Looking back in time

The trend of getting all their old comics (or at least large portions of the more currently marketable) into current trades is one of the few things I think both Marvel and DC are doing well.

For a lot of fans, they may already have all the old stuff they want, but for someone like me, who didn't pick up her first comic until she was nearly in her 20s and didn't start collecting with any regularity until much closer to 30, a lot of stuff I might have liked quite a lot passed me by.

Some of the stuff, I've gone back and bought individual issues of over the years. I am the proud owner of the full run of Booster Gold's first solo series, the less proud owner of a full run of one of Guy Gardener's solo series (including Warrior), and the utterly hysterically amused owner of "Extreme Justice." (Seriously, if you get a chance, read it! It's a hilarious product of its time, and if you can get over some... intense art, let's call it, there's a few small actually good bits in the midst of all the DRAAAAAMMMMAAAAAAAA)

And the money that I spent on those, I would happily have paid to DC for collected trades of those. (Well, maybe NOT Extreme Justice). And to be fair, they DID put out the Booster Gold stuff in trade, and I did indeed buy it. But if I thought I would be able to get rid of my individual issues because of that, I was sorely mistaken. The trade they put out was in black and white, and while I'm sure some readers have no problem with the black and white, I found it much harder to get invested. Especially when color was a pretty key part of one arc O.o

That said, I picked up the second trade of classic Gambit this week, and reread the first one before reading this one. I love Gambit and a character, and I think the route they chose with compiling these was pretty good. The stories aren't necessarily from Gambit's series, they're just involving him - they come from all over. I like them in the same way I liked the idea at least of putting all the different Civil War comics into trades in chronological order. Didn't buy those, myself - already had the series-specific trades I wanted. :)

I hope this trend continues though. It seems like every time I read a new character with a bit of history in comics, it leads me to wanted to check out some of their older stuff. Easier is better for that!