Category: comics

I went to the Superheroes for Hospice event at St Barnabas today. I had recently donated most of my comic book collection to them, for this sale, so this was my last chance to spend a little time with my comics. They had quite a lot of stuff for sale — much more than I expected. I think they must have had at least 50,000 comics, plus a sizable assortment of toys and other ephemera. Prices were quite reasonable. Some people were leaving with whole boxes of comics.

I resisted the urge to buy back any of my own stuff. I did pick up a few hardcover collections though. One American Splendor volume, two DC books, and two Marvel. So I managed to show some support without dragging too much stuff back home with me.

My haul from Superheroes for Hospice. pic.twitter.com/WjzoI5MYxB

— Andrew Huey (@andyhuey) May 30, 2015

I’ve been enjoying Michael Uslan’s EdX course “The Rise of Superheroes and Their Impact On Pop Culture.” The course is currently in week 3, though I’m still working on week 2. The course material is presented as a mix of short videos and text essays. Most of the videos are shot at the Smithsonian, often using items from their collection. Other videos feature discussions between Uslan and Stan Lee.

Most of the history that’s been covered so far is stuff I already know. I’ve been reading comics, and reading about comics, since I was a kid, so I already know a lot about comics history. But for a younger fan (or for anyone who doesn’t already know this stuff), I think this course would be really interesting. For someone who only has experience with modern comic books and modern TV and movie versions of comic book characters, this course could really open their eyes to the origins of these characters, and to the many great creators who have worked on them over the years. (How many people who’ve watched the Avengers movies know who Jack Kirby is? Not enough, I’d bet.)

There aren’t any tests or quizzes as part of this course. If there were, I’d take them, just for fun, but I don’t think there would be much value in that. Instead, they have something called the “Superhero Sketchpad,” which is just a PowerPoint template that you’re supposed to use to create your own superhero character. It’s a little hokey, but I think it would be fun for a younger person taking the course. The course is pass/fail, and I think anyone submitting a filled-in sketchpad at the end passes. (I’m not going to bother with that.)

There’s also an interesting recommended reading list for the course, containing a bunch of Marvel and DC collections, most of which I’ve already read. But there are a few I haven’t, and might pick up at some point.

Overall, it’s been a fun course. Uslan’s enthusiasm for the material really comes through. And it’s always a joy to hear from Stan Lee, even if he’s mostly telling stories I’ve already heard.

I just watched this, and thought it was really great. This guy reminds me a bit of the guy who ran the comic book store in Elizabeth that I used to go to when I was a kid. He sold only back issues, no new books. And he fixed small electric appliances too, so the store was full of musty old comics and broken toasters. Those were the days!

I’ve somehow managed to skip both East Coast Comicon and MoCCA Fest this weekend. I was more interested in MoCCA Fest, really, but I likely would have enjoyed either one. Instead, I was a responsible adult and went out clothes shopping yesterday, picking up some new shorts that aren’t two sizes too big, like all the old shorts in my dresser. (All of those old shorts are now in plastic bags ready for the Goodwill donation bin.) I also picked up some size L shirts, to replace some size XXL shirts that are a bit too big now. And I’m still working on my Coursera class, and watching Daredevil on Netflix.

I had thought about going to WonderCon this year, but decided against it. I’m not going to say that I regret the decision, but this weekend wouldn’t be a bad time for a little vacation, and it looks like the weather in Anaheim will be quite nice for the next few days. (Meanwhile, it’s a bit bleak and rainy here in NJ.)

Bleeding Cool and The Beat have some photos up already, and a few articles from today’s programming. I’ll probably follow the news from the con over the weekend, while working on some homework for the course I’m currently taking on Coursera.

The last of my massive comic book donation has just been picked up! I gave away a total of 31 long boxes of comics, and 2 long boxes of trade paperbacks and hardcovers. I should have an actual count of the books soon, from the guy I gave them to. Since a long box fits about 300 books, I’m guessing I had around 9000 comics. (Which seems like way too many.)

My next project should probably be cleaning up and organizing some of the other books I have stacked up — novels, computer books, and the like. Some of the old computer books are probably going to have to go right in the recycle bin. And maybe it’s time to throw out most of old college textbooks too. I’m going to take some inspiration from this article about the New Yorker’s recent move to 1 WTC:

The thing that’s worth keeping is the thing you do next.

I took today off from work. The original idea was that maybe I’d go into NYC  and do a few things, but the weather has not been good, so I stayed home instead. I’ve been browsing the news from the Angoulême International Comics Festival. There’s an article from The Washington Post, and another at The Beat with some interesting information and links. One of these years, I should go, though I imagine it would be a pretty expensive trip, and the language barrier would be an issue.

I have a whole list of things that I could probably be taking care of around the apartment, but instead I’ve just been reading and watching TV. I did a little bit of reorganizing, trying to figure out how to best use the space I’ve cleared up by donating so many comics and books. But I haven’t done anything major.

I’ve spent most of the day today organizing the remaining comic books that I’m donating to Superheroes for Hospice. I’d previously given them 25 long boxes, constituting all of my collection up to about 2003, which is when I stopped cross-filing them into my alphabetized long boxes. Since then, I’ve just been stashing them in whatever cardboard boxes I had handy. Well, I’ve now emptied out all of those random boxes and filled six new long boxes!

I’ve kept enough comics to fill four short boxes, maybe around 500 books total, so that’s a much more manageable collection. I’ve kept stuff by P. Craig Russell, Michael T. Gilbert, Stan Sakai, Matt Howarth, and Los Bros Hernandez, mostly. Those guys are among my favorite artists/writers, and some of their stuff isn’t as readily available in trade paperback collections and/or digitally as some other folks work. (For instance, I love Neil Gaiman, but I have most of his stuff in trade paperback or hardcover already.)

I also managed to fill two long boxes with old trade paperbacks and hardcovers that I don’t want to keep. That leaves me, again, with a much more manageable collection of trades and hardcovers.

Once I get these eight boxes out of the apartment, I need to start thinking about reorganizing things, and getting rid of yet more junk. I read a good article this week called The Power of Positive Purging. Sometimes it’s hard to let go of stuff, but I’m really trying to clear things out. And, yesterday, I listened to a good episode of Judge John Hodgman called “Do You Want to Hoard Some Snowglobes?” On the surface, the episode was just about a guy who wants to fill a whole room in his house with stuff from the movie Frozen. But, in discussing this case, Hodgman addressed the more general themes of art vs crap, and hoarding vs collecting. So it was a good thing to listen to on my long drive down the Turnpike to the cemetery yesterday; it was both funny and insightful.

I went through all my long boxes of DC comics today, to prepare my next batch of comics for donation. I decided to donate them all, not keeping anything from those boxes, but I thought it would be fun to take a few photos of the covers from some of my favorites (and just some oddball covers, for giggles.) This is a pretty random sampling, but a few of these are books that I remember buying back when I was a kid, when I could go down to the corner store, and buy a comic book and some gum with my fifty-cent allowance. Those were the days!

I’m not sure how this gallery is going to look, but here goes…