My last Line-By-Line blog dealt with the idea of “trade waiting”, including whether we actually get back to buying the trades for which we were waiting in the first place. Over 100 comments later, and I get the sense that trade-waiting seems to play some part in the buying patterns of most weekly comic shop visitors. However, the notion of waiting does bring up one question: how does a trade waiter contend with spoiler culture?
For example, my guess is that if you’re reading Blog@Newsarama right now, then that means that you’re an active reader or buyer of comics, graphic novels, manga, or a related expression in some form. In fact, I know that many people wish to come and discuss things that they’ve read in one of their monthlies, even if they haven’t read other books that came out that week (see: the trade-waiting part). But that doesn’t mean that part of your trade-waiting list won’t get spoiled by a harmless visit to a news site.
SO . . . my question is: how do you trade-waiters avoid the pervasive spoiler culture of the internet? Do you, for example, avoid all Batman threads, or do you just say, “What the hell, knowing and reading it are different?” What’s your take or philosophy? Are you okay with spoilers? Do they drive you nuts? And if fans are generally okay with spoilers, what does that say about the reading itself? Let’s talk.
June 8th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
The books I read that are likely to be discussed to death on the front page of newsarama, cbr, etc… are the ones I’m most likely to wind up buying the pamphlets. Which pretty much means the handful of superhero books I buy. It makes it easier to avoid major spoilers that way. But even that’s changing a bit as the singles get more expensive and tradewaiting becomes the norm.
Rather than keeping back issues of those titles, I eventually donate them somewhere they’ll be re-read and look for discount copies of collected editions at conventions or online. While I wind up buying some of these books twice this way (mostly the Avengers books), I don’t pay close to cover price the second time around. This has the added advantage of keeping my bookshelves from overflowing with impulse buy superhero books.
For my non-superhero stuff (of which there is plenty), I tradewait. Since that seems to be more the norm for buyers of those genres, I find it very easy to avoid spoilers online. Even with long-running series like Lucifer, Y and 100 Bullets.
June 8th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
Agree w/ Kevin. I read superhero books monthly and always enjoy visting Newsarama and CBR to read and discuss those. But things like Madam Xanadu, Fables, Jack of Fables, and House of Mystery don’t get the kind of “Spoiler” coverage that stops me from being surprised.
And besides, it just fits to read non-superhero fair in a trade format and the spandex heroes month to month.
The DC/Marvel trades I read are ususally from mini-series that also don’t get much coverage, Metal Men, Crime Bible, etc.
June 8th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
I don’t read as much of the content here as you’d guess.;)
June 8th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
I must say I agree with Kevin, with that I wait for ones like Y and even Starman, I am pretty much spoiler free in the part. But to answer your question Troy, with Marvel It’s a little bit easier for me, while it does get a little spoiled the trades come out so darn fast that while I know some I am not waiting long and I want the whole story to see how such and such happened. With that being said I’m more a DC Guy, so yeah it’s hard I a get a little more spoiled but I can’t see the panels, and I don’t know the whole story, so I can still wait. I have been waiting and doing the hardcovers of GL since the beginning. I knew that Sinersto Rings where going around thanks to spoilers, but I had no idea what they looked or why they were going after those people. So Long Story Short, Yeah it’s not a true mystery how everything happens but when your a “waiter” like myself you want the full story to be more a completest and enjoy it more in one piece. (Sorry about being so long winded lol)
June 8th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
For me, since I work in a shop and read (almost) everything every week, I only buy a few titles. More often my trade purchases are of stories that the single issues are too costly as back issues, or too hard to find.
June 8th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
I mostly buy trades. I don’t have unlimited space or money, so I want every trade I buy to be worth reading again and again. So I sacrifice a lot of surprise for certainty – certainty that an artist won’t be replaced, and certainty that the resolution of the story is as good and well-executed as the opening issue promises. When I read that a story has failed mid-arc, I drop it from trade consideration. (In my case, it’s very seldom that I miss a trade when it is published.)
I actually make a point of being spoiled, to a degree, to get that certainty. I do try to keep some surprise by reading selectively, but it really depends on the series. It will be hard to stay ignorant of everything happening in Blackest Night this summer. Steering clear of what’s going on with the Punisher right now is actually pretty easy.
June 8th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
generaly if its a book I am buying in trade fomat it will be one that I don’t know much about but sounds good like Luba a fantastic series but since it not talked about much there is not much spoilage other times if I lose track of of a stoyline I may pick up the voulume when collected usally most threads are friendly to fellow reader and don’t spoil things I try to be carful about that if somthing says spoiler I wont read that I’ll I have read my pamplet or trade paper back. It’s the people who wait for trades I feel sorry for the most when event books like Battel For The Cowel come out. alot of trade readers will
not care if something like that is spoiled they may want to know the out come to decide if it’s worth buying.
GOOD DAY
June 8th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
I download the comics on the wednesday and buy the trades of the books i like later.
June 8th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
I try very hard to avoid spoilers for the few books I plan to get in trade format. It’s usually not that hard if you just don’t read reviews or features about the comics. And for the most part, I can’t say that I know what’s been going on in Secret Six or X-Factor despite the reviews and features.
However, when the whole “PAD vs Scans Daily” thing happened, someone whose blog I read was angry about PAD and the content of the issue in question and wasn’t careful with spoilers. Thus far, I only know about one thing, but it’s a major thing. I don’t think the book is ruined for me, and know that it’s hard to go a year without being spoiled, but I really was trying to follow PAD’s edict, and I failed.
All that said, I do like people being fair with spoilers. At least two pros with experience in writing Trek books, in commenting about the new film, gave any big plot points without any effort to cut-tag their blogs. I was not happy. Again, the film wasn’t ruined – if anything, knowing about these twists in advance was a good thing since I could have been that much unhappier with the film than I was anyway – but it would have been easy for the writers to have hidden things nonetheless.
June 8th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
If I am waiting to buy something in trade, then I don’t tend to care as much about whether I hear spoilers or not. I usually only get a trade of a book that I am rather late to the party for…so spoilers are usually inevitable by then.
June 8th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
I LOVE spoilers and i ONLY buy trades and have for a few years since i won’t waste my life bagging and boarding comics any longer.
Plus i rarely will ever read a single comic anymore where as i will re-read a trade over, especially right before the new one for a line comes out.
I am fine with spoilers since i like to be up to speed in my favorite books and it helps to know if i should not buy the trade for that arc. I usually tend to forget the little details anyway by the time the trade comes out so it doesn’t really “spoil” anything since knowing what happens and reading it, like you said, are two dif things
June 8th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Avoiding the spoilers is pretty hard, and I have to do it even with the monthlies, since I’m now getting them shipped once a month instead of hitting the store every Wednesday. You can avoid a lot by checking the headlines quickly first, but sometimes even that’s too much info. Having to wait 4-6 weeks to listen to every podcast and to read some columns is a drag. It means being completely kept off of any message boards, because by the time I’m caught up everyone has moved on and the thread is 1000 posts long.
June 8th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
There’s a difference between being told that Inigo Montoya is nearly killed by the six fingered man, but then he gathers enough strength to avenge his father, and watching the famous scene.
If a book is good enough, it’s more than just a plot-delivery device, and those are the books that I read in trade.
June 8th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
I agree with Kevin et. al. You really can’t wait for the trades on something like Batman. Avoiding spoilers on superhero books is hard enough when you’re following the pamphlets. It’s easier with something like Fables, Walking Dead, Vertigo stuff, etc. If I see an interview or news post about one of those books, I’ll generally avoid it. I’ve also become quite skilled at getting four words into a sentence, realizing a spoiler is about to be revealed, and stopping myself before reading further. Usually you can scroll to the next paragraph and read the author’s general feelings about the comic, etc, while avoiding any actual spoilers. This is admittedly tricky, though, so it’s probably best to just avoid clicking and wait till you’ve read the trade.
June 8th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
Spoilers don’t bother me much at all. To me, the journey in the story is more important than the ending.
June 8th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
I just avoid spoilers as best I can. I don’t read comics forums at all, so that helps a great deal. Basically, if it’s not on the front page of Newsarama or CBR, I probably don’t see it. If it’s a title where I really don’t want spoilers, I avoid reading anything about that title but that happens very rarely these days.
June 8th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
I tend to buy the “spoilerific” comics I care about right up front. GL and the Marvel cosmic books right now are my only monthly commitments, and I want to read those as they come out.
Everything else is pretty much “trade-wait” or “don’t care if I read the reviews online or not.”
The comics (mainly miniseries, but also some ongoings outside the Big 2) that I’d rather read in one sitting are automatically in the trade-wait pile. Kirkman’s series at Image – WALKING DEAD, INVINCIBLE, WOLF-MAN – for example, which I believe read much better as trades anyway.
Some spoilers you just can’t avoid – based on if I care of not, I can wait on those. And thanks to the active nature of comics lately, I tend to forget some things anyway, so reading a trade a few months after the arc ends will still spring a surprise or two on me.
June 8th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
While I don’t wait for trades, I do buy comics on a monthly basis rather than weekly due to my current job. I only get paid once a month, so I’ve got to wait until the end of the month and then buy all of my comics for that month at once, which means I have to try and avoid spoilers as well. I’ve noticed that since I switched to buying comics monthly, I have spent way less time on message boards discussing them. I used to spent tons of time on Newsarama in the forums talking comics. But now, I have to avoid certain threads so I don’t get spoiled. And most times, by the time when I do get my comics and read the stories, most of the discussion is pretty over and folks have moved on to the next big topic of discussion. So “waiting” has seriously decreased the amount of time I spend on internet message boards.
June 8th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
I’m a trade waiter. Once upon a time, I had an extensive pull list at my LCS, but when I got married, I just couldn’t keep up with it. But I DON’T avoid spoilers. Heck, I knew the ending to Identity Crisis months before I ever bought the hardcover. If a story is good enough, spoilers don’t spoil my reading enjoyment.
June 8th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
If you watch movies more than once, then why should reading a TPB after knowing some part of it be any different? I read books that I’ve already read, I watch movies when I’ve already read the book, I read books when I’ve already seen the movie, so I read TPBs when I already know the ending.
June 8th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
I think its just a matter of common sense, If you don’t want to be spoiled by a particular storyline, then you have no business reading about it. You can generally tell when an article is going spoil something or not even without any big warning sign.
Secondly I think the waiting isn’t on the trade readers but rather the ones who insist on reading the individual chapters (monthlies) and gossiping about it until the next issue. People who buy trades don’t sit around wait. They simply spend their money on other things, including other trades.
June 8th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
I’m not bothered by spoilers. If the point of the whole storyline is the spoiler, in my experience, it’s probably not gonna be such a great story anyway (see e.g., Brand New Day). Part of the reason is that most spoilers are fleeting developments (death/rebirth and/or reveals of identities) that can and usually are rescinded and reversed to suit a company’s editorial needs (see e.g., Spiderman’s identity becoming a secret again in Brand New Day after having been so ceremoniously revealed in Civil War).
I’m more interested in quality storytelling and becoming immersed in the story and art, whether in continuity or not. I want to read something that’s going to engage me as a reader. How it affects the “status quo” of some fictional universe is of absolutely no importance or interest to me.
I don’t ever wait for the trade. I buy the monthly books that I think will, for the most part, interest me. Some succeed and some fail on those grounds. In my humble opinion, most of the monthlies being published these days are forgettable and disposable.
It’s only the books that I really like and that engage me, that I buy in hardcover (or sometimes softcover) to keep on a bookshelf to pick up and read again. (e.g., New Frontier, All Star Superman, Planetary). Those books seem to rise to another level worthy of collecting in a more superior format.
June 8th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Easy. I stopped reading articles/reviews/message board posts about those books.
June 8th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Avoid spoilers when I can, and so far I’ve been pretty successful in not finding out how Y ends (except for one character’s fate, but even then I don’t know when and how) and I’ve avoided what’s happened past the point I’m currently at in Ex Machina (another great Vaughan book that doesn’t seem to get nearly enough attention). Did the same for Whedon’s Astonishing run, thankfully.
Since I’m really only now just getting into a “trade wait” mode for other titles I’ve been buying (Captain America, Iron Man and Green Lantern being the big ones that I’m switching to trades on soon) I’ll see how it goes. I think it’s going to be hardest for me letting go with Cap, ‘cuz Brubaker’s been bringing it each and every month. But I can do it.
As for my favorite character — Batman — I’m following sites like ‘Rama and CBR to see when Bruce returns, then I’ll maybe jump back in buying Bat-books depending on what happens next. So there’s a case of willingly reading spoilers.
June 8th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
I’m a trade-waiter who doesn’t care about spoilers. I re-watch movies and re-read books all the time and still enjoy them every time.
For me, as a writer myself, it’s not about being surprised by the ending or what happens to the character. I enjoy the journey the characters make as long as it is well written. I enjoy the craft of writing.
For example, because I’ve happened to read parts of the adaptation of Transformers 2, I know what’s happening in the film. And I don’t care… I’m going to enjoy it any way.
June 8th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
Eh – reading it and knowing it is coming are two different things. Comics are two things – art and writing. I might get the story from a spoiler, but I also miss out on the art, the nuance, and the dialogue. I am not concerned with knowing ahead of time. It is kind of like a roller-coaster. I know the hill that we are climbing means that a big plunge is coming, but I enjoy it anyway.
June 8th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
A lot of good movies work on the onion-skinning principle – you learn the ending first up and then through a series of flash-backs, you found out how the protagonists got to that end-point. In other words, quite often, it’s all about the journey. I suppose trade-waiting and spoilers work in the same way. I’m really looking forward to the Final Crisis hardback next week, despite the fact that I know Barry Allen returns and Bruce Wayne may have died etc. But how did the DCU get there? That is the question… at least for me.
June 8th, 2009 at 6:47 pm
Not only do I not try to avoid spoilers in super-hero stories before I decide to buy a collection, but its actually a major criteria of whether or not I pick a collection up.
I’ve been using this example on a lot of different threads I’ve been participating in recently, but it bears repeating: I will not be picking up the Final Crisis or Batman RIP collections–not necessarily because I know the ending, but because I’ve decided I think the storytelling is poor, and I don’t want to spend money on something I don’t think I’ll enjoy.
However, I will admit that if there is a storyline with a major impact, like Batman RIP or Final Crisis, sometimes I will pick up that final issue.
I view monthly issues vs. collections much in the same way I do books and movies that are based on them (or the other way around). I can read a book and know all the plot points, but that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy the movie.
June 8th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
i tend to ignore anything i don’t want spoiled, but some comics it doesn’t matter knowing in advance
June 8th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
I buy some monthlies and some trades. Spoilers aren’t an issue for me.
June 8th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
1) I don’t actually read a lot of comic site/blog content so much as I skim it.
2) Most of what I really care about is stuff that most other people don’t care about and therefore doesn’t get written up as much.
3) If I think the article is going to spoil something I’m waiting on and care about, I tend not to read it. Pretty easy, really.
June 8th, 2009 at 8:55 pm
I would go with the one about “knowing is not the same as reading”. I recall the day I got over myself when I was 13, and found out that Spike dies at the end of Cowboy Bebop. I was really upset, and then I realized: That’s an awesome show, whether I know what’s coming up or not.
Oh yeah, spoilers for the decade old show, btw.
June 8th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
I’ve read trades exclusively since getting into comics, I have learned not to care about what gets spoiled. I’ve probably seen twenty spoilers of varying degrees in the last month, but I still plan on picking up their comics, because I want to see how it happens. This applies even for older books- I knew how “Y; The Last Man” ended before picking up the first trade, and I still count the series among my favorites because of Vaughn’s character work and dialougue. For me, it’s the journey rather than the destination that intrigues me.
June 8th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
Hilariously enough, even though I work in a comic shop, there aren’t a great deal of comics that I wait for trades on that get spoiled for me. For example, I HAVE to let at least 3 Invincible trades stack up before I read them because I tear through them so quickly (I read the first 8 in about 6 hours stretched out over 3 days) and I still don’t know anything about what happens after Mark and Eve finally hook up. For the most part, all I hear on books is “good” or “not good” along with comparison explanations. If they have a question regarding the plot, they always ask if I’ve read it first and if I say no then they don’t ask the question.
The thing I get spoiled on the most are movies. If I can’t get into an advance screening about two months beforehand, I have films mapped out for me frame by frame despite my clearly stating “DO NOT SPOIL IT FOR ME OR I WILL HURT YOU.” I still haven’t seen Wolverine and I don’t need to because I know everything that goes on in it and every varying opinion, especially since my patronage is fond of piracy and got the leaked version months before release. Then these people have the audacity to ask my “professional opinion.” It’s like they didn’t hear me the 3,000 times I said, “I haven’t seen it!”
As for news sites, most everybody is really good at ambiguous headlines. I don’t read articles about stuff I haven’t read. It’s not necessarily because I’m trying to remain spoiler-free (sometimes I hunt spoilers so I know what to recommend at the shop), but if it’s something I’ve yet to read then I really have no interest in the article. I can’t relate to an article if I don’t know what the subject matter really is.
June 8th, 2009 at 10:06 pm
After reading stories in general for 4 decades, there’s no true surprises left anyway.
So, I’m more than content to read articles to tell me if something is worth getting in collection or not.
Saved me from wasting money on crap like Countdown and Trinity anyway.
June 8th, 2009 at 10:12 pm
waiting for the trade is the way girls read comics
real dudes like up for their comics on wednesday
and people who call comics pamphlets or floppies are jerkoffs
June 9th, 2009 at 12:56 am
@ Josh,
I’d heard good things about Cowboy Bebop and finally bought it on DVD a couple of months back with plans to watch it soon. Now I guess that I will wait awhile and try to forget your spoiler.
Personally, I read all my comics the first week that they come out, so I had no concerns about seeing any comic related spoilers on this thread. I guess that it just never occurred to me to be worried about anime spoilers.
June 9th, 2009 at 4:11 am
I really don´t care that much about the spoilers. As a trade waiting guy I know that I will be spoiled sometimes, it´s part of trade-waiting, but like someone said, if you´re buying the book for the spoiler it probably won`t be woth it. What happened already was that I was thinking in buying some trades and thanks to the spoilers I ended avoiding really bad experiences. And the oposite also happened were because of the spoilers I ended getting something I wasn´t inittialy looking for.
June 9th, 2009 at 5:13 am
I hate spoilers. I have to pick up my book on a monthly basis, and I don’t buy trades.
Knowing to which conclusion a book leads before reading it, is a major dissapointment to me, especially when it’s not a back issue. Knowing what happens in a back issue doesn’t annoy me, these books are more for background information, a history lesson if you like.
I also dislike to detailed reviews of movies I like to see. In last couple of years reviews seem to describe the whole movie. I don’t want to imagine, what watching From Dusk till Dawn for the first time would be like, knowing beforehand, it would mutate from road movie to *SPOILER* movie.
June 9th, 2009 at 5:52 am
The only trade i ever waited for was The Walking Dead. I could never wait till it came out to know what happened, so i would always go to wikipedia or robert kirkman’s forum and read all about what was going on till i could buy it. Now i dont have to wait for the trades because now i have a local comic shop to get each issue every month.
June 9th, 2009 at 6:35 am
I’m fine with spoilers, and have accepted its part of the trade waiting thing. For instance, I am just now reading the Bubaker Captain America. Knowing from the beginning that Captain America will be killed by the end of the book, and that Bucky is running around as a Russian agent haven’t lessened by enjoyment of the first 15 issues I’ve read so far. In fact, being able to pick out the clues about Bucky in the early issues of the series has been pretty enjoyable. Brubaker did a great job building suspense for the story, and knowing the outcome of the plot doesn’t lessen that.
In another example, no 2 people seemed to agree about what was happening in Final Crisis, so I figure there will be plenty of surprises there when I finally get to read it this week.
June 9th, 2009 at 6:52 am
I trade-wait but often read spoilers and check out places like Scans Daily or whatever, because they don’t really replicate the same feeling as actually reading the material for yourself. If someone hates, say, Morrison’s Batman and has put a few pages up to slag it off, it doesn’t give you the same experience as reading it for yourself.
June 9th, 2009 at 7:07 am
I think a big 3rd element being missed in this question is downloading the torrents. The subject seems to be taboo and no one but James mentioned it, but I know this to be a highly used means to read the comics to avoid spoilers and avoid paying high prices at the LCS.
When my paycheck permitted, I used to spend $50 – $60 bucks a week on comics every Wednesday. 2 kids and a recession later, I started downloading the torrents under the guise that if I liked a title I would buy it later or in trades. Guess what, neither happened. After I read the book, what was the point of buying.
I don’t mean this to be a post on whether downloading is right or wrong. I believe it is wrong, but I do it anyway. I did the same with music before “digital music” and Itunes became the way to listen to music.
My point is the current business model is broken. If I can download a book for free or pay close to $5.00 for something I am only going to read once, what do you think is going to get chosen. It isn’t about morals, markets are not driven on morals, they are driven on price, and free beats $5.00 everyday.
Sooner or later this will need to be addressed. Downloads affect a large portion of comic readers’ buying decisions. Just as much as monthlies and trades. A discussion about the last 2 is not complete without including the 3rd
June 9th, 2009 at 7:34 am
The fleeting thrill of a spoiler isn’t worth $3.99. If you all you care about are spoilers, then you might as well not bother buying, because you can find out everything online faster than you can make it to the comic store.
Sure, real surprises are nice, and I do miss my pre-Internet days as a kid when I could walk into a drugstore and pick up an issue with no clue about what was happening inside. But the story should be what carries the book, what makes it worth buying.
June 9th, 2009 at 7:41 am
Spoilers used to bother me much more than they do now. Shocking developments are great and all, but there must be more to a story than that. Knowing that Captain America is (still) dead shouldn’t affect whether or not I enjoy the story. If it does, then perhaps I’m not in this for the right reasons.
And yet there are some stories that I set apart from all the others–stories that absolutely must not be spoiled. Stories like Y: The Last Man or Harry Potter. So I suppose there is a special quality added when you don’t know how it will turn out. But the examples of Y: The Last Man and Harry Potter are different, because those stories *end*. Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, and the X-Men will go on forever, so those kinds of spoilers tend to have less of an effect on my enjoyment of the story.
It’s the difference between having the end of a *story* spoiled and having the end of a *chapter* spoiled. And if a story never ends, then what exactly is being spoiled anyway?
June 9th, 2009 at 8:04 am
Waiting for the trade gives an advantage over the monthlies – DC/Marvel SELECTIVE CONTINUITY!
If I hear spoilers about a storyline that I’m interested in, I get the trade. Take Superman: Brainiac for example. It was everywhere that Jonathan Kent dies in that arc. Hypothetically, if I don’t want that event in my own personal “Cisco Kid” continuity, I skip that trade.
As another example, I avoid Dark Reign because in my own continuity, Norman Osbourne is still dead. Thus, I don’t have to worry about buying any Marvel trades for quite a while. I’m still able to enjoy Brubaker’s Captain America in trades.
I try to avoid spoilers for self contained stories and universes like the DMZ, Walking Dead, Ex Machina, and Invincible.
June 9th, 2009 at 9:45 am
Thankfully, it seems to have become a reflex for people to thow out a warning when revealing spoilers. Sometimes I listen, sometimes I don’t, but it’s a level of courtesy I appreciate in the fan community.
As for waiting for trades, it depends on the book. Example: Fables, I read only in trades and avoid all solicits and spoilers. Green Lantern I buy in singles every month and bind them. The Avengers books I generally only get AFTER I hear a spoiler, and that’s what hooks me to buy it.
June 9th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
I’m with T Scott and james (to a degree) The bulk of my “first time” reading comes from torrents to avoid spoilers but I buy the trades of the arcs that resonate with me and I do buy individual issues for sentimental reasons. For instance, I bought the first issues of Battle for the Cowl and Batman & Robin but won’t buy the subsequent issues because I WANT to buy the trades and not pay for the same story twice. I read and reread them all the time and usually have one with me (right now R.I.P. is in my bag to read a third time). In my case, the Downloads keep me interested enough to buy the trades when they get released. I didn’t buy all of Final Crisis (other than the issue Batman died in) but I have the trade reserved at my LCS.
June 9th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
Most of my decisions about for waiting for a trade are based on whether or not a series is based around any sort of continuity. I get most big DC books and the major event minis in single issues, but then usually hold off on random minis and smaller titles for a trade collection. I stopped getting the single issue Vertigo books all together since those come out collected like clockwork.
June 9th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
I think knowing and reading are totally different. If all a comic has going for it is some kind of surprise then it doesn’t have much going for it at all. It needs to be an enjoyable read regardless of surprises. Also, I tend to buy trades of books that aren’t tied in to any other larger universes, i.e. pretty much every superhero book, so I don’t really have a problem with trades getting “spoiled” anyway.
June 9th, 2009 at 8:36 pm
Most of my monthlies are superhero books, which are the ones most likely spoiled in threads. My trade-waits are usually the Vertigos which don’t get discussed as often, and it’s easy to just avoid reading about things.
However, sometimes I’ll read threads with spoilers simply to see if it’s a title worth picking up in trade — including and maybe especially for books I used to collect monthly but then moved to my trade wait list. For example, I used to collect Avengers, but then when it divided into two books, I decided I didn’t want to get them monthly. So, I would just read what was going on in those books in spoiler discussion threads, and honestly I haven’t bought an Avengers trade.
June 10th, 2009 at 4:23 am
The way I figure it, any story that hinges on being surprised by a sudden twist of events probably isn’t worth getting in a permamnent form. If I buy trade, it’s because I want to re-read it at some point, and the second time, I’ll be spoiled about the ending anyway.
June 10th, 2009 at 6:12 am
I exclusively trade wait and find that event comics are pretty much destroyed by spoilers, Secret Invasion as a trade had virtually no impact after knowing the Cabal reveal. I’d imagine the same will be true of Final Crisis when the trade finally drops.
Most of the Vertigo/Kirkman ones I follow read a million times better in trades and can be spoiler free considerably easier. Spoilers are a part of trade-waiting, if you can’t stand it, buy the floppies (if you can spend $4 for every title!)
June 10th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
I think this is one of the reasons why online pirating of comics and downloadable scans have actually helped the comics industry. I can read all the comics I want and still wait for the trades without missing a beat. I can also sample new writers before I buy. That way I don’t have buyers regret after I get whatever character series/mini I buy based on the character/artist/writer. I can get a better idea of what I want. Smarter shopping = a more satisfied customer.
As a kid I remember being all hardcore about issues and hated trades. I liked comics, and preferred the single issues – I grew up on them — getting the trades was reserved for issues that were just too expensive to afford. Now I am 31 and I have my own home with more room for book shelves [not to mention a better job]. I prefer trades and HC’s so that they are also on display for the passerby. It makes me happy that someone can walk by and see some of my reading interests or just things I think are kick-ass. Also, I would not stop buying – I could download every single comic released and I would still want to buy them. I will read Y the last man four or five times and I do prefer the satisfaction of owning it and having it in my hand. I love some of these stories that much. There are plenty of times I read something from a writer I have never heard of and all of a sudden I need to own it. I like that feeling.
June 10th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
I typically just typically avoid reading most articals on Newsarama.