So...mAnfew years back my Aunt's husband told me that he and my father had went into the barn on my parents property where I had put my comic book collection (probably a little over 2,000 individual issues along with trades) and that they discovered that ants had come in and eaten them. I was... It hurt. I was younger (this was about 15 years ago) and that collection and the comics themselves (some going back to the 80's) were important mementos of youth. I worked at a comic shop through high school and it was there my education in comics really took off since I had access to all the back issues to read, as we'll as having a pull list that I basically got for free of then current comics which ran the gamut from stuff to like Bratpack, Dark Horse Terminator series to a majority of Marvel and DC books.
So... I am up in Pennsylvania in the Poconos to help my mom clear out that barn which had just so much crap, and was getting so run down, that it was time to clear it out. We got a big ole dumpster and we just went to town, diving junk from what would be saved. We get to the loft where the comics were stored. Now, I was under the impression that the whole lot of them had been eaten AND had summarily been thrown out... Turns out.... NOPE. most of are actually perfectly fine, yeah a nice chunk was pulped by ants or got mildew damaged ect. But the vast majority of it is A-OK. Seriously. I picked up the MARVEL SWIMSUIT issue and it was about as mint as it could be. I am staying at mom's until Thursday.we finish up the barn cleaning today so later in the week I will have the ability to go through things and see what's what.
Y'all have to understand, I really had just written that collection off. I put it in that category of life's little tragedies and but also that it was good just for general maturity. In the grand scheme of things I mean... Yeah. It's not a big deal. I never collected for the supposed payoff. I always knew that was a sucker's bet, especially the way the 90's were and the speculator bubble. No, it was the work itself that mattered to me, and I thought that had been lost. I'm actually kind of shell shocked right now.