( )scription

Today I finally finished a project that I've been trying to do off an on for well over 15 years: I inventoried my comic books.

For the most part they were already pretty organized. Since this project has been started several times, my comics have been partially sorted and cataloged by many different systems. Mostly the undone part comes from two places: a bout of Trying to Get Rid of Things (tm) several years ago on eBay that sent piles of comics off to various parts of the world for next to nothing (again proving that my tastes are definitely in the minority); and a rather scattered approach to collecting.

Although I essentially stopped reading the books in '92, I didn't stop buying them until '95. The three years inbetween, they just piled up in my closet. Between '95 and now, I've bought odd titles and #1s as I've learned about them, and added those to the piles. Along the way, I've also bagged and boarded some of the books, but didn't file or catalog any of them.

Last night at midnight I decided to finally stop meaning to get to those comics someday, and actually get to them.

After dragging the boxes out of the closet (where they were put for temporary keeping a year ago when we moved here), I was able to go through the first five boxes fairly quickly. Aside from some odd gaps in otherwise straight runs on titles, they weren't that disorganized. I straightened up some of the titles (making sure all the X-Men books were in the same box, for example) and added some of the odd titles that have been stockpiled around the house. Finished bagging and boarding. Printed out nice inventory labels so I could tell at a glance what is in each box. Taped them on the boxes, restacked the boxes in the closet. All this, and I only stopped to read 3 or 4 books along the way.

Then found box #5. Naturally it was the last one I had to go through.

There's no rhyme or reason to the numbering. Five must have just been the one that had space in it at the time. It was also the one that ended up at the bottom of the stack when the boxes were piled up last year. Five was the box of comics to get to someday. No organization, not even alphabetical. Half the comics were bagged and boarded. Some were only bagged. Some were naked. Oh, and here were a lot of the comics that filled in those odd gaps discovered earlier.
This necessitated dragging every box back out, reinventoring to fix those gaps, printing out new labels. Etc. Etc.

For the most part it was easy to figure out where the odd comics went. But there are still some that have me scratching my head. I can figure out why I have the every issue of Spider-Man except #26 (the comic shop failed to pull it, and I didn't noice), but I can't figure out why I'd have Moon Knight #47, and only #47. It doesn't appear to be part of a crossover, have any guest stars, or otherwise fit with any of the other titles collected.

Since I do have it, what do I do with it? It won't sell on eBay, nor is it worth the cost of listing. And I can't bring myself to throw it out since I paid for it and it's in excellent condition.

For now, I guess it'll just go back in #5.

The rest of the Marvel boxes are done. Seven boxes in less than 24 hours. And yet it took 15 years to get to the project. The only Marvel box not done is the one that hasn't left Mom's house yet. Maybe I'll just leave it there; at this point, I don't even want to know what's in it.

All I have yet to go through is the small box of non-Marvel books. That should only take another 9 or 10 years. :)

Oh, and once again The New Mutants has been canceled. Grrrr.