Does your to-be-read pile ever feel like a never-ending abyss you've fallen into? Are you embarrassed when a long-delayed issue 2 comes out, and you still haven't read issue 1? Have you ever misplaced an entire week of single issues you purchased? Me either. Okay... I'm lying. But you knew that already. The good news is I made a significant dent in my to-read pile this weekend, and an interview-free week means I should be 100% caught up by this Friday, for the first time in a while. There's a light at the end of the tunnel!

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I'm a comic reviewer. I'm also a hoarder. I'm also terrible at canceling titles. Take The Amazing Spider-Man for example. I haven't been crazy about this series since maybe issue 4. But for some reason, I can't seem to put myself out of my misery. I even made a video all about how I was planning to drop the series, only to talk myself out of it as I was filming. Now we're a week away from issue 48's release, and it's STILL on the Pull List.

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Meanwhile, there are tons of books that I was once excited about, and somehow fell behind on. Ram V's Detective Comics. Daniel Warren Johnson's Transformers. Tom Taylor on Nightwing, which I got so far behind on that I forgot to pre-order Titans, which is now on issue 10 and had a whole 5-issue spinoff event. I'm proud to report that Nightwing is still loads of fun, and Detective Comics is a masterfully layered character study that will honestly read better in a collected format. Transformers is spectacular, even though I rarely recognize any of the robots before their names are called out. (It took me 6 issues to realize the Autobots transform into cars, and the Decepticons transform into planes. Maybe you're slow like me and that call-out helps your reading experience. You're welcome).

Maybe this is a good problem. When you stop to read them, most mainstream superhero comics are pretty good, if not a bit formulaic. But the publishing schedule doesn't help. We live in a world of constant crossovers, interconnected titles and events. Want to know what Waller has been up to? Read Titans: Beast World. But also Green Arrow. And possibly Batman & Robin (I'll let you know when I catch up). Don't even get me started on the Fall of X saga. As annoying as that is, I play right into it. When a series doesn't feel consequential or interdependent (looking at you, Fantastic Four), it easily falls out of the "priority reading" pile so that I can catch up on the books that are.

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Meanwhile, my superhero proclivities have kept me blind to some interesting things on the indie side. Like When the Blood Has Dried, an awesome high fantasy/spaghetti western mash-up published by Mad Cave Studios. Tell me you're not intrigued after just the opening 2 panels. I won't believe you. Issue 1 just came out on April 10th, so it may still be on the shelves at your local shop. Trust me, you want to subscribe.

This Free Comic Book Day will mark my 5th anniversary as a comics reader, and I'm really excited about it. We're getting our first looks at Dynamite's new Jonny Quest title, Mad Cave's Flash Gordon, and the summer events from Marvel and DC Comics among others. This would be the perfect time to end the cycle of overbuying and quarterly binge-reading. Instead, I'm going to fall hook, line & sinker for these publishers schemes and sign up for another year of gleeful self-torture. All while inviting fresh-faced newcomers at my LCS to do the same. I guess you can call me Calica.

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Til next week,

BJ KICKS