I'm starting to realize just how much money i'm spending on this filthy habit, and trying to figure out how to cut back.

1. no new series! unless the thing is written by a superstar, like kevin smith.
   
2. drop the fucking books i'm picking up because someone else says i should.
   
3. this one's tough: cut back to the books i absolutely must read. this thing is rough because of speculation, and c., but i think soon, it will be a monetary neccessity. we'll see, i guess.
   
4. wait for trades.
   

what it comes down to is this: as long as i have the money, i will buy the books. i'm starting to question though, the neccessity of collecting. i find it to be cool, but is it just as cool to understand the medium as an art form, and pick up trades. certainly, a lot of stuff i read isn't released in trades, which makes it difficult, and as trades are more expensive at the register, i feel like i'm actually buying something; whereas i can fool myself into thinking a 2.25 comic isn't really throwing away money -- of course after a few weeks of ten-plus comics per week, it starts to feel like money. sometimes things work out beautifully -- league of extraordinary gentlemen 2 will see print as pamhlets next month. i have a beautiful hardcover of the first series, and so i want to wait for the trade so as to have a nice companion. some stuff i picked up as trades to get history on a book, like meridian. i didn't like it enough to pick it up monthly, but i'll probably pick up the next trade, so there. powers, i want both ways. i might do the same thing with ruse. i guess i can make that happen, though it seems a bit silly (of course mike has all the issues, both trades, and the hardcover of ultimate spidey-- very little variant material between the different forms.) ah, well. where to cut back? where to pick up trades? where to decide, "hey! it's only money?"

strangely enough, i got to this week's books in a relatively timely manner. so:

yesterday i sat in my chair and read a bunch of comics, including:

• Detective Comics 771: ¢ D (after the whole fugitive brouhaha)
  
• Filth 1: $ D (i'll pick up the whole thing when it's released as a trade, whenever)
  
• The Path 3: $/¢ K (but only once more-- i'm really wavering on this title, but the cliffhanger kept me in it for at least one more go-round)
  
• Ruse 8: $ K BoW
  
• Alias 10: ¢ K (chalk it up to everyone has a bad outing, even bendis)
  
• Call of Duty--The Brotherhood 1: $ K (as long as it keeps appreciating in value, i will keep picking it up. cover was 2.25 last week. i've seen it go for 15.00 on ebay!)
  
• Deadline 3: $ K
  
• Marvel Knights Double Shot 3: ¢ D (wow was this awful!)
  
• New X-Men 127: $ K
  
• Ultimate Spider-Man 23: $ K
  
• Transformers G1 3: $ K
  
• Cla$$war 2: $ K
  
• Amazing Spider-man 41: ¢ D (from the week before. i had dropped this book, then mike said it was worth it. he was wrong.)