A question often asked in the shop is what is the best way to read comics. Read them collected in trade paperback form, or wait month to month for individual issues. Honestly its a personal preference, but I feel some series are better to be read collected rather than waiting. Most of the horror and mystery genre is included in that. For others the wait is needed, just to build up that want for it. I have a personal preference towards trades, mainly because I am impatient and I can barely watch television shows when they air because I hate waiting. To have an entire collected story in one book just seems right to me. That being said, I do understand collecting individual issues. You get different covers and you get the immediate gratification of having the story right away, versus waiting for the publisher to put the trade out a few months later.

I consider trade paperbacks the easiest way to introduce someone to long standing comics, especially with the Marvel and DC superheroes. Some characters that are over 75 years old is difficult…or extremely rare…to be able to find the earlier issues, even in just a beat up reader comic. Its accessible and easy way to read stories, without having to hunt down individual issues. Plus, its a money saver, especially if you are looking at the classics.

If you are a collector, you’re going to go for the individual issues. The hunt, the bargaining, the actual capture of your prey just gives you that rush that you need. There really isn’t anything like it, right? The individual issues I feel like are for the collectors, or for people a little more experience in t

he industry. If you’re looking for instant gratification of newer comics, you’re probably going to go individual issues. You’ll  get a monthly fix!

So whichever your preference is, neither answer is wrong. As long as you’re reading the stories, that is what matters.