For the Fourth

At this moment in history, July 4th is a moment to remember that this country was founded on the fundamental principle of equal protection under the law. This encompasses the right to due process, prohibitions against the unlawful detainment of individuals, and protecting people from unreasonable searches and seizures, including arrests and detentions. 

These are fundamental rights guaranteed in the Constitution, extended to citizens and non-citizens alike. Any departure from these values and ideals is a violation of what the Founders intended and what we're supposed to stand for, and serves as a threat to our democracy and our individual rights. It's really not much more complicated than that. 

 

RIP Jim Shooter

I was sorry to hear about the passing of comics writer, creator and editor Jim Shooter. Though I never met him personally, he loomed large in comics during a period I became serious about entering the industry. To say that he was polarizing would be an understatement. His tenure and influence as editor in chief of Marvel Comics from 1978–87 was both legendary and notorious. He got the company back on track and oversaw some great series and ushered in new talent (encompassing Chris Claremont's run on X-Men, John Byrne on the Fantastic Four, and Frank Miller's Daredevil) and implemented a royalty program. Shooter would occasionally go on to found and/or start several other companies, such as Valiant and Defiant, neither of which lasted long.

But during this time, Shooter also emerged as a "villain" in the industry. These included defending Marvel's indefensible position of not returning Jack Kirby's artwork in order to leverage a promise that he not ever attempt to claim ownership of the characters he had a big hand in creating for the company (they didn't call it "The House that Jack Built" for nothing), and issuing edicts on the creator side that people chafed under so much that many left.

Starting around that time, I became as interested in the business of comics as much as the comics themselves and, during these days before the Internet, much of this was covered breathlessly in the weekly and monthly comics media press. So though much of my impression of Shooter was shaped by comics industry media coverage (particularly that of the Comics Journal), since I had no real skin in the game—and given the insular nature of the industry—I tended to read such reports with a grain of salt and almost solely for the entertainment value in a soapy sort of way. (There's an old adage about academia that probably applies to comics at this time—the politics are so vicious because the stakes are so low.) 

In any case, I have to admit it's been touching to read so many fascinating stories and personal anecdotes at his passing, which provide a warmer and more rounded view of the man. Despite some of his notoriety, he clearly could be warm and generous, and clearly did much to benefit and protect creators, and it's good to know that he was nevertheless respected and appreciated by many of his peers, many of whom found opportunities to share their sentiments with him over the years. At the end of the day, he leaves behind a solid legacy, so it's nice to hear so many remembering him fondly.

For a nice overview of some of these stories, see the Comics Beat coverage. 

My Comics Stash (3)

As mentioned in recent posts, I’ve been sorting through and re-organizing my comics collection. Though I don't buy as many, I still had boxes of comics going back years (and, yes, decades) that I haphazardly threw my purchases into.

I began by separating them out into groups by publisher and/or series, like DC, Marvel, Image, Dark Horse, Fantagraphics, as well as some key runs and characters like The Spirit, American Flagg, Batman, etc.—indie comics are also a separate category. I’ve often found issues of both longterm and limited runs scattered among different boxes, so it’s been satisfying to consolidate some of these runs together, though I still have missing issues—I never considered myself a serious “collector," often just picking up whatever fancied my interest, so many of these gaps are simply comics I didn't purchase.

It’s been fun finding out what I have in my collection, even discovering that some items have some value. I must admit my long term goal is to unload some of this collection at some point—and to be honest, my primary goal is to shrink my collection, not to milk as much profit as I can. My preference would be to sell my collection in lots with the key issues as part of the mix, rather than simply sell individual key issues—otherwise, I’d just be left with comics nobody might otherwise want.

Years ago I began using a website, StashMyComics, to inventory and index my comics. It allows you to easily find a series and check off the issues you have, then save them in user-defined categories—in my case, I assigned each of my boxes a code number and use that number as the category in my account to identify the box where each item is stored. Though this data is saved in the user's account, it can also be downloaded as a spreadsheet, so the user can have their own backup copy. Though the website is still active, I recently learned that the website actually hasn't been updated with more recent comics. (Indeed, our of curiosity, I checked to see if Rob Hanes Adventures is in the system—I found that it is, but only up to issue 14!) This generally has worked out fine for me since many of my comics are older. 

There are some comics—mostly small obscure indies and publishers—so I keep a separate spreadsheet list of those, using the StashMyComics spreadsheet as a template so that I can combine it with the master spreadsheet to create one single spreadsheet of my collection.

I actually plan to take a break since because this project has been extremely time consuming the past few weeks, and I need to attend to other priorities. I actually still have a few boxes to get through, but getting a good portion of my collection sorted out, seeing what I have on hand, and placing them into boxes in a more organized fashion has been gratifying.

For more photos and past posts, visit my Comic Book Collecting tag.

My Comics Stash (2)

Part two of an ongoing series...

 

My Comics Stash (1)

Since I have a little downtime between issues and the lead up to the San Diego Comic-Con, I've decided to return to an ongoing, longstanding project to re-sort and organize my comic book collection. Here's

 the first in a series...

 

Rob Hanes Adventures #26 Goes Into Orbit!

Official announcement about the next issue of Rob Hanes Adventures! For the formal press release, click here.

2025 Tonys Best Musical