First published at 14:30 UTC on August 2nd, 2020.
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I don't know how many of you buy comics, but I can assume that it's not a lot of you, because comic sales are, in a lot of cases, tanking. And if you do buy comics, good on you. But for those who don't buy or even read comics, pretend for a second that you're entering a comic shop. It smells like fresh pages and Deadpool T-shirts. The floors creak a little bit, and you overhear two guys debating something in the manga section in the corner. You go to the cashier and ask where you should start if you want to get into Marvel. He then lists copious titles that you'd need to buy, which titles probably won't be good, and the money that it will cost. You then leave the shop forever, buy some chicken tenders on the way home, and congratulate yourself because you really dodged a bullet there.
I hear so many people talk about how great it is that they didn't get into comics, or that they stopped buying single issues of comics. They say things like "It was getting pretty bad before I had to stop myself," as if they're discussing heroin or punching elementary schoolers. Comics had ceased to be things that they consistently enjoyed and had become things that they felt like they had to finish. They had to buy every issue of every title so that they could potentially grasp one narrative. You know why a major book being a "standalone title" is often seen as such a awesome thing in comics? It's definitely not because they come around very often.
I don't think single issues of comics will ever go away, at least not in the near future. But I do think that a business model that deals mostly with what's ..
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