I've been reading through my childhood comics (turns out I was really into X books as a kid in the mid 80s, particularly New Mutants) in chronological order and something keeps coming up. Annuals sucked. I almost always got them (if they were available in my local gas station) because I was a dummy completist - didn't matter if the art was terrible or if a random writer was brought in to tell a story that, at the time, only Claremont or Louise Simonson were allowed to tell. I always got em, and now I can't force myself to get to the end of the issues.

What's the word on annuals in modern times? Are they still one offs, trying to trick completists (ie: most comic readers) into buying something they don't really want anyway? Do most series even have annuals anymore?

Side topic, tie in mini-series also were usually terrible. The exception being X-Men/Alpha Flight which got me to start reading the X-books (I loved Alpha Flight for a little while there).