Maybe it's because I'm getting older, but lately I've been feeling kind of lost in most of the storylines I'm following in the several comics I read every month. There's just too much information to hold from one month to the other, and most of the times, the cliffhanger with supercharacter "A" gets mixed up with cliffhanger with superteam "X" of which supercharacter "A" is part of. Those of you who actually understood my ramblings - sometimes I even get myself confused with them - are probably thinking that I'm a continuity freak. And maybe I am. From my perspective, comics went from a time where editors were very strict, always using the axe on creators ideas for unbelievably silly reasons, to a time where editors just don't care about consistency and even force creators to create discrepancies, if that suits their agenda, which is to sell more copies of the title they're editing.
Anyway, there's enough debating out there on the internet about the benefits and the handicaps of recent editorial policies at the major publishers, so I won't jump into that issue. I only wanted to share what I decided to do in order to start enjoying more the stories I read. From now on, I'm starting to collect the comics I buy and won't read them until I have the last issue of a certain storyline. This will help me to start reading more consistent stories, without interruptions with other stories, even with other characters. Imagine how it would be if you go to a multiplex and see every movie they have at the same time. You're watching 20 movies at the same time, spending 15 minutes inside each room of the theatre. That's precisely how I feel now with the comics I read, so from now on I'll do my best to watch one movie at a time.
Of course this will be difficult to do with some titles. Whenever a new title appears from a creator team I like, it's obvious that I won't wait to read that first issue until the 6 issues story-arc is over. I'll probably read the first one, maybe the second issue, and then stop until I have the entire story to read altogether. Another tricky situation will happen with maxi-series like DC Comics 52. Well, maybe this will be a good incentive to stop buying those abnormally long storylines, that more often than not, end up being a waste of time and money, for they never deliver the same joy that shorter, meaningful, storylines do.
I guess that this decision will put me in a similar place to the editor that picks storylines to be published as trade paperbacks. Since I believe that editors are not doing a good job keeping their characters stories consistent month in month out, I will step up to do their job. I might never be an editor working for a major publisher - which come to think of it is kind of my dreamjob - but at least I'll be the editor of my reading habits. That has to count for something.
