Comic Book Buyer’s Guide #3 - Adding Books to Your Pull List - Part 1
Jan 12, 2009 Comic Book Buyer's Guide
Today we are looking into the reasons to ADD a title to your monthly Pull List for this edition of the Comic Book Buyer’s Guide as opposed to removing one as we focused on in the last installment. While it is vital to know when to remove a comic from your weekly pile, its obviously more FUN to add a new comic! So, let’s get started.
There are really only 2 reasons to add a book to your Pull List and those are either for investing or for enjoyment. I touched briefly on the reasons to retain a book on your Pull List for monetary reasons in Comic Book Buyer’s Guide #2 - Part 2 in the Investors Attempting to Invest section, so those same ideas apply here as well. As for the enjoyment side of things, I am going to be expanding on that idea in this entry and will hopefully give you some tools to use when deciding which comics will end up in your collection.
Figure Out Which Comics Pull You in their Direction
It seems that every week there is a new comic series starting or a new story arc on an existing book to jump onto. The question is where to get on board. The comic book landscape is extremely vast, but there are road maps that can help you find what you are looking for. With these helpful hints, you should be able to fill your collection with a solid mix of books you have always enjoyed and pleasant surprises you may never have known existed otherwise.
Check Out the #1s
Yes, this seems like common sense. But it is worth touching upon. A great place to start your search is by scanning the New Releases for any first issues. These are obviously great jumping on points as they are beginnings to stories so not much prior knowledge of the book or characters will be required. Just be sure to look for yourself or ask an employee which volume the series is actually in if you are unsure. Often times when a book is successful, a company will re-launch a title with a new #1 to try and spike sales. If this is the case, you will need to find out if the previous volume(s) will need to be read to understand what is happening in this “new” #1. If there are no other volumes, you should be able to head straight down this path with no roadblocks.
Go With What You Know
If you know that you enjoy a certain creator or creative team and they have a new book coming out, that should make your decision pretty easy. When you order food at a restaurant, how often do you pick something you have never heard of before? Not often, right? Well, a lot of people approach comics for their Pull List this same way. If you are into “comfort food”, that is quite alright. Select a book that has flavours (characters or creators) that you know you like and it is a safe bet that you will enjoy it. Just be sure to mix it up every once and a while to prevent things from getting stale. You know what they say about “too much of a good thing…”
Close Your Eyes, Spin Around and Pick Something
This is the complete opposite of the “Go With What You Know” method and is one of my favourites. Using this method keeps things fresh and surprising. When trying to decide on a new book, try picking something at random. I do recommend literally closing your eyes (you don’t have to spin around…) and selecting a comic off the shelf. Think of the possibilities. You could pick something you had no idea existed and would never have seen otherwise. Or, it could be something you had no interest in and after reading it, you find that you actually enjoyed it. I won’t lie, this is also a way to buy something that you end up not enjoying or even hating. But, I believe it is worth the gamble if done with an open mind and a few dollars to spare.
That’s it for Part 1 of Adding Books to Your Pull List. Part 2 will be posted tomorrow when I will address more methods to be sure that you are selecting the right books for you.
See you then!
Tags: buyer's guide, Comic book, Comics, pull list
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