Each year there’s new gimmicks that the comic companies use to get new readers into reading comics or get some long time readers getting into a new title. One of the best though has been the Free Comic Book day but the problem with that one is that it only comes around once a year. With that kind of track record it makes it a little difficult to get into new titles or have new readers. Picking up the slack though is one of the newest ways to get these new readers, though it’s not free it’s still pretty cheap and it is a good way to hook people.

That new gimmick is the 1 dollar reprints of certain titles. With Marvel Comics they are being called the MGC (Marvels Greatest Comics) and with DC Comics they are called What’s Next. I got to say I’m liking this trend, it’s cheap (at least cheaper than a normal comic), and it is letting me read some of the titles that I’ve passed on getting.

Now I won’t be running down every single comic title that has been put out there for a buck, there’s way too many to do that. Marvel has been doing it for a little while and have published, or republished a lot of their titles, as well as DC. It is a good way to get new readers in but there’s a down side to this as well. That downside is once the dollar comic is read you just might actually become interested in that comic.

That’s the hook though, once you read it you want more but the more don’t cost a dollar anymore. Then once you are hooked you can easily go out to pick up the graphic novel that has the rest of the comics collected in it. Only thing though the graphic novels are not cheap. They’re not that expensive either but when you consider that there might only be 4 to 7 issues collected in the graphic novel. When it is only the 4 or 5 issues that’s been collected and the price tag is between $15 and $25 I have a problem with buying it, regardless of liking the dollar comic.

Though I’m not here to talk about prices this time, at least not in that sense. I’ll leave it at that short little downside of saying that once getting hooked on the dollar comic you can expect to be spending a lot more money on getting the following issues of that comic. Still, it’s a good way to get a good cheap comic that will usually be a decent read. It’s also makes for filler comics.

Filler comics to me are the comics that I read when I want to read a comic but don’t have much time for one or don’t feel like reading one that will have a story line that I have to follow and remember. They are good comics to pick up to read without having to worry about if I’m going to need to bag and board it or if it will be put in the collection for the future. These dollar comics are just comics that can be bent, tore, wrote in, or even folded up to be put in the back pocket and all without any worries about what’s going to happen in the future for this comic. This alone is a great plus for me as a collector, because now I get a really cheap comic that’s a fun read, and I can just let it get thrown around.