Covert Fungi Foraging (Silverton Style)
May 5, 2012
The Reluctant Advanced Technologists
May 18, 2012
This week’s posting is related to the collating of my comic book collection in anticipation of selling it. Still haven’t sold any part of the collection, but theoretically there are people out there that are interested in it. Know of any?
Word Count: 1207
Reliving your Youth
Through Graphic Images
This past winter I organized the comic book collection I’d accumulated during my younger days in preparation for selling it to a worthy buyer this spring or summer. It’s probably something I should’ve done a few years ago, but didn’t get around to undertaking until now. Osmosis has a way of forcing acts of procrastination and laziness to seep into your emotional pores throughout life. At least that’s the justification I use for only spending five minutes in a one-year period slaving over a hot stove. From a scientific perspective this almost starts to sound halfway plausible too.
The first thing I had to do was take all those crates and footlockers out of the basement where they were stored. Not wanting to overwhelm myself by moving all of them at once into the room where I sorted the collection, I decided to transfer each container one at a time. That way I could leisurely, and somewhat meticulously examine the contents and actually create the illusion of being organized.
This modus operandi must’ve worked since various members of my extended family commented that I really looked like I knew what I was doing. Eyewitness accounts even had me appearing like I had things in order with the collating. Little did they know that the more I got into the sorting, the longer and more drawn out the process became. So who was laughing at that point? Obviously not me since I was the one who was stuck with the job and the more time it took, the greater my feelings of being overrun. Sort of like a dwarf stuck in the center of a buffalo stampede. Bend over and kiss your ass goodbye as the old saying goes.
First came the comic books from my grade school years. For obvious reasons these were the most torn and beat up items in the collection. Most kids that age don’t really care one way or the other whether or not an item they’re playing with (or reading) gets abused. As well they shouldn’t since even in what serious collectors call, “Mint Condition”, none of these comic books is worth all that much. Who really cares if “Little Miss Sunbeam” #28 has torn edges, is missing its back cover, and the pages look like they’d been perused while the reader was gobbling down a melting candy bar. Page 19 must’ve gotten a reddish black stain from that bottle of cherry coke I spilled all over it?
This brings up an interesting phenomenon-which happened while I was organizing the collection. As I came across selected books within that first stack, my mind started to wander back to events that were transpiring at the time I was reading different comics. While sorting through my collection of “Dark Shadows” comic books, I began remembering that poster of Barnabas Collins taped up over my bunk bed. Staring mercilessly over me with his undead white skin, bloodshot eyes, and those razor sharp vampire fangs. Many a night occurred in those days when I went to sleep hoping Barnabas wouldn’t come to life and jump out of the picture to feed on me. Why didn’t I just take the placard down off the wall? No way. Life wouldn’t be as intriguing if you did that.
The next two crates I sorted through contained what I like to refer to as “middle-grade” interest comics. Stuff that I’d developed a higher level of fascination with, but still not the cream of the crop for me in terms of my collecting. Obsessed, but not quite into the total fanatic titles yet.
During my comic book collecting days I was never much of a celebrity collector. By this I refer to the fact that I was an anti-super hero comic book aficionado. Lots of horror comics, sword & sorcery, fantasy, and science fiction titles, but very few characters with enhanced physical abilities fighting to defend truth, justice, and the American way. Basically most of the titles that are keeping the major comic book companies still in business today. Primarily by selling the movie rights to Hollywood.
The memories flooded back when collating these mid-grade titles as well. “Werewolf By Night” had me recalling that Halloween when I tried to dress up as a beast with abundant amounts of fur and vicious looking fangs and claws. “Rawhide Kid” had me remembering the fact that from the age of five to ten, I never went anywhere without my trusty six shooter and hat. “DreadStar” brought me back to those times when I built elaborate looking space ships with my Legoset. These comics were in better shape, but still not pristine “Mint Condition” as far as anally retentive comic book eccentrics want.
Then I got into the “cream of the crop” of my collection. ”Conan The Barbarian” #1, “Cenozoic Tales” #1, “Alien Legion” #1 and other titles such as this. “Shanghi Chi-Master of Kung Fu” #1 had me remembering all those trips to California to visit my mom’s family. “Star Wars” #1 totally made me recall why I went and saw the first movie ten times when it came out in summer of 1977.
These titles had me handling them like precious gemstones the entire time I was sorting the boxes. I found myself carefully extracting and re-depositing them back into the plastic Mylar bags I found them in, and checking the value of each comic book in the 2012 Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide my sister had given me for Christmas.
This price check task was actually a bit of a letdown for me. The cost for some of these titles I thought was way up there turned out to be much less than I would’ve liked. Does this say something about the state of comic book collecting? Maybe, but it probably says more about the fact that I did most of my collecting during the late 70’s-early 80’s. Most elevated prices are for comic books from pre-WW II, favorite writers or artists, and crucial events that relate to the title protagonist’s life. “The Silver Surfer” #1 in “Very Fine” condition is worth $830.00. I actually purchased it as an after-thought not really caring that in “Near Mint” shape it would be worth $1,200.00 now days. Would’ve been nice to buy five or six copies of the comic had I the foresight to see that. Then again, hindsight is always 20/20 as they say.
So what does this collating of the collection say about my current mental state? Not much since I’ve always been an eccentric and you can’t really say this behavioral part of my psyche is a recent phenomenon. What it does say about me is that it’s played a crucial part in developing my love for reading. Obviously my deep obsession with writing that will be with me till the day after they’re throwing soil onto my permanent dirt nap.
It also says that the left side of my brain (the creative part) has become highly advanced. Reading all those stories has produced enhanced skills in the realm of imagining things. The development of humorously based storylines isn’t really a result of the comic book collecting. Although you could use that as a legitimate excuse.
