Did anyone else here stop reading Marvel a long time ago and......

...still peruses this newsgroup to catch up on whats happened to the characters and Marvel staff?

I'll give my reasons why and when i dropped particular titles. I'd be interested in hearing why other readers did.

In general the series became too convulated and the characters diffused over different books

X-MEN: I dropped it after the first three issues of New X-Men. Too many new faces (Acolytes)....a slight retcon on Magneto....and all that crappy splash art drove me away.......and THE PLOT LINES! jesus....Mr. Sinister...Apocolypse.....Acolytes.....The new Psylocke...Gambit... WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE!!...I'd had enough.

DR. STRANGE :I stuck around through the shared book with Cloak and Dagger (which I liked a great deal) and the first 15 or so issues of his own book. Liked the art (Guice?) but it didn't seem to be going anywhere...and besides they undid all the stuff that happened in the shared book.

SPIDERMAN: I guess I dropped it around the time Mcfarlane started doing all *his* crappy splash art.

DEFENDERS: Stuck around to the end.....liked it. I think i bought all the New Defenders.

X-FACTOR: Dropped it after Inferno

NEW MUTANTS: Stuck around until Sienkowicz (sp) left.

THOR: Left when Simonson did.

AVENGERS: Left when we started having West Avengers, North Pole Avengers.....etc.....Like The Tom Palmer pens though.

SILVER SURFER: Left when we started getting into Infinity Gauntlet and Infinity This and Infinity That....

FF: I think I left when Byrne did. Though I am inclined to pick up the Simonson issues.....

So apparently It's a good thing I left when I did......I missed the Magneto clone, Onslought, Heroes Reborn,Elecktra returning against Millers wishes, The SpiderClone, Galactus dying and not dying, Korvacs return the Green Goblins return, Aunt May dying and undying...and Ultimates (which i hear is good, but why would I want to follow the continuities of TWO universes?)

What a freaking headache. It's like a whole universe(s) of Hawkmen.

i left in that time as well, most comics all together really, but more and more books started being published worth getting, by 98-99 i was back in full on after reaching my lowest comic buying during death of superman while i worked in a comic store! speculation was sickening for those of us in the middle, the register jockeys...

but like i said so much more is put out now then during that decline, you may want to try out ultimaes its very good and you wont have to deal with that crap that came right after you left . . . for that matter the vol 3 avengers is quite good too and in tpb.

Because it's bloody good period. If continuity is a problem you don't want to pick up the current Marvel books. But then in the time you've been away you've missed great stuff like: New Warriors Kurt Busiek's Avengers Black Panther Spider Girl The Ultimates (the entire line)

I'll look into Black Panther and Ultimates though

and seeing BP is now cancelled you might want to try the Crew which is a spin off of sorts from BP.

As for New Warriors - It is considered by many the best series in the 1990's. Great writing to be had, particularly #1 - 25.

Spidergirl you'd enjoy if you like classic Marvel. It really is like classic Spiderman but with modern stories.

The Crew contains a character introduced in the last few issues of BP, and it's also written by Christopher Priest. If you can find cheap backissues I still recommend reading Priest's Black Panther run, all 62 issues (hehehe).

I stopped reading it during the Shooter era, which pretty much killed off my affection for the characters. I still pop in the newsgroup because every so often people discuss older comics. The first Marvel comics I've bought in years have been the MoKF revival and Unstable

After the destruction of and subsequent 'bold new direction' of Thunderbolts, I jacked in Marvel forever. They're no longer deserved of my money after that crap and thus get none of it. (Well, almost. Lousy Heroclix...)

I Byrne-steal some of the Ultimate titles (well, read a friends, is that Byrne-stealing? ehh) but that's about it.

Yes, actually, this is exactly what i did. I started collecting around 1994 or 1995. It took me a while to start collecting monthly because i didn't want to jump into any on-going stories and be totally lost...ironically enough, i came in near the beginning of the clone saga...is there any worse story line to come on in the middle of?

Anyway, Around spectacular spider-man #260 or so, i noticed my current comic shop missed some titles from my pull list. I didn't think it was a big deal, but it happened twice more, and both times they didn't have any more copies of the comic for me to buy. Because of that, i switched to a different comic store. Well about a year after i switched (and paid a one-time $20 *lifetime* membership fee) the store got shut down. I had told me previous comic shop i wanted to leave because i was going to stop collecting comics (i know i should have told them i was going to the competition because they couldn't even pull the comics i wanted, but i was younger then and didn't like conflict), so i didn't want to be embarassed and go back to the original shop. Because of that, i just stopped collecting. This was maybe 3 issues or so after the spider-man reboot and chapter one, which i've heard were awful, so i spose i'm glad i got out then.

I still go in a comic shop once in a while to pick up what looks interesting - namely spider-girl and league of extraordinary gentlemen. Right now i'm in college and don't have the time or money for comics, but i think i'll get back into collecting once i graduate.

Since i'm not actually reading the comics, i lurk around here and visit news sites like comicscontinuum.com to see what's going on with the characters i love so i'm not *too* far out of the loop.

I'd like to get trade paperbacks of all the great comics i've been missing out on over the years...are full runs of spider-girl and black panther available in TPB form? What's the best way to get runs of these cheap? Ebay? Back issue bins in comic stores? Any suggestions are welcome.

Sorry for the long post, but i was surpried there were other people here who don't collect but read the newsgroup .

You can get runs of series *really* cheap on eBay.

Yes, although I would probably enjoy reading Ultimates or the JLA/Avengers crossover. Maybe I'll find some trades one day in a Filipino bookstore.