Attacking "The Stack
When Things Get Ugly (plus a Reader Poll)!
You know, I’m usually pretty good about filing away my comics.
I seldom let more than a few weeks go by before finding a place for them in those familiar white boxes. Ahh, but sometimes...well, sometimes I don’t quite keep up. When I don’t keep up, things can get ugly. Really, really ugly. Like this past weekend, for example.
First, a little background. Prior to building our current house in 1995, I’d always kept my comic book storage boxes out in the open within my home art studio. Not only did they take up precious space, but they were also a big eyesore. When my wife and I were designing our home in ‘95, I took the opportunity to include a cute little room (well, basically a glorified closet) just off my studio that could be used exclusively for comic book storage. Using sturdy steel shelving, I’ve been able to expand my collection while keeping all of those bland looking boxes out of sight (not to mention climate controlled and out of the sunlight).
So...maintaining and growing the collection while preventing it from dominating the room? Best of both worlds, right? Well...yeah, most of the time. When I’m on a “discipline jag”, it’s a great thing. Buy comics, bag ‘em (if necessary), then box ‘em. Just like clockwork. However, when an extremely busy time hits (like summer or the Christmas season) or, frankly, when my discipline runs out of gas, the comics I need to file start multiplying like rabbits. Really affectionate rabbits.
Adding to the stack of new comics to put away are older comics that I, as an active Substacker, occasionally remove from their boxes to reference, scan, or skim for material. The logical thing would be to put away any comics I use for that purpose, but when I’m in the middle of gathering material for an article, it’s easy to set them aside to put away at some nebulous future date.
Which brings us to this past weekend. After ignoring the messy stacks of comics to file (or “CTF’s”) for months, I finally broke when I realized every single storage box had comics stacked on top of them...which had to be shifted out of the way to remove the box lids...which pretty much defeats the entire purpose of having storage boxes, right?
Having seen the light, I grudgingly began the time-consuming process of sorting, bagging, occasionally boarding, taping, alphabetizing, and...yes...filing away nearly four months of CTF’s (both old and new). Two hours later, as I placed the final comic book into its proper box, I vowed, “Never again will I let it come to this!“
Yeah....right!
What about you? I don’t really see this sort of mundane “housekeeping” stuff discussed in comic-centric sites and Substacks...but at the same time, every collector has to do it, right? So, how often do you “Attack the Stack”? Let me know YOUR modus operandi by clicking the button below to take a brief 3-question survey: