Like this, but with comics
It’s gotten a bit out of hand, and I’m not sure how it made it this way.
Actually, that’s not entirely true. I have a decent idea of how it started. I’m not talking about where the comic collection started. I know that very well (and have written about it within my Comic Book Challenge series long ago). I was missing a couple of issues here or there of one of my current pull box reads. Maybe it was an issue of The Flash, maybe it was Avengers, or it could have been Knights of the Dinner Table. But there was a random hole in the comic collection. Which meant I couldn’t push on and skip that issue, no, I had to track it down. But that’s the thing, in this evironment of today’s comics, finding a comic store which not only has some back issues, but very recent back issues (I’m talking about the ones that may have just moved from the front facing shelves to the back issue bins) are much more of a problem.
Regardless, until I found that Flash issue, I couldn’t read the pile I had. Or that Avengers pile. Or that other random pile.
The bulk of my comic books live upstairs in a pair of closets. At last count I had over 11,000 comic books within around 27 long boxes and an assortment of short boxes. The problem with that area is that once they make it to the closet, they kind of disappear. It just becomes very difficult given the space to really do much with them. I have a basic system where I’ve put notes on the boxes listing out what is in each, but sometimes those get loose as well.
Organized… or something
No matter what, if I put any of those series I haven’t read through yet, I will never see them again. They will be lost to the closet!
Instead, I would keep the latest stuff downstairs beside the bed. That way they would easily be there to read through, and then as I made my way through them, they could go upstairs. Except…
Soon enough, it became some kind of monster. I had 5 short boxes that needed to be organized. Needed to be looked through. Because, I had finds from last year’s Dragon Con. I had finds from this year’s Heroes Con. Heck, I had some random issues from Free Comic Book Day which needed to be accounted for.
This last weekend, I went through those 5 short boxes (and quickly realized it needed to be 6 short boxes with all the loose extra stuff sitting on my desk). There were three main piles to start (Marvel, DC, Indy) and then I began to further sort them. But there is something else which happens when you start organizing your comic books. No matter how much you want to deny that it’s going to happen, you end up opening up one of the comics and giving it a read. And then, since the next issue is literally right there… might as well read it. And then I looked up and realized I’d caught up on one of the series in its entirely. I was now back to eagerly awaiting the next issue to drop!
All this made me really think about the original plan, and the fact that I love reading comics. Therefore, I’m going to go through the (6) short boxes and work my way through the last few years of comics that somehow ended up in The Unread Pile. And then I’ll likely write about those series so that everyone else can relive things they read 2, 3, or even 50 years ago (some of the recent purchases go back to the late 70s).
It’ll be a win/win. Content for the blog. Actually reading comics I’ve bought. And my wife will be happier without the short boxes downstairs in the quantities they currently are.
OK, win/win/win.
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John McGuire is the writer of the sci-fi novel: The Echo Effect.
He is also the creator/author of the steampunk comic The Gilded Age. If you would like to purchase a copy, go here!
Click here to join John’s mailing list and receive preview chapters of upcoming novels, behind the scenes looks at new comics, and free short stories.
His other prose appears in The Dark That Follows, Hollow Empire, Tales from Vigilante City, Beyond the Gate, and Machina Obscurum – A Collection of Small Shadows.
He can also be found at www.johnrmcguire.com
