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Talking to a kid at the comic shop made me feel ancient
I was at my local shop in Portland last Saturday flipping through some old back issues when this kid, maybe 14, comes up and asks what I'm looking at. I showed him a beat up copy of Amazing Spider-Man #300 from 1988 and he just stared at it blankly. He said he only reads digital comics on his tablet because paper feels slow and clunky to him. It hit me right then that I've been collecting physical comics for over 20 years and never once thought about them being inconvenient. I realized I hang onto these books partly out of habit and nostalgia, not because they're the best way to read stories anymore. The kid didn't mean any harm but his words got me thinking about why I still buy floppies when my tablet holds like 500 comics. Makes me wonder if any of you have had a younger fan make you rethink your whole setup? How do you balance the old school feel with how fast things are moving now?
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emery_black18h ago
The kid at your shop was right about digital being faster, but he missed one thing about that #300. You said 1988 but Amazing Spider-Man #300 actually came out in May 1988, so technically it's a late 80s book not an early one. I think the whole paper vs digital thing is more about what you grew up with than what's actually better. Holding that beat up copy with the creases and the old ads, that's a feeling a screen can't give you no matter how many comics you store.
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jake98614h ago
Agree with @emery_black that it's more about what you grew up with than what's objectively better. It's the same thing I see with vinyl records vs streaming music or paper books vs Kindles. The old way just hits different even if the new way is way more convenient.
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