posted January 03, 2003 03:44 PM            

I work full-time, I go to grad school for an MBA in the evenings, and my brother and I run a small business on the side. I also have a girlfriend. That leaves little time for reading comics! Lately, in an effort to catch up, I have tried to spend at least a half hour before bed reading stories. I am usually a fast reader, but I like to take my time reading comics so I can take it all in. When you're looking at work by Murphy Anderson, Joe Kubert, or Alex Toth, you really need to pay attention to the details!

I've noticed that over the past few years, the frequency of archive releases has increased, and while part of me is all for this, another part of me keeps wondering where I will find the time to actually read them! Anyone else having this problem or is it just me?

Todd

P.S. I'm relatively new to this board, and I absolutely love it! What a great resource for archive fans! Thanks to everyone who takes the time to share their knowledge with the rest of us!

posted January 03, 2003 04:54 PM            

I've decided that it's best to go with the flow. I know how I am, sometimes I get on a reading jag and then nothing can stop me from barrelling through lots and lots of books. So I will get through my archives eventually.

posted January 03, 2003 05:53 PM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by James Friel:
"I have trouble keeping up, but it's in the nature of archives (and reprints in general, if I like 'em well enough to have bought them in the first place) that they're something I want to have over the long term."

"Still, I already own more books than I'll have time to read before I die...."

---

When I read the first part of your post, which is quoted above, I was about to jump on to point out to you that at your (our) age, you may never be able to read them in your lifetime.

But then I read the rest and saw that you're already facing your mortality — sorta.

Back in 1990, I finished a chronological reading of all the Nero Wolfe novels. I'd started in 1975, reading on average only two or three a year, and it took me exactly 25 years.

I suddenly realized that at 41 years old, I'd probably never reread them again before I died. That was the moment I realized that my life was probably, literally, half over!

Ever since then, I've had this aching feeling that Like the Challengers of the Unknown, I'm living on borrowed time.

But 1990 was about the midpoint of that horrible Dark Age of Comics when I wasn't buying new comics, and without that to fuel my interest, I wasn't really rereading my old ones either.

There were only a couple Archives and Masterorks out at that point, and I read them as soon as I got them. Other than that, all my reading was non-comic related.

Currently I'm back in a real Comic High. I'm enjoying reading the new ones, my old ones, and the TwoMorrows magazines ABOUT comics so much, that I haven't read anything else in some time.

And I'm also reorganizing my collection, so I actually have had the old comics out of their boxes. And looking at them has made me want to read them all again. (I suddenly saw myself as Burgess Meredith in the classic Twilight Zone episode "Time Enough At Last" looking at the oiles of books he plans to read — well, we know how THAT turned out).

After all this semi-digression, let me return to the archives.

I've read very few of them cover-to-cover since I bought them. I do a lot of skimming and page turning, though.

The Golden Age DC books are pretty unreadable, so I skim them and just marvel at the energy and fun that leaps forth from the artwork.

The Silver Age are easier to read, but I still like to just turn through their pages just for a blast of nostalgia for my childhood when I first read the stories.

However, on a couple cold, snowy nights so far this winter, I've hauled out a volume of Batman archives and wrapped up in a blanket to read the stories.

I doubt that I'll ever actually read all the archives, unless, God forbid, I become a shut-in someday. So given the choice, I'd rather just keep skimming!

In closing, I'll add that since the wonderful A&E Nero Wolfe series premiered a couple seasons ago, I've read yet again almost a third of the Wolfe books. So I just might make it through them again after all.

posted January 03, 2003 07:20 PM               

Its like windsprints, you just get going and run like HELL!!

posted January 04, 2003 01:01 AM               

I think it is in most collectors' nature that their collections will contain some unread items. Every year or two I take stock of how many comics and novels I have that I've never read, and I cut down my new purchases for several months and catch up on the backlog. Last year I finally read the first six Cerebus phonebooks, which I had bought at a second hand store at least eight years ago, and which had sat on the shelf gathering dust since then. Good reads. And then I sold them on ebay and used the proceeds to buy some videotapes I wanted.

posted January 04, 2003 02:13 AM            

I am so far behind on my fiction and non-fiction, it'll take a solid year to catch up. Fortunately, that may happen. I got fed up with my job last fall and quit. I like to think of myself as "retired", but the savings will run out by the end of the year. I suppose "sabbatical" is more appropriate, except that I don't have a job to go back to. Anyway, I'm doing a lot of reading reading now and enjoying it immmesely. I don't think I've done this much reading since college.

posted January 04, 2003 09:46 AM            

My problem is that between being "on call" all the time and squeezing in 15-20 hours a week to write, I'm very lucky if I can sleep 25 hours a week and maybe get to read a few comics here and there.

And, oh yeah, I have to spend SOME time with the ladies...

------------------
"My name is Mark....Question Mark..."

posted January 04, 2003 03:10 PM            

I don't have any Masterworks, but I have about three Marvel Essentials left to finish reading fully (Howard the Duck, Marvel Team-Up, the last Avengers).

Unlike my wife who can read a whole novel in a weekend, I tend to read novels in small dosages (15 minutes, half hour, etc.). For that reason, I hardly ever reread old books while she can read a new book four or five times in a year.

At almost 39, I'm not worrying yet about not having time to finish. (But I do have DVDs I need to get around to watching too...)

Maybe if I stopped writing a fanfiction story a week, then I would have time (see link in signature).

------------------
Martin Maenza

posted January 04, 2003 05:00 PM               

In addition to regular archives, I've got Thor Masterworks vol.1, 4 Essential volumes, Crisis on Multiple Earths, Archie: Best of the 40's vol.1, Greatest 1950's Stories, Superman the Dailies 1939-1940, 3 or 4 Alter Egos that I've read chunks from, Superman: From the 30's to the 70's (I'm about mid-way through the 50's), The Smithsonian Book of Comic Book Comics (haven't even started), Mad vol.1, 2 issues of the Aussie reprint comic "The Panther," a GIANT stack of Golden Age books (a mix of DC, Fox, Ace, Nedor, Quality, Fawcett, Gleason, and a few others, about 40 or so in all), a pretty big stack of Silver Age books (almost as high as the Golden Age, but not quite), and an equally tall stack of more modern material. PLUS, I haven't even bought my new books this week! I'm certainly not lacking in material to read!!!

-Backlogged Steve

posted March 06, 2003 09:01 AM               

I'm quite behind, as well. I've gotten myself to read each new archives volume when it is pubished. So, I'm fairly caught up on recent books.

HOwever, I've got quite a backlog to address. I'm reading archives, masterworks and trade paperbacks in a rotation of six books. Generally, that rotation consists of 2 GA archives, 1 SA archives, and 3 marvel masterworks or tpbs. It's gratifying to see my unread stack diminishing.

Of course, I'm way behind on reading Alter Ego, reading back issues I've amassed over the years, and rereading certain things (like Legion archives from start to finish!).