Chad's Challenge part fifteen: format

what is your preferred format to buy comics in? (singles, trades, hardcovers--then what type of hardcover, I guess)

I want to say that it depends on a lot of different factors really, but that's really crap. I mean, if a hardcover and a softcover came out at the same time, I'd prefer the hardcover, but probably buy the softcover because it was cheaper. So for me hardcover vs. softcover really boils down to read it now for a high price or read it later for a cheaper price. And that's something that really depends on the book, on the creators involved in it, on how much of a price difference, how long of a wait, etc.

However, given the option, I think I would always prefer to read comics in single issue format. I like the serialized nature of the stories; I like reading them in installments.

I also like that that format allows me to spread my purchase out over the course of a few months. It's much easier for me to afford a fifteen dollar story if I pay for it in five months, rather than all at once.

And I'm more likely to take a risk on one issue of a story than an entire trade of it, which means singles let me try different things, I get more variety.

Hardcovers do make it feel more like a literate experience than single issues, but that's just being elitist. Comics in their purest form will always mean single issues to me.

so, Chad: who's a "mainstream" writer (novelist, screenwriter) who has recently come to comics that you wish would bugger on off back from whence he/she came, and who's a comics writer that has flirted with other formats that you wish would stay in comics exclusively? (and why in both cases, of course?)