The Sorting. The Fucking Sorting.

[Tom Foolery]

Maybe compromise and do series in clumps by years? That way if and when you ever pull them out to reread them, you can pull all the same year out and read them in "story order" but still recognize gaps if you have them.

[jjreason]

Box 1 = asm, spec, web & mcfarlane spider-man up to Scarlet Spider. The series are kept separate. I'm missing a lot in here from the support series, but my ASM is looking good from 238 onward.

Box 2= 1996-97 - during this time they did a lot of crossover events between the main series, so I went reading order for the most part with things like (the fucking amazing) Untold Tales, Green Goblin, New Warriors series set apart at the back of the box. There were MANY Spidey comics being produced, as I posted above. I'm missing just a few out of this box & am going to work at filling in the blanks as a priority.

Box 3 = Relaunched #1's of ASM & PPSM through Back in Black - series mainly set apart, even "The Other" which ran through 4 titles because I just couldn't get comfortable with how to keep it together.

Box 4 = One More Day to Present. I couldn't comfortably stuff the last few issues of Sensational & Friendly Neighborhood in box 3 even though I would have preferred that. Ah well.

Each box has the appropriate Annuals, mini-series & one shots from the time frame. I'm quite happy with it now, I think if I ever decided to read my Spider-Man collection in a marathon session I wouldn't have to search too far for the next issue & it would make pretty good chronological sense.

[Tom Foolery]

I'm on box 7 in the L-M range. But I found a huge chunk of 'F's that I have to go redistribute the last 3 boxes now anyway and I need more boards so I left a big chunk of Green Arrow undone.
And this is just alphabetizing the older stuff.
Still need the drawer boxes for the 8 boxes of new purchases. And still have to cargo everything both in the book and on the website. So not very far along at all.

But I noticed I have all these random Power Pack minis. Or rather partial minis. So I looked them up. Between 2005 and 2009 Marvel did 10 (by my count) Power Pack mini series featuring various character. So Iron Man & Power Pack, Hulk & Power Pack, etc. They're all currently with the respective characters stuff so FF is in FF, Hulk is in Hulk, etc. but since these were out of continuity aimed at a younger audience and the connective theme is the Power Pack kids, I'm debating on whether to file them all in the PP box. I only have maybe 5-6 issues from all the series so far. But if I start hunting them, I think they're going in the same place.

I'm also debating on putting all the GFT books I have, which is less than 10, all under 'G' instead of by their titles. I don't really follow any of their books and just pick up covers that catch my eye in the cheap bins. They're so scattered I feel like keeping them in one place is better.

[jjreason]

I'm not even sure what GFT is and thus can't comment. Grim Fairy Tales? I had to google it ><

Any work in this regard is good work, you'll be happy when you get that shit put away.

[Tom Foolery]

Found an issue of Over the Edge cover dated July '96 that had a giveaway Kool-Aid pack celophaned and stapled into the comic. Wonder if it's still good. LOL.

[jjreason]

God yeah, there were a few overpower cards & stuff too in the spideys, some of those books I could just see going to hell after being pressed in a full box for 10 years.

[jjreason]

I tried to rearrange Avengers, Iron Man, Cap, Thor, Thunderbolts & FF into chronological order like I did with the Spider-Man stuff - it was a nightmare. I gave up about halfway through & went back to the previous way but the boxes are organized in much happier fashion now (Cap has his own box with a bit of room, Thor & Thunderbolts went together and had a bit of room left over, Iron Man shares a box with Avengers vol 1, and Avengers starting with the Bendis relaunch through the AVX crossover issues fits in one box).

One slight problem - there was no space for my vol 1 FF books (likely only about 75 issues). Not a huge deal, but I have to figure out what to do with them. I might buy another small box to have around, I find those very useful.

[Tom Foolery]

I've slowed down over the past couple weeks on my sorting, but I'm almost to the end of V and basically have two more long boxes to sort thru. One is "W"s lots of What If, WildCats, Wolverine, and Wonder Woman.
The other is 90% X-Men and a tiny bit of Y and Z stuff.

Then I have to go back and pack some straggler issues I found here and there in the proper boxes and start writing everything down.
The goal was originally to be finished in January. But I realized the last time I did this, I wasn't working. So now I'm okay with having it done maybe before or around when all these Marvel series are ending come April anyway.

FCBD. That's my new goal.

[jjreason]

The next thing for me would be figuring out a way to have my boxes more accessible. I hate that you typically want to see what's in the bottom box - regardless of how many fucking times you switch the shit around. Currently I have mine along a wall lengthwise stacked 4 deep, then they come out from the wall in in the same manner:

===== ===== (stacked about 4-5 high)
===== ===== (again stacked 4 high with short boxes on top of those)

So I can see what's in each box if I'm at either end (I mark the ends of my boxes), but again usually I want what's on the bottom. Drawer boxes are a good start in getting this sorted out, but I still get hinked out if I pull a bottom drawer out & leave 4 boxes piled on the frame alone - does not feel safe.

When I was in university, the store there had the best set up: the ends of the long boxes faced you, like a typical comic store, but the were all on trays that slid out. So one high table would have about 6 boxes on it, then 6 more could slide out like pulling out a dresser drawer. They were sturdy as hell and operated very smoothly, like on rollers or something. I've never seen another store set up like that though, so I'm guessing they were custom made (and likely worth a pretty penny).

[Tom Foolery]

There was a comic shop in CA that had an elaborate wooden bookcase set up with shelves that held wooden boxes and you could slide them out and take them to a special table to rifle thru them. Basically their entire back issue selection was in 1/10th the space for that amount of product. Ingenious.

That's something I'd rig up with 2x4 framing and pressboard. It doesn't have to look pretty, just be functional.

[Tom Foolery]

Regarding Secret Wars;
I'm not entirely sure how deeply I want to dive into this event.
Some of the books are series that are finishing up their runs under the SW banner like Punisher, Black Widow, etc. so they'll just get filed like normal.
But the majority of the MASSIVE amount of new titles they're carpet bombing the racks with HAVE to be mini series, don't they? So I'm thinking everything is just gonna go in the SW box. And if later on certain books turn out to be ongoing (A-Force perhaps?) they will probably get moved out of the SW stuff.

The sheer amount of books coming out guarantees I'll be looking for most of them down the road for cheap. Compiling that hunt list is already daunting. Holy crap.

[Tom Foolery]

Since I'm about to catalogue my books again(I know I've been saying that for six months now but I'm serious. There's a dealer show on the 30th and after that I'm alphabetizing and writing everything down. I mean it!) I've decided that Secret Wars and all Secret Wars related is the cutoff.
That way I can just leave those books out and eventually they'll sort themselves out once SW is over.

So, the ongoing books that are ending with SW crossovers (Punisher, Loki, Magneto, Black Widow, etc) will still be with their series. But all these first issues can just wait and get catalogued the next time a year or two from now. By then I'll know if they belong in the SW box as minis or in their own section as ongoings.

However, on my list I keep on my phone, everything is going in the 'S' list.

[jjreason]

It's like Heroes Reborn or Age of Apocalypse - the only issue will come later when we're trying to figure out if any of the limited series turn into important beginnings of a new ongoing series (like X-Man did back in the day for example). I've got my AOA & HR books mixed in to their respective longer runs, because in those cases the issues actually counted towards the renumbering somewhere further down the line if I'm not mistaken.

As far as Secret Wars, yes all my books will be put with the limited series to start. I'm trying to pre-determine what I'm buying as far as the limited series go. So far I'm a yes for Inhumans, a maybe for Planet Hulk, Inferno & a no for pretty much everything else.

Did you read the blurb about Marvel not producing any further FF comics until after the marketing period for the movie? That's some backwards shit right there.

[Tom Foolery]

I'm doing SW tie ins week to week. Picking up a first issue doesn't necessarily mean I'll get the second issue. And skipping a first issue doesn't mean I won't pick up a later one.
But I'm leaning towards buying less than more.

[Tom Foolery]

I finished alphabetizing the 19 1/2 long boxes of back issues. And since my 8 drawer boxes of current stuff are also alphabetized as I go, they're also done.

I'm now into the writing phase. Which is going quicker than I expected. Already have 10 boxes done and 9 to go. I expect I'll be done by tomorrow. Tuesday at the latest.
Then I start putting it all into cbdb.com.
After the 19 back issue boxes are all done, I'll write down the 8 newer ones and put those on the website as well.
Not sure if I'll make my June 30th target, but I'm pleased I'm making significant headway.