This was obviously not my next planned post, but the question came up and so.. I think it deserves a post to answer it.
Q: So without further ado, should I be a completist and get all of comic X?
A: Depends. No really, it depends.
Comics are not like books where you generally have the same creators on every book (James Patterson being an obvious example of that not being the case). Comics can switch creators around easily and it's common in some areas for that to happen.
Super hero comics especially by DC and Marvel comics have a tendency to regularly swap out creators. This can be to bring a new fresh idea to the book or it could be because the previous creators are leaving for any number of reasons. So one issue in a comic about the same character or team can look very differently depending on the creative team. One obvious example of this is the New 52 Wonder Woman by Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang (mostly) vs. the Rebirth Wonder Woman with Greg Rucka, Liam Sharp, Nicola Scott, and Biliqus Evely. Entirely different takes on the same character and only within a few years of each other. That's a more dramatic example and includes a reboot, which means they scrapped everything and started over again, but the same thing can happen easily in a book. When James Robinson left Earth-2, new writer Tom Taylor took over and while the characters were the same over all, Red Tornado was completely changed and entire sub-plot about Mister Miracle and Big Barda was dropped complete and never mentioned again. Things like this happen constantly at DC and Marvel particularly, but it's a problem with the superhero genre and corporate owned properties in general.
So the better rule of thumb for these, unless of course you are circulating a series like crazy, is to follow stories rather than series. Chances are your patrons are more interested in reading a full story than reading 600+ issues of Wonder Woman. This can, of course, get a little tricky, but most often DC and Marvel make the entire story available in a single trade. The only exception are crossovers sometimes and events. With crossovers, they are usually good about collecting them in one trade, but there may be reasons why they don't and you need to get a few trades to get the entire story. With events, the entire main event is in one trade with about a million tie-ins to that event. It is rarely necessarily to buy all the tie-ins to enjoy an event book (Like Civil War or Secret Empire). Sometimes a few tie-ins are great background information. DC and Marvel typically release event check lists so you can get all of the books that directly relate, but when it doubt.. ASK. This can be confusing, even to comic fans, so don't be afraid to ask a comic fan or local retailer. if it's a major book, chances are, they have the answer for you to help you out. You can also always ask me as well: Ask the Comic Book librarian.I will help as best I can.
Now that's with the big companies DC and Marvel, with independent books the creators typically own the book. That means the entire story is under their control the entire time and they tell what they want to tell. I should also mention DC's Vertigo imprint works this way too typically. So this is a time when completist is not necessarily a bad thing because that's everything the creators intended. Some of these series, like Walking Dead or Spawn can go on forever though and lose their way, so you may not need it all if they're getting in the 100+ page range for a patron to be happy. Of course, shorter run independent comics are much easier to justify budget wise too since there are only a few trades. But there is a danger with independent stuff as well.
The pure reality of the matter is a lot of independent comics will not pay their creators enough to keep the book alive for a long run. Some are only financially viable enough to last a very short time and sometimes creators have even had to stop books they love and want to work on to go work for a check. Sometimes a book just gets dropped all together for various reason. That means that the story may not be complete and it may never be complete or there may be huge gaps in between publishing, which will cause your patrons to lose interest or even mean you weed the essential first book while waiting for the second. That is something to keep in mind when looking at indy books and something that every comic fan realizes and faces when supporting these books.
So yeah.. follow story over series in general. And if you need help, ask..
Also don't be afraid to use circulation statistics to help you make determinations. If something isn't circulating, then there is no sense of buying more of it. And while I'm personally guilty of wanting an entire story or series before I get invested in it, it's not necessarily and giving people a taste can lead them to getting the rest by either purchasing it themselves or ILL if that is available.
Q: So without further ado, should I be a completist and get all of comic X?
A: Depends. No really, it depends.
Comics are not like books where you generally have the same creators on every book (James Patterson being an obvious example of that not being the case). Comics can switch creators around easily and it's common in some areas for that to happen.
Super hero comics especially by DC and Marvel comics have a tendency to regularly swap out creators. This can be to bring a new fresh idea to the book or it could be because the previous creators are leaving for any number of reasons. So one issue in a comic about the same character or team can look very differently depending on the creative team. One obvious example of this is the New 52 Wonder Woman by Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang (mostly) vs. the Rebirth Wonder Woman with Greg Rucka, Liam Sharp, Nicola Scott, and Biliqus Evely. Entirely different takes on the same character and only within a few years of each other. That's a more dramatic example and includes a reboot, which means they scrapped everything and started over again, but the same thing can happen easily in a book. When James Robinson left Earth-2, new writer Tom Taylor took over and while the characters were the same over all, Red Tornado was completely changed and entire sub-plot about Mister Miracle and Big Barda was dropped complete and never mentioned again. Things like this happen constantly at DC and Marvel particularly, but it's a problem with the superhero genre and corporate owned properties in general.
So the better rule of thumb for these, unless of course you are circulating a series like crazy, is to follow stories rather than series. Chances are your patrons are more interested in reading a full story than reading 600+ issues of Wonder Woman. This can, of course, get a little tricky, but most often DC and Marvel make the entire story available in a single trade. The only exception are crossovers sometimes and events. With crossovers, they are usually good about collecting them in one trade, but there may be reasons why they don't and you need to get a few trades to get the entire story. With events, the entire main event is in one trade with about a million tie-ins to that event. It is rarely necessarily to buy all the tie-ins to enjoy an event book (Like Civil War or Secret Empire). Sometimes a few tie-ins are great background information. DC and Marvel typically release event check lists so you can get all of the books that directly relate, but when it doubt.. ASK. This can be confusing, even to comic fans, so don't be afraid to ask a comic fan or local retailer. if it's a major book, chances are, they have the answer for you to help you out. You can also always ask me as well: Ask the Comic Book librarian.I will help as best I can.
Now that's with the big companies DC and Marvel, with independent books the creators typically own the book. That means the entire story is under their control the entire time and they tell what they want to tell. I should also mention DC's Vertigo imprint works this way too typically. So this is a time when completist is not necessarily a bad thing because that's everything the creators intended. Some of these series, like Walking Dead or Spawn can go on forever though and lose their way, so you may not need it all if they're getting in the 100+ page range for a patron to be happy. Of course, shorter run independent comics are much easier to justify budget wise too since there are only a few trades. But there is a danger with independent stuff as well.
The pure reality of the matter is a lot of independent comics will not pay their creators enough to keep the book alive for a long run. Some are only financially viable enough to last a very short time and sometimes creators have even had to stop books they love and want to work on to go work for a check. Sometimes a book just gets dropped all together for various reason. That means that the story may not be complete and it may never be complete or there may be huge gaps in between publishing, which will cause your patrons to lose interest or even mean you weed the essential first book while waiting for the second. That is something to keep in mind when looking at indy books and something that every comic fan realizes and faces when supporting these books.
So yeah.. follow story over series in general. And if you need help, ask..
Also don't be afraid to use circulation statistics to help you make determinations. If something isn't circulating, then there is no sense of buying more of it. And while I'm personally guilty of wanting an entire story or series before I get invested in it, it's not necessarily and giving people a taste can lead them to getting the rest by either purchasing it themselves or ILL if that is available.
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