FAITH MANAGES: The Collector Demon

The original draft of this would have had you opening a vein by the end of it, it was quite cathartic for me though as it helped me pin down how I can still love comics but be quite tired of them to.

It’s not the fantards or the increasing amount of involvement I have with the Industry it’s surprisingly simpler than that.

I’ve been at this since I was thirteen, which I’ll be honest surprises the fuck out of me. Batman got me through some horrible school years and launched me into the comic geek I am today, but…and there’s always a but…I suffer from what a lot of comic geeks suffer, the need to be a completist. I yearn to complete my Spider-Woman Vol. 1, I need The Darkness, I crave a couple of issues of Iron Man Vol. 4…it’s a big enough list to irritate me. There are certain titles I will only get in floppy format despite my insistence that the floppy as a format is a dead-end in this day and age. I’d love a decent database for my collection…it goes on.

At the end of it all I have a reading pile that’s taller than me and I insist on adding to it because part of me is enjoying the collecting, part of me is panicking I’ll never see a complete run of Captain Marvel Vol. 1 (Marvel) and part of me just wants to read some fucking comics before the local news headline reads “local curmudgeon found crushed under pile of comics, with a slightly frustrated look on his face”.

It is possible to beat the collector fatigue and just enjoy comics, I prove that every time I look at my Loki trades. It’s the opposite principle to beating the fantard army, them you just avoid, this; you spread your arms and dive into the four colour ocean. Over the decades I’ve got it under control, I’ve got UK trades next to US trades in the same run, I’ve got hard backs next to paperbacks and I no longer grieve over the three over sized issues of Acme Novelty Library that were casualties of my fourth relationship, especially as I have them collected. I still have a wants list though.

Putting time aside isn’t as hard as you think, choosing what to read a little tougher depending on mood, urgency and whether you have the full run, but the format doesn’t matter, obsessing over numbers and volumes is kinda irrelevant, as many children’s cartoons and porn stars will tell you, it’s what’s inside that counts.