Dustin's Weekend

Howdy!

This weekend, since I am stuck being on call for work and my wife is away at the in-laws (in MA), I finally decided I had time to organize my comic book collection.

I haven't been collecting forever -- as a kid I always had comics, but I never took care of them. During high school/college, I didn't have the time, money or local shop for comic books.

I randomly got back into them in my Senior year of college -- I was getting reading material for a flight to Florida and noticed a comic book rack and Barnes and Noble. I happened to idly browse through it and, on a complete whim, bought a few issues of Venom: Dark Origin (not that good) and the first issue of The Dark Avengers (which I enjoyed). After graduation, I moved in to my to-be-wife's apartment, which just so happened to be within walking distance (not that I ever walked...) to one brand new comic book store and (a little farther down the road) a comic book store that had been in the area for years.

I timidly set up my first Pull List at Rubber Chicken Comics in Franklin, MA and have been happily collecting ever since. My favorite way to pick up back copies is to go to conventions and find cheap bins or collected sets/runs at discounted prices. Also, finding a comic book store with 25 cent bins during the summers worked too (Comically Speaking in Reading, MA is awesome for this).

Now, I've got a little over four long boxes of single issues and one box full of TPBs. I prefer singles but grab trades when they are cheaper.

That's not a lot of comic books, compared to any hardcore collector. I have, however, only organized them in the most basic of ways, which is to say I tried to keep the same titles in the same boxes. Being that I'm more of a reader than a collector, I often got this mixed up between a "read" box and an "unread" box. And the "misc" box that gets all the odd stuff that I pick up on a whim.

As of this weekend, however, that will all change.

I have emptied all my boxes and piled my comics on the floor, taking up the entire living room. The cat and I have to jump from room to room.

I'm going to make a digital catalog of all my comic books. I'm organizing them into series (alphabetically) and then taking pictures of every single issue. So far, I have TPBs and Complete Sets/Runs (issues that either aren't from a series or aren't from a series I want beyond the run). Now I have to work on the comic series that I collect, and that looks like it will take a very long time.

That being said, I'm enjoying the work. If I find a way to make a functional database that I can even link online, I think it'd be interesting for me to do so. Otherwise, I'll just label the pictures and organize them into folders, which, while time consuming, should be pretty easy.


... I might not take pictures of the misc box. If they migrate to a series a follow, maybe. Otherwise... Well, they can wait!


Does anyone else do something like this? Is there a program that would be extra easy to use? I'm sure I could use Microsoft Access, I just haven't used it since high school and don't know how well it will take/display hundreds of images...

Well, we'll see. And, before I use any more ellipsis in this post, goodnight!

...

P.S. The wife is two episodes in to Doctor Who and not hating it! Success, we'll have another convert soon, I'm sure of it.