Question about reading habits? How do you track your Marvel reading material?

[Kevin W.]

I just wanted to see how other MCP members go about reading their Marvel comics:

Are you still a "head to the comic shop and get all your latest weekly purchases, and read them that same night?" Do you spread reading your issues over a week, or is there a specific day where you sit down and churn through all of that week's purchases?

For those that are way behind (like myself) do you just read a few issues in a row for a title, then move on to another few issues of a different title? Or do you read an entire volume of a series before switching to a different title? Granted, for some of the longer running titles, that may put you ahead if you focus on just reading all of a series before moving back in time to start on another series.

Or do you read every single issue from a month, before moving on to the next month? For instance, I can now go onto Marvel's website and find every single issue published in a month, from about January 2008 onward (which is about when the "Marvel Digital Unlimited" program started). So just pick a month, read it all, and move forward? Anyone else do something like that?

And do you read every issue published, or do you only focus on characters/titles of interest? (I think most here are big enough Marvel fans to be willing to read ALL of it, each month).

That's for indulging me on this topic, I'm just curious.

[Clive_Reston]

I get physical comic books every Wednesday, but I occasionally let a few or more than a few issues of something stack up; when I go on a weekend trip, I often bring a box of reading to catch up on. (There are a few series I always read as soon as I get a new issue, especially The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Mister Miracle, The Wicked + The Divine, Sex Criminals, and lately anything Al Ewing writes. WicDiv, in particular, is kind of everything I always wanted in a superhero comic, and it's not even really a superhero comic...)

I have a spreadsheet with all the Marvel stuff I'm reading, modified from the one at http://www.mikesamazingworld.com/mikes/ ... =downloads . I generally just graze; I'll read a bit of Iron Man, then one of those random early-2000s miniseries, then a few issues of Love Romances, then look up appearances by some character who's just turned up in Ultimates or whatever. For the titles I read through Marvel Unlimited, I often wait until there's a complete storyline or two there to catch up.

[Col_Fury]

I used to read everything every week. Then... I dunno. Schedules changed, life got in the way, etc. Now things pile up.

I always have comics with me (at work, while running errands, etc.) in case I end up with some spare time. I do some internal stuff for Marvel, and have certain titles that I have to pay attention to, so I'm caught up on those, but I'm behind on everything else (I'm only caught up universe-wide to the end of Secret Wars, so I'm a little over two years behind).

I don't file away my comics (I still get/collect physical comics) until I've read them, so I have these giant stacks of unread comics. They're organized, so if I have to get to something I don't have to spend hours digging through stuff, but still.

When I get caught up on series from other publishers I'll just read through everything until I'm caught up. When I get caught up on Marvel, I'll read complete stories at a time from the various titles, roughly according to publication, across the universe. I don't want to get caught up on say, Spider-Man but still be two years behind on X-Men.

Also, yes, I read every Marvel title.

The plan is to get caught up relatively soon, but I have to clear some other things off my desk first. One of these days!

[Kevin W.]

When I get caught up on Marvel, I'll read complete stories at a time from the various titles, roughly according to publication, across the universe. I don't want to get caught up on say, Spider-Man but still be two years behind on X-Men.

That's probably what I'll do.

But that resembles more along the lines of TPB reading. I was never a fan of "TPB structure" style of storylines, comics are meant to be a serialized weekly/monthly experience. I miss the feeling of reading my weekly titles, then the next week having yet another new batch of titles.

But maybe it'd be easier to have that sensation if I was still buying physical copies - by this point, I only read comics on Marvel Digital Unlimited...my occasional trips to the comic shop are now to fill in gaps in my old collection (which goes back into the 80's, 70's, and 60's). Thankfully, almost ALL of the new comics published are available by Marvel Unlimited. I was just wondering if I could mimic the sensation of weekly reading a slew of titles by way of the digital website.

In years past, from 1998 to 2008, I purchased probably 60% to 90% of everything Marvel published (fluctuating from year to year). Then life circumstances changed, and by mid-2009, I decided to scale things back, dropping my purchases to maybe 25 to 50% of what Marvel published (probably closer to 25%). I still largely followed what was going on with the Marvel Universe though. I contemplated dropping out of reading all-together after "Siege" ended (probably the best "happy ending" the Marvel Universe has had) but couldn't do it, kept on going until Summer 2012 (around the time the Marvel Index ended and around the start of "Avengers vs. X-Men").

After that, I still somewhat bought and read a handful of titles (mostly following a writer, or artist, or a character). Probably no more than 5% of what Marvel published. And then I stopped that around the end of 2015 (about when "Secret Wars" was destroying/merging the Marvel and Ultimate universes). A good end point, or so I thought.

And so I haven't really followed anything since 2015. And now I'm just wondering how far back to go in my resumption of reading: Back to the end of 2015, the Summer of 2012, or go all the way back to 2009? Maybe I'll do a mixture of all three...

[Debois]

Going all the way back to 2009 would seem like too daunting of a task for me so I'd probably mix things up like you suggest as well. I don't like big commitments like that lol. I definitely envy you though. You've got so much stuff to read now!