Heard a guy at the con say you can't be a real fan if you only read trades

I was waiting in line for a coffee at the Phoenix Comic Fest last weekend and this guy in front of me was going on about how 'real fans' buy single issues every Wednesday. He said reading collected editions is just for tourists. That really stuck with me, and not in a good way. I've been reading comics for over ten years, but my apartment is small and I prefer having a clean bookshelf with a full story arc. Does anyone else get this kind of gatekeeping from other readers?

4 comments

4 Comments

corap611mo ago

Oh, that's a tired old argument. I read an interview with a writer from Image Comics who said the single biggest shift in the industry was making stories accessible in trades. He called it the best thing that ever happened for bringing in new readers. So that guy's take is about twenty years out of date.

sarah_davis1mo ago

Forget the floppies, trades are the real gateway now.

the_john7d ago

Hold up, do trades really bring in new readers or just re-sell the same stories to people who already read them? Because I think floppies are what actually hook someone in the first place. A monthly comic costs like 3 or 4 bucks and fits in your pocket. A trade costs 15 bucks and is a commitment you have to make before you even know if you like the story. Trades are for people who already know they want to read a full arc. That Image writer might be right about accessibility but he's missing that floppies are cheap enough for someone to take a gamble on. How does a new reader even know if they want to drop 15 bucks on a trade without reading a single issue first?

cora8131mo ago

That Image writer had it right years ago.