the vynsane asylum

As I purchased all the "-1" issues that I have well after they came out, I have no particular agenda about where they get filed. As far as I'm concerned, they're just another Oneshot. And considering the "era" they came out in (i.e. "The Dark Ages") I doubt any of them have any significant insight into the Character or series they're about. Gaddam, the late 90s had a lot of steaming piles... So, yeah. Flashbacks can get filed before, after, in the middle of. I don't care.

Lately, I've been filing many of the Batman ancilliary books as if they were just regular issues, like the Battle for the Cowl stuff, and the Return of Bruce Wayne. Just because if you were going thru stuff to read ten years from now, the jump between the last Bruce Issue and the first Dick Issue literally had like 20 or 30 issues of shit that happened. If all that stuff was filed at the end of the Batbooks, it'd be two or three longboxes away from where it makes any sense. Y'know, you never had this problem back in the 70s and 80s. Shit was numbered and in order. Now every semi-popular character has a hundred fucking minis interspersed with all their stuff.

I had actually thought at one point about going back & filing EVERYTHING by month of release. Think about the rearranging THAT would have caused. Once again my inherent laziness won the day - thank Christ.

jjreason wrote:I had actually thought at one point about going back & filing EVERYTHING by month of release. Think about the rearranging THAT would have caused. Once again my inherent laziness won the day - thank Christ.

Holy balls! Thank gawd cooler heads prevailed! I can see doing something like in a spreadsheet on a computer. But physically doing it? Hell no. I'm flustered enough at the thought of eventually integrating the two (going on three) large yet separate collections I've accumulated.

But first I have to find a job.
Then I have to find a home with a mancave.
When that happens, you're all invited to the sorting party.

So, Spider-Island. There's three 3-issue miniseries: ShangChi, Cloak&Dagger, and Spider-Girl, as well as 5 oneshots. A total of 14 ancilliary books tying in with the main Event in Amazing. Should I file them with the Amazing books? Or put them in the 'S's with all the other Spidey books.

I would file them behind Amazing Annuals (which are after the main series). After that my limited series and one-shots are stored in "approximately chronological order" if that makes any sense.

Oddly enough, for tie-in issues of series that I don't collect, I file those directly in with the main series, right after the tie-in issue. Gang War issues of Punisher and Nomad (I believe it was Nomad anyhow) being filed in with my vol1 DD books would be an example. That way the whole story is in the same spot if I ever get around to reading them again.

Along with the sorting comes the uncomfortable feeling of finding books that aren't in great shape & wanting to replace them. ><

I was redoing my Cap boxes & remembered that my issues 1-12 of the Epting run were kinda shitty (got them via ebay - seriously, who the fuck lets their brand new books develop soft corners and color breaking spine creases? How is that even possible?). I need (okay, want - but really need ) to replace almost all of these. Oh, and my Uncanny 540 had a nasty production flaw that I can't over look... and now I need another copy of that one too.

I'm kinda that way about newsstand vs. direct market. If I have an issue that has a UPC in the corner instead of Spidey's face I'm kinda bugged by it.

And I KNOW that some of my early purchases(the ones I paid too much for because I didn't know what I was doing) are probably in much crappier condition than my nostalgia remembers.

Okay, now I'm faced with the FF/F4 filing conundrum. Since FF(Future Foundation) 1-11 are clearly also Fantastic Four 589-599 to get to F4 600, where do I put the subsequent issues of FF 12 and upwards?
Do I file ALL of the FF series between F4 588 and 600?(I have no illusions this series will have a finite life. It's just a matter of how long it lasts.)
Do I lump them all together as if the FF issues were like '.5' issues interspersed with now returned ongoing F4?
Do I put FF 12 onwards After the F4 series, knowing they are moving farther and farther away from their place storywise?
Do I just put the entire FF series either before or after the F4 run?

Marvel should've just made F4 bi-weekly. Nobody is buying one or the other of these two books. If you're buying one, you're buying both. If you're not getting one, you're not getting either.

I will go by month, myself. Kinda like when DC had Action Comics & Superman numbered in 2 ways - the issue of the series as well as the issue of that hero's story for the particular year (go back to around 2002/2003 I think they were doing this). So I will have FF11, FanFour 600, FF12, FanFour 601 - in order of release.

But that's just me.

So I'm doing a little sorting today. A little organizing. I have one long box and two or three short boxes of books that need to be sorted into my (now) 13 long boxes of "to read" books. And I'm doing great...until I get to the 'S's and find a goddamn Amazing Spider-Man Annual. And the 'A' box is now on the bottom of the pile. I HATE that.

Combined another 2 long boxes worth of accumulated books into my 15 long and 10 short boxes. Took me 7 1/2 hours.
I started by putting all the books I was finished reading into the short boxes in alphabetical order.
Then I started shuffling the unread stuff into the long boxes, and simultaneously working down the stacks of new unread stuff into the appropriate boxes.
Then I get two thirds the way through the long boxes and find a box full of stuff I'd already read. I just left them(Captain Marvel, Hulk, Spidey, Ultimate Spidey, and other assorted stuff) because restarting would've done me in.
By the time i got to the last box, I could give a shit which order a billion different X-Men miniseries, annuals, and oneshots were in, so I just dumped 'em all in random order. Fuck 'em. They all look like shitty reads anyway.

I'm trying to figure out how to organize the Batman stuff.
I've decided Batman is first in the boxes
And Detective is last in the boxes(I decided to move 'Tec from the 'D' box into the 'Bat' box, much like Action and Advs of Superman are all in the 'S' section now).
All the other ongoing Bat titles are arranged in order, chronologically by release date of the first issue. So LotDK is first, Shadow of the Bat 2nd, and all the more recent books after that(Gotham Knights, & Robin, Confidential, Streets of Gotham, etc).

My main concern is all the miniseries and oneshots. I've decided to split up all the floppies and the Squarebound/Prestige oneshots.

But do I file them alphabetically? Or should I do them chronologically by release date? I'm leaning towards the latter.
And should all these minis and oneshots go immediately after the main Batbook? Or should I put them after all the ongoings?

I'm beginning to strategize about cataloging the last two years worth of books. But as I've stated it's a duanting task. Here's why. As I alphabetize the books into my notrbooks(and from there log them online) I have to pull from several different locales.

1. The "New" Books are in 4 "Drawer" boxes. By new, I mean the books I buy at the comic shop every week.
1A. As I haven't bought a drawer box since last year, the newer new comics are either in short boxes OR just piling up on shelves.

2. The "big haul" comics that I read were/are in about 10 short boxes along one wall.

3. The "big haul" comics that I haven't read are in long boxes in the closet.
3A. Some of the read comics are still in the long boxes because it was getting to be too much of a hassle stacking, unstacking, and shifting comics into short boxes everytime I read a four issue miniseries.

4. The most recent haul is still in its separate box and hasn't been intergrated yet. Also a stack or two of smaller purchases.

So what I'm looking at is having to go to FIVE different places, pull out the "A" titles, collate them, write them down, and hope I don't miss anything. Then return them to their original place, perhaps condensing as I go. Then after that, move onto the "B" titles and repeat the entire process over and over. Oye vey.

Wish me luck.

Finished!!!
It took me almost a full week, but (almost)everything's in (mostly)alphabetical order. 23 Long and 15 Short Boxes filled 200 pages. I say 'almost' and 'mostly' because I left out some of the recent titles that just started. For instance, none of the Flashpoint or New 52 books got written down. Nor did any of the Marvel NOW books or other recently started Marvel books like Hawkeye, Gambit, Avenging Spidey, etc.
And 'mostly' because some books got written down with the franchise and/or Event they're filed with, even though alphabetically they should be elsewhere. Intuitively, I wouldn't look for a book called "Second Coming: Revelations: Blind Science Oneshot" in the "S"s. It'll be with the X-Books. Or Lex Luthor's Autobiography won't be in the "L"s. It'll be in the Superman oneshots.

And speaking of X books, I'm gonna punch somebody. There're so many ongoings, mini series, oneshots and annuals I seriously want to break legs. I tried putting them in some semblance of order, but it got to be too much.

Of course, the easy part is over(well, Easier anyway). Now I have to start logging them on the website. That's gonna take longer than a week.

Insane. Were you surprised by the color of your floor?