenly “disappear”. You see them online, you call them and leave them messages, you email them and nothing. That is the mystery. Did they die? Did they move?

If they’ve gone to another shop, if they’re getting their stuff online, if they’ve lost their job, whatever the reason, the shop at least deserves something.

While losing a subscriber hurts, what really impacts shops is that the shop is still ordering the books for that subscriber. If someone has a substantial list and the shop doesn’t realize that this customer isn’t coming back after 3 to 5 weeks, then you’re sitting on some serious inventory. And if you get the stall, then that could be another few weeks. That’s when it becomes a problem because now a few books is now several dozen books.

And for those who suggest having people put a credit card on file, that doesn’t always work. And no matter what the discount, I’ve haven’t met anyone who cares for the idea of paying for books upon solicitation, especially with the willy nilly way things are published and shipped two months later or never.

So please, as one of many comic shop owners, if you are cutting you’re list or think you may need to cut your list, let your LCS know ASAP so they can try to adjust their orders. This also includes ADDING titles to your lists. None of us can place orders based on “wait and see”. And now days, I am ordering to sell out.

Robert Kimmons
Brainstorm Movies, Comics and Gaming

I use DCB Service so I haven’t had to drop a book so far due to the pricing. Yet I have pre-order Marvel books that popped up with the $4 US tag and I was very disappointed in the material.

Conversely I actually added a few DC Comics title due to the co-feature aspect. I find that DC Comics is tryin gto give more for their price increase only upon 7 titles so far as well as making sure there are more than 32 pages of content so far. This is for me a good thing as I get to keep some of my favorite titles and yet add four books I didn’t get before to support the characters I enjoyed from cancelled or newer series. Booster Gold because of Blue Beetle co-feature, Doom Patrol/Metal Men, Street of Gotham w/ Manhunter co-feature, Teen Titan/Ravager and Green Arrow/Black Canary ARE adds to my future lists.

But I do now avoid Marvel Comics titles I may be interested in due to their price increase without any real return for value like what DC COmics is trying. Plus seeing that I have been burnt from Marvel in not being enjoyable each month besides Daredevile and Captain America (in trade). Marvel has lost my support for a number of reasons and the price increase on title I may enjoy aren’t that intersting at the momement and maybe in trade.

Well… In these times, I bargain hunt. For example, Borders Bookstore has 30-40% coupons going on every other month. Depending on the store, some have a really great selection of graphic novels. If you are nice to the manager/cashier, you could even score a 2-3 books for the full discount.

In these times, also keep a change jar. When it fills up, I know I have between 20-30 bucks, which I normally put towards a book that I want. Their are ways to keep this comic lifestyle up without feeling it so hard. Just gotta work at it. You will be surprised in how much money in general that you would save.

I dropped the Hulk when it went to 3.99, not because I wasn’t enjoying it, like most of Loeb’s recent stuff, but I just don’t see it being worth 4 bucks. I almost dropped New Avengers as well but at least with Bendis you know there’s going to be more dialogue and, because of that, more to read. Liked the art a lot better on Hulk though but a Loeb comic typically takes five minutes to read and that isn’t worth 4 dollars.

I dropped Incredible Hercules because I just wasn’t enjoying it anymore. Not sure what happened there as when the series first started I was really enjoying it, but something got lost in the constant art changes.

I dropped Action when it went to the Flamebird and Nightwing book because I was buying it for Superman. Almost dropped Superman as well for the same reason, but I do like Mon-El so I’m giving it a shot. (Of course Action was replaced by the Superman: New Krypton book so I didn’t really come out ahead here.)

I have to mirror a lot of the comments posted here that I can’t justify spending $4 on a single, regular sized comic. Some of DC’s books that have 40 pages of original story content (NOT pinups or “director’s cut” features) may stay on my radar if the quality remains good. Some independent books my also survive my cuts, although I’m trying to get these titles in trades instead (partially because they also chronically ship late.)

Overall, I’ve dropped my monthly purchases by 50%. For the last four or so years, I’ve been a heavy reader, picking up about $100 worth of titles a month. I started cutting books the beginning of 2009, and my last order was @$38. Part of this, again, is my unwillingness to purchase $4, 32-page books. Part of it is my dissatisfaction with late shipping books (a rant for another day.) Another big part of it is my unhappiness regarding the quality of the books themselves. For my super-hero reading, I find myself gravitating more toward “second rate” characters like Hercules and Booster Gold because the series have heart and are fun to read. A lot of the big name characters (X-Men, Superman, Batman) seem muddled, confused, and too “bloated” with ancillary titles to be readable.

One suggestion for people wanting to avoid $4 Marvel books but still wanted to follow certain titles: subscribe right from the company. I found one of the $4 books I was still interested in getting was still discounted at a $3 subscription rate (@$24 for 12 issues, @50% under cover price); furthermore, I was later able to get more titles under special “subscribers only” rates and saved even more money by renewing these books for an additional two years online. Overall, I saved around 60% on some titles. If there is a certain book you’re a die-hard of and will get it through thick and thin, try subscribing.

I dropped Justice League of America, Justice Society, New Avengers and Mighty Avengers. I’ll probably drop more too (I’m looking at you Amazing Spider-Man) I just can’t afford all the books I want anymore. I really do have to pick and choose wisely.

But I will still get Daredevil, Invincible Iron Man, Hulk, Uncanny X-Men, Green Lantern and Batman. No way am I dropping those books.

Another thing I forgot to mention were those Marvel series with the extra buck price on the first issue: Punisher and that new Wolverine series, for instance. They were good issues but I passed on ‘em because the extra stuff in the back just wasn’t worth the price when you can find that extra info anywhere online if you want it.

I actually dropped every single Marvel title I was getting last year following the conclusion of Spider-Man OMD. So that saved me money for the past year (though I did use some of it to check out titles from Image, Dark Horse, and several other publishers).
Recently I dropped Wildcats (because it is just abysmal), Green Arrow Black Canary (because they are doing a horrible job with Dinah) and JLA is on the cusp of getting cut.
I am a lot more hesistant to try out new titles just because of the failure rate. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to go in on something that is just going to get cancelled in the next 18 months.
Anything that is a cross-over that forces me to buy another title (meaning if they don’t recap the story well enough in the main title I usually read so I would have to buy and read the other title[s] involved) is also grounds for cancellation (I did that with The Outsiders a couple of years back when it crossed with Teen Titans).

I dropped so much at the beginning of the year.

I no longer get any mini-series, mainly because Marvel started overcharging for theirs and DC’s are self contained enough that tradewaiting it wouldn’t be so hard. I had to drop the Superman books simply because they were expanding in terms of number fo monthlies and not because of the quality. Having books tie into an event is kind of annoying to me, and I also dropped Marvel’s excellent cosmic line because I didn’t want to buy War of Kings.

Also, pre-Secret Invasion I was basically buying every single Bendis comic sans the Ultimate line but post-SI I haven’t bought a single thing with his name on it. He completely turned me off his work with Secret Invasion and I don’t want to support his 3.99 books because of SI and the increased price.

I’ve stopped buying things that I used to buy mainly because they were tied into other books in terms of continuity even though I didn’t enjoy them as much others, for instance I no longer buy Green Lantern Corps but I do still get Green Lantern and plan on following Blackest Night. That will probably be the only “event” I follow this year.

And it’s not like I’m short on disposable income or anything, it’s just I want to actively make cuts during a time like this when anything can happen and it’s a little smarter to save. But it’s also mainly a point of not wasting my money, I mean the money that I would spend onm comics that I thought I’d be getting a few months ago is probably being used for another form of entertainment, like the movies, simpley because overall I don’t feel like I’m getting the most bang for my buck with comics nowadays. There are exceptions like DC and their co-features and Wednesday Comics but for the most part I’ll stick to the monthlies that I’m absolutely sure I enjoy.

I’ve been steadily dropping titles over the last year. Been off work for 4+ years with a back injury and while cleared to return…haven’t landed a gig…so money’s tight.

First I dropped most trades figuring I’d get them later (as a result..probably will never pick most of them up) and paired down on the monthlies to my core books.

Plan on subscribing to Marvel’s digital comics (and hoping DC will do the same) as I really don’t need to own many of the trades…just want to read the stories.

When I DO get back to work I’ll likely keep my Monthlies where they’re at (and get them from my LCS) and pick up more trades online.

Like Mahzian, I’m in Australia where $4 comics are $8. While I’m doing alright in the ‘economic crisis’, the jump to $4 comics has made me think twice about my buying habits.

I am dropping a lot of books. Again not so much because of financial strain but because of lack of value. For a 10 minute read that earns a ‘meh’ at best, I could’ve bought an album, gone to the movies or bought the type of alcoholic bevarage that usually comes with an umbrella.

My attitude to changing creative teams is now seen as a good jumping off point where as in the past I would have given the new guys a shot. I’ve dropped JSA and Mighty Avengers this way.

Like a lot of other people, I’ve used the ‘if I’m not interested in reading it straight away then it gets the axe’ mentality. I’ve recently dropped Captain America for this reason. I may buy the trades but will see…

Cancelled titles have done some of the dirty work for me. I really don’t miss Nightwing or Ultimate X-men.

I am picking up new books ($4 ones too)- Giving a fair go to Wolverine: Weapon X, Flash: Rebirth and Batman & Robin (when it ships).

The bat-book hiatus has been a nice little breather. I was getting tec and Batman but will probably drop tec (even though it looks fricking awesome). Depends on who is under the cowl/featured in that book as to whether I drop Batman (If its Dick I’ll keep getting it, anyone else and its gone).

Basically all the old fan loyalty and sticking with borderline titles has gone out the window. The new law is-

“Disappoint me once, shame on you, disappoint me twice and… don’t disappoint me twice”

Wow, You think you guys have it tough?, I live in Ireland and my comics cost way more than you guys, ill give you an example, your dollar v’s my euro, $2:99 = €4:75, $3:99 = €6:25. Now thats gotta make some people happy. And online ordering cost just as much when you factor in international shipping. so were damned either way on this side of the atlantic.

I was just talking to my wife about this. I’m a long time reader, back to the days when there were 10 cent comics. I was saying back then I could buy twenty books for $2.00 now the same number and with a few less pages will cost $79.80. Unreal!

DC and Marvel actually save us money – imagine if All Star Batman and Robin and Ultimates came out 12 times a year!

Due to a tax situation as the beginning of the year, i had to stop buying altogether! I would read ecomics i downloaded just to keep up. Now I’m back, and I discovered that a number of the books that I was buying really wasn’t worth it. I know that my list will be cut by 30-45%, esp with the latest price increase.

I have dropped titles earlier this year, but since I switched from my LCS to an online service and the healthy discount helps me to afford the $3.99 books which are $2.79 with a minimum 30%.

Dropped everything about 6 months ago and haven’t looked back. Still pick up Marvel Masterwork Hard Covers when they come out. Secret Invasion had me soooo confused early on that I managed to make a clean break of all Marvel titles (Thor was good for a while). Stopped buying the non-Spidey Ultimate titles when Millar left. They became as hard to figure out as most of the mainstream Marvel titles (Mike Carey’s Ultimate FF was horrible) and took a full six issues to get to the punchline. What happened to done in one (or three)?
DC has rebooted their characters so many times I don’t know who is who anymore. I used to love DC when Giffen/DeMattias were a writing team and all the other series were fun.
I quit Superman, after collecting every issue from 1984 up, when it was the art was taken over by that ex-Image/Marvel cartoony guy and they dropped Jurgens/Ordway/Stern, et al.
Price never was an issue, but, I don’t have time to follow a series that requires me to know what happened in 3 other books to follow it.
My 5 year old son will be introduced to comics from my collection and will probably enjoy them more that any comic published in the past 6 years.

I dropped all the Superman and Batman books, not because of the economy, but because I’m bored with the never-ending “New Krypton” and “Battle for the Cowl” stories. Especially Batman. It feels like DC took Morrison’s story and turned it into this needless, pumped up, mega-event. The only book I’m still buying is Michael Green’s Superman/Batman (fun book) and maybe Oracle…depending on if they don’t screw up Barbara too much. Oh–and I’ll buy the Bat-book that has Manhunter as a back-up just for more of Kate.

Also dropped anything to do with the terrible Final Crisis. Green Arrow/Black Canary is dreadful. JLA is going back to no-names so that’s dropped. DC’s hitting a lot of bad notes lately. I hope they get it together.

A lot of it is due to the rising costs of comics, but honestly, the quality is the main culprit. Creators never stay long enough on a title anymore to really get comfortable with the characters (with a few exceptions) and the whole industry seems slanted towards “events” which promise huge sweeping changes and end up being a lot of noise and hot air. Also, the raping of most of my cherished Marvel characters at the hands of Bendis and Millar under the guise of “progress” and “innovation” has been very depressing. If they want to write about new characters, fine; but don’t call these characters “The Avengers” or “SpiderMan” or “The Fantastic Four”.

I didn`t drop any books because of the bad economy. But I did drop a lot of books (about 15 titles) because of the raise to 3.99. Too much for me…

Haven’t had to drop any books on my own, DC has been doing a grand job for me. BoP, Nightwing, Hawkman, the list goes on and on.

While I never really got into independents that much (DNAgents, Green Hornet, Flare, Strangers in Paradise) I have found myself checking them out lately, looking for some work that isn’t so self referential. Christ, seems like every few issues of some book DC is retelling the origin or redoing, rebooting, starting over again.

And if you say that its too much, please tell us some new stories, people over there start braying that “you just don’t get it”. I’ve read DC since the early 70′s. Pretty sure I get it, just dont like it much anymore.

And the very few marvel books I got get cancelled each time. Captain Mar-vel, the real hulk, She-Hulk..

Between Crisis’ and Dark Initiatives…the big two are just giving me so many points I can use to Stop buying rather than jump on board.

Including various min-series, I’m buying 71 titles a month, mostly from marvel and Vertigo, plus all the one-shots and what not that surface. I always try not to look at the cost, though I have noticed the price rise as most books are now about £2.50. I’ve not dropped anything, though. I don’t buy trades.

I pretty much dropped all marvel books barring Daredevil, Cap and thor.

DC books have been cut in half only buying the lantern books and a couple of superman titles. Which i’ll likely need to drop come July.

I dropped most DC titles when One Year Later began after Infinite Crisis (including Outsiders, Teen Titans, and Nightwing).

I bought the first few issues of Countdown, but dropped it pretty quickly as well. I eventually dropped almost every monthly title on my list. I would never have thought it possible: I collected many monthly comics from 1980 until 2007.

Currenty, I collect Tiny Titans, Wonderful World of Oz, Billy Batson, Jonah Hex, and Fables (in trade). I also collect particular storylines (like Krypto vs. Atlas).

I intend to pick up Daredevil, Captain America, and Criminal and perhaps other titles in the convention $1 boxes this summer.

I also buy more back issues these days-especially 60s and 70s DC and Marvel.

I’ve dropped a few titles, but only really because I realized I was just buying them out of habit. Usually the “gaps” in my pull list get replaced by either a new series or a few more GNs or TPBs. I only try to buy stuff that I actively read and know I will re-read over time.

I cut back my new purchases to almost nothing in preparation for selling most of my collection to pay off some bills. I too, like most have stated here, am moving more towards the trades. The wait between issues isn’t an issue, it’s nice having a full arc all collected, and the price usually ends up the same or less than singles. Instead of getting sucked into things like House of M that start strong and sort of end up sideways later, I wait now to see what the rest of internet fandom is saying.

When I’m trying to decide on buying an issue or not I ask myself if it will be collected later. Most of the time it will, so I can wait. Right now I’m buying Azrael and R.E.B.E.L.S. cause I’m not sure either is strong enough to get collected, and feel that even my one single solitary purchase helps to send the signal to continue this title.

OK I partly lied, because I DO pay $4 for Transformers and G.I. Joe. I did drop TF: Spotlight, because money had to go somewhere.

I am going to drop JSA with Johns leaving. Also JLA is awful.

It seems that my list just keeps getting smaller and smaller, and the poor writing makes it easier to let go.

Oh yeah, I did add the $4 Detective Comics because I enjoy anything Rucka writes.

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