Here's a weird quirk I have that I felt like sharing. Whenever I meet comic creators (mostly from my two trips to Fan Expo Canada) I feel the need to apologize for reading the TPBs instead of going with the single issues. I guess it comes from the feeling that I'm not fully supporting them by buying continuously (after all, a series may get canceled based on these monthly sales before it ever reaches TPBs). Sometimes it just comes up like when I was talking with Jeff Lemire and I saw a Sweet Tooth picture I didn't recognize so I asked, turns out it was for a cover of an issue that is in the next TPB. So I felt the need to explain that I did read Sweet Tooth, I just hadn't read that particular issue yet because the TPB isn't out. And I felt the need to apologize for this. When talking to Andy Belanger about Kill Shakespeare I had to admit to having not ready any of it yet as I'm also waiting on the TPB there. And again, I felt the need to insert a "Sorry" there.
It's completely weird isn't it? I guess some of it goes back to the early days of TPBs. Some creators expressed disapproval of people waiting for TPBs of their books because they were worried the monthly sales wouldn't be good enough to keep the series going. And maybe I keep thinking back to that. But on the other hand, should I really feel bad about doing the TPBs? I am buying their books after all (and not pirating), I'm just doing it in a format that works better for me. And in the case of a lot of books, I don't really know if I want to buy the series until I hear enough good things about it and then I want at least a few issues to get an idea of how good it is. Should I go digging up the single issues on ebay (doing nothing to help the creator) or just pick up the TPB?
Or in the end, I should probably just not worry so much. I want to support creators/books I like and if I do so by picking up TPBs then I think that should be enough shouldn't it? And from there, it's up to the comic companies to figure things out.
