That's interesting. Why the high cost? The manga I buy is full-sized, usually not reversed to America format, and costs $10, except one that costs me $8.
It does add up! Which is why I am glad the two series I'm seriously collecting are just starting to come out, I can plop down $20 every two months for the next five years and there's no huge out of pocket expense.
Most America comics, you can more or less start at any time, right? There'll be a few months of connected story, and then it goes to a different one, without a huge narratice arc? It seems like that would be necessary for a property like, say, Spider-man that's been around forever.
Well, each volume averages 300 pages in length. Most graphic novels of that size usually go for $19.95 or low $20s.
Most America comics, you can more or less start at any time, right?
That's mostly true, although some have storylines that run over the course of a couple of years. Which comics were you thinking of getting into?
"Most America comics, you can more or less start at any time, right? There'll be a few months of connected story, and then it goes to a different one, without a huge narratice arc?"
I'll be interested to hear Bear's answer on this. I think it varies with the series. For instance I jumped into Spider-Man at about issue #147, and I'd say you can pick up Spidey's character pretty easy that way because his character is pretty constant, but to follow some of what's going on you have to be aware of certain key events in his history--his origin story, key events in his romantic life, and certain major villains and fights. Much of this was covered in the movies, so the movies are a good base for picking up the series; however they changed some stuff in the movies (for instance having the same stories but substituing Mary Jane in certain scenes that originally involved a previous girlfriend of Peter's) so there will be some discrepancies that might take some time to work through. Now in contrast, I'd say "X-Men" is harder to follow without knowing more about the team's history because there are so many characters and there has been a more linear and complex plot development. So I think it depends. Looking forward to Bear's take on this.