The leisurely comic discussion thread


Aaron Robinson

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Sadly, I feel the need to tell everyone to exercise caution if intending to buy any of these. This is run by the same man who did the Gene Colan Hospital Bills auction. I spent 400 dollars on things that I never received, and emailed about for about 14 months. It was only until Rich Johnston from Bleeding Cool emailed on my behalf (thanks again for the idea, Mike!) that I got a response and a refund.

What I really wanted, though, was the stuff I paid for.

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For anyone who catalogues their books, how do you group multiple titles starring the same character? Do you, for example, have all your Spidey books together in a lump, or does Amazing go under "A", Spectacular under "S", and Web under "W"?

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I have little idea what/how/why I sort like I do. I sort some by characters (Spidey, All-X Titles, Batman, ect). I also sort by company (Valiant, Crossgen, ect) and even by imprints (Marvel 2099, Epic, Vertigo). But then I kinda go autobiographical and put TMNT and Power Rangers together because that just makes sense.

The drawback I have found with by character is that sometimes I can confused as to what goes where. The Havok/Wolverine mini published under the Epic banner. Should that be with Epic comics or with the X-Men? Things of that nature.

I tried straight alphabetical and I hated it. Somewhat illogically, I felt it took longer to find what I was looking for.

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I tried straight alphabetical and I hated it. Somewhat illogically, I felt it took longer to find what I was looking for.

I know what you mean. Illogical as it may look to the outside world, your system is your system and you know it by heart.

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Playboy has an interesting interview with Stan Lee on their site. There are times when Stan Lieber seems to come out, and other times when he displays a stunning lack of understanding why people like Kirby and Ditko were so embittered towards him and Marvel in general.

Also, the interview is SFW, but it's on Playboy.com, so the ads and dress are most decidedly not, so be aware of that.

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I sort all my comics by character in alphabetical order. So I put Amazing and Spectacular Spider-Man both under "S," while Astonishing/Uncanny X-Men goes under X. I know that's how some bookstores do it, too, since they know that customers are looking for characters more than titles specifically.

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Most of the stores I got to will have them by Publisher then title but then grouped within franchises like Adventures of Superman and Action Comics under Superman. On the other hand, most cons I go to, the booths will just go pure alphabetical or publisher alphabetical. I sometimes wish there was a standard among the places so you didn't have to ask whether Action Comics is in the "A's" or "S's".

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Floppies go by company, and then character/franchise alphabetically, within those character groups, I attempt chronological accuracy.

Trades/Hardcovers go alphabetically by character/franchise with no divide of companies, because they're shelved.

I spend far too much time organizing my comics.

Essentials and Showcase Presents are separate, just because they all look so nice together.

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My shelf space is not infinite, so I only shelve my hardcovers. In related news, I mostly buy hardcovers now. And yeah, I have those by publisher, then franchise, with Omnibi, Visionaries, and Absolute Editions by themselves.

I just did my trades tonight and put them in straight-up alphabetical order. My floppies are overwhelmingly Marvel (about 75%) so I don't think I'm going to separate them out, but chances are I'll utilize some alphabetical/franchise hybrid that makes sense to only me.

I am way too into the idea of doing this.

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I once organised by DVDs chromatically but that's too chaotic for comics. It's always divided by company, then alphabetically by character or event title.

Of course I think I've bought 3 physical books in the last year so there's not much pressure to reorganise.

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So, for many, many years, I have made occasional purchases from Mile High Comics, going back as far as when they used to take out double-page ads in the center of comics way back when. They have pretty much everything if you're looking for specific issues, but their customer service is just the worst.

This week I made my first order from Midtown Comics out of Times Square. Night and Day. They don't have the sheer number of books as Mile High, because nobody could, but their prices were far, far more reasonable, they had my order shipped in about 24 hours, and they kept me aware of the process the entire time. The books that I ordered that they had listed in VG condition arrived and appeared to be in VG condition. Mile High, on the other hand, usually takes as long as TWO WEEKS to bother to place my orders in the mail, costs an arm and a leg both for the comics themselves (hideously overpriced) and for the shipping costs, will not answer emails, sends me a VG-listed book with tape repairs and mold spots, and has a website that still looks like it's hosted on Geocities.

I am throwing SO MUCH MONEY Midtown's way.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The March sales figures are out. Some of these numbers are fascinating. It's unreal to think that:

1) Guardians of the Galaxy #3 sold just over 2,000 copies. Two thousand. In total.

2) There's going to be a Guardians of the Galaxy #4.

(I picked that one at random; obviously the figures will rise after the movie comes out. Even so, the fact that sales are so anemic in anticipation of a film with so much buzz is scary.)

When I was a kid, Marvel's cancellation line was 150,000. Any title that sold less than that number was summarily cancelled without exception. Based on that, the entire comics industry would have gone away last month.

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