I am the opposite of you guys, partly because of geography.
I rarely buy comics. I use the DCMBs and recommendations at places like here to determine what I think I'd like. I buy only tpbs, with the exception of Lucifer, which I tend to buy as monthly pamphlets because I really enjoy the story, and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, again because of the high quality.
My tastes tend to run towards Vertigo and Wildstorm - I'm reluctant to pick up a superhero title because I consider most superhero titles to be a perpetuation of a franchise (rather than something creative in a positive or valuable sense) and as a result I think the quality suffers (the last mainstream JLA book I bought was JLA: Tower of Babel, and I felt like I was reading something I would have enjoyed when I was 8).
Its a bit hit and miss - titles I thought I would like, for example The Red Star, Danger Girl, Strangers in Paradise, and Transmet, I was lukewarm over. On the other hand, I didn't think I'd like Black Panther, but I thought the 1st tpb was one of the most cleverly scripted stories I've ever read, in a comic, novel or otherwise.
I'm back in Perth in less than 2 weeks and I'm going to stock up on ABC tpbs, Whiteout, Preacher tpbs, possibly Stormwatch, Fables, Y- The Last Man, the 2nd Black Panther tpb, and possibly one or two others. This will last me for about 8 months, until I go to Sydney in November.
