I've always been surprised how much space my comicstore dedicates to US comics. I'm already pretty anoyed with all the space manga's been taking in over the past 5 years, but I was secretly hoping it would be at the cost of the US comics, not of our traditional "Franco-Belge" offer. To me, the guys who buy their weekly/monthly dosis of superhero comics were just a bunch of immature readers. I considered the few comics I have myself - Sin City, Dark Knight Returns, Hellboy.. - as guilty pleasures.
But then I noticed that in my favorite magazine, Bodoï, there was a monthly contribution on US comics. I started reading those pages - In fact, I litterally read every word in that magazine - and started to get interested. The 2007 Civil War event from Marvel really got me curious. But since it was about superheroes like Spiderman, I still thought of it as juvenile stuff.
When I was watching one of the spiderman movies with my wife, I couldn't help noticing that even if it's dumb entertainement, I couldn't get enough of it. I guess that when you get older, have long days at work and long evenings with the kids, dumb entertainement is just what you need (shame on my Sint Lucas background).
During lunch with my sister (hey Sas, a true blogpost on you after all !), she told me she was travelling to NY in the next few weeks. We discussed the opportunity that she could bring me some comics - not only did I save on the transport costs they'd charge me in my belgian comicstore, I'd also win on the dollarrate that was extremely low at the time.
I placed a carefull order of 5 comics - taking in consideration that I've got almost no room left on my bookshelves. Some safe stuff - Hellboys I was still looking for - and the Civil War TPB (Trade Paper Back for those who aren't familiar with the lingo).
With my colleague Mr. Gueuningck, I had long discussions on wether or not to start collecting US comics. I had the same discussion with Tom VH some years ago on launching myself in French comic books. If I hadn't chosen to do so at the time, I would have saved a lot of money and closetspace - not to mention the time I wasted on reading all the stuff- , but boy would I have missed out on some spectacular reading. Nevertheless, Mr. Gueuningck and I proposed to split the risk by making orders together, so we both would have great and medium stuff, without having to purchase all of them alone.
The kick was great. I felt as if I discoverd the Holy Grail. Knowing that there is an immense catalogue of great books just waiting for me.. You should know that for my Franco-Belge collection, I have to wait until the next issue is published - often having to wait for more then a year. I haven't felt this sensation since I started my collection more then 15 years ago.
I did some serious research on the web - looking for recommendations from affectionados, scrolling through the complete Marvel, DC, Dark Horse and Image catalogue. I spend at least 24 hours behind my wife's laptop to compose a best-of wishlist. I don't think she was really happy with all the time wasted, knowing that it would also lead to much more time spend reading all the stuff I was ordering.
My sister dropped by the Midtown Comics shop in NY at her first visit (check it out Sas, 2 drawings on you in one and the same post. Who would have guessed.). I contacted the store to see if I could place orders with them for my sister to pick up. Brian of Midtown Comics (check out their website: www.midtowncomics.com) was of great help over these last few months. Not only my sister, but almost everybody she knew that was going to NY and coming back to Belgium was involved in these import-transactions, all for my sake. - Via this way, I'd like to thank Steph & Gilly once again for their help. 
The total amount of US comics stuffed away in flightcases this year is 32. I saved about 5 euros per comic. But now I really do have 2 new problems:
- I'm constantly looking out for persons going back & forth to NY.
- I've got no room left on my bookshelves.
In the next weeks, I'll share with you some reviews on the best comics I've ordered these last months. Hope you'll enjoy that.
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