Meditations on Comics and Dern's Blog

Daniel Dern is once again posting on his blogs, Dern Near Everything Else and Trying Technology.

He recently wrote on a subject that was near and dear to my heart when I was collecting comics: Out Of Sorts: A Pile of Comic Books, In No Particular Order. There were no short boxes in my era (1963-1970), so I stored mine horizontally in cardboard boxes without plastic covers. Still, I was able to fund my spending money for my freshman year at MIT with $1,000 worth of duplicates, and I got $800 for a handful that I auctioned in the 1980s. Alas, there was a flood in my parents basement, and the bulk of my collection (stacked oldest comic on the bottom) was destroyed, including issues 1 through 20 of Fantastic Four, X-Men, Hulk, Avengers, Spiderman, Daredevil--basically, every superhero book of the Marvel Silver Age. I loved artist Jack Kirby (and was surprised recently to find he is still alive), one of the most prolific pencillers in all of comicdom.

I have bought only a few dozen comics since I left for MIT in September 1970, and most of those were on the advice of Dern, who maintained his habit farther into adulthood than I did. I just can't find the time--too much else to do.