issue by issue or tpb?

[tsaiberia]

well?

i picked up issue #44 yesterday, along with book 4 of akira, and it got me to thinking...

i am hooked on sip. but i am hooked in the sort of way that i was hooked on all my children when dr. lazar brainwashed erica kane's sister silver but erica didn't notice because she was too busy trying to win jeremy over from natalie and so on. the credits would roll right at the most interesting part, and i'd pace for an hour, curse how badly the show was put together (because they cut in at the best part, dammit!) and would be sitting in front of the television the next day, coke and chips in hand. because i wondered what the hell was going to happen next, and in spite of the fact that in the back of my mind, i knew they were going to roll credits right when i'm dying to know what's next.

does it mean that the story's going badly? not really. it means we're reading a serial.

i also read the first 20 issues of akira long ago. drove me out of my mind. largely because the action in it seemed to move sooooooooo sloooooooooooowly. however, reading it in phonebook sized chunks is absolutely divine and pretty damned gripping. (especially now that i know what happens past issue 20)

so...um...hm....i had a point somewhere...
oh, i am wondering how this will read all at once. if once we have the next *blank* issues, or the _entire_ series collected in one place to read straight through, will the whole thing read differently than in serial form?

wait, that's not what i mean. of course it will read differently in big chunks as opposed to little chunks.

but will the things that are driving us into conniption fits now still be seen as glaring errors or faults in the story? or will someone read the whole thing from start to finish and go "duh."?

alright, i guess we can't answer that now. but it would be interesting to hear (read) what people have to say about reading the tpb vs. reading the issues one by one.

(like with v2 #9. in the tpb, it's a plot point, but reading that and the surrounding issues one by one had me ready to go find terry and skin him myself.)

alright, i'll stop now.

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the almighty can shove his scripture up his ass if just one word of it says i can't stand by my friends.
-jessie custer "preacher"

[This message has been edited by tsaiberia (edited November 02, 2001).]

[pajkub]

urgh...I HATE single issues! I much prefer to have a shelf full of beautiful TPBs all lined up in a row, instead of a stack of slippery single issues that only contain about a teaspoon of story each. The only upside of single issues is that you get the letters pages, but with the online forum and feedback-guestbook-thing, it's just not much of a selling point for me. I wasn't into comics in the pre-internet days, but it seems like letters pages are becoming increasingly obsolete. Oh, I also like to have the color covers of the single issues, but those are also available online.

*sigh* I wish I was patient enough to wait for the TPBs to come out, but now that I'm current with the story line, I can't resist buying the single issues.

When it comes to comics, it seems like there are 3 types of people: readers, collectors, and prospectors. I am a reader, buying comics for the story and placing little value on having all the single issues or owning a certain edition of a graphic novel. Collectors are also readers, but they also strive to have complete collections and signed editions, or valuable items, etc... Prospectors are the types who will buy entire boxes of random comics in hope that they may contain something of value, whether they are interested in the series or not.

As a reader, I definitely prefer TPBs and graphic novels. They are easier to lend out and are not as unwieldly as comic books. Give me a TPB any day!

--Lillian pajkub

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[nicewitch]

I prefer single issues when at home. I like it. Part of an story is the atmosphere or ambiance, whatever, and for comics, the wait is part of that. Will having the entire series in one place change the way we read the story? Yes. Because the anticipation of waiting for the next installment is missing. Will it lessen the quality of the story? No. If the story itself is not worth the read, then people who aren't the collectors tend not to give a flying rat's bottom and simply do not bother to buy the individual issues. If they like the story but don't care enough or are not interested enough to buy the monthly issues, then generally these are the trade paperback readers. when they see the new t.b. they might pick it up if they have the spare cash. So, yeah, you'll find a lot of comic writers who try to give that cliff hang ending on their stuff to to try to keep people coming back for more. I have all the individual issues of SIP that I can get my hands on. Not because I consider myself a collector or a prospector, but because when I genuinely care about a comic/story, I like having it in that form. I have most of the tpb's for SIP because it's easier when I travel and don't want to damage the singles. Also I have the abiding hope that one of these days I will get even one of my friends to actually sit and read the series so I have someone to share my joy with.

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if the world is going nuts, who has the nutcracker?

[amytoilet]

i buy both. buying trades and single issues has prevented me from eating lunch sometimes. i've lost a few pounds to that. who knew Terry Moore was also a health expert.



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laughing is the only way i can keep from screaming .

[Darth Fett]

I'm addicted to my weekly fix of comics, but if SiP was the only thing I read I'd just stick to trades, mostly because Terry takes advantage of the 22 pages breaks and I don't like the intentional cliffhanger on 80% of the issues.
Well, maybe cliffhanger is the wrong word, but I refer to his annoying habit of bringing up questions and pushing the answer back by a page or two, often needlesly, to the next issue. Arcs read together are very satisfying tho'.....

Heck, what if Terry just did 1 or 2 graphic novels a year on SiP? Full story arcs in a nice neat package? Think of the time he'd save. Only 1 color cover per book, no annoying letters pages to assemble, only having to deal with the printer once or twice a year, not having to stuff envelopes and mail subscriber copies....
I'd go for that, but I imagine he makes more money the way he does it now.......

c'est la guerre....

Darth

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'If a man is willing to die, he can be killed'
Sun Tzu, The Art of War

[Lyric054]

Well, I say, Why can't we have BOTH. I love reading the trades because you get huge chucks of storyline at a time. On the other h and I LOVE the coler art o n each single issue, and I go NUTS waiting those 6 weeks between issues as it is, getting TPB or hardbacks 3 times a year would probably KILL me.
Plus, I am pretty rabid about collecting once I get into something...so I am trying to get EVERYTHING...TPB, issues and hardbacks. (YOU should see how much I spend on eBay)
Thanks

Lyric054


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[frosti]

I started out with the first 2 tpb's, and then moved to issues. I like tpb's better. It's just a lot nicer to be able to read an arc in it's entirety than to have to read about twenty pages a month for six months. And, I've noticed how much better the story seems to flow after reading all the issues in the course of a few days. I pick up a lot more of the subtleties which get forgotten over that six week wait.

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[VeronicaPace]

For me, I really like the issues, my favourite cover of all time has Veronica on the cover in front of the window I thought I looked great it that one

I have all issues from 25-44, and one trade paperback. I'm not crazy about Trades actually, I much prefer keeping the single issues and going through them one at at a time, and reading the SIP mail at the end.

Even though Terry has sometimes put me a in a bad light, I still love him

PS Terry, how about going to the past and seeing more of Vernoica, Freddy, etc?


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[Branflakes]

I'm an issue person. I collect comics of numerous types and anything I read regularly I want in issue form (the original way is how I think of it). I also have several trades and enjoy them as ways to reread the series.

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The ninja lesbian milk getter. aka dorkflakes.
Take the time to look up at the moon and stars.
ChatterBox

[Mibbitmaker]

Issues to follow the story(so that pleasure can be had more often), and tpb to look at/read the story regularly after that.