Hobby Hole: Comi-Comi-Con!

This won’t be your traditional Hobby Hole post. Usually with these, I simply rant a bit or highlight things I love. But here, today, though I will get to that, there’s actually a reason behind it.

Because of this (confession time!): I haven’t written a thing since the week before last (the week of my last entry). Not a single word, idea, scribble or note. I haven’t even drawn a picture.

You see, despite the fact I was so amped up coming out of the first week’s creative frenzy, I realized last weekend that time was running out for me to prepare for the upcoming New York Comic Con, held Oct. 11-14 this year at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City. Now less than four weeks away, time is preciously short and there’s much to do beforehand. So, well, writing has been oh-so-gently nudged aside.

You may be asking yourself how I need to prepare. Do I have to set up a booth? Design a table stand? Print out fliers or copies of my book to hand out? Perhaps cluster a portfolio together? Well, no. Though those are all great ideas and will probably be good… things to…

Hm. Come to think of it…. Hmmmm.

Anyways. No. There’re currently no plans to pimp my book or its upcoming pseudo-sequel during the convention. Otherwise, this post would be titled somewhat differently. This year, as opposed to the last several actually, I’m going purely as a fan and consumer. So, back to the question at hand: how do I need to prepare, exactly?

By creating a list.

Right now, during never every free hour I can stay awake through, I’m cataloguing my entire comic collection, running through ever box long and short, pulling free every floppy, checking to see which need to be replaced (I wasn’t as big a stickler for near-mint conditions when I was younger as I am now), which issues I actually have, which I want to keep and which I’m willing to put up for sale/trade.

It’s a rather daunting task, I must say, and admittedly it’s taking me a bit longer than anticipated—I had cleverly convinced myself that when I had done this last, back when I was single and unemployed, the fact it took me all summer was merely happenstance—and has cannibalized most, if not all, of my dedicated writing time.

But not today! Today, I’m going to write.

Before I go, though, I do want to clear something up. Something that’s been asked of me several times by other fans at shows past as they clutched their iPad or PDA softly reflecting a comic collecting website of their choice: why bother typing up a list when everything could be easily done digitally now?

It’s not that I’m against technology when it comes to this; I think the websites offer a great service to those who use them. It’s just that, sorting through the books, typing them into the list, adding them and removing them, marking their spots off with a quick scribble of a pen or pencil or marker or whatever else is lying around… it allows me to feel more connected to my collection. Like a librarian running his fingers over the spines of the books rather than simply sifting through a card catalog. Buying the comics, sliding them into place within the alphanumerical system, making a note of their purchase… it’s simply far more intimate than nonchalantly selecting a checkbox on a touchscreen.

Plus, given the fact comics are my own great hobby outside of videogames; I think it’s worth putting the time into. I mean, if people can spend hours on end drawing up fantasy football leagues and watching the games play out ad nauseum any given Sunday, certainly I can pony up the time it takes to file a comic away, right? Exactly.

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