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Monday, April 18, 2005
Moving on
Bill Sherman and Johanna Draper-Carlson have both gone over the idea of being a compulsive buyer and inevitable ending up with a lot of material you haven't read yet. Tom has gone over the feeling one gets looking at all the comics you own. These feelings have been rolling around in my head a lot lately.
I must admit that I am one of those people who like to indulge whenever I'm in a comic book store, record store, Barnes & Nobles or similar place. I find that I still have comics and DVD bought months ago (in a few cases a year ago) that I have not gotten to yet. The fact that I'm part of the "Napster generation" that can find our way to access a lot of content for free only worsens my condition. Now I find that I must make some changes.
As previously noted I will be moving in a few months. I'll be living in a college dorm which means the space I've been so used to while living in my Mom's middle-class suburban home will be gone. I plan to bring some comics with me but I realize that I am going to have to choose very carefully and bring only the ones I love the most, no matter how much I have collected. I have decided that two short-boxes and nine graphic novels will be enough for me to bring. The "pack rat" withdrawal begins now.
I've been racking my comics-loving brain over what to bring. I have books ranging from Richard Corben fantasy comics to comics journalism by Joe Sacco to crime manga by Taiyo Matsumoto. There's a lot to choose from but here are some titles I have decided on:
Essential Spider-Man vols. 1 & 2 - I love Stan Lee. I love Steve Ditko. I love that fact that a neurotic, sometimes shrill, sometimes arrogant yet also sometimes caring geek from Queens is one of the biggest superheroes of all time. These are the best superhero comics I own by a very wide margin.
Same Difference and Other Stories - There's a lot of good cartooning being done today by young cats just getting attention. Derek Kirk Kim is one of the best and having a nice small book of his humanistic little stories is a great thing.
Caricature - I love Clowes' longer works like Ghost World and David Boring but these short stories are the cream of the crop for my favorite era of Clowes. They feature the lonely, the odd and the jilted in stories that completely immerse the readers into their lives. The stories "Gynecology" and the eponymous tale are some of the best cartooning ever.
From Hell - It's the best Alan Moore work I own and the best Eddie Campbell work I own. That really should be enough but its also one of the most complex books I have ever read and I just can't resist that.
That leaves me with four more. This will mean many hours spent looking at my bookshelves wondering what I can part with for months on end (nevermind the fact that I haven't look at most of the books I have completed for years on end). The two shortboxes have already been decided. One will be "the Grant Morrison box" filled with complete runs of Doom Patrol, Flex Mentallo, Dare, Seaguy, WE3, Animal Man and other works by him. The second is "the mix box" featuring some of my favorite comics (or "floppy novels" if you prefer). That ranges from Action Comics #554 (the best of the Marv Wolfamn/Gil Kane Superman tales), my full run of Rubber Necker, the Walt Simonson Fantastic Four comics I own, Eightball #22, Rubber Blanket #3 and many other comics. I'm cheating by putting the first two volumes Tokyo Tribes in there but I love that manga and if they're small enough to fit I'll take advantage of that.
Perhaps I'll sell a lot of the books I leave behind on eBay once I find how well I go on without them. That will give me some quick dosh as well as breaking myself out of my materialistic rut. If I do or don't I'm still about to embark on a brave new phase of personal comic book fandom where it's not quantity that matter but quality. Will I survive cutting off most of my collection? Stay tuned to find out!
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