Attack of the Cheap Sets!

By Aaron Cooper

Let’s get this straight right away. This is not a debate regarding the economics of monthly titles vs. collected editions and why either should be supported. Yet it seems like every few months I vow to get rid of and no longer buy single issues, monthlies, ‘floppies’ as I’ve heard them referred to as, and stick with collected volumes only. That way, I can amass that library I’ve always wanted and truly become the Graphic Novel Guru I like to think of myself as. Singles get tucked away in long boxes that never see the light of day, while my bookshelf gets perused every few hours for another fine volume to get gazed upon, so why not go that extra level and just get rid of the singular issue? How many times have I bought a monthly title, and then never bothered re-reading it until the trade came out? More times than I care to admit!

So why is it I can’t bring myself to completely get rid single issues? I’ll tell you why: I’m finding too many darn good deals on cheap sets of comics! I can’t escape. Just check out some of these deals I’ve scrounged from different stores lately. To make things worse, I was looking for collected editions and bought these instead:

1. Batman – The Cult: Fantastic Batman mini from Jim Starlin and the incomparable Bernie Wrightson. Again, trade will set you back about $20.00. I’ve got all four near mint Prestige format issues for $5.00, the cover cost of like one and a half issues in the cheap set section! The covers of these were so cool too!

2. Green Arrow – The Longbow Hunters: Why DC has never put out a hardcover of this beautifully written and illustrated Mike Grell masterpiece is beyond me. Instead we got even the most mediocre of the new series in hardcover. Oh well, the trade of this will only cost you $15.00, unless like me you can find all three issues in near mint condition in the cheap set pile for $4.00 total! Sacrilege, I say! I may just have to bind this one up myself.

3. The Prisoner – Funky DC Prestige format series based on the cult 60’s British show. Cool art and story by Dean Motter and it got me into the TV series. I found the trade recently for half off cover, so it would have only cost me $10.00. then I looked in a box directly under the half off table and found the entire four issue series in a set for $5.00! Let me do the math here…..

4. The Shadow Strikes – After some hit and miss with this character set in modern times, DC brought back the Shadow to his pulp 30’s roots in this series. They never put a collected edition out there, and it makes a nice companion piece to the great 70’s series by Denny O’Neil and Mike Kaluta. Especially when the first 13 issues could be had for $10.00 total.

Hey, I’m proud of myself. What can I say? Of course, I just refilled nearly two short boxes and got nothing new for the bookshelf. As always, your mileage may vary. Good hunting and good reading!