Collect Or Read
 

I'm with Kev Sutherland on this. Comics are to be horded and then reread until they become old, crinkly and half-torn!

And then you reread them again!

i'm all for the rereading of comics, but i cant find the time!!

damn by busy life!!

lol

J.

Yeah, I no longer collect. I've sold my "collection" three times now. My complete runs of the Silver Age Justice League of America, Green Lantern, and Teen Titans is long gone.

Now I'm just a reader who either takes the dreck back to the store for trade or gives it away.

Yes, I have to say that I don't understand the collector mentality as it applies to comics. They're meant to be read, surely?

Reading them is a given definately - its what you do afterwards.

I do collect, but i dont place my collection as important part of my life anymore. i dont go out and buy different covers like i used to or spend time bagging etc.

i used to go comic shop every week - i havent been for 3 weeks now, and although i am missing my "fix" i can live without them.

The internet gives me the information i need if i wanna know what happened in say superman, or spider-man this week and reading them myself the week they come out isnt as important as it used to be - as long as i do still read them.

J.
www.portentcomics.com
www.myspace.com/portentcomics

Well, I can understand it in terms of "historicity," but I think much of fandom takes it beyond that level.

i buy comics only to read not collect, but i treat them like theyre valuables. maybe im just anal, but i cant stand bent pages and the like.

Yeah, I certainly want some level of preservation (especially for older titles), since I'd presumably want to read those comics again, and I don't want them to get too munged up to read.

And not that I ever did it anyway, but I think collecting as an investment has probably died a death, with a few exceptions.

My collecting habits have changed a great deal in the past few months, mostly prompted by the move in US comics to more gimmick-driven stories, rising prices, and (since I mostly read Marvel titles) Marvel's ridiculous advertising policy. I'm reading fewer titles now, and I have less desire to and tolerance for collecting titles, especially when the quality drops, as it has with some of my "favourites".

I suspect that when I march into my new local comic shop, in a few days, I won't have much of a pull list. :icon_mist

Kelvin - I hear ya.

A combination of life changes (long story) and companies producing gimmick driven stories and crossover that are crap (marvel spider-man the other springs to mind) I too have dropped alot of my pull list, it used to be pretty even spread between DC & Marvel with indy titles thrown in - but i dont pick up anything from the regular marvel Universe. the pull list is quite small.

i dont if i am sad about that or pleased that i am saving money!!

J.

I try to strike a balance between collecting and the joy of reading. I read, re-read, the re-read again most every comic I buy. If I find that I'm not interested in re-reading a book, I drop it from my pull.

As far a collecting, I keep my comics in good condition, not for re-sale but more for the happiness that it gives me. Handling comics give me a sensory joy, a Proustian rush (although not limited to the sense of smell). Bagging and boarding my comics takes me back to a time when I was 12 years old and just learning that comics meant more to me than just the thrill of an adventure story. My best day, is the day I spend every year or so, placing my comics back in order, looking for holes in runs that should be filled and remembering where I was and what I was doing when I bought or first read a particular comic. It gives me balance.

That isn't to say that I treasure them as irreplacable objects. At one time, in Yellow Springs, Ohio, I lost my entire collection. I found the experience to be cathartic. Just recently, I gave 9 long boxes to my nephew (all of my Flash, Green Lantern, DnA Legion, Teen Titans and LOTS more). He's just a few years into his own comic hobby (he's a DC kid!) and I thought he would enjoy them.

Comics are a great hobby that fulfills all a sorts of nerdy-needs that I have.

-Dave
(I wouldn't say that I'm in Mint condition but I'm definately between F and VF)