So.
I’m phasing comic books out of my life. Well not entirely. But I’m definitely going to be changing the way I read them. Over the last month or so I’ve been culling my collection. I’ve been putting the culled bits up on eBay and I’ve sold about a dozen lots or so. I’m sure that, after the posting fees, I’ve lost money. But I feel better actually taking a small financial hit if it means giving the comics to someone who actually appreciates them rather than recycling them or giving them to one of my friend’s kids who may, or may not, give a rats ass about comic books.
But with somewhere north of 4,500 comics in my collection there’s a lot of pruning still to do.
Of course the size of the collection is part of the problem. I’ve been reading comics since I was six, collecting since I was 10 and buying seriously over the last four or five years. My hobby has grown in leaps and bounds and its getting hard to contain it all.
So I’m getting rid of the stuff that I don’t absolutely love and trimming my purchasing habits. Which means some titles are going to be dropped all together, some will be purchased only in trade and the rest will be kept on a very short leash.
I’ve sort of set the upcoming Final Crisis event as my cutoff point. I figure this will be the last major reshuffling of the DCU for awhile and that a new status quo is a good time to make a clean break of things. (Of course it could also mean trouble if new series and projects start to make a name for themselves, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it) A lot titles are winding down their story arcs in preparation for FC and that will make the whole thing a lot easier.
So far so good.
Now if I could just curb my Silver Age back issue habit.
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I've had to do the same thing, and I don't think it is a slight on the industry. I actually think the comics that have been coming out in the industry over the last few years are incredible in some respects. Millar, Ellis and Morrison continue to put out quality, quality writing! The problem is that collecting comics is a young mans game. As we grow older, we get to an age where spending oodles of money collecting comics is not a feasible idea any longer, and becomes something of a burden to the pocketbook. So, in the end we end up (at the tender age of 30-ish) giving up on a great pastime to come to bigger and better things. We both know that you and I will never stop completely, and with conventions and the like we will most certainly still dip into the hobby every now and again. I will likely continue to read anything the above authors put out (for example). I still enjoy Anime & Manga in spurts (though my tastes in it are FAR pickier than they used to be).
So I feel that it's like this. We used to be hardcore, and will retain those memories of hardcore for our lives to come, but we have put it by the wayside for other things, and it can be a lovely little secret, and something we indulge in from time to time, but never more than that and it will be something of a mystery to our children...
"They say Dad used to collect comics. They say no one knows what happened to his stash. Worth thousands they say. What do you think is in the attic?"
;)
I'll always go to the conventions with ya anyways dude.
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