Every Wednesday, new comics ship to comic shops across North America. New Comic Book Day - NCBD to regulars - is the weekly heartbeat of the direct market. For collectors who follow ongoing series, NCBD is when the week's reading lands. Managing that cadence well, across multiple series, multiple publishers, and a shop relationship that may change over time, is one of the practical arts of long-term collecting.

How New Comic Book Day Works

North American comics distribution has historically concentrated on a Wednesday release schedule. Publishers submit orders weeks in advance, distributors ship to shops, and Wednesday morning is when the boxes open. Diamond Comic Distributors dominated this system for decades; the distribution landscape has shifted since 2020 with new players, but Wednesday releases remain the standard.

The physical distribution means your local shop receives its shipment and sets out new titles by opening. Most shops hold reserved copies for pull list customers - meaning if you're on the list, your copies are set aside regardless of how popular a book turns out to be. This is the pull list's primary practical function: guaranteeing supply of titles you follow without requiring you to show up first thing every Wednesday.

What a Pull List Is and How It Works

A pull list (or subscription list) is an arrangement with your local comic shop. You provide a list of series you want reserved, and the shop pulls one copy of each issue as it comes in and holds it for you. Pick-up frequency varies by shop - some hold indefinitely, some for two weeks, some for a month.

Pull lists are a verbal or written commitment, not a contract. Most shops will add or drop titles for you at any time, though some ask for notice before the order cutoff date for upcoming issues. The relationship is built on trust: the shop orders extra copies to cover your pull, so chronic abandonment strains the relationship.

The pull list originated as a practical solution for shops trying to order accurately in a direct market with no returnability. Pre-ordering through a pull list helps shops commit to the right quantities. In return, customers get guaranteed copies and sometimes a discount (10-20% is common).

The Problem With Managing a Pull List Manually

The pull list works well when you have one shop, one city, and a stable reading list. Real collecting doesn't always look like that. You might move cities and need to establish a new pull list. You might go to different shops for different publishers. You might drop and re-add series as arcs start and end. Tracking what you actually own versus what you're following versus what you've read is a spreadsheet problem most collectors solve poorly.

Missing issues is the most common consequence. You drop a title for a few months, add it back, and discover you've got a gap in a run you intended to keep complete. Or a shop closes, the pull list disappears, and you have no record of where you were in a dozen series. Rebuilding from memory weeks or months later is frustrating.

Using a Digital Tracker as Your Pull List Foundation

A digital collection tracker solves the memory problem permanently. Logging issues as you acquire them creates a running record of exactly where you are in every series. You can see at a glance which runs are complete, which have gaps, and which series you're following into new issues.

The practical workflow: check the new releases for the week against your tracked series, note what should be on your pull list, pick up from the shop, and log what you got. Over time, your tracked collection becomes the authoritative record of your collection that no shop fire, closed account, or moved city can erase.

Series following also lets you track when a series you care about starts a new arc - the natural time to re-add it to your pull list - or when a creative team you follow moves to a new title.

Single Issues vs Trade Paperbacks: The Collector's Consideration

Some collectors follow comics in single issues as they're released; others wait for trade paperback collections. Singles have the advantage of currency - you're reading as the story develops - and potential key issue value if a significant first appearance ships. Trades are more practical for reading and shelf storage. Many serious collectors do both: singles for series they care about weekly, trades for series they discover after the fact.

Track your comic collection, follow series, and see each week's new releases at CollectionPlnr New Releases. Build your digital pull list at CollectionPlnr Comics.

New Comic Book Day: How Serious Collectors Manage Their Pull List