The Collection

My comic book collection, while a source of pride, had become in recent years, just another great mound of boxes that needed to be lifted and relocated as we move from one rental to the next. It is only recently that I've renewed my interest in reading them all again...and that has brought into sharp focus the fact that it could hardly be less organized.

As you can see, all my issues have been housed in whatever assortment of boxes and cartons were available to me...and some remain in the boxes in which they were originally shipped to me. (The box that amuses me most, but which I never noticed before taking the above photo, is the one from T & A Leaf Lettuce. What must THOSE leafy mounds look like, eh?)

As for as organizational structure to the collection, there's slim quantity of that, too. Yes, all of my issues from 1985 (the year of the great Crisis on Infinite Earths) or before are all grouped by issue title, and are 95% mylar bagged.

Probably 80% of the rest of the issues are poly-bagged, as they came that way through purchase at Fantastic Planet or elsewhere. But the most recent issues I've purchased (1999 and beyond) were bought at assorted newsracks and spinning stands and do not have bags.

I have no doubt that my issues will be safer once fully bagged, but you can never tell. To the left is a photo of the aftermath of a recent burst pipe in our normally very dry basement. While most of the boxes were nowhere near the flood, there was one particular box which was directly below the break and took a fairly direct hit.

Inside the box, I found kind of a randomness to the damage. Some issues that were bagged were soaked, while others remained dry. And more inexplicable, some issues that weren't bagged at all were perfectly dry, while others were quite saturated. All in all, only these 22 or so seen hanging took the brunt of a box of about fifty or so. It could've been much worse...and while a few of those hanging have minor water damage like crinkly pages or covers, most look to have survived just fine.

Still, it only underscores the business of needing to get things properly organized and stored...and so the chronicle of that undertaking will comprise part of this blog. And so, it is with some happiness that I can report having purchased my first three long boxes today. They aren't water-proof, but they are pretty sturdy, and will keep the comics stored in an upright position which is best.

True enough, three boxes will only barely begin to scratch the surface on this project. I actually assumed that a place called Newbury Comics might have more than three of them in stock at a time...and was wrong about that. No worries, they're priced so I'll have to buy them here and there for a while, anyway. And three's as good a number to start with as any. As you can see, I've already put all my Wonder Woman's into one of the boxes, with room to spare.