As some of you already know (and the rest of you will now learn) I live in a tiny town without a comic book store. There is, however, a Waldenbooks, which has a spinner rack of comics. There's also a magazine/tobacco shop which has had a small shelf of comics. So I go in there today, digging through the meager offering, thinking, "Where the hell are all the Marvel comics?" I turn around and, much to my surprise, there's a brand new spinner rack of Marvel comics! In addition to the joyous nostalgia I felt, I was quite happy to get the following comics:

Marvel Adventures Iron Man #1
Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #20
Exiles #94
Incredible Hulk #106
Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four #2
Superman #662
The New Fantastic Four #546
Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Annual #1
Captain America #26

Still a far cry from an actual comic book store, but a vast improvement, nonetheless.

Now, here's my rant to differentiate this from the Diddy threads.

Spinner racks suck for long time collectors. I understand they're great for new and casual readers and more power to 'em. But I don't want to just read the major superhero comics from Marvel and DC. I also want to read Fell, Ex Machina, Casanova, Criminal, etc, none of which can be found on a spinner rack.

Also, my nostalgia faded when my comics were totalled up. $31 for 9 comics. That's insane. And the books that are most clearly aimed at "all ages" readers, were the most expensive. MA Iron Man (which was pretty great, by the way) was $3.99. FNSM was $2.99 and the Annual was $4.99. SM/FF was $3.99! Those are the kind of prices that will likely force the moms and dads of little kids to put the comics back and rent or buy them a video game instead.

Yup. Single issue prices are really outrageous. Consider, with a trade, you get all the issues for less than the cost singly, plus there are no ads! If they have to be THAT expensive even with ads all through them (which should be offsetting a lot of the cost), something is wrong and the format is simply not viable.
I'm almost single-issue free, apart from a small handful of things now. If I knew for sure Detective, Batman, and Brave and Bold would be regularly collected...I know Spider-Girl will be, so I think that's the next monthly to go.

I'm getting very close to that point. Most likely when I move in a few months I'll just make the switch, at the very least for the Marvel books that are almost certain to be collected.

DC should be as consistent and timely as Marvel with collections, at least on their top titles. 'Tec and Brave and Bold should be collected a month after each arc completes, like clockwork. Right now, you can't really be certain anything other than major crossovers or "event" stories will be collected.

Fortunately, I'm reading less and less DC these days. Plus, if I get my trades through Amazon, they're so much cheaper I can afford to get a few singles a month, like The Spirit or Brave and the Bold.

Honestly, the biggest challenge will be not being able to talk about ongoing storylines and avoiding spoilers.

Heh, I'm reading less and less DC too, but not more Marvel. Only Spider-Girl. I guess that means I'm getting tired of current comics, apart from a small handful. Thankfully there are decades of comics I have never read available in cheap reprints now. I have about 20 essentials/showcases that I haven't even opened yet sitting on the shelf waiting for me.

Memories.....

Hey kids, this ain't a library!

You're lucky. I have to drive an hour to find either a bookstore OR a spinner rack of comics.

i have been lookin to get me a spinner rack for years.

Spinner Racks = Byrne Stealing

That does NOT look solitary. They're doing it wrong.

Is that a store, or are they stocking comics in their garage?

They're mentally and emotionally isolated. Which is perfectly within the accepted bounds of geek behavior.

Most of the trades seem to be pretty close to the cost of the single issues. (W/o discount, true).

I can't wait.

I never could

I had a subscription to New Warriors and Web of Spider-Man back in the day, and would buy them new at the comic store because it came a week before my subscription'

Even now, experimenting with monthly delivery, it's agonizing.

Spinner Racks = Byrne Stealing = Dead Children

I'm pretty much a TPBs at Barnes & Noble guy these days.

I thought this thread was gonna be about bass fishing.

I've been looking for an old spinner rack for ages.

I can't quite give up the monthlies because I love the soap opera effect of following "my stories" and discussing them. I don't think there's any other format anywhere where new stories of established characters come out every week, and a whole group of fans knows together what is happening.

I would be just as excited to follow weekly pulps with recurring character stories.

Borders. GO TO BORDERS.

Barnes & Ignoble is a shitty imitator. A shimitator, if you will. Their lawyers just happened to get the Starbuck's contract.

I feel that I've been clear on this point.