Jeremy Patrick

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I’m a big believer in continuity. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out why, and the best I can come up with is that it has something to do with making the stories meaningful to me. That is, if what happens in issue # 159 has no impact or influence on what happens in issue # 160, who cares what happened in # 159? Now granted, I can read dozens of novels, knowing that what happens in one has no impact on what happens in others, but when you have continuing series with continuing characters, losing sight of continuity is like watching a football game where you know the scoreboard goes back to zero-zero at halftime—it makes the first half of the game seem like a moot point.

That being said, I’m not insane about it. I expect characters to remember and act consistently with previous events, I expect dead characters to be dead unless a reason is given otherwise, and so forth. However, I don’t get all huffy if Stingray has a red glove on page 13 and a dark orange glove on page 14—if it has no impact on either the characters or the story, then it probably doesn’t matter too much.

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Along with the continuity stuff to me, is the importance of owning the complete story, or at least story arc. There’s something to be said for knowing you have the complete story and can sit down for a night (or a month) and enjoy the entire saga. Thus, I’m proud of my complete Nth Man: The Ultimate Ninja or Spitfire and the Troubleshooters just for the fact that I have the complete story.

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The issue of the perceived exhorbitant price of comics has been around for at least fifteen years now. I hate to join on the bandwagon this late, but the simple truth is that I can no longer afford to buy new comics. There are a lot of things tied into this fact, but part of it is that, as others have noticed, spending $ 2.99 on a comic book gives you fifteen minutes (or less) of entertainment, whereas I can spend $ 5.00 for two hours at the movies, $ .99 for a damn good novel at a used book store, or $ 2.99 to rent a video game for a weekend. When I lived in Lincoln, Nebraska, I was lucky and had access to several comic stores with $ .25 bins, filled with tons of good stuff—I was able to fill large gaps in my collections and try out a lot of new stuff for a very economical price. Since moving to Toronto, I haven’t found these type of cheap stores—a problem I will have to cogitate on. Regardless, I’ve resigned myself to the fact that what comes out today is not necessarily better written or more interesting than what came out five or ten years ago—and although I hate being behind the times to such a large degree, I see no other option.

I’ve heard that most comics by the mainstream companies are lucky to break even—the profits come from licensing deals, such as T-shirts, movies, toys, etc (and of course, collected editions of comics). Of course, as much as I think the high prices of comics would turn people (especially kids) off to them, one can still pick up a Wizard or Diamond and see that there are literally hundreds of comics still coming out each month—so apparently, somebody has money and my fears are misplaced.

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