Okay! Victory dance aside, we’re back! And almost as good as new which is why I’m coming to you, Gentle Reader, with really… a good question.
Where do you read comics? On your lunch break? On the bus or other public transport? Do you buy a ‘Reader’s Copy’ especially for the job? Do you read your comic then slip it into a bag and board and file it away or does it linger about the house for a bit until you remember to put it away? Do you have a box just for banking books until you get enough to read in a block? How do we read these things?
Thinking about it like this, I can kind of understand how the average Joe off the street can find themselves off-kilter when approaching comics and normally just grab the trade; the fact I can think of … what, eight obsessive-compulsive ways to read and/or store comics as opposed to the universally understood book might be what’s going through their heads as well. After all, these things are going to be worth MONEY some day, right? Nobody wants to be yet another older customer, longing for yesteryear before their parents threw out their obvious goldmines.
So, how do you the Comic Fan(tm) read your books? Do you dare eat lunch with them? Do you save them all into a storyline or just grab and go, turning pages in the car after you leave the shop?
Personally, I’m a lucky daughter-of-a-gun who gets to work around these things on a daily basis. No, that doesn’t mean I read in the store while at the counter (seriously! stop looking at me like that!), but that means I can grab a bit of time in the back with some books, take them with me at lunch, borrow them overnight (bringing them back in the morning like the special star employee I am) and generally bring comics with me wherever I go. I tend to have a couple in the car, one in my bag, a TP at bedside, plenty around the living room and the computer desk, all for quick reference or perusal when whim strikes.
Where are yours read?
4 Comments
A lot of times I’ll read them once in the store, get them bagged-and-boarded, get home, pull them out and read them again, then I add them to the stacks on the shelf in my closet, so I can pull them out if I want to read them again, or need to check something for a post.
At the end of the year, I take everything I bought from that year down to my mother’s as she’s been nice enough to leave a small room in her house as a storage space for my various stuff, including the comics. And the stay there, until that future date when I live somewhere with enough space to hold them all comfortably.
I probably wouldn’t read them while eating, but reading comics while enjoying a beverage isn’t out of the question.
I read my comics anywhere and everywhere I can. Usually I chill on my couch at home, and go through my whole weeks’ stack (laptop next to me for initial impressions)
As for how they are treated before and after being read, well…I am a bad collector. I generally let all the comics collect around the apartment for a couple of months until my librarian side comes out…then you got some boxing and categorizing going on, the likes of which would scare most.
I love picking up my comics on Wednesday and reading them on the public transportation on the way home. I’ve had more than one good casual conversation that way with people who were closet fans. Let’s me show em a grown man can read these books and even point them to the local shop so they can get the fix that has just re-awakened.
Mine, I read at home in comfort. I have no issues with reading them elsewhere, but here is where they are.
Since we have a household of people who read them, they tend to stay in the bag they came in (I order them online and get them once a month) until everyone has done so. That is to say, ideally they stay in the bag because that keeps them from spreading all over the house. We have kids, so that doesn’t always happen. Eventually they will be bagged (not boarded) and boxed, but that generally takes a few months.