I Make It So Much Harder Than It Needs To Be

Having been reacquainted with the majority of my collection, I've been taking the opportunity to read some issues I hadn't looked at in quite a while, such as that NextWave collection I got at the '07 Cape Comic Con, or assorted Spider-Girls, or some of the earlier story arcs from Punisher MAX. I've also been trying to thin out the collection a bit, you know, move out comics I didn't really enjoy, or that I'm not likely to read again. I've had a little success, though compared to the amount of comics coming into the collection it feels like trying to bail out a flooding ocean liner with a drinking glass, but often, as I start to remove a comic, I concoct some reason to stop myself.

Sometimes it's just nostalgia, it's some comic of questionable quality I loved as a kid, like most of my '90s X-Comics. Sometimes I hate the story, but it has an artist I like, so I can't get rid of it*. Then there's the stuff I think you, my beloved audience, might enjoy, like say, Bill Mantlo teaming up with Mike Mignola on Alpha Flight. OK, I've only got two issues of that, but it's a weird two issues**. Then there's the stuff that I put a lot of work into collecting, so there's no way I'm getting rid of it, even if some of it makes no sense to me, or feels kind of lackluster on later readings (some of the Spider-Girl, parts of Engelhart's West Coast Avengers, parts of The Ray ongoing).

I'm sure there's a lesson in there about not letting possessions control you, but I can't hear over the sound of the GrimJacks telling me I should re-read them.

* That'd be about half of the issues of Bagley's Amazing Spider-Man that I've got. So much Venom and Carnage, and oh, the fake parents storyline, I can't believe I used to think that was a good idea.

** Yes, one of the issues is the one where Mantlo uses a soul stealing entity trapped in a sword to explain Puck's drawfism.