Done with everything?

[Smith]

Im reading 3 DC titles,1 from Image,nothing from Marvel,few IDW titles,1 from Valiant; so Im not really hurting for ongoing titles...

[JamesC]

Have you read any of the old British newspaper strips that have been collected?
Jeff Hawke is really good, as is Modesty Blaise. Some of the Bond stuff is really good too.
Just mentioning it as this stuff seems to be a bit off the radar, but someone who likes 2000ad should enjoy all of these strips.

Something else I always recommend (but may take a bit of work to get hold of) are Alan Grant's various Batman runs (mainly with Breyfogle). He starts off in Detective Comics, moves on to Batman, then Shadow of the Bat and also some Legends of the Dark Knight. Most of the stories are done in one issue with the odd2/3 parter. You can usually pick these up for 50p and I'd definitely recommend trying them out if haven't already. Knowledge of continuity isn't really required.

[Colin YNWA]

I'd need to give up work and read a lot faster to get through just the stuff I've *bought* (recently and loads from the early 90s before I got out). To be 'done' is an impossibility. Maybe I'm unusual.

Meanwhile, there are 22 unread Hachettes on the shelf...

This is my problem. I've just got too much stuff to read and though my reading list is half re-read its stupidly long. I've stopped buying things from digital sales, however good the offer and however much I'm interested them until it goes down a bit... well a lot.

As for experimenting I think the biggest issue I have with finding new titles is the gamble in how long they will last. So many of the stories I've enjoyed and invested in seem to be on hiatus or just plain ground to a halt. Stuff happens to creators and if stuff doesn't sell what can you do. It does however have an impact on the choices I make when picking a new series to try. It doesn't stop me getting stuff that really catches my eye, but it sets the bar higher.

[Smith]

Have you read any of the old British newspaper strips that have been collected?
Jeff Hawke is really good, as is Modesty Blaise. Some of the Bond stuff is really good too.
Just mentioning it as this stuff seems to be a bit off the radar, but someone who likes 2000ad should enjoy all of these strips.

Something else I always recommend (but may take a bit of work to get hold of) are Alan Grant's various Batman runs (mainly with Breyfogle). He starts off in Detective Comics, moves on to Batman, then Shadow of the Bat and also some Legends of the Dark Knight. Most of the stories are done in one issue with the odd2/3 parter. You can usually pick these up for 50p and I'd definitely recommend trying them out if haven't already. Knowledge of continuity isn't really required.

I read Grants Batman.And a few Modesty Blaise stories.I didnt read the others,I admit.
I did read a lot of American newspaper strips,however.

[Spaceghost]

I realise you didn't ask for recommendations, and you've probably read some, if not all of these, but here are a few series that I would wholeheartedly suggest taking a look at -

Locke and Key, Requiem Vampire Knight (Pat Mills at his most inventive), Descender, Black Science, Hellboy, Naruto (better than you think!), Full Metal Alchemist, Promethea, Top Ten, RASL, Saga.

I could go on, but you're probably already rolling your eyes, so I'll stop there.

[JamesC]

Have you read any of the old British newspaper strips that have been collected?
Jeff Hawke is really good, as is Modesty Blaise. Some of the Bond stuff is really good too.
Just mentioning it as this stuff seems to be a bit off the radar, but someone who likes 2000ad should enjoy all of these strips.

Something else I always recommend (but may take a bit of work to get hold of) are Alan Grant's various Batman runs (mainly with Breyfogle). He starts off in Detective Comics, moves on to Batman, then Shadow of the Bat and also some Legends of the Dark Knight. Most of the stories are done in one issue with the odd2/3 parter. You can usually pick these up for 50p and I'd definitely recommend trying them out if haven't already. Knowledge of continuity isn't really required.

I read Grants Batman.And a few Modesty Blaise stories.I didnt read the others,I admit.
I did read a lot of American newspaper strips,however.

Start a new list and put Jeff Hawke at the top of it!

[SIP]

Yes, I'm feeling pretty much done with comics. Have been reading for 40 years and my enthusiasm has dropped off a cliff the last couple of years. I'm putting it down to midlife crisis though! I'm not enthusiastic about much now.....mostly invest my energy in films.

[Smith]

I realise you didn't ask for recommendations, and you've probably read some, if not all of these, but here are a few series that I would wholeheartedly suggest taking a look at -

Locke and Key, Requiem Vampire Knight (Pat Mills at his most inventive), Descender, Black Science, Hellboy, Naruto (better than you think!), Full Metal Alchemist, Promethea, Top Ten, RASL, Saga.

I could go on, but you're probably already rolling your eyes, so I'll stop there.

No,I appreciate the recommendations,no problem.
RASL is by Jeff Smith,right?Maybe I should check that out.

Yes,I will have to start a new list,it seems.

[Colin YNWA]

RASL is by Jeff Smith,right?Maybe I should check that out.

RASL is really good. Very different tone to Bone (oh that rhymes!) but well worth checking out. His latest Tuki is also very good, but also victim to what I mention before. Its disappeared, though I believe Jeff Smith may have suffered some ill health (?), not his fault and I'm not apportioning blame or demanding its return and I don't really understand the circumstance. However when you invest in something as a reader its always disappointing when you don't get resolution.

[sheridan]

The only things I buy regularly these days come from the House of Tharg.  Whenever Neil Gaiman brings out another new Sandman I get that (slightly less than once a decade - I can cope with that volume).  As for everything else, I don't have the space to store them or time to read them. 

Pre-empting any suggestions about 'not having space to store them', if I were to ever go digital I'd have to have a much bigger screen (and more importantly, higher resolution) than anything I've tried reading a comic on.  I was in hospital a few years ago and somebody lent me an iPad pre-loaded with a comic reader and a number of subscriptions - while it was good to read them, there were two modes - full page where you couldn't read the lettering and readable lettering where you had to keep scrolling sideways and down for each page.

Something that has spurred me to read a wider variety, outside of Tooth and Meg, has been finding out about a comic group run by the local library.  Once a month I'm heading off after work, picking up a new supply of graphic novels (unfortunately series that look interesting invariably don't have their first issue available), trying to read as much of them as possible before the next month.  Currently on my list to pick up in future months:

• My Favourite Thing is Monsters
• Constantine: World Going Down (I think, might have got a word or two wrong there)
• Amulet (they had volumes two, three, four and two copies of volume five, but not the first)
• Bad Houses
• Life Sucks
• Snotgirl
• Giant Days (another without the first volume)

[Smith]

Well,there is the option of selling some things and making room.

[Colin YNWA]

I've got a BIG pile of stuff to shift but getting to eBay is way down the list. I try to only keep things I want to read again.... at some point. In the past when I've shifted stuff I found it quite cathartic and certainly focuses the mind on what stuff you still like and what stuff you no longer engage with. Its also a good way to see what you fancy re-reading, even if its just to check out whether its any good anymore.

[SmallBlueThing(Reborn)]

I'm not sure I could ever be "done" with comics. That would be like saying "I'm never going to read a book/ watch TV/ see a film/ listen to music" again. But just as my tastes change with regard to what movies, albums, TV shows, books I read at any given time, so do my tastes on comics change.

At the moment I'm actively avoiding TV drama series- am two seasons behind on all the ones I like, and have no inclination to catch up. Prefer filling my TV time with The Chase, the news, Corrie, Emmerdale, and Jeremy Kyle. Similarly I can't be arsed with horror at the moment, and the only movies I'm watching are the Marvel adaptations and light comedies.

That will no doubt change.

But to think that I've read everything in comics and there can't be anything out there that would interest me, is to deny the breadth of the medium. Comics are my favourite thing. I could go without music, film, books and TV, but without comics I'd be very unhappy. It's the single greatest medium yet invented, and when I genuinely think "I've got nothing to read", I walk into Waterstones and take a punt on something that takes my interest. Did this last week with the first volume of 'Black Hammer', which turned out to be sensational. I'm eyeing a bunch of graphic novel adaptations of the lives of old musicians that I found in our local arty-farty bookshop too. And if that fails, then fuck it, I'll just break out my collection of Toxic, and read through them for the umpteenth time.

There's a whole bunch of stuff out there to read. Unlike a lot of you, I love American superhero comics with the same kind of passion we all reserve for the prog. To see them collected in beautiful editions on the shelves of bookshops (plural!) in my piss-poor and dying seaside town, fills me with unquenchable joy. You'll pry my last comic from my cold, dead fingers.

SBT

[Colin YNWA]

I'm not sure I could ever be "done" with comics. That would be like saying "I'm never going to read a book/ watch TV/ see a film/ listen to music" again. But just as my tastes change with regard to what movies, albums, TV shows, books I read at any given time, so do my tastes on comics change.

At the moment I'm actively avoiding TV drama series- am two seasons behind on all the ones I like, and have no inclination to catch up. Prefer filling my TV time with The Chase, the news, Corrie, Emmerdale, and Jeremy Kyle. Similarly I can't be arsed with horror at the moment, and the only movies I'm watching are the Marvel adaptations and light comedies.

That will no doubt change.

But to think that I've read everything in comics and there can't be anything out there that would interest me, is to deny the breadth of the medium. Comics are my favourite thing. I could go without music, film, books and TV, but without comics I'd be very unhappy. It's the single greatest medium yet invented, and when I genuinely think "I've got nothing to read", I walk into Waterstones and take a punt on something that takes my interest. Did this last week with the first volume of 'Black Hammer', which turned out to be sensational. I'm eyeing a bunch of graphic novel adaptations of the lives of old musicians that I found in our local arty-farty bookshop too. And if that fails, then fuck it, I'll just break out my collection of Toxic, and read through them for the umpteenth time.

There's a whole bunch of stuff out there to read. Unlike a lot of you, I love American superhero comics with the same kind of passion we all reserve for the prog. To see them collected in beautiful editions on the shelves of bookshops (plural!) in my piss-poor and dying seaside town, fills me with unquenchable joy. You'll pry my last comic from my cold, dead fingers.

SBT

That sir is a statement of fact and beauty!

[Jim_Campbell]

Giant Days (another without the first volume)

I approve of this choice. :-)