Get Your Comics

As anyone that knows me will attest, I like comics. A lot. I have a substantial collection, though nothing on the scale of serious comic collectors. Currently, my collection stands at 12 standard comic boxes, sorted and labelled to an almost OCD degree. It's impressive, and has stuff from Marvel, DC, Devils Due, Top Cow, and loads of independent publishers. The box I find myself most proud of is a single box full of G.I. Joe, though within the other boxes, I have some amazing treasures and collections, as well as all of my paperback graphic novels. One box holds my bagged and boarded collection of signed or otherwise special comics, as well as a tonne of various Marvel Handbooks that I intend to use some day for a Marvel Universe based super hero RPG.

But this mighty collection was not a thing of ease to accumulate. Many random issues here and there were retrieved from ebay after a certain comic supplier randomly never got it an issue, or stopped halfway through a series, or got issue one and two, and then stopped. I've ended up moving most of my collecting to graphic novel format, particularly for Marvel comics, as Marvel are excellent at publishing almost everything in collections.

For a while, I availed of the short lived and long missed GetYourComics.com, a site owned and run by a good friend of mine. Conveniently, while the site was based on a postal delivery system for most, the fact that both of us lived in Cork meant that my comics were delivered direct to me. It also meant that I could just ring my friend and get him to order a single issue, or know that he'd hold special covers or limited editions of issues from series I liked. I was even able to order clothing through his service, a feat I couldn't manage even while I worked in my afore mentioned local comic store!! It's a pity the business never took off, and more of a pity that it eventually folded, but it was great while it lasted.

It was fantastic, then, when the owner of GetYourComics pointed me toward a U.K based site that was doing similar, and succeeding. He had been using it, and thought I might like to give them a go. Even factoring in the cost of shipping that has to be included, getting comics through this supplier works out cheaper than my LCS.

Economic Comics has been serving me well since before Christmas now, and I've received, quickly and without error, three orders through them to date, the most recent of which only arrived today, prompting me to write this blog.

It's a simple system; you send them the comics you want, and the issue number to start from, then they hold them for you. Every week you get an email updating you of what is now on hold, and depending on how often you like to get your comics, you'll get a regular order email with a PayPal link. Hit that, and the comics are posted within a day or two, arriving shortly afterwords. I get my orders on a monthly basis, as I only have one or two comics a week to collect. However, during a quiet month, the site kindly allows me to wait a week or two before taking my comics together, helping spread the cost of shipping over more issues. Because of this, I actually only receive comics every six to eight weeks, which suits me fine.

If you're living far from any comic stores, or even if you have one nearby but they charge a bit too much, give Economic Comics a look. Good service, friendly staff, prompt response time. You won't regret it.