Creator-Owned Comics Demand Patience

By Brandon L. Rucker

And that’s all right. I’m good with it. However, some folks feel entitled to having all comics be monthly, thanks to the periodical standard set ages ago (although going way back many titles from the Golden Age and early Silver Age were actually bi-monthly). Me, I’m a fairly patient dude. I really am. In a weird way a little less can be more for me (Marvel doesn’t grasp that concept, though, with their rampant redundancy in titles and accelerated shipping on some of them). So long as I don’t have to wait more than 3 months between issues, I really don’t complain about the the less-than-monthly scheduling. I’m sympathetic to the task of producing creator-owned comics and am tolerant to all the main reasons why it “takes time to grow roses” as Todd McFarlane said back in the day. For example, my favorite 5 comics series, all from Image Comics, of course, have “less-than-monthly” schedules. Just out of curiosity I recently took a look at the release archives on the Image website to find the calendar year averages for my top five must-haves. Here’s what I found.

Saga = 8.75 issues — 9 for 2012 & 2014 (and 2015 will be as well), but 2013 was 8.

Lazarus = 8 — for its first full year of 2014 and this year looks to keep that pace.

Sex Criminals = 6 — in 2014, likely the same this year; wish this could move up to 8 or 9.

Southern Bastards = 6 — ditto.

Velvet = 6 — ditto.

I’m sure if you’re a long-time indie and creator-owned reader, you’re certainly no stranger to the act of being patient either — going all the way back to Los Bros. Hernandez’s LOVE AND ROCKETS, for instance. A suggested alternative for the less-than-patient reader would be to buy series in collected trade paperback form, something Image and pretty much all other comic publishers are equally devoted to offering in the modern age. In collected ‘graphic novel’ form the reader can get a chunk of 4-6 issues that can be read at whatever interval at their leisure, or all in one sitting.

Eh, who am I kidding? That would just require a 6-month wait for the antsy, anxious reader.

At any rate, patience is virtuous.