How often do you re-visit comics?

[awfulquiet]

I've been thinking about this lately, as I mostly purged my bloated floppy collection in 2019 and have been rebuilding with (I hope) more discretion toward what I buy, buying more collections or graphic novels, but also still diving in the back issue bins... How often do you revisit books in your collection? Do you have things you specifically revisit on some kind of regular basis? Does your collection grow too fast to have time to do this? Do you have some kind of "out with the old in with the new" system to keep your collection fresh and from getting too big?


For me I don't revisit graphic novels very often. Mainly I'll do it if I read something digitally, or borrowed from the library, and like it enough to get my own physical copy, I'll read it again before it goes on the shelf.

And occasionally I'll open up a short box and grab a random selection of flipped to revisit.


And then there are books I read and say "in going to revisit this every summer" or "every Halloween" and then that time rolls around again and I have a pile of new stuff to read.


Just curious on the experiences of others here.

[disneyweirdness]

Sometimes I do specific series rereads and fill in gaps in the collection as I go, hitting up ebay or Midtown Comics or whatever. Usually though I will see a picture of a comic that I own online somewhere and think, "I should dig that out" and then never get around to it.

[mikesheawright]

Definitely depends on what it is, I re-read different things for different reasons. I like to re-read comics before bed when my brain is too tired to read actual books so usually it's just a mood or a visual thing.

I have some nostalgic stuff that I re-read every few years to see if it still clicks and if it doesn't I put it out on the curb (Stray Bullets comes to mind, has held up through multiple life phases).

Somethings are too long and I know I'll never re-read them in their entirety so I dump the whole lot once they're finished(Cerebus).

My favorite comics are ones that I can't quite get a handle on the first or second read-through and I love knowing that the more I read them the more "sense" they will make, at least to me at that particular time.

This is a headier question than I thought it would be haha. Why do we read anything at all??

[Ian M]

I used to revisit a lot. Most books got two reads from me. The last couple of years though, I don't think that's the case. Between getting older and having something resembling a grown-up's income, and the pandemic cutting out lots of other recreational spending, my comic purchasing has tripled. I'm reading a lot, but I have no shortage on the stack to read. I'd have to stop buying for a few months to really take the time to enjoy my library again.

I do enjoy re-reading though. I develop a much stronger bond with the work.

[mamalips]

I have a magazine file close to my bed that holds 8-12 comics at any given time. I try to read those and then rotate in a new batch. Here's a scary thought, if each book you owned had a bookmark inside it like a library card with the date written on when you last read it. I wonder what book would have the oldest date on it? Probably not a bad idea to do this if you're planning to thin out your collection

[grubcubman]

I like mamalips's system.

The most common situation in which I revisit comics are when I've lost track of an ongoing story and need to start over. I've restarted Copra at least four times. But I'd like to be a rereader! It always feels like the experience with a comic is shorter than the work deserves.

[mikesheawright]

Dec 8, 2021 0:34:29 GMT Ian M said:

I do enjoy re-reading though. I develop a much stronger bond with the work.

Definitely, I don't think I love anything I've only read once. Or seen or heard, for that matter.

[pietrykowski]

When it comes to comics and art related books I keep a lean bookshelf. I try to only collect things I know I will revisit.