How has the back issue market changed?
24 Comments | Posted: January 5th, 2009 | Filed under: Pandering to the Demographic, Thinking About Comics
During my once-weekly shift at the local comics shop yesterday, I was reading the above (a perfectly goofy bit of 70′s Spider-Man from the first attempt to force the competition off the stands by grinding out title after title with only the slightest of nods towards quality control) and I realized I had not purchased a back issue of anything in quite some time, instead choosing to wait for the eventual collection. Since my collecting interests laid primarily in 80 page giants and Kirby books, this has been a smarter-than-average decision for me, but I’m curious about the back-issue market in general.
Are there still people who go back and fill in holes in their Bendis Avengers run, or has that disappeared entirely in the trade era? I want to hear from retailers, too. I assume there’ll always be a market for Golden Age and Silver Age comic books, but have the Bronze and Chromium eras lost what little luster they had when we have collections of Kitty Pryde And Wolverine and Millennium a click away on Amazon, or am I thinking like a comic book reader instead of a comic book fan? What was the last back issue you bought?
I actually picked up a couple Legion issues just last month, but that’s more of a collector thing not related to my general comics purchasing patterns.
The stores I frequent? Openly admit their back-issue market is nearly dead. Only two “major” stores in Toronto will even consider looking at collections any more. It’s all about the trades here.
The last time a picked up any single back-issues was when, needing something to read over lunch, I grabbed a few out of the quarter boxes to fill the time.
Other than that, the last time I actually hunted down issues was a few years ago when I grabbed the last few uncollected issues of Starman, thinking there would not be another trade. Looks like I didn’t even need to do that.
I was collecting the Dennis O’Neil run on The Question from the late 80′s/early 90′s and then they announced the trades. Been picking those up ever since.
About 2 or 3 months ago i picked up Deadly Hands of Shang Chi: Master of Kung-Fu #125 from a dollar bin along with a few random issues of Arak: Son of Thunder. I don’t think that either series is available in trade. Around the same time, I also picked up about 60 old Archies at a yard sale that had apparently, judging by the charmingly hand-written signatures copiously decorating various pages within, once belonged to the locally grown actress and model Julianna Nicholson. She’s married now.
I’ll still pick up back issues sometimes, but mostly only from the cheapie bins, and then if it’s only goofy 70s and 80s stuff that hasn’t been collected – E-Man, Marvel’s rotating character anthology series, the Shazam issues with stories not in the Showcase etc. I’ll pick up more semi-recent stuff (say, past 10 years or so), though, if it’s something that remains bizarrely uncollected (Priest’s Black Panther) or if I find it for less than the collections would cost (Baxter run Legion, Kitchen Sink’s Spirit instead of the Archives, etc.).
I guess I’m in line with everyone else — I enjoy digging through the dime/quarter/whatever bins, but despite actually having a “fill-in” list somewhere around here, I’ve never actively sought them out.
That being said, I still prefer a collection of floppies to a trade on my shelf.
I spent part of the last few cons I was at trying to complete my run of Young Heroes In Love. That’s kind of a rarity, because we’ll probably never see that series reprinted in trade due to Rapsler and Madan owning the characters. I’ve also bought a handful of JSA back issues I was missing because I have a full run on the book in singles and, well, I still have that kind of mentality.
Oh, I buy a few old Brave and the Bold/Marvel Two-In-One back issues whenever my shop has a back issue sale. Thing/Batman teaming up for a disposable fight is just plain fun reading.
I never buy trades unless it’s for something I know I’ll be paying like 30+ dollars an issue, I love buying single issues, it just feels more like a traditional comic. of course I do buy books when that’s how they’re printed,like a lot of indie comics nowadays, but if I can get the single issues I tend to try to do that.
I would pick up back issues to complete a run, but first I need to sort through my collection again and see what I need…it’s been years since I did that.
For anything relatively new, I’d just wait for the trades.
I enjoy picking up pre-COIE Superman and Superman-related back issues. And correct me if I’m wrong, but I get the feeling that certain long running series such as Superman and Batman might be thought of a bit differenly than what you’re describing.
No real method to my madness other than that there’s so much of the Super-stuff out there, that even with reprints, you don’t wind up with doubles in too many areas. And if you actually own the stuff they’re reprinting in Showcase Presents, Chronicles, Archives, etc… then you probably aren’t wanting to physically handle the comics all that often, anyway.
I’ll also admit that if I stumble across an issue featuring a story I liked a lot in a collection, and it won’t break the bank to add it to my collection, I’ll pick it up. I bought a copy of the original imaginary Superman Red/ Superman Blue story last year, for example (Superman #162).
The last back issue I bought was actually Action Comics #285, while the last issue I bought that I’d accidentally stumbled across (versus actively seeking it out) was Action #286.
We still do pretty good business in back issues, but we’ve got 1) a large back issue selection, and 2) a reputation for back issue availability, so we tend to attract customers from all over, in-store and mail order.
I have noticed over the years that the general trend is that DC readers tend to go for back issues and trades…either/or is fine with them if they’re trying to catch up on a title. Marvel fans tend to stick with the actual comics, eschewing the book collections. For example, I haven’t had to reorder New Avengers trades for months, but we’re selling those back issues every day. The Red Hulk hardcover has barely moved, but those back issues just keep flying out the door. And yes, those customers are made aware of the collections…they just prefer the back issues.
Like I said, this is just in general…I’ve had a few customers pooh-pooh the DC trades in favor of the singles, too.
I actually buy them a lot for books that I recently get into at odd intervals and thus have already gotten a portion of what’s been reprinted in trade. See: Avengers – The Initiative, Amazing Spider Man, and Incredible Hercules.
I always pick up any cheaply-priced copy of Lois Lane or Jimmy Olsen, no matter the quality: I need Silver Age crack. I just picked up the Son of Vulcan miniseries from a couple of years ago, and the Congo Bill Vertigo series from several years before that.
I recently picked up Terry Moore’s Echo 1-4 and RASL 1 and 2 since I was interested in the books and my LCS was having 1/2 off back issues to clear out inventory. The only other back issues I look for are issues of (Uncanny) X-Men between 94 and 142, which I usually get at cons. I’ve been picking up 2-3 issues a year for the past 7 or 8 years because I can’t afford much more. I really miss the days of going to the Toy & Hobby shows held at the NC State Fairgrounds with a long list of stuff I wanted, finding it, and haggling. That’s probably the reason I don’t buy many back issues today-I’ve gotten most of what I want and I keep up with the titles I enjoy, so there’s no need.
I bought a bunch of Conan issues (from 110 or so to 130, missing 2 or 3) extremely cheap. I’ll buy back issues of some recent series, including Jonah Hex and Ultimate Spider-Man, during back-issue sales. I’ll always buy a What If or Noccenti Daredevil I don’t own if it’s cheap.
I’ve been buying a lot more back issues recently because the shop has been putting a lot of irrestible Bronze Age stuff out recently (old Power Man issues, Conan, Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love, etc), but I have been meaning to fill in some holes of near complete runs (DC Comics Presents, Hitman, Robin, etc.)
Great question, Kevin–I personally love a good quarter bin or dollar bin. My most recent purchases were some copies of the Cory Doctorow adaptation mini that IDW put out, the first two Mike Allred adaptation issues of the Book of Mormon (beautiful art, unreadable prose), and best of all, the last issue of Winter Men I needed to complete my set up to the Special–all for a couple bucks at a place in Hatboro, PA while on a business trip.
I have a “want list” of stuff I’m seeking, and the vast majority of it is stuff that will never be traded for whatever reason, but that I desperately want to read–Casey’s Automatic Kafka, the aforementioned Young Heroes In Love, and so forth. I also have a lifelong “ambition” (in quotes because, well, it doesn’t really deserve the word) to collect complete runs of the Batman books; that’s my fanboy blindspot, and I’m sticking to it.
What’s intriguing about this question is that I only have time and resources to do true back issue hunting a couple times a year, it’s still the activity that makes me feel MOST like a “comics fan.” Reading a trade or an issue on the couch, opening the shipping box from HeavyInk, browsing a shop with no back issues–I love it all, but nothing gets my geek going like a 3/$1.00 sign, or a sidewalk sale with quarter bins, or a convention floor full of unexplored long boxes.
The only back issues I’ve been buying lately are ones I find in $1 bins. If I’m patient, I can put together runs cheaper than it would cost to get the trade. Recently, I just cobbled together Ellis’s Thunderbolts run and Fraction’s War Journal.
It’s all stuff that I wasn’t prepared to follow monthly (I thought it would read better in chunks) and was certainly not prepared to pay hardcover price for. I bide my time and search the local shops. It’s actually kind of brought back that old feeling I had when I was a kid and trying to hunt stuff down.
I recently did a bulk-back-issue buy for the most recent Blue Beetle series to get a complete run up to #25, and I’m looking for a few G0DLAND back issues too.
I tend to buy trades if they’re out in paperback at the time I hook into a new series that I want a complete run of, and then I’ll stick with the individual issues (ie I bought the first g0dland trade and have been buying issues one at a time ever since).
I was thinking about this at lunchtime today, actually. I’ve decided to shoot for the holy grail of a complete ROM Spaceknight run, and I was wondering to myself whether it was worth checking out the local comic shops at all, or if it would be better to stick to the dusty old second-hand bookstores.
I only buy back issues if they’re (1) not collected in a reprint collection, (2) I want to sample something with an eye on the trades, or (3) it’s really cheap and hard to resist. Most recent buys from the back issue bins were four recommended issues of Carl Barks’s Duck books (to sample them) and issues 1-4 of the Christos Gage run on The Man with No Name (they were $.50 each and I was curious as a fan of the films).
My last significant back issue purchase was last summer, tracking down all of the uncollected Brubaker Catwoman comics: I’m glad I got them, but I can see why they remain uncollected.
Aside from that, my back issue purchases are confined mostly to my bi-annual San Diego trips. I’d way rather have the Haney/Aparo Brave and Bolds in the original than the Showcases. I also like to pick up random silver age SF and monster comics, 80 Page Giants, Marvel and DC treasuries/digests, early 1970s issues of Action, Superman, Superboy and best of all, 100 Page Super Spectaculars (which left the stands one month before I started getting comics in 1975, and have always had a mystical appeal for me). And I’ll often pick up stray back issues of Teen Titans Go, Transformers or other kids’ books for my sons.
I’m filling in some holes, but once I finish my runs of, um, Groo and Power Pack, I might not be looking at as many back issue boxes for stuff that’s otherwise collected. Unless it’s cheap. Or cool. Or weird. Or has Spider-Man on the cover…
Good question, Kevin! I look for good old comics in used book stores and other second hand shops (though they’re generally filled with bad 90s Image comics). I’m rarely filling holes unless it’s to complete a run of used book store 70-80s Marvel finds.
Weirdly enough, a complete run of The Ray (the continuing series).