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The last time I made an effort to read comics, I went to my local (now closed) store and paid a not-insignificant amount for a stack of books. I went home, read them, and realized it took me only about 90 minutes; hardly a good return-on-investment for what I paid.

My only beef is when you don't feel you are getting a complete story. Or, if the story is part of an arc, well it feeling like a warm up.

I think Stan Lee and Mr Byrne were able to keep sub-plots going and give so much bang for your buck. Even when their stories were part of, say, a three-part arc, nothing felt wasted. Each part of the Galactus trilogy can be enjoyed and feels like great value.

It doesn't necessarily feel that way when the first issue of something is almost all talking heads and a warm-up to a mission. 

I want to support monthly comics rather than TPBs. For a comic industry that sells monthly books to survive, it needs us buying it.

But I concur with what you've said. There's definitely an incomplete feeling, especially when certain issues don't feature action.

One of my favourite arcs from yesteryear is "The Lazarus Affair" (BATMAN). At the time, it felt special as it was four issues long. True, you needed to read the four issues to really appreciate as a whole, but each issue had bang for its buck, i.e. one issue saw Batman skiing and taking on Ra's al Ghul's forces. It didn't feel wasted.