Wednesday Comments – Collecting Comics

Columns, Top Story

For as long as I can remember I’ve been collecting comics. It’s easily my oldest hobby and while I’m just as passionate about music, my comic collection surpasses my music collection.

Yet despite my collection I occasionally feel the need to purchase collections of comics I already have. It doesn’t happen all that often, but it seems to be happening more now. And I don’t know if I’m happy about it or stymied by it.

The first book that I collected in both single issues and trades was Starman. I’d stumbled onto Starman roughly halfway through the run and at the time tracking down those early issues and the occasional elusive stray issue beyond that, was a chore. So I picked up the first couple of trades so that I’d have the complete story.

Of course the trades were lacking the glorious letter’s pages which was the icing on the cake that was Starman. Naturally I tracked down those issues I was missing and now I’ve got a complete run of Starman in issue form and an incomplete run of trades.

But when I heard DC was going to give Starman the “omnibus” treatment, I jumped onboard. I fully committed to the project after the third omnibus was announced, mainly because I feared DC was going to pull the plug on the project like they did on the trades. Now I’ve got all six omnibuses of Starman on my bookshelf and they look great.

My situation with Wildcats 3.0 is similar, only I found out about that title (via friends over in our forums) after it had ended. They recommended it, I picked it up and loved it. I loved so much in fact that I purchased the full run of issues a few times over.

And then Wildtorm announced that they were finally releasing the entire run in trade form (only the first two arcs were originally collected) I was down. I snatched up the first trade and then Wildstorm folded, which caused me to worry. But eventually the second trade was released with “DC Comics” on the spine.

I’ve also picked up multiple versions of JLA/Avengers, Watchmen and Crisis on Infinite Earths. I’ve got the Absolute editions of all three, as well as a trade for Watchmen and the hardcover collection of CoIE. And I picked up the deluxe hardcover editions of both Batman: Year One and The Killing Joke.

But those are all special event books and storylines. For the most part, if it’s a series, the only time I buy it is in the single issues. I don’t wait for the trade because sometimes the trade never comes.

And even if the trade if eventual, like it is with Brubaker/Phillips collaborations such as Criminal, Incognito and the just released Fatale, the single issues just offer up a unique experience. And as is the case with those Brubaker/Phillips collaborations those single issues contain bonuses in the form of essays and profiles.

But now that 100 Bullets is getting released in the deluxe hardcover I’m tempted to dive back into it. I love 100 Bullets and I’ve been meaning to reread the entire series from the start and since it’s getting recollected, I may have to start recollecting.

Still, I feel sort of bad about that because there are other books that I have loved that I don’t go out of my way to collect. I really enjoyed the recent Manhunter and Blue Beetle series and I’m not tracking down those books in trades. Nor am I seeking out Loveless or Human Target trades.

Eh, I’m probably over thinking things. I mean it’s just comic books after all, right? Ignore me and go and read some comics.