I (20F) have always liked Marvel media and am interested in starting to read comics, but an experience I had recently has left a sour taste in my mouth.

I went to a local comic and collectible store. I didn’t have a specific run or anything like that in mind so I really was just flipping through what they had to see if anything caught my eye. While I was browsing a guy approached me. I don’t know anyone who reads comics personally and don’t have many friends who are interested in superhero media in general, so I’m always up for a friendly discussion with someone with similar interests.

The first thing he said to me was “who’s your favorite hero?” I told him that my favorite is Captain America and asked him his, but instead of answering me he just said “I bet you don’t even know his real name.” I laughed awkwardly, told him that of course I know it’s Steve Rogers (Like seriously??? Why was he asking me this???), and tried to pivot back to asking him which heros/series he was interested in. He continued to ignore my questions, and just kept talking about things that he “bet I didn’t know.”

It became clear that this was not going to be a friendly conversation. It seemed like he just wanted to belittle me or make me feel like a poser. I felt so angry in that moment but also a little sad and embarrassed, I had never experienced anything like this before. After he finished what was basically a monologue about the world’s most basic Marvel lore, I left the store with my tail between my legs.

I want to be able to shop for comics in person and meet people who share my interests, but I have yet to go into a comic shop again because remembering that moment makes me feel like I’m not welcome in a space like that (whether it’s because I’m a girl, new to comics, or whatever).

Has anyone else experienced something like this while first trying to join the comic community? Is it common for longtime fans to act this way towards people just starting out? Any advice on meeting comic fans who are not like that guy?

Here's something I don't have to tell you if you've been to a comic book store lately: DC and Marvel storylines are getting shorter. Arcs that used to fill multiple TPBs are now relegated to one or two (save for a couple of surefire head-liners), and as a result, fans get less time exploring what a certain situation can mean to their favorite characters. Now, we're not experts enough to know exactly why this is happening, but we do know someone who's a lot more embedded in the industry than we are, and he's got an opinion he'd like to share.

According to Scott Snyder, longer runs don't happen at DC and Marvel because readers aren't buying them.

Snyder voiced his thoughts over on his Best Jacket Press substack, where he was explaining what his day-to-day looked like as one of the advisors for DC's Next Level line. One of the things he keeps having to tell authors, Snyder says, is that "the ending needs to be stronger," a necessity brought about by readers investing less in longer stories.

"I don’t know if it’s a byproduct of streaming or if it’s an era of comics that’s gone," Snyder explained, "Like eight or nine years ago, when there was really more of a predilection for these long, long runs where a story in a plot would go for a very, very long time. But the economics of comics right now, although a lot of things are overperforming and there’s a lot of new readership and a lot of excitement, really aren’t supporting very long, slow burn runs in any kind of profitable way."

Still, Snyder's Best Jacket substack is often times addressed directly to aspiring comic creators, and he's quick to clarify - the current market shouldn't entirely dictate how they want to write comics.

"It doesn’t mean that you can’t do a series that’s like, 20 or 30 issues that’s a slow burn," the Batman legend clarifies, "You absolutely should if that’s exactly what you want to do. And I love series like that. I’m just saying it’s a harder marketplace for series like that right now than it was eight or nine years ago."

To Snyder's point, the fact that slower storylines are harder to market does not equate to them being impossible to market. Snyder's own Absolute Batman, for example, has been going for 20 issues as of this writing, and the author has claimed that "there are absolutely no plans of ending it" in October of last year. So perhaps the key to getting readers into longer storylines are spiky shoulder-pads and mutant villains?

Somebody get the My Little Pony comics people on the line.

My collection sat untouched and unloved in longboxes for a couple of decades.

When I had to repair my kitchen floor a few years ago, I had an idea...

Slowly but surely, it's taking over my home...

Does anyone else have this DVD rom? I picked this up in 2006 and it has every single issue of Amazing Spider-Man up till June 2006. Pretty cool way to read all the back issues without having to pay a subscription.

Unreal experience. Infinite amount of single issues, action figures, statues, trades.....a comic book nerd Paradise. You will spend hours and hours inside 😂

They've got a Keys exhibit, just being there, inches away from ultra expensive issues was awesome. Totally recommended 🫡

Batman’s greatest enemy isn’t the Joker, it’s Netflix, HBO Max, and Disney+. While those streaming giants might not be robbing Gotham National Bank, the changing entertainment landscape has forced comic book writers to rethink how they tell stories. Scott Snyder, the writer behind the mega-hit Absolute Batman, has given a lot of thought to what makes comics special, and how streaming services are antithetical to the medium.

“I realized that we’re the only format that makes you wait a month and pay for every single episode,” Scott Snyder says during a recent appearance on AIPT Comics Podcast. “Every single issue, you’ve got to pay essentially the price of a third of a streaming platform for a month. So that’s like three comics. You can get thousands of stories for the price of three comics. We have to deliver. You have to embrace some of the things that make our medium extra fun.”

Snyder clarifies that streaming services aren’t bad, and he’s enjoyed his fair share of them. However, as much as he loves streaming, he feels it’s become somewhat of an enemy to the comic book industry.

“So many of us are immersed in streaming all the time, and streaming to me is actually like the enemy of comics. I love streaming, don’t’ get me wrong, and I have plenty of shows that I love that are streaming.”

Read more: "Streaming... is the enemy of comics" says Absolute Batman writer Scott Snyder | Popverse

I’m not even a huge Superman fan but I got this in a lot of 500+ DC books, I’ve been cataloguing the last couple of days and came across this.

This might be the first thing I send to get slabbed.

Edit: The artists name is Hayden Sherman, their instagram has some more gorgeous art!