{"id":32609,"date":"2020-06-27T10:28:37","date_gmt":"2020-06-27T15:28:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/?p=32609"},"modified":"2020-06-27T10:28:37","modified_gmt":"2020-06-27T15:28:37","slug":"the-calculus-of-future-comics-purchases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/?p=32609","title":{"rendered":"The Calculus of Future Comics Purchases"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A few days ago I decided I just had<\/em> to tackle the piles of graphic novels sitting on my living room table. I have reluctantly concluded I must go out and buy another bookcase; the question then will be, where will it go?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the graphic novels among the piles was Batman: Gotham by Gaslight Noir<\/em>, a black and white collection of two graphic novels originally published in the 1980s and 1990s, Gotham by Gaslight<\/em> and its sequel Batman: Master of the Future<\/em>, about the Batman of the 1890s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Cover<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I read the graphic novels at the time they were published, I read them again a few years ago when I covered the film premiere of the animated Batman: Gotham by Gaslight<\/em> movie<\/a> for PREVIEWSworld. Until Thursday, I had never noticed the one-panel cameo by Sherlock Holmes and John Watson in Master of the Future<\/em>, but does this make sense in a story that takes place during the Great Hiatus?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I like the Victorian Batman. I have a statue of the Gotham by Gaslight<\/em> Batman at work. I have a couple of editions of the story, and there is a hardcover edition<\/a> coming out later this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I realized on Thursday: “Oh, I probably won’t get get that.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the advantages to working at Diamond is being able to purchase the products we offer at wholesale prices, like retailers. Effectively, what that means is that I typically pay 90s cover prices (ie., about two dollars) for today’s comics. For the last decade, I’ve bought and read comics that, if I had to pay full cover price, I wouldn’t have bought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lose a benefit — wholesale cost on DC Comics — and you have to reevaluate. Is this really<\/em> important to me? Is it worth buying?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The answer, in many cases for me, is going to be no.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’d have to find a new source — in this case, a retail establishment — and set up a pull list. Would I feel comfortable, in the current state of pandemic, shopping an unfamiliar store, putting myself at risk from strangers, putting strangers at risk from me?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m using the Gotham by Gaslight<\/em> hardcover as an example. Yes, a deluxe edition hardcover would be nice to have. (I was, I hate to admit, a bit disappointed in the Noir<\/em> hardcover. IDW Publishing’s similar black and white edition of <i>Bram Stoker’s Dracula<\/i> is much superior.) But I don’t need<\/em> it. Paying full price — or an online retailer’s discounted price — for a better presentation of a story I already have, several times over, what sort of sense does that make? There are other things I can spend money on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That calculus applies to all sorts<\/em> of things. Do I need Dark Nights: Death Metal<\/em>? The Arrowverse Crisis on Infinite Earths<\/em> collection? The Batman: The Animated Series<\/em>-styled action figure of the Azrael Batman? Even routine issues of Superman<\/em> and Batman<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don’t know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I feel like I may end up saving myself a great deal of money in the long run.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few days ago I decided I just had to tackle the piles of graphic novels sitting on my living room table. I have reluctantly concluded I must go out and buy another bookcase; the question then will be, where will it go? One of the graphic novels among the piles was Batman: Gotham byContinue reading “The Calculus of Future Comics Purchases”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":32608,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[89,4842,665,4626],"class_list":["post-32609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comic-books","tag-batman","tag-covid-19","tag-dc-comics","tag-gotham-by-gaslight","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}