The picture at the top of this page is a photo of my own comic book collection, because this week I’d like to talk to you about collecting and storing your comics. I see a lot of pictures on-line of people putting their comics in special display cases or keeping their paperbacks or hardcovers on bookshelves. That’s cool if your collection isn’t that big yet, but when you’ve been buying and reading comics for as long as I have, you have to look for different ways to store them and keep them safe and dry.
As a kid, I just put my comics on stacks. And when those stacks got too high after a while, my dad made me some shelves to put them on, including a couple of book ends. But eventually even those shelves were getting too small. And since it was mostly actual (Dutch versions of monthly) comics back then, and I didn’t bag or board them yet, keeping them on shelves wasn’t exactly the best sollution. That’s why I decided to invest in bags and boxes during my teenage years in the 90’s. I never used backing boards actually. I just filled all the boxes up to a point that the comics would remain upright and not bend or fold.
And that is still the same way that I store my comics. I still use those same short boxes that I bought all those years ago and I’ve just been adding new ones ever since. And I’ve got my own “system” of sorting them. Some characters or teams have their own box or boxes and they’ll include characters that are asociated with them. For instance, a Batman box will als include Nightwing comics or a Conan box will also include Red Sonja comics. After I decide what titles are going to share a short or long box, I’ll sort them by alphabet and number.
Even though I still have a pull list at the comic book store, I mostly buy trade paperbacks these last few years. I just enjoy the fact that you can read an entire story without having to wait a month after each issue. And it’s also nice that you don’t get an add every couple of pages. Now you don’t really need to put trades in a box, but I do that anyway. The same goes for hardcovers or big omnibus or compendium editions. They are mostly the same size as regular comic books and they help to keep the comics upright, since I don’t use backing boards. Of course I don’t bag the trades, since they have a much sturdier cover than regular comics.
Here in the Netherlands, and most other European countries, the size of comics is different. Most European comics are released with the same kind of cover as a paperback or hardcover, but in a bigger size. More like a magazine size. And this also goes for a lot of American comics that are translated in Dutch. I solved this problem by putting those books in short boxes in longitudinal direction with the back facing up. But of course there are also titles that include various sizes, like Star Wars for instance, so I keep those in magazine sized short boxes. I even put a lot of Conan books in a long box, with the back of the box being filled with big magazine sized hardcovers and the front of the box containing regular sized comics and trades. That way I can still keep all my books in simular boxes.
I always used regular white boxes, but recently I bought my first couple of printed art boxes and I love those. I wish these would have been around back in the day, because they’re so much more fun than white boxes. These printed boxes can have a theme or have certain characters printed on them, so that you can put titles in there that match the box art. For instance, I have a Silver Surfer/Galactus style box that contains most of Marvel’s cosmic titles like Guardians of the Galaxy, Nova, Warlock and of course the Surfer himself. And my Walking Dead books are now in a zombie themed box. These printed boxes are more expensive than regular white ones, but they really are a lot more fun. Every new box that I buy from now on will be a printed one.
As with all things in life, there are constant developments and new ideas as far as storage systems are concerned. Not only has the material of the bags and backing boards changed, but now you also have hard, plastic boxes or special PVC crate systems. And there are also cardboard long box systems that function like a drawer that you can pull out of the box. I basically stuck with the system that I started with in the 90’s, but there are a lot of alternatives out there these days.
Keeping your comic books safe and dry is definitely important. I still own every single comic book that I ever bought. And this goes back to the early 80’s. The reason I never lost any books and that they’re all still in good shape, is because I’ve always stored them in boxes and kept them in bags. I’ve moved a couple of times and had my collection stored in garages and attics, but my books are still in great condition. It’s a relatively small investment to get a decent storage system and it will be worth the while. Unless you decide to read your comics digitally, which has more advantages, but more about that in a future entry.
Comic Geek 76 - My Thoughts On Comics and Pop Culture 