Hey, I’m Jill, known on the interwebs as The Nerdy Bird . You may remember me from such websites as Has Boobs, Reads Comics and The Mary Sue . I’m the owner of one and the Associate Editor of the latter but have been known to freelance on several other pop-culture websites.

But I’m not here to give you my resume, I’m here to introduce myself, as my long-running column Hey, That’s My Cape! has a new home at IGN Comics and you’ll probably be seeing a lot of me. So hello, IGN readers!It’s interesting to be starting anew here as the year comes to a close. December tends to be a time of reflection for most people and that’s certainly the case for me while considering what I wanted my first post on IGN to be about. There’s a few controversies swirling around the tub that is the comic industry right now (notice how I didn’t say toilet), but in my mind, talking about how comic reading has changed for me this past year felt more appropriate.In August, I attended GeekGirlCon in Seattle. It was their second show but the first time I could go and I was very excited for the programming available. My editor at The Mary Sue, Susana Polo, was moderating a panel and while I would have gone to support her no matter what the topic, she happened to be in charge of Greg Rucka’s spotlight.Score.I went into the panel room expecting to hear Rucka talk about his many works, answer fan questions, and just generally be awesome. I got all that but I also got a swift kick in the ass. Metaphorically, of course.Rucka told the audience he was mad at us. And that’s when my subconscious returned to the third grade, with the teacher yelling at the class, and feeling guilty even though I wasn’t the one who made the trouble. “You’re buying books that you hate,” he said. “And you have to stop doing that.”At first I thought he was nuts. Why would I buy books I hate? That makes no sense. But as Rucka went on, and the more I thought about it, I realized I wasn’t necessarily reading books I hated but books I didn’t particularly like anymore. The point that drove it all home was when he said, no matter how much we love a character, if the story or art wasn’t to our tastes, we shouldn’t be buying it because buying it reinforces the “bad behavior,” as it were.And it was as if the skies cleared after a terrible storm – there were several books on my pull list that I hadn’t been enjoying for some time but I was still buying them every month.Before I go any further, bear in mind I’m a journalist who writes about comics on a regular basis so my reticence for dropping a title is partly based on feeling like I need to stay in the know. How can I write about a book with any real relevancy if I’m not actually reading it? But that reasoning only goes so far. I really was just buying books for the love of the characters.

Read more about superhero characters vs. creators!

For example, when DC Comics’ The New 52 began, I was reading 33 of their titles. Before hearing Rucka’s speech, I had dropped a few that simply weren’t holding my interest but they also weren’t with characters I was particularly attached to. And I really do think that’s the crux of the matter. If you’re reading this, you’re probably a comic reader and no matter how long you’ve been reading, you have an emotional attachment to the characters on the pages.That attachment can be so visceral at times, we forget they aren’t our characters. And yes, that’s what leads to most message board fights, right? We feel so strongly about these characters, we see them a certain way, and any change outside that proves how devoted we are to the medium. It may also prove how crazy we are, depending on who you ask.So what did I do after Rucka’s speech? I sat down with my iPad (I’m fully digital now and still getting used to it) and gave serious thought to each title. Of the 33 titles I was reading, I decided to stop buying eight. And while it was a huge decision to make, once I did it, I wondered why I hadn’t done it sooner.What did I wind up cutting? Look, next to the Batman universe, the Green Lantern universe is my favorite. And I love the Red Lanterns . I cosplay as a Red Lantern complete with Dex-Starr! I even created a parody Twitter account for the rage kitty! That’s how much I love them. This wasn’t a case of being offended by any content, the title simply wasn’t doing it for me. So I dropped it. There were others too, but you get the gist.It’s tough being a comic book consumer. Your view of a character may not be the same as the person sitting next to you at a convention and their view may not be the same as the person next to them. And yes, it’s quite possible all of your views don’t match up with how a publisher sees the character. But if enough of you disagree with the publisher, shouldn’t that affect their plans? Usually not. Why? Because you’re buying the books regardless. Not because you love the stories being told, but because you love the character too much to give up on them. And be honest, that is what it feels like, giving up on the characters themselves, not the book.The same goes for big events. Fans complain they’re tired of them but they buy them each and every time. Buying books means sales and sales are what matter in the comic industry (although recent events could lead you to question that basic principle), so the cycle continues.You know the saying, “If you love something, let it go. If it comes back to you, it’s yours forever. If it doesn't, then it was never meant to be?” I feel like that applies to comic buying. If you love, say, Thor, but hate what’s currently being done with him, let him go. Really. Let. Him. Go. If enough people feel the same, and drop a title, perhaps change for the better will occur. If not, well then, you’re saving yourself $3.99 in frustration and there’s already enough frustration in fandom without piling on more, isn’t there?I’m not trying to diminish comic sales, I’m really not. I just want comic books to be the best they can be. So buy the comics you enjoy, drop the ones you don’t. It may sound simple enough but I can bet there are a few of you out there right now thinking about your current pull list with a more critical eye than when you first started reading this column.See you next time…

Jill Pantozzi is the creator of TheNerdyBird.com and Associate Editor of TheMarySue.com. You can find her on Twitter @TheNerdyBird or on IGN at JillPantozzi . Batman is her boyfriend. Don't argue.