Collecting

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    I was just getting my hair cut this morning, and had a conversation with my hairdresser about, not exactly comics, but the superhero industry.  It's odd to live in a time where comics can not only be adult, but cool as well.  To be candid, I haven't collected comics for some time.  When I was a kid I subscribed to The Avengers (the Black Knight, Wasp, Hercules, and others line-up.  Yeah, not really a classic period).  Luckily, one of my brothers had one to The Uncanny X-Men, so I got to read those too, if I asked nicely.
    As I got older, my tastes changed a bit, and I moved away from superheroes.  Comics seemed to grow up with me as the subject matter got "grittier" and more sexual, though for a while they were really going over the top, especially the independent ones (not one I collected, but did you ever read "Faust"? Jeez).        
    The other day I was regaling my girlfriend with tales of comic collecting in the late '80s-'90s.  I gave her some light history of the major players and the independent comic scene.  "The Comics Code," was something she'd never heard of (if you're in the same boat, go read The Ten-Cent Plague).  Part of the fun at the time was 'the hunt' for back-issues to fill in the gaps (graphic novel collections are a relatively new phenomenon).
    The more you got into it, the more you wanted to learn about you favorite characters' history, their origin (not the re-boots or flash-backs they did from time to time, but the original stuff).  Marvel stuff went back something like 20 years or more, at the time, depending on the title and they hadn't really done much in the way of reprints.  To seek out those back-issues, you got to know all of the shops in the region.  When I was a kid, there were at least 8-10 within easy driving distance of my folks' place.  After a little while though, you knew most of their stock and had to move on to other resources.
    Regional cons came through a couple times a year, bringing in new retailers and the talent behind the books.  This was the place to fill in those gaps and to build the value of your collection, getting the signatures of those men (to my recollection, not really any ladies doing it when I was a kid) who created those prized works.  Here was where you met the most devoted collectors, who could find what you wanted, but here was also where you would likely pay top dollar.  They knew the value of what they had, and while they were willing to deal, I'm sure they could read the hunger in my young eyes.
    As I got older and began to travel more, I'd make stops in the local comic shops.  You dip your toes into new pools and new worlds open up.  Those impossible to find couple of issues I'd lacked for years might be sitting right there, waiting for me.  Titles I'd never heard of blew me away.  Around this time, the internet had made its presence felt, and you could find pretty much anything you wanted for a price.  The trouble was that you were never sure about the quality.  Collectors know the difference in value between Fine and Mint, even if you mostly care about the story, you don't want to overpay.
    Today there are many more assurances when purchasing online, but this post is not about e-commerce, it is about collecting.  My experience as a comic-book collector mirrors that of collectors of all sorts throughout history.  Someone discovers something wonderful and new in a local shop and becomes an enthusiast.  They might move on to a seasonal market, seeking the best that region has to offer.  There, they make contacts to further their passion.  Perhaps they seek out older and rarer expressions of their passion.  Maybe they delve into the means of production or of distribution.  Perhaps they convince the travelling merchants to acquire something for them in a distant land.  They may travel themselves to acquire this thing, or see where it is made.  Who knows where this ends?
    Our passions can lead us on many adventures.  That, after all, is the point of this blog.  At one time, passionate comic collectors were much like rare book collectors, wine enthusiasts, stamp collectors, and so on.  Scouring dusty cardboard boxes filled with the mylar bagged ephemera of some other geek's hocked adolescence is a treasure hunt to a comic fan.  We live for that moment of discovery.
    The unbridled passion of the collector is central to the plot of The Maltese Falcon and numerous other works.  Why we collect what we do can have many sources.  Some love the connection to the past (their childhood, or further), or to distant lands.  For others, the goal is merely to acquire an object of beauty to appreciate.  Old books may provide insight into the how things have changed, both in the way people think and how the text itself may have developed over time.  Whatever the reason, collecting creates an odd community of passionate individuals with great stories.  Tell one. 


Do you have any great collecting stories?  How far have you gone to acquire that thing which would "complete" your collection?