Actually, I've technically never left. Comics, I mean. I have read comics for the last 27 years. Some of those years (like the 90s) I only read a couple of titles. Most of those titles were either Star Wars from Dark Horse or a Superman or Batman book when I thought the art and writing looked good. I also had a compulsion to stay with the Teen Titans and picked up the 90s version although it wasn't that good. Maybe that's why it ended only after 24 issues.
As the new millennium started I grabbed a Wizard and was immediately pulled toward the CrossGen titles that I saw in a page ad. I was hooked again with a passion. I bought them all. Scion, Meridian, Negation, Sigil and The Path to mention a few of my favorites. I actually found my self liking non-super power books.(to which I still prefer) The stories were interesting, compelling and had a classic serial style. The books were always on time and the price was right for the art and quality of floppy. I was sad to see the company go down because of mismanagement and bad investments. I still think CrossGen had something with their business model.
Since, the CrossGen collapse, I returned to picking up a few books here and there. Nothing with a real passion. I mainly focused on big writers and artists. I got the Kevin Smith GREEN ARROW and J. Michael Straczynski's AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. The Hush Story in BATMAN was great. Jim Lee and pouches! Also, any old franchise books I picked up -- Voltron, Thundercats and GI Joe. Sorry I'm a kid of the 80s. Then one day DC announced a book called Identity Crisis. My DC books started to double then triple. That led to Infinite Crisis then 52 then Countdown.
At the same time that my book orders doubled and tripled, comic prices spiked from $2.25 to $2.50 to $2.99. (all within 3 years) Now there's a rumor more and more $3.99 titles will follow. Sorry but this is breaking me!! 52 was $2.50 an issue and happening every week. Then Countdown pulls the same weekly schedule but its $2.99. I'm really loving the hobby but I think I will have to sell a kidney or make some kind of fluid donations to keep up with the cost. Why can't DC or Marvel make these books affordable? Are the ads not supporting the books like it does for newspapers? When will the price increases stop? Will a monthly title priced at $5.99 be bought or will it crush the industry?
A lot of questions to think about. If I was a comic politician my platform would be the rising costs of comics in today's market. They say comics aren't a kids hobby anymore. They would be right as there's no kid out there that will drop the $3 an issue. A five book habit would run a 12 year old a minimum of $15 of a hard earned allowance. When I was 12 I was spending my $15 but I got 14-16 titles. That's a huge difference. I think we should try and get more kids into comics so they become adults into comics. Yet I think the rising cost of these monthly issues will only drive those new readers away.
