In the first part of this article I talked about how I was ready and
willing to factor the comic shop out of my weekly purchases (read the first article here). Favoring
the efficiencies and conveniences of the online experience over the
brick and mortar. Since the Internet is able to make the purchase of
the comics so much better it might be safe to assume that it could also
add value to the delivery and consumption of the product. If
consumption alone was the only reason that I pursue comics I might be
inclined to agree. In this follow up article I will illustrate the
relationship that I have developed with the printed form and why I
remain skeptical that digital versions are destined to replace them in
my hands and in my heart.
Christmas 1989 I
got 3 comics in my stocking - Web of Spider-man #50 ,
Spectacular Spider-man #145 and Amazing Spider-man #314. They were the
first
comics I ever held in my hands. I poured over every page, over and
over. It was the beginning of a very important hobby for me, this first
experience is well remembered. In my very first experience with comics
the physical aspects were as important as the content. It was the whole
experience of collecting that I valued most. I would create little
check lists of books that I needed as well as a up-to-date inventory of
the books that I had. I can remember spending hours in different shops
digging through box after box trying to fill the holes in my
collection. I can remember setting little goals for the state of my
collection and meeting those goals. One of the first goals I remember
setting was to own every book that Todd
Macfarlane worked on. I remember when I completed this task how great I felt.
When
you pick up and old back issue you are sent right back into the era
when that comic was brand new. All the things we take for granted in
new comics, the letters, the editorial pages and even the
advertisements seem so much more interesting 5 or 15 years later.
A single issue of any comic is ultimately portable. Take a comic anywhere you want to go all you need is a little light and you're good. No wall outlets or Internet
connections required. You can stuff one in your pocket or your
backpack. Take one on a plane and never be asked to turn it off.
Sharing.
Back when I was still in school I would go over to certain friends
houses lay on the bed or floor and read through issues of titles that I
didn't buy myself. I never bought a single copy of Uncanny X-men back
during their heyday, but I never had to. I got to read every issue as it
came out including dozens of back issues. The same friend would come
over to my house once a week or so and dig into my Spider-man
collection. Between issues we'd discuss the finer points of the art
form like if Spider-man could beat Wolverine. I would like to see the
giant media companies try to put a stop to this kind of peer to peer
network.
Aside from a few close friends
who's collection I would essentially share I had a few other friends
who didn't really collect that much if at all. Some were passing acquaintances,
others were people I had just met, but I can remember the pride that I
felt the first time I showed them my books. Certain back issues came
with the story of the hunt and their significance . My head would swell
as they'd compliment the size and order of the collection. Sometimes
they'd ask for my help starting a collection of their own. I can also
remember meeting people who would have a collection on par or more
advanced then mine. It was such a treat to go over and see the a
collection so foreign to me. Things would be ordered just a little
differently and of course the titles would be all different. There was
honor among collectors and I was happy to be part of that group.
Of
course gathering hundreds and thousand skinny little books is not a
habit that makes me popular with the ladies. Specifically my wife over
the past few years has targeted my comic collection as one of her
reoccurring topics of discussion . Some of her favourite questions are
"Are you just going to leave them there beside the bed?", "Is there any
reason why we are keeping these?", "Didn't you just buy some comics last
week?".
I have to admit that as a grown
man with children I do look at the collection a lot differently then
before. Most of the problems seem to surround the fact that they do sit
around the house and they do have to take up space that could always be
used for something else. They get to be a bit of a pain in the ass to
drag around. Personally I have three quarters of my collection packed
in my Grandparents basement 3,000
km away, and the other bit stuffed in my small apartment.
I've never found a great way to sort them or stack them. For the amount
of times I actually reference the older back issues they've become more
like the old exercise bike than my private library.
I
hate the natural instincts they trigger within me. I want my wife and
children to be able to share in the joy that comics bring me. The
problem is that every time I see them bend the spine or add a crease to
a page something inside me screams in agony. I'm finding it a little
hard to break the conditioning that I've built up over the past 19
years.
The cover price has always been a
factor. I restarted my collection in earnest about two years ago.
Previously there were three other periods in my life where I had pull
lists set up at various shops in my home area. Each of those previous
periods came to an end when I stopped being able to afford the titles
on my list and I had to stop showing my face in that shop because of
shame (of course I was much younger then). Slowly as weeks and months
went by more and more titles were added to the list until it came down
to deciding between the bill collectors and the fat stack of books on
the night stand. I have the desire to read everything that comes out, unfortunately I only have the budget for a small fraction of that.
If I could I would simply sell off all the books I read as soon as I'm done with them. It is currently time and cost prohibitive to attempt to resell books on the second hand market. Currently recent back issues are selling on eBay
for a little under $1 per issue. That's around 25% of cover price after
fees but not including all the work it takes to get the thing off to
the customer. Seems like a better deal to just sit on them (like I have
for the last 19 years).
Now I'm at the
point where I understand why I collect comics and I know that there are
things I like and dislike about the printed form. Of course I'm skeptical,
but I'm not the type of person to say never and I'm not old enough to
be paved over by progress yet. I think this is the perfect time for me
to dive into the current world of digital (Web) comics and see what the
offering is. My initial experiences with Web comics will be the topic of the next part of this article.
....if only for a moment. There is a personal, highly intimate feeling that only comes from holding a "physical" book. The internet is limited in that way (and probably only in that way). The 1990's showed us the "ugly effects" of comic collecting and dealing for profit. There may be a time, when only the ones who love the hobby will collect. For the rest of us, there are always graphic novels and the internet. These two are the ultimate tools needed to make the World recognize sequential art as the superior literary form.
I like comics a lot too and I aspire to one day have such a collection as yours. I thought my dad's was big but now that I see the magnitude of yours, It makes my hopes and dreams soar. If you're interested in selling some of those Spidey 2099's I'm fully interested. Just e-mail me.
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