Comics with Dan Daily | New Comic Book Day - 01/31/2026

I am terrible at trade waiting. I'm just too impatient - I want to read the books now. Not to say that I don't read trades - I'll buy trades of older runs rather than collect all the issues, and I borrow a ton of trades and hardcovers from the library- by the way, will definitely do another column on library comics.

Obviously waiting on trades is the most cost effective. Not always by a lot, but you'll usually save a couple bucks waiting for the collected edition. Also, its much more convenient to read the full story or full arc in one volume. What I always told myself was that I wanted to read individual issues because I want to be able to discuss the latest stories as they happen.

However, even as I've been busy these last several months and haven't been on "the comic book boards" (as my wife and I refer to them as), I still find the ritual of picking up my pulls and reading single issues to be much deeper than discussing the latest stories. I look forward to every Wednesday, the employee at my LCS sees my car pull up and has my stack of comics ready before I even get in the door. I browse the new release rack for any impulse buys and then check out. Usually I'll chat with whoever is working. Depending on the time of year, my kids will come with me on Wednesdays too - and they'll be looking around everywhere hearing me say "Look with your eyes, not your hands" or "Hands in your pockets or behind your back" - this is reserved for when they're trying to touch expensive stuff; digging through comic bins is a different story.

It's all just such a memorable experience that I hope my kids will look back on and remember as fondly as I do.