Today I had to make a very import decision. After thinking long and hard, weighing up the pros and cons, I decided to cancel my standing order at Dave's Comics in Brighton.
Ok, it may not have been such a big decision, I have a pile of at least 18 months worth of unread comics, and not multiple titles, the same three.
However this wasn't the only reason, and for your viewing pleasure, let's go into more detail
1 - I also could never get into the new DC 52. I know what I like, and I like what I know. When the big change happened I though it was a great jumping on point, but I also didn't have the money to have a go at everything. Therefore what I did have a go at simply left me unimpressed. Surely the nature of starting afresh, to get new blood into comics, means that each issue 1 should be the best of the best of the best, not just more of the same. Anyway this leads me onto point 2.
2 - Why are there so many? I also thought the point of starting afresh was to cut down on the all the filler, however we still had multiple Batman titles, none of which were that interesting. At least at issue 1.
3 - General quality - This is kind of a combination of 1 and 2. Not being able to buy everything means I can't find what is supposed to be good. Therefore based on what I did read, my outlook was damaged and nothing seems that good. 24 pages (or whatever it's at now) just doesn't seem enough to tell an interesting story).
4 - Convergence, Endgame, Year Zero. I still couldn't keep up with all the multi title storylines. Does anyone actually go out of their way to get each individual title? Probably, but I don't. I always enjoyed the way Garth Ennis treated this with Hitman. he either took the protagonists out of Gotham for a few weeks, or took the piss a bit with it. This also ties into point 5.
5 - My final reason for leaving is that I can leave on a potential high. My major collection started with Hitman, and it will end with Section 8 (with a full collection of Fable sandwiched in the middle). This makes me happy.
Oh I'll still probably get the odd collection, and I'll always be interested in what's going on. Hell, I may even jump back in. I just feel little sad that I'm not helping with the brick and mortar stores, but then they didn't seem too heartbroken when I cancelled. I was expecting to have to answer questions on why I was going, was it something they did?
Update 26/06/2015
This blog post was written a few months ago and only just posting now. I just wanted to add somewhere that on top of all of the above, I finished reading Neal Adams; Batman Odyssey...and it's bonkers, but not really in a good way.
