That's obvious. I wasn't stating that you SHOULDN'T have to pay for them. I stopped downloading comicbooks years ago (after a conversation with Dan actually) because I didn't want to own comics I didn't pay for. That's not my complaint. I'm happy with paying for my comics. I just don't like being "told" to buy a comic that I question from a company who overprices and overships their product just to see if my questions were justified or not. That costs too much if it ends up that I was right all along.
And again, that's just a general statement, not directed at this one specific scenerio with Dan and Dangerman.
Again, I agree. It's not the buying that bothers me but the "being told" to buy that bothers me. Officials can get annoyed and tell people to "give a book a chance" or "read it first then complain" but they aren't the ones being overcharged for the hobby they enjoy. All those sorts of statements do is line their pockets without any care whether the reader liked what they bought or not.
And while it's easier to see if you might like a book now than in years past you won't really know until the book comes out. Heck, I thought I'd LOVE AvX but it's turning out to be one of the crappiest stories I've read in 21 years. There's no guarentee.
I agree actually and I've been desparately trying to drop comics. I can't. 21 years worth of buying and caring for the characters on the page keeps me buying. I'm very burnt out on the people behind the scenes (not necessarilly writers or artists as much as the decision makers above them) but I love the characters. I despise the idea of not reading the X-Men. I've followed them and their extended family for two decades straight. I've "known" them longer than I've known my wife, my kids, half my siblings, or any of my friends. Comicbook characters, and X-Men specifically, has been the one constant in my life since I was 10 years old and while I hate how Marvel runs their business, I still love the characters. I WANT to know what's going on with them, I WANT to read their comics. I DON'T want to read what the current Marvel is doing to them. They've already destroyed Spider-Man (at least, the Spider-Man that I grew up loving). I don't want to see them continue to do that with the rest of these characters.
I don't complain out of hate. I complain out of love. I love these characters and modern Marvel just stomps on them and makes them a joke. Death should matter. Marriages should matter. Characters should matter. Progression should matter. Stories and status quos and history should matter. I don't feel like the higher ups of Marvel care about those things as much as previous generations. They just want the next quick cash grab and when that's over work toward the next quick cash grab. Shock, Relaunch, Renumber, Reluanch, Event, Death, Return, Death, Return. The characters and the history that brought them to this point (on the page and those behind it) deserve better than that.
That is to say, I've at least made steps. I've dropped over half of my Marvel buying (though they made it back up with their double shipping nonsense). Even with that I've managed to drop from $130-$150/month to around $60-$90/month and I'm still trying to get that down. Post-AvX will be a big factor in that I think.
And I don't complain consistently. I praise books that deserve praise, such as W&tXM and Uncanny X-Force. As a newer reader, I think DC is doing a fantastic job with their New 52 reboot. I think the indy book Stuff of Legend is phenominal. I praise artists and writers who do a good job. It's just Marvel as a whole who frustrate me to the point of rediculousness.
Believe it or not I'm a very pleasant, positive person in everything save Marvel Comics. You guys wouldn't know that because that's all you see, but it's very sad that I can see how crappy I've become these past few years. I don't like it. I honestly wish I could just walk away from comics but I just can't.
