He talks about how he ends up buying and rebuying newer editions of his favorite comics, specifically mentioning Absolute/Omnibus/oversized editions.
He did miss one fun aspect of rebuying, though. Last night, my wife told me that one of her friends had an 11-year old son who was just getting into comics, and did I have any extra books I could give to him?
Of course I did. I made my eyes pop when I hauled out 6 Essential Marvel books and a few other trades. I had recently repurchased the same material but in Omnibus or Masterworks format, and I’d rather give these to an 11-year old kid getting into comics than bother putting them up on eBay. Giving comics to kids is one of the coolest things an adult comics fan can do.
I feel the same way, Ray. We all (not just publishers or retailers, but EVERYONE) should do anything we can to help the kid generation of today to foster a love of comics, if we wish to see them be around for their kids. And I’m doing my part…
True story. I was a convention where Mark Bagley was one of the guests. Bagley’s always been a favorite of mine, so I couldn’t pass up the chance to meet him myself. We talked a bit, he signed my book and even did me a GL Kyle Rayner sketch. As I was getting ready to leave him, there two kids ran up. A bother and sister. They had some issue of Ultimate Spider-Man for Bagley to sign. The sister then asked Bagley if he could do a sketch of Spider-Girl for them. Now, Bagley hadn’t brought any paper for sketches. I got mine, only because I always bring my own sketch pad with me. So, I torn out a sheet for him and said to “go for it.” On top of that, I gave the kids a copy od Ultimate Spider-Man #7, which I had signed by Bagley and Bendis, because in the pile of issue they brought, they didn’t have a copy of that book. They were both very excited to get the book and sketch. And i know that for as long as they live, they will always the remeber the cool comic show where that happened to them. It will probably help them to foster a love of comics for the rest of their lives.
Imagine if all fans did stuff like that, what a wonderful hobby this would be. 🙂