Hatgirl says "Hi"

Along with standard graphic novels, my local library has many of the Marvel Pocketbooks. These are are small, paperback-sized reprints of about a half-dozen classic Marvel comics. They're just perfect for throwing in a bag and reading on public transport. Through them I've been able to read classic Marvel storylines for the first time - Stan Lee and John Romita's Spider-man run, Chris Claremont's Uncanny X-Men and Stan Lee/Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four. As a recovering Marvel-aholic I already knew the gist of the stories, but actually reading the dialogue and seeing the artwork is something special. Plus, I like laughing hollowly whenever Peter says he couldn't imagine life without Gwen Stacey. Mwahahahaha...

The one bad thing about the Marvel Pocketbook range is that often poor typesetting means the edge is cut off the panels. As dialogue bubbles are usually at the edge of a panel, this results in missing letters and it can be tricky to decipher the text. If I had bought these I'd be furious, but as I got them from the library I'm merely peeved. Still, I much prefer these smaller colour reprints to the usual black-and-white option, and they're a lot more portable than a scan.