My fave? “Alan’s War” Gonna send that to my uncle who arrived in France two weeks after D-Day. The one I’d merchandise like crazy? Spiegelman’s Breakdowns.

So much good stuff coming out… stuff I’d ask people “Why don’t you…” and they are! Sam’s Strip! Humbug! Trump! Mmmm… and I can afford to buy it, unlike when I was a kid and Eclipse was printing hardcovers, and Graphitti was printing S&Ns…

I use the ‘new graphic novel’ section of their site and ‘reserve’ a bunch. Then I ‘suspend’ the holds so that they’ll get me down to ‘first’ place so I can try to contain my reading as best I can. I don’t like to have more than 4 or 5 out at a time ;-)

It was thanks to Peter a few years ago when he did an event with Seth and Chester Brown at the library that got me started — had never occurred to me before to get comics @ the library!

Of course, I’m old enough now I can spend an hour sitting on my porch and staring at the street.

But now, well, yes, my reading time is less… but also there is so much goodness out there that one can’t do it all. Egads, I’ve got a big to-be-read pile. And as a reader, there’s worse situations to be in than to have a surfeit of worthwhile reading. But yes, it leaves me reading mostly known quantities, not finding the need to experiment much.

But as a publisher… this is a pain in the butt. Because I know the reader I’m pitching to is also in the same situation. And with so many projects that folks need to make noise about to promote, it just becomes a wall of noise. It’s so hard to get heard.

I just got the American Flagg hardcover and the Creepy archive book in the same month. And since they’re imports and due to the exchange rate, I actually paid more than American retail for them. I have the Love & Rockets thingy on pre-order, too. They seem to be having trouble getting it for me.

Strangely, even though these books are more expensive here, I find I can afford to buy them now because my disposable income is so much more now than it was when I was a lowly graphic designer. But in all the spending I do end up depleting my bank account pretty rapidly so I’m trying to cut back. I can’t quit cold turkey, not with all these awesome books coming out at the same time. So, no, even though I do go crazy sometimes I can’t buy everything I’d like.

But I do like everything I buy.

And if they suddenly dump a bundle of new Nana volumes on the market though… I’m in serious trouble!

I have also recently renewed my love affair with the public library. It’s really amazing the selection they have as well as the amount of new stuff. On our system, you can see what’s popular by looking at how many “holds” are on a book. I had to wait a month and a half for the Abel/Madden first second book on cartooning. Finally got it and it looks good. Even Jason stuff I have to wait for (surprising since London has such a reputation for being a conservative town). Interestingly, the Marvel stuff seems readily available…

New GNs from untried artists get picked up if word is good (I’m always happy to hear your and Peter’s recommendations) and they appeal to me when I flip through them in the store. If they don’t grab me, they get put on the back burner where I might pick them up during a slow week/month or I might just forget about them entirely. For example, I still haven’t picked up Red Colored Elegy, just because there’s something about the artwork that turns me off. I expect I will pick it up eventually, though, considering the raves. I know enough about my tastes not to trust my snap judgments.

Cost is a factor too — I might give something that’s $10-15 a try, but for $30 I’m going to be more leery about taking chances.

yes and no, I don’t keep a ‘comics budget’ but then I don’t make weekly visits

It’s very rare right now for a new book to come out that i’d want to buy to go out of print before I could pick one up

If I do have money to spend though i’m that much more likely to grab more and more books, and naturally I tend to buy for more then just myself when I do swing by

That said, I have a huge list of books that I haven’t bought that I’d like to someday, when I’m filthy rich and retired. ;-) I hope to get to that list someday soon. heh heh

So yes, there’s a lot I’m not reading/buying any more, mainly superhero stuff from Marvel and DC and manga, because there’s so much interesting stuff being done in independent graphic novels and collections.

It’s a dilemma, that’s for sure.