The second half of my TPB collection. As you may be able to tell, I’m a huge X-Men fan.

By (disposable) income I mean everything I have left after rent, my student loan, non-restaurant food, gas, savings, my 401k contribution, and all those miscellaneous things you actually had to buy.

There’s generally not all that much left, but every Wednesday I spend a fair portion of the little that’s left at my local comic store (lovingly referred to as an LCS by us nerds) buying the latest issue in a smattering of series I follow that put out new issues anywhere from every 2 weeks to every 2 months.

In the past I’ve been slightly embarrassed to admit I can end up spending anywhere from $32 to $40 a week just on 8 to 10 comic books (though it’s usually closer to $24), but I’ve come to peace with this and don’t feel that it’s excessive in the way many often do when they first hear this figure.

Now, I do of course also spend quite a bit of disposable income on eating breakfast, dinner or dessert out with my girlfriend, eating lunch on my own, getting drinks with friends or on non-comic books. But if you break it down, aside from the occasional big purchase like my two-person kayak, the largest chunk of that disposable moolah goes to comics. Here’s why:

1. Comics are expensive these days.

The biggest and most obvious reason — especially to those who also buy comics — this hobby takes up such a large part of my disposable income is because the average price of a single comic book these days is $3.99.

Sure, some are still $2.99 (increasingly fewer though) but that doesn’t do much to lower the average price because a lot of them are also $4.99 now! generally you get more content with the $5 issues, but keeping up with these stories monthly isn’t the most accessible hobby.

This is sad because comics aren’t something it’s easy for children and teens to get into anymore, and they have the potential to be really good tools for teaching young’uns a lot of vocabulary and how a narrative is formed.

One of four boxes that contain my collection of single issues, and a couple compilations on the left.

2. The work that goes into them is astounding

As much as I’m not stoked about the price of comics these days, they do pretty much justify the price with the quality and quantity of the content. The art is generally incredible, and I’m usually left wondering how the artists produce this much detailed, often breathtaking work this consistently.

I’m almost sad sometimes that I don’t read them more slowly (since I have so many to read and so little time) because each page has an embarrassing wealth of details, some of which I worry no one but the artists themselves ever see or pay full attention to.

Art aside, it’s also amazing these writers can continue to come up with mostly original ideas for characters that have been around for upwards of 50 years (in the case of many superheroes) and create new characters all the time to put in unique situations (recent examples that come to mind include Rock Candy Mountain, Curse Words and Britannia).

At the end of the day, I have no qualms paying for comics when they are as high-quality as they so consistently are (barring some sometimes slightly less than imaginative story arcs or seemingly lazy illustration styles).

3. I could be spending it on much worse things

Like I mentioned above, I also definitely spend a chunk of my disposable income eating and drinking out, and this is probably something I’d do a lot more of than I should if not for the money I put aside for “reading out”. Heh.

Since I already put a sufficient amount of my cash in savings, needing to save some spending cash for my books means I think more about how to eat healthier, usually tastier homemade meals and also opt to invite friends over for games over a $5 bottle of wine or champagne instead of a $6 glass at a bar.

And as far as addictions go (which I’ll address in more detail in my next reason), I think I can say there are a lot worse addictions one could be spending money on than reading and supporting artists.

The first half of my TPB collection, with a couple singles mixed in.

4. Honestly, they’re designed to be a bit addictive

Comics are sort of like the analog version of a movie or TV show. They’re written in a format much like screenplay, they’re driven by dialogue and dramatic scene changes, and most of the story is told visually. We all know how a Netflix show’s episode or season ending with a cliffhanger makes you want to instantly start up the next one, and it’s even worse when you have to wait a week.

Well now imagine that anticipation is stretched out to a month for every episode. It’s a recipe to keep you coming back for more. And they keep starting great, new original series (looking at you Image, Valiant, etc.) and rebooting character runs at #1.

Marvel also does “events” about once a year — Like Secret Wars, which was great, and Civil War II … which we won’t talk about — that get you sucked into what’s going on in the shared universe of Marvel Comics at the time, and entice you to buy the tie-ins! This is once again a classic get-you-hooked tactic, especially if you’re a completionist. Speaking of shared universes …

5. A shared universe is a gateway into more titles

I know I’ve already gone over how astounding the work they put into these comics is, but while we’re at it I have to give a huge bravo to the editors at Marvel for maintaining a complex, coherent shared universe within the titles in their IP (and Valiant, DC and some other publishers I’m probably missing, but I’m primarily a Marvel dude).

The reason this can turn out to be such a money suck is because if you start reading say … All-New X-Men, you’ll inevitably want to pick up All-New Wolverine, then Doctor Strange will make an appearance there for some reason or other, and you’ll encounter Scarlet Witch and want to see what’s up in her solo adventures, and then they’ll all come together in a big event like Secret Empire and you’ll get to see all their different perspectives and roles and get introduced to even more characters whose stories you want to follow after they all go their separate ways!

A shared universe this large is a unique thing, and the continuity and relationships between so many different characters in these titles is very satisfying to keep up with. The more you learn about the history and events, the more connections you make in each series you pick up, and conversations with other comic book fans become much more interesting.

The second of four boxes that contain my collection of single issues. Yes, I know I need to clean the shelf, we’re in the process of moving at the moment.

6. I hate stopping in the middle of a story arc

If you’re not familiar with serial comics, you may not know most ongoing titles generally have arcs of 4 to 6 issues with one coherent story before they start another one with the same characters in a new situation or a new combination of characters in a new place. The individual issues that make up the arc usually round out the trade paperback (aka TPB, the fancy collected editions with a title on the spine and extra artwork in the back).

While I do often drop series I’ve been reading for a while as I lose interest or pick up another one or the title is cancelled, I hate not having each issue that makes up the eventual collected edition. This is mostly so that if I do quit the series but then decide to pick up the next volume when it comes out as a TPB I’m not missing any issues and I don’t have extraneous issues in two different formats. This point leads naturally into the next one as well …

7. I haven’t switched to trade paperbacks (yet)

Trade paperbacks — which I also have a lot of — cost less to purchase than the sum of the single-issue counterparts they’re comprised of. At the moment, I’m in the middle of too many story arcs in too many series to make the switch to TPBs (because I can’t resist getting #1 issues when an awesome new series drops), but I’m definitely trying.