7 Days of Stack Week – Part 9: Confessions of a Comic Pack Rat

It's that time of year again. In what's become an annual tradition here at iFanboy we have our version of Shark Week on Discovery. It's STACK WEEK! 

What exactly is STACK WEEK?  It's that terribly tragic but also beautiful time in someone's life when they look at their teetering shelves of comics and think "mine… all mine. I CREATED this." And then, with sappy music and intense cinemas, the comic books are embraced and loved forever and ever and EVER.

Actually, it's about reading. A LOT of reading.

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Let's pretend, for a moment, that I have not been writing for ifanboy for a year and that all of you have probably come to know me pretty well. Let's pretend that I am a brand spankin' new recruit to this fantastic website, and you know absolutely zilch about me. Let's pretend those things before we move forward. Are you in that mental place? Okay.

There's four things you should know about me, in relation to stack week:

1) I go to a lot of conventions.
2) I have a bit of a pack rat personality.
3) I like shiny, pretty things.
4) I live with a comic book artist.

Allow me to elaborate on those points.

1) Conventions. Conventions have been a bit of an addiction to me since I attended my very first anime convention three or four years ago. Since then, I have basically made them half of my life, dedicating nearly every weekend during "con season" to travel, photograph, network, and report on them. I don't just do comic book conventions, oh no. I also go to video game and anime conventions, and just last year I stumbled across an Adult Lego Enthusiast website. My notoriety in these circles has grown due to my ever present skill to be completely "out there", and I have started to become a convention staple… whatever that means.

Usually I'm stalking cosplayers and taking their photograph, working booths of friends who are artists or writers, cosplaying myself, and then drinking myself into a stupor after convention hours. They are all like mini vacations for me, except ones that I do for work. And that is flippin' awesome.

But this massive convention schedule that I undertake every years means something a little more sinister: I get a LOT of stuff. I always travel to a convention with only half of my suitcase full and return with it barely zippable. At San Diego Comic Con 2010, I had so many things after the convention that I had to leave some of it at a friend's in San Diego until I could retrieve it.

1/2 off trades? Oh yes. Out of box action figures? Lead me to them. Single issues with pretty covers? GIMME. Friends who self publish their own comics and have booths? I'm on that like a fly on stink. Manga in Japanese that most Americans can't read so it's only a dollar? MINEMINEMINE.

So I come home like a kid after Christmas, arms full of things and a giant smile on my face. Then I dump my finds in my bookshelf and totter off to another convention. By the time the convention season is over, all I feel like doing is vegging out for a couple of months and NOT sorting my convention acquisitions. It's a terrifying undertaking.

2) As the above paragraphs may have clued you in on, I like stuff. I like stuff a LOT. I always feel uneasy in a barren house. I like to be surrounded by things that are indicative of me and my interests. I feel like it is an extension of my personality and it makes me feel much more secure to be able to look up at the book shelf and see comics or at the mantle piece and smile at my action figures. I adorn the walls with original art and rad posters, always have way more things than I know what to do with, but everything is so damn sentimental to me I have a hard time letting anything go.

As an example of my intense pack rat behavior, I have an entire bedroom in my home dedicated to clothes. I probably only wear around 25% of these clothes, but each unworn shirt or dress represents a possibility to me. "Maybe when I lose weight." "Maybe when I like that colour again." "Maybe when I travel to Mars and want to show off for the Martians."

Comic books are the same way for me. I have stacks and stacks of single issues I have not looked at since I lugged them home from a convention, but it feels GOOD to have them around and SOMEDAY (when I'm 70) I may just pick them up and read them.

3) My Aesthetic obsession may be slightly shallow, but as much as I love a good story, the art in comics is my favourite part. There have been particular comics that were completely fantastic, but I couldn't stand the art so I couldn't finish them. So when I am sifting through bins and bins of comics and I see a pretty cover, I need to get my hands on that issue and take it home with me just so I can LOOK at it.

4) And last, but certainly not least, there is the fact I am dating and living with a successful comic book artist, one Ben Templesmith. Although I rarely see him reading any comics due to his involvement in the industry, our recent move into the same living space nearly doubled my comic book collection. Now the shelves in our living room are teetering with possibilities, and I have absolutely no idea where to begin.

You see, Ben gets comps. Publishers send him huge boxes full of comic books: things he did a cover for, or just because they feel like it. As I look to my left at the moment there is a stack of around 30 of the same single issues he did the cover for that I have never even heard of. He's unwilling to get rid of them and I don't want to do things to his stuff, so there they are, making our comic collection look even more daunting than it should.

So as you may have guessed, all of these points mean one thing: I HAVE ENOUGH COMICS TO HEAT MY HOUSE FOR THREE MONTHS.

To be perfectly honest, I am completely daunted by my own comic book collection. Usually, I read things that I pick up locally at the half price book store or at my comic shop before they are shelved. Once comics go on the shelves, they are basically in a black hole that I rarely venture to. I am not a fan of digital comics, but I find myself reading them when I'm writing reviews for the various websites I work for, while my "IRL" comics sit sadly on the shelf, whispering and whimpering for my attention.
Again, I'm terrified of them.

First, I'm terrified of the single issues. It has been my best intention for about two years now to consolidate all of my single issues into trades, slowly siphoning off the little guys in favor of the big guys. But, this has been easier said than done. I'm a bit of a sentimentalist, and I also have the memory of a freakin' elephant, so I seem to remember where every single issue came from. "Oh, I got this at such and such convention when I met so and so and I was standing next to bla bla bla. I could NEVER PART WITH THIS COMIC."

But I hate reading single issues. They are too bendy and I always feel bad because I hurt them too easily. Finishing one and grabbing another is far too much effort, and so I leave my single issues alone.

Secondly, due to my "grab it and go" nature in shopping for comics, I very rarely have full series when it comes to trades. And I HATE wanting more, because usually if I finish a trade I don't have the next one in the series, and I either forget to get it or by the time I get it I need to re-read the last trade. DILEMMA.  I do the exact same thing with my giant manga collection.

So rather than give myself any specific titles I am going to read this year, I've given myself specific TASKS.

1) Stop buying single issues, unless they are REALLY REALLY cool. Exceptions include things like alternate covers for one shots or something that the artist or writer can sign then and there.

2) Before I buy more trades, read all of the ones that I have. As I read, write down which trades I need to buy to fulfill series I have ALREADY STARTED. Not ones I woud like to start, but ones I need to finish.

3) Read more DC. No, seriously. I am an unabashed Marvel girl and the only DC I have ever really consumed was Batman. It is my personal goal for 2011 to read the DC essentials and then some (especially Birds of Prey).

4) Borrow before I buy. I have lots and lots of friends with stacks and stacks of comics, and I need to start taking advantage of their expansive libraries before I spend all of my hard earned pocket money on trades that will be forgotten on the shelf. If a comic has an expiration date, I am more likely to read it.

I hope with the support of the ifanboy community, I can get over my horrible non reading habit and OVERCOME.

 

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It IS really sad how many comic books Molly has. Really, really sad… in an awesome way? To see how she is doing on her aforementioned goals, follow her on twitter. Go ahead, you know you want to.