More on storing comics.
Commenter Chris had this to say in regards to my topic from this morning, regarding the storage of personal collections:
“Just curious: How many of the comics in your boxes do you pull out and read once they’re in?”
Er, yeah, that is a good question.
When I was younger, I seemed to have more time to reread older comics…nowadays, not so much. I’m glad to know that those comics are there in the vast Mikester Comic Archives, to pull out and read if and when I want to…but realistically, I don’t do to that terribly often.
That’s not to say I don’t. Last year I reread the Superman comics from about the “Death of Superman” period until the present, and right now I’m rereading JSA. And every once in a while I’ll go through and grab a random comic or two to read…or to use on the site, which gives me a great excuse to go digging through the stacks that I didn’t have before.
But there are a few things I own that I may never reread. That run of Silver Surfer, for instance…the Steve Englehart/Marshall Rogers/Jim Starlin/Ron Marz/Ron Lim series. I reread it a few years ago, and may never look at it again. But our store doesn’t need them, and I don’t particularly feel like selling them on the eBay for pennies on the dollar, so I guess I’ll just keep them in storage. They’re not in the way or anything, and who knows…maybe I’ll need to whip out one of those issues for something here on the site.
As for the graphic novels/trades/oversized volumes…I didn’t consider those in my initial query, but I’m glad you folks told me what you did with yours.
In my case, I’m lucky enough to have enough space to have an actual library room, with real shelves and everything. All of my books, graphic novels and all, are kept here, and I have large enough shelving to accomodate my treasury editions, Barry Windsor-Smith: Storyteller, and even Chris Ware’s most excessively-sized issues of Acme Novelty Library.
Also, I should note that I bag all my comics, if only because, during years of dealing in funnybooks, I’ve seen many unfortunate examples of ruined comics that could have been saved simply by slapping cheap plastic baggies over the stupid things. I don’t put backing boards in everything, but some of the more expensive (and thus, harder to replace) items do get ’em.
Please continue letting me know how you keep your comics…I’m finding it very interesting!
