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The guy at a flea market table in Toledo handed me a beat-up issue and said try reading it slow
Was digging through a long box at a flea market in Toledo last month, mostly junk, and this older guy running the table asked what I was into. I said mostly newer stuff, and he pulled out a beat up copy of a comic I had never heard of and set it in my hands. He said "don't flip through it, sit down and read it slow, one page at a time." So I did, right there on a folding chair next to his table. Took me almost 20 minutes for one issue. I noticed panel layouts and little background jokes I would have blown right past. He said he has been collecting since 1979 and that he still finds stuff he missed on a third reading. We ended up talking for close to a half hour and I bought the issue for 3 bucks. Thing is, it was nothing special, just a mid issue from a short run, but the slow read made it stick with me. Has anyone else had a seller push you to actually sit and read instead of just flipping?
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robert2751h ago
Ever try reading a book you loved as a kid and catch a background gag the artist threw in that you never saw before? That's the thing the seller was getting at. When you slow down you start catching stuff the artist hid in the edges, a poster on a wall, a character from another book standing in a crowd, a sign in the background that lands a joke the main story never makes. Bendis used to stuff pages with that kind of thing, and so did old Mad issues, where you'd miss half the gags if you read fast. Flipping through is fine for spotting a cover you like, but the real payoff is in the corners nobody looks at. That guy was basically handing you a free lesson for three bucks.
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