Comic ‘friends’ 6 6

[theCapraAegagrus]

17 hours ago, The lips said:

When I was at school I had a couple of comic buddies but now as an adult I’m very much a lone wolf when it comes to collecting. 
Trips to any comic bookstore or convention is always alone and apart from here I’ve nobody to share ( bore) about my latest find !

My wife is seriously not Interested also !

curious to know if I’m in the minority or majority of lonely collectors or do most have a companion to share it all with ??!! 

My friends like comic book movies and seem very vaguely interested in reading (as in, they want to borrow books, but never actually read them).

I don't know anyone else IRL who actually collects comic books.

[Get Marwood & I]

Apart from a glorious spell as a kid when me and my brother were in it together, and quite enthusiastically too, comics have always been a solitary hobby for me. I've never met anyone in adulthood who is genuinely interested in the nuances that thrill me, to the level that they thrill me. I don't make friends easily because I think I am probably as boring to other people as they often are to me (get your jokes in now). What goes on in the head, or, after some consideration, gets written on the page, rarely manifests as eloquently from the gob. At fairs, and in shops, I try to speak to dealers and collectors when I can with enthusiasm for the comics. They often seem to speak back with enthusiasm for themselves however and before I know it I'm making my way back home accompanied only by a handful of Charltons and the Bill Bixby tune. So physically, it's just me, Marwood and the dog. And probably always will be. Online, I've somehow managed to gather a rag tag bag of broadly like minded misfits over the last five years who, for reasons unknown, have been drawn to the dross that I post from outside the circle like moths to a pence thread. So there's that at least.

In other news, some dry paint stayed dry yesterday.....

[comicginger1789]

So I started when I was 12 or so back in the early 2000s and NO ONE in my friends group collected. It was kind of just my thing.

In university, I also met NO ONE with my passion. But it continued to be my thing. Keep in mind that during this time, I was not active on sites like this 

Now, as an adult, I have met a few people locally who collect. Two brothers with huge collections but I don't see them often (especially not over the last year). I do have one friend I have made who collects Joe stuff and the occasional comic. He is well versed enough to talk with which is great but outside of him, youse guys here are my outlet for comic chatter. 

[Randall Ries]

3 hours ago, wisbyron said:

Ya, she went pixie at the beginning of this year. She also wanted to cosplay as Billy Jack. My girlfriend is crazy. 
Do you mean Sekowsky? Yeah we have all that stuff, a lot of his romance stuff too.

No, I'm sorry. I meant the cover artist Jeff Jones.

[lordbyroncomics]

9 hours ago, Randall Ries said:

No, I'm sorry. I meant the cover artist Jeff Jones.

Oh right! *I'm* sorry, I should have known that. Yeah, I love Jeff Jones's work

[thehumantorch]

On 6/14/2021 at 12:59 PM, The lips said:

When I was at school I had a couple of comic buddies but now as an adult I’m very much a lone wolf when it comes to collecting. 
Trips to any comic bookstore or convention is always alone and apart from here I’ve nobody to share ( bore) about my latest find !

My wife is seriously not Interested also !

curious to know if I’m in the minority or majority of lonely collectors or do most have a companion to share it all with ??!! 

I've met 5 or 6 from my area through the boards and we get together at shows and occasionally for dinner and beer.  Amazingly this group has lasted for over ten years without losing anyone and they are all great people.  Well perhaps not Kimik .  I have a few more local collectors I've met through shows and we get together - excepting covid - for coffee or just to check out books.  When planning a holiday I often will reach out to boardies at my destination and plan a meet.  

This hobby is more fun when you can share it.  And some of my best books have come from the relationships I've built and I've learned a lot from those same relationships.

[kaculler]

I had a few friends in high school who collected (and still collect) comics.  I've also made a few friends as an adult who collect comics.  I drove to Wizardworld Chicago with one of those friends every year for more than 15 years and we'd attend the show together.  We also have been to some of the Detroit shows together and flew out to San Diego once, staying with one of his friends out there.  I went to Heroes and Baltimore on my own in 2019 and go to some of the smaller local shows on my own most of the time.

I taught for 27 years and had many students during my last dozen years or so who were into manga and anime with some also being interested in DC, Marvel, or other companies.  I know that some of them would go to Youmacon together (a local anime/manga show that is popular) and it wouldn't surprise me if some of them attended comic shows together.

[thunsicker]

1 hour ago, thehumantorch said:

I've met 5 or 6 from my area through the boards and we get together at shows and occasionally for dinner and beer.  Amazingly this group has lasted for over ten years without losing anyone and they are all great people.  Well perhaps not Kimik .  I have a few more local collectors I've met through shows and we get together - excepting covid - for coffee or just to check out books.  When planning a holiday I often will reach out to boardies at my destination and plan a meet.  

This hobby is more fun when you can share it.  And some of my best books have come from the relationships I've built and I've learned a lot from those same relationships.

Yeah, friends from when I was young aren't interested in comics any more.  Work friends aren't interested.  Nor are friends from church or other friends.  But I've met some boardies for get togethers quite a few times and would consider them my friends.

[WolverineX]

On 6/14/2021 at 3:10 PM, Dr. Love said:

My friends are very supportive of me and my collection.  Wife, not so much.

None of my friends collected comics before I started.   Though two  close friends have bought a few keys after hearing me talk about the insane increases in prices.   One went really big and got a Strange tales 110 as his first comic ever.  I was impressed. 

Edited June 16, 2021 by Wolverinex

[piper]

3 hours ago, thehumantorch said:

I've met 5 or 6 from my area through the boards and we get together at shows and occasionally for dinner and beer.  Amazingly this group has lasted for over ten years without losing anyone and they are all great people.  Well perhaps not Kimik .  I have a few more local collectors I've met through shows and we get together - excepting covid - for coffee or just to check out books.  When planning a holiday I often will reach out to boardies at my destination and plan a meet.  

This hobby is more fun when you can share it.  And some of my best books have come from the relationships I've built and I've learned a lot from those same relationships.

[piper]

If it weren’t for the relationships I’ve made on the boards, it’s unlikely that I would still be collecting in any significant way!

[dupont2005]

Nobody I know personally is as into comics as me but my mom, sister, and fiancé read the occasional comic recommended by me. My kid reads manga on his phone. He used to be really into Archie and Usagi Yojimbo but now he just likes manga

[lizards2]

On 6/14/2021 at 12:03 PM, oakman29 said:

My wife is very supportive of me and my collection.  Friends,not so much.

You have friends?  Luxury.

[sevans1979]

I’m in the same boat as most of you. I had some friends in high school (90s) that collected comics with me but that never lasted and I haven’t talked to them in 20 years. I used to go to my LCS every Wednesday for 10 years and I would talk to the same couple of people every time when I was up there but that’s about it. No one I work with collects. When I tell them “a comic just sold for X amount” I get the “OMG do you have some of those???” My wife doesn’t mind it. I got her to collect some moderns for about a year and she would go with me on Wednesdays sometimes but that stopped. She’s got a short box of stuff but never touches it   I’ll get a new book or something in the mail and show her and I get the “oh that’s cool” haha I’ll take the effort. The boards are where I get my fix. I’ll go to some shows alone but not a lot. I wish I had a local group that I could meet up like two sundays a month for coffee and comic talk but probably won’t happen. 

[VintageComics]

On 6/14/2021 at 2:59 PM, The lips said:

curious to know if I’m in the minority or majority of lonely collectors or do most have a companion to share it all with ??!! 

@davidpg calls me every day to talk about comics because he has nobody else to talk to. It's getting annoying. I wish he would stop.

[davidpg]

On 6/16/2021 at 2:25 AM, VintageComics said:

@davidpg calls me every day to talk about comics because he has nobody else to talk to. It's getting annoying. I wish he would stop.

Well, showing off my X-Men 1 was quite successful this year let me tell you.....

[Cushing Fan]

I had a few friends in high school who also collected comics and one of them like myself focused on silver age books and we went to a few comic cons together.  Most have moved away so I'm pretty much by myself now - my wife likes if I sell books for money but not getting new books with the money so I pretty much just share news of my latest acquisitions with my son.

[WolverineX]

On 6/16/2021 at 1:02 AM, dupont2005 said:

Nobody I know personally is as into comics as me but my mom, sister, and fiancé read the occasional comic recommended by me. My kid reads manga on his phone. He used to be really into Archie and Usagi Yojimbo but now he just likes manga

Yeah, I definitely see Gen Z buying a lot of Manga 

[grendelbo]

I read comics as a kid. Around 85-86 I turned from collecting Garbage Pail Kids, which were the rage, to collecting comics.

My younger brother followed my lead for a little while. Then his interests changed and I got all his Hulk.

Early in my hobby, I had probably 3 friends who also enjoyed comicbooks. One had quite a nice collection as his family had some money and at 11-12 he'd already been in the game for a while. We drifted apart after elementary school.

The other friends I traded with. By age 14-15 they left the hobby. I remember getting a bunch of books, including keys and now-keys from them for free. They dumped their books on me.

In high school I collected alone. In college I had a best friend who also was in to it. But we actually didn't have a community together all that much as that was around the time I left the hobby for the first time (currently I'm in my 3rd phase as a collector) and we had other shared interests.

For the past 20 years I've collected alone. I will show off my modest collection to my wife and kids but they don't care all that much. The wife always says, You should sell them. My 9 year old son could be into it one day but we'll see. Video games are his thing. They just don't get it.

There's something to be said about the inaccessibility of comicbooks now. Picking them up at the newstand, the quickie-mart or the hobby shop is a thing of the past. I believe it's harder to get into the hobby, even with comicbooks and characters being part of pop culture.  See Gerry Conway and his thoughts on the matter. I'm not too far off his thinking (but that's for another post).

After years of lurking on these boards I've finally begun contributing. I like the community even though I'm not really a fan of slabbing. Friends are here to find.

[Randall Dowling]

On 6/14/2021 at 2:03 PM, oakman29 said:

My wife is very supportive of me and my Vampirella collection.

FTFY.