December 30th, 2009
End of the Silver Age
This December I finally took a huge step into a new age. I finally canceled all my comic book subscriptions. Each month, for most of my life, I would trek to one comic store or another to buy the monthly releases. This was a big part of my life and has obviously had an enormous impact on my sometimes too unhealthy attachment to pop culture in general. I refer to it as the end of the “Silver Age” as an homage to the comic book age itself. I’d consider my early childhood before I was serious about collecting to be the Golden Age of my time with comics. I guess this means I’m now moving into the Bronze or Modern Age if you read that link above.
From here on out it is only about the collected Trade Paperbacks or Graphic Novels for me. And even those will be only when I make a special trip, I presume. This will encourage me to only pick up the best of the best now, rather than trying things out with single issues on a whim.
I have to say, as ridiculous as it sounds, the moment I decided to do this was actually quite profound for me. I was standing in the comic store (Lee’s Comics to be exact) with a friend of mine, Neal, and I said to him, I think this is it. I told the clerk to cancel my subscription (where they hold the comics behind the counter for you each month) and I bought my last round of single issue comics forever. We drove away and there was a part of me that seemed to be left behind as cheesy as that sounds. At the same time there was also a weight lifted. As my wife or mother would tell you, I’ve accumulated quite the collection over the years and they aren’t doing too much for me anymore. Just sitting there in their huge boxes slowly decomposing. As someone who always told himself he would never grow up enough to do this, for whatever reason it just felt like it was time. I don’t even think it was about growing up at 37 (lord knows I still haven’t). It was more about a feeling that keeping up isn’t required anymore. If something should be consumed because it is a great story then it will come my way sooner or later. I just have to focus and be patient. I don’t have to force it and try to “collect them all”.
As a final send off, I want to give a shout out to my three favorite shops over the years. I hope that my decision isn’t related to some downtrend happening for them. I actually think things are on the upward trend for comics right now.
- Comics and Comix – My first real comic shop. As a young one, I couldn’t believe places like this even existed.
- A-1 Comics – This is the shop I went to for most of my life. I even kept going there after moving away and commuted back to Sacramento to pick up the books every other month or so. I was a loyalist! Also, the owner is a great and honest guy who used to play for the 49ers. Giving him my patronage was easy.
- Lee’s Comics – This one was a recent addition to the monthly trek. Sometimes even weekly as a group of friends at work convinced me to go most weeks as a great tradition. This was also the shop where I made the call. I’m sure I’ll return there from time-to-time though.
Thanks to Reed, Ryan, Kevin, Mac, Weezie, Goody, Yosh, Neal, Phil, Joe from A-1, and many more for partnering with me on the never grow up thing. I am no longer going to be able to say I was one of the first to read books in the single issue format like Watchmen (which I read that way when it came out in 86, issue #1) or The Walking Dead anymore. But I’m very happy to see comics starting to become a more respected medium via all of the Film attention. It is a long time coming for our modern versions of Myths. Bob Kane or Frank Miller my not be seen as Homer quite yet, but I’m pretty sure Batman is going to achieve Odysseus status someday soon, if not already. Video Game characters are not far behind.
