Now More Than Ever
I've always relied on "
Previews Review" type columns when
assembling my monthly comic order, and now I'm going to look to their
guidance even more: I've just learned that
my online retailer is going
to raise the minimum monthly order required to qualify for a free
Previews.
(The threshold used to be $50, but you now have to spend at least $125
to get a free
Previews.) Sure, they're making
Previews
available for purchase for only $2, but I really have no interest in
paying anything for a catalog that I'm going to throw away once that
month's order is submitted.
The only down side to not getting
Previews anymore is
that it was kinda fun to page through, and not only to laugh at
whatever T&A Jim Balent happened to be drawing that month.
Plus, there was usually something I would find that looked interesting,
something I had no knowledge of beforehand.
So now I'm going to be even more dependent on all the helpful online
resources that offer up their takes on what looks good in
Previews:
Johanna
Draper Carlson.
Laura
Gjovaag.
Augie
De Blieck Jr.
Ninth Art's
"Things to Come".
The
Fourth Rail's "Down The Line" (which this month arranges picks in
more egalitarian alphabetic order).
Comic
Readers. And of course,
Previews Review. Just
one request to everyone: Please, please,
please make sure your
write-ups occur in a timely fashion (meaning: before orders are
actually due). As someone who mainly gets his comics online, it's
considerably less useful to learn about interesting-looking books after
I've already submitted my order. And to all of you who do these
sort of write-ups, thanks for continuing to slog through this behemoth
of a catalog in order to find the books that might otherwise go
overlooked.
