Issues Vs. Trades
I find myself being plagued by this decision for every series I buy. Do I want to buy the individual issues, or do I want to buy them when they come out in trades, or do I buy both? Both options have their pros and cons. Buying individual issues means I have reading material more frequently; but that also means that I finish reading it that much faster. I love trades because they usually have complete storylines, but then I have to wait a really long time to get them.
For which one I choose, I find it depends on: 1)How much I like the series 2)How fast the story moves along 3)How much I can stand cliffhangers 4)How patient I am
I only read The Walking Dead in its hardcover volume trades because otherwise the story would take way too long for me and the cliffhangers would be excruciatingly painful. The same for Invincible. I have to read it in the big hardcovers otherwise the story would move too slowly for me.
Most of the Ultimate titles I read the paperback trades because it works out well I think in that format. I couldn’t read Ultimate Spider-Man in the issue format because I would get way too impatient for the story to move along.
There are some titles that I have to read immediately. This includes Garth Ennis’s The Boys and Angel: After the Fall. The trades take way too long to come out for these series so in order to get my fix I get the individual issues as they come out. Of course, I then get the trade when it releases, to reread everything. If you stay in paperback format, it’s not that expensive to maintain this habit of buying the same comic twice in different formats.