Too many comics?

The past few weeks have been a combination of being sick and busy. Once my time and energy started to come together again, I returned to some of my less taxing projects in an effort to keep things moving. I started sorting and bagging my comics to put them away into storage. I soon realized that this was a stupid project to pick up for being ‘non-taxing’ as comic book long boxes are heavy when they’re near full. Geeks don’t need dumbbells when they have long boxes to move back and forth.

Negotiating around the stuff in the archive to get to my comics, a thought occurred to me that I never thought I would have: I may have too many comics.

To a comics fan the reason why I never expected to think that thought is obvious: there is no such thing as too many comics. From simply a space perspective, I seem to have hit a limit. Realistically, I probably hit that limit and passed it a couple years ago. There are two basic solutions to this situation: get more room to store my books or get rid of some of my books.

Indeed, the situation is more complicated than those simple options. There are specific issues or stories that I possess in multiple editions. I made a comment along those lines to my buddy Al the other day. Discussing the storyline ‘Doctor Who – The Iron Legion’, I know I have at least three copies of it: the original ‘Doctor Who Weekly’ issues, the colorized American reprints of the eighties as well as a high quality reprint from just a couple years ago. It’s being recolorized and reprinted again. Since its Doctor Who, I’ll probably buy it again.

Do I ‘need’ multiple editions of a story, as good as it may be? No, probably not. This is the sort of thing that seems to hit more often with DVDs; having multiple special editions that contain sufficient different content so the temptation is to possess both versions.

To the non-collector mentality, all this sounds foolish I’m sure. Why own a DVD that you can rent and return? Why worry about multiple editions when it the story that’s important? Have it once, if at all. Just understand that I am a collector, it’s a sickness and I know it. It’s all stuff that generates happy chemical reactions in my brain.

Lumped into all this is the rise of digital comics, scanned copies of books that are available in legal and illegal versions. I could replace most of my collection with digital copies. Would I rid myself of the physical copies of my books if I did? Honestly, in most cases I’m sure I wouldn’t. There’s a special feeling to having some of these originals that doesn’t come with having a nice reprint or a digital copy. I have legal digital copies of the first 500 issues of the Amazing Spider-Man. Does that compare to having issue #60 from the sixties in my hand to read? No. There’s a feeling, a history, a scent even that comes from that physical item.

At the same time, there are a number of books that I could comfortably replace with digital scans, a nice reprint or only having one copy. The big question is: Does that situation already exist with some books? Is there anything I could clear out for space? Hopefully.