Hey out there in TV Land!
(Note: I am constructing a brief but rich fictional world that is, in effect, a 90s game show. I – and in fact Team Geeking as a whole – apologize for any confusion this narrative tapestry may have caused.)
Guess what it’s time for?
Pull! List! Panic!!!!!
The game where we obsessively fret about the number of comics we’re reading and the winner gets…I don’t know. Fewer comics? More comics? A third, joke-based thing?
Last week I was fretting about my pull on Twitter, and my friend Claire said that she only pulls comics if she loves it so much that she wishes it was weekly.
That’s a really good way to go about it. That is not my method. I will keep pulling a book if:
- I really love it
- It ties into something I really love
- It ties into something I basically like
- It has a character I really like
- I’m worried it’ll suddenly get GREAT after I cut it
- I think it’s objectively well done, even if it doesn’t really catch me
- I don’t necessarily like it less now than when I started reading it
- It’s a type of book I want to see succeed
- I found out it’s ending soon
- Seriously, even if I’m tired of it, and want to cut it
- If we’re talking <5 issues
- It stays on the list
- Because what I supposed to do?
- Walk away in last chapter?!
- They’re about to RESOLVE STUFF
- Stuff I don’t care about , but still STUFF
- I need to see how the STUFF RESOLVES
So, as a result, I read too many comics. It’s probably better to say that I buy too many comics, because my unread pile looks like this:
Tower of Terror
Hahahaha, JUST KIDDING. That’s not my unread pile.
It’s my “Unread Ongoings Currently On My Pull List” pile. It doesn’t include impulse-buy trades, “Project” purchases (as in “I’m going to make a project out of reading Ultimate Spider-Man), the X-Statix omnibus, the bag of minis I bought at CAKE last year, a few long boxes of hand-me-down back issues…you probably get the point. Also, if I REALLY stare into that abyss of irresponsible spending I will freak out.
I was already planning to make some cuts, then Secret Wars started. There are soooo many Secret Wars books I have to read. Noelle Stevenson is writing Runaways. Magik is in at least two books. There’s a romance anthology. A-Force.
But money is decidedly finite, so now cuts are a must. I love comics, but I also want to go out for breakfast sometimes. And there are three different dagger necklaces on Hey Chickadee. Toward that end, here are my tips for trimming your pull list:
- Figure out how many comics you’re actually buying. Not officially adding it to your list doesn’t make those six issues of Thor free.
- Set a max number of comics you want to pull.
- Account for upcoming books you’re going to pull. Like, you know how you already pre-ordered Power Up? Good call! But that counts.
- Decide which books you absolutely love – these stay on the list.
- Fill the remaining slots with the best of the rest.
- Or, JUST pull the books you love.
- And if a book ends, you don’t HAVE to go looking for something to take it’s place.
- Accept the fact that – as noble a goal as it may be – you’re not going to read every awesome story that ever comes out.
- Also, maybe put the huge comics “projects” on hold until you’ve finished the two complete runs you already have.
…That may have gotten a little less broadly applicable toward the end. But still – there’s a path to trimming your pull list. And if you want to test these tips, you can go ahead and figure out what I should cut from my list.
I’d do it myself, but I think this summer I’m going to try reading some Flash, so I need to go research a list of essential arcs.
Books I’m Picking Up This Week:
Convergence #6
Giant Days #3
Lady Killers #5
Ms. Marvel #15
Saga #28
Secret Wars #2
Spider-Woman #7
Silk #4
Storm #8
Thor #11
…how did this happen?
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