After thinking long and hard about this for the last six months I think it is time to end my comic subscription with Comic-Store (my comic store is amazing, but I am leaving out their name for this public proclamation) and with mainstream monthly purposes in general. This is not an easy decision for me to come to after having bought comics monthly for over 15 years – but I think it is time for me to say goodbye. This does not mean I want to say goodbye to Comic-Store, you will always have a loyal fan of your business in me and I would be glad to take some of the monthly titles in trade paperback form or even buy trades from you before I buy anywhere else if you have suggestions.

The industry is shifting greatly right now. Monthly issues just haven’t been something I have looked forward to like I had in the past. 10 years ago you couldn’t have convinced me that I would ever want to drop reading the Avengers on a monthly basis – but what are the Avengers anymore? There are like 4 different Avengers titles and none are the actual Avengers (at least in my humble opinion.) I want to keep reading some of the titles – but I am leaning towards looking for them in trade form, titles like the Walking Dead and Fables. But I cannot name a superhero title that I am honestly excited about right now to read. Daredevil is really good right now.  Maybe Hickman’s FF.

I want you to know that I didn’t come to this decision lightly at all – mostly because I felt an extreme loyalty to Comic-Store comics and to the mainstream comics industry in general that has raised me to be the person I am today. I didn’t want to stop supporting the comic store market. I believe in your existence. But sadly the last straw for me was the fact that I did not receive a pay raise this past year and that is forcing me to start to have to conserve my expenditures.  Now that I am touring to at least 4 different conventions a year with the Graphic Novel Project (www.thegnproject.com) I find myself drawn to purchasing works by independent creators, webcomic artists, and looking for superhero works in trade paperback form. I don’t know if any of this is at all helpful to you. I just couldn’t cancel my subscription and leave the world of the monthly issue purchase without explanation.

I care about the comic industry deeply and I care about the market around comics and I know you do as well. I hope you understand my reasonings, and at the very least know that this was a hard decision for me. With that I hope you can send me whatever you have set aside for me and cancel my sub following this last shipment.

With much care,

Patrick