Stick (to) it: At Ugo.com (yeah, I'm done with the underground cracks), Rich Watson uses his recent review of "The Gift," and subsequent exchange with its writer, as a springboard for this question: How long should you stick with a comic you don't like before dumping it?

"'Hot' titles with lots of buzz around it are all too common. We are told a given book is popular by other people, and we are convinced that we would like it too. However, if we read it and don't like it, yet are constantly told to stick with it, to give it a chance, it can make us wonder what exactly it is we're missing. We may feel compelled to continue if for no other reason than to not miss out on a supposedly hot title. (Conversely, it can also make us think everybody else has bad taste, but I digress.) This same principle can also apply to those of us who grow attached to a character or a creator. The more attached we are, the more convinced we become that neither can do any wrong. Inevitably, though, there comes a story where we feel the character's written or drawn 'wrong' in some way, or the creator starts a new title that we think deviates much too far from his more familiar work. However, because of our attachment, we sometimes convince ourselves, or are convinced, that things will straighten themselves out and the book will get better. We just need to stick with it and give it a chance."