After dinner tonight, I retired to the basement and began the process of sorting the collection by title, as dictated by the advent of the long boxes.
Predictably, those first three boxes have been properly filled already with any variety of titles featuring the big guns, The Big Three, The Trinity...those guys: Wonder Woman, Batman, and Superman. It just seemed right they should get (and easily fill) the first three long boxes.
[The young woman at the comic shop looked at me agog the other day, when three boxes didn't seem a satisfactory number for me. I had thought of coming home with a dozen, to be honest. "My collection fits all in one box," she said. Clearly to this girl, the words "Pre-Crisis" mean nothing.]
Fun to see some of these old covers, some other of my earliest purchases...their iconic images standing revealed in my memory like long lost friends found. Heh heh...whatta geek, huh?. But I'm kind of serious. Back in those pre-working days of my childhood, my DC collection numbered some twenty or so fondly and frequently re-read issues.
Of course the challenge is always the distraction of the collection itself. It meant the derailing of many an childhood afternoon's room cleaning project, and the danger remains. Wanting to stop and slide a particular issue from its plastic sleeve, to open the cover and fall into the story within. I'm glad to say I kept my focus this evening, and as you can see, I started getting those early titles sorted out into seperate boxes. As I rediscover how much of each particular title I have, I'll have a better sense of the storage needs and how I want to actually organize them.
There'll be a need for plenty more protective bags, and some backing boards will be a good idea for the rehabilitation of some issues which were rolled or bent a little during their adventures in storage.
Of course, in each box there are plenty of surprises...misfiled issues sometimes, or perhaps one bought out of sequence in back issue bins...like this issue of Wonder Woman (#224) from 1976. It was one of a handful of mags I held aside to bring upstairs and read when the session was through. I don't remember the story--I'm looking forward to reading it shortly. But I just love this cover.
The long history of Wonder Woman's published adventures is rife with any manner of minor inconsistancies: the swapping of Greek and Roman names for the gods of the Amazons, continuity disregarded, the strange riffs on female clothing of times past. But you gotta wonder what were they thinking here?
Oh, right. Because, everyone knows that the Amazons, a race of women who were so turned off by their subjugation at the hands of Heracles' men that they took leave of the World of Man...yah, they're the ones who're gonna be wearing golden testicle hats. Okay, hold on.
11:23 pm. I've read the issue. Those Amazons wearing the testicle helmets (they're a silver-blue inside...) were the ones who staged a coup against Hippolyta...but were, of course, roundly defeated by Wonder Woman in the end. It begins when they cause a US aircraft to be destroyed over the shores of Paradise Island and it's seen as act of war by many in the US. As a result, there's anti-Amazon rioting and Diana gets caught up in the midst of this mob scene, where she translates her Amazon credos in the slanguage of the times.
That's right, kids, "Rapping with your fists never accomplishes anything." Not until the next panel, anyway. WOK!
1 comment:
One box...somebody's collection fits in just ONE BOX!? I am aghast!
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