Cosmo Digital

In 2008 my comic book collection continued to increase, albeit at a far more moderate pace than it did in 2007. At the beginning of the year my collection totaled 1,155 issues. At the end of 2008 it totalled 1,404 issues. This represents an moderate increase of exactly 250 issues issues, or 17 percent.

Of the 1,404 issues I own, Marvel still has a majority, although it has fallen considerably. At the end of 2007 it totalled a solid 50 percent of my collection, and was far higher in years previous. In 2008 it came to 46 percent. This decline was due directly to my continued increase in DC titles, which now come to 38 percent of my total collection (compared to 33 percent in 2007). Through 2008 I continued to collect many issues of Detective Comics and Batman. Due mainly to these two series, I was outbuying DC to Marvel comics by a factor of 2 to 1. I expect that my DC collection will finally overtake my Marvel collection in 2009, if my buying habits continue as they have been for the last two years.

The remainder of my collection is comprised mainly of Vertigo and Image titles, with each publisher now forming around 4 percent of the total. This is primarily due to my run of Spawn (Image) and Transmetropolitan (Vertigo). This percentage also has decreased due to the prevailance of Marvel and DC titles. In 2007 Image and Vertigo both ranged around 5 percent; now they have dropped down to below 4 percent. The final 7 percent is formed of various other publishers, none of which was numerous enough to list on its own. This percentage is more or less unchanged from the previous year, since I purchased/received a few independent titles.

As mentioned before, the majority of the 250 comics I purchased this year came from DC Comics, just like during 2007. This is mainly due to me purchasing large runs of Batman and Detective Comics. I added a total of 156 DC comics to my collection, outnumbering Marvel nearly 2 to 1. Of these DC Comics, the majority are from Detective Comics. I added in 83 issues of Detective Comics to my collection. In comparison, I only purchased 17 issues of Batman. The remainder of the 156 are made up of Countdown, which finished up in April, Robin, and several Batman-themed miniseries.

The graph below compares the number of comics I purchased from each publisher during 2007 and 2008. There is a significant drop in the total number of issues purchased (396 down to 250) which is about a 40 percent decline! This is mainly the result of my Thesis having been completed, so I no longer had the need to purchase large amounts of Batman comics to research. I still collected the titles, but now there was less urgency and I could afford to wait for better deals. I also purchased fewer comics in bulk. During 2008 I never purchased more than 40 comics in a single transaction, where in 2007 I broke 60 comics on two separate occasions.

Notably, DC Comics took a significant decline in the number purchased (as explained above), but Marvel remained fairly constant in the total number bought. This is due to several series I continued to purchase, including Young X-Men (replacing New X-Men), Captain Britain and MI-13 (replacing New Excalibur), X-Men Legacy (replacing X-Men), and Uncanny X-Men. Now that Uncanny X-Men is back from their space epic, I can read it again. I also picked up a couple miniseries like True Believers, and I started buying the new Deadpool series. Because it is awesome.



Total spent on comics in 2008: $564.04 for 250 comics
Average price paid per comic in 2008: $2.26

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