With the first issue of Doomsday Clock, I inadvertently started a comic book collection. Currently it is small, however it shows no sign of stopping.
Together with JW, I perused a reasonable number of comic book stores within a 20 mile or so radius. Many of them we found to be quite intimidating and unwelcoming places but after a while we hit the jackpot and found a lovely place with a charismatic and knowledgeable owner who we’ll randomly call Flat Earth Mike (furthermore known as FEM).
I started with just one, as so many habits do. Thanks to FEM’s excellent marketing skills and weekly posts with the blurb of each new impending series, I soon found myself subscribing to more. FEM also messages me, suggesting that if I like ‘this’ I might like ‘that’. He is often correct. JG rolls her eyes at me when I tell her I’ve added another title to my subscription pile.
Anyhow, for the last five or so months, my comics have been in a pile on the bookshelf (still bagged and boarded obviously, I’m not a monster). While this was suitable for one series, it is not satisfactory as the collection expands.
Initially I was planning on getting a ringbinder and putting each comic in a wallet, so that each binder could contain a series. However, when I went shopping for materials, I realised that this was going to be expensive, unattractive and eventually take up an impractical amount of room. There are binders designed particularly to house comics, however you can take the ‘expensive’ description above and heavily multiply it.
I had sort of resigned myself to the fact that it would have to be comic boxes.
Whilst one box could store about 150 comics, neither JG nor I was particularly keen on having it on the bookshelf. I wanted something that I could easily go to for inspiration when I wanted something to read. The box felt a bit like shutting the comics out of reach, especially if we were to store it in a cupboard.
Having perused the Internet for ideas, I tried a small IKEA storage box.
JG was not a fan. I felt that we were getting closer, but that this was not the solution. We have an old house, with lots of dark antique furniture (not loads and not valuable; please don’t burgle us, thanks) and this box didn’t look right on the shelves. Incidentally, IKEA do a magazine file in comic book size for about £1.50. This would have been perfect…but it comes in one design (currently) and that design is covered in whales. It’s not really…me.
Back to the drawing board (and the Internet). Amazon suggested clear boxes. The fact that they were exactly comic book sized meant they could charge £17.60 for 2.
Initially we were a little outraged at the sheer exploitation, however both decided that currently this was the best solution that we had seen so far. I combined this with some Ultimate Guard comic dividers (5 for a tenner on eBay or 25 for £12.99 on Amazon, bit of a no-brainer) to organise them, naturally in alphabetical order.
I think JG and I agree that it’s not perfect, but is probably the best we’re going to come up with until I win the lottery and am able to have a purpose-built annexe for comics and collectibles.
The Nerd Ramblings 