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03/16/2003: I like to read comics as serials...
I've decided that parallel to catching up on the past I'd start reading the current issues of Nightwing, despite my spotty background knowledge, and the spoiler potential this has for the past issues. So I've just read Nightwing #77 and #78. I think the main reason for my impatience is that I like the current artwork -- by Jesse Delperdang (for inks) respectively Rick Leonardi and sometimes others (for pencils) -- much better than Scott McDaniel's in the early Nightwing issues. So in certain respects I enjoy them more even though I get less of the story.
Also I just like reading comics as they come out instead of collecting a bunch first and reading them later. And with the back issues I'm tracking down right now, I don't always get them in order, and I won't read with totally random gaps, so there is starting to accumulate a huge pile of comics, which I all can't read right now because I'm still missing random issues. And that is a cruel, cruel thing, especially for the new addict...
Of course reading the current Nightwing issues as the serial they're intended to be, instead of as huge chunks in paperbacks, brings with it also the joy of the cliffhanger. And it often takes a little longer for the new issues to get here than to stores in the US, so even with the current issues I'll be slightly behind the US fans. At least spoilers for comic issues are not as omnipresent as for tv series.
I haven't gotten #79 (allegedly due on March 12), though when I fetched my comic subscription on Friday, there were other titles which were also announced to come out March 12, and which were already there. So it also could be that they messed up with the subscription and only registered it with the usual three month advance order period, instead of starting right away (something which has happened to me before sometimes when subscribing to series). I guess if it's still not there next week I'll inquire at the store. Uhm yeah, I am a tad curious what happens next... *g*
BTW I don't mean "joy of the cliffhanger" ironically, not much anyway. Overall I really enjoy reading comics as serials, as much as I want to know what happens next, I also like waiting and looking forward to the next part. I just like collecting and reading comics in single issues, more than collecting and reading trade paperbacks. As much as I like reading long fiction in one chunk, for example novels, there is something very convenient and relaxing about reading just the 32 pages (or sometimes 48 or 64) of a single comic book. You don't need to set aside a lot of time for that, and still it is part off a long and involved tale not a short story.
I mean, I like short stories, but I definitely prefer longer narratives. And when I already have the whole, like with a novel, I want to read it all at once. Maybe I just don't like breaking it into chunks myself, and external circumstances like serial publishing just feel different. I don't really know, but I like that I can fit in the time it takes to read one comic almost at any time, I don't need to "make time" for it. Of course sometimes I use more time for one, but that's usually when I look at the artwork to figure out how something works, not when I just read the thing.
