Getting Organized

I spent most of my childhood with absolutely no interest in comics. When everybody else was oohing and ahhing over the latest Batman or Superman, I was....well, ok, I was drooling over them on television but I WASN'T reading the comics.

Then, a couple of years back, I decided to take a look at a few different titles, particularly ones like Fantastic Four and Spider-Man (because my first crushes were Spidey and the Human Torch) and got hooked on the titles. Then, I discovered that there were so many other great titles out there, particularly from independent publishers. Great stuff like Dorothy, Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse and Zombies. Ok, it's not exactly higher literature but...

My buddy Matt recently decided to downsize his collections, and it got me to thinking. Do I need to get rid of them to make space? Can I continue collecting them? Is it just stuff? The more I thought about it, the more I thought...you know what? It's ok to hold onto these. I don't really collect anything, I have no expensive bad habits and I've always enjoyed collecting different types of writing and literature. I'm also one of those people who buy comics based on the storylines, rather than the artists.

So I don't have a problem with keeping the comics, but I DO have a problem with keeping them organized. The hubby is a bit tired of the piles everywhere, so I bought a couple of longboxes and started throwing them in there. The problem is, I have a lot now, and really have no idea which ones I have and which ones I need.

There's lots of software out there for comic organization, but all of it is written for the Windows operating system. As one of those folks who now says "I'm a Mac" instead of "I'm a PC," this was a real problem. I didn't want to setup a custom spreadsheet in Excel, and I didn't want to fork over a ton of money for something like Filemaker.

Fortunately, after digging around on the 'Net, I found a great site called StashMyComics.com which basically lets you keep track of your collection online. It's also very grassroots, in that everyone is encouraged to upload missing cover images, fill in missing information about the comics, etc.. It's a little slow at times, the interface maybe not so pretty as something you could fork out $50 for. You know what? I don't care. I finally have a way to get all these comics organized, and I love being part of the community and contributing my share of the work to keep it running.

If you're looking for an option to keep track of your comic collection, I highly recommend them.