Increasing The Kleefeld Collection

I just got off the phone with Dad, who's evidently started the process of cleaning out the past three decades worth of stuff piled up in the basement. Included in the collection are around 3,000 comics that he bought in the late 1970s and early 1980s while he was driving me around to comic shops and local shows. Mostly independent stuff from publishers who have now been defunct for more years than they were around in the first place: Pacific, First, Eclipse, Renegade, etc.

I read a number of those books as a kid, after I had read and re-read my own comic purchases so often as to have them memorized. I distinctly recall reading Scout (Tim Truman), Laser Eraser and Axel Pressbutton (Steve Moore and Steve Dillon), Shatter (Mike Saenz), Somerset Holmes (Bruce Jones and Brent Anderson), The Trouble With Girls (Will Jacobs, Gerard Jones and Tim Hamilton), and others whose creators have gone on to greater heights. And I also recall seeing other comics that I never did actually read, but have remained at least floating in the back of my head since then: Zot! (Scott McCloud), Ms. Tree (Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty), and American Flagg! (Howard Chaykin) to name a few.

I always kind of figured I would inherit Dad's collection sooner or later, so I didn't really put any effort into tracking down most of that latter selection of comics. For that matter, I could effectively have borrowed any of them at just about any time if I really wanted to. But Dad was largely holding on to all of them because he was going to read them again once he retired. Of course, he retired five years ago and hasn't had a chance to flip through a single issue yet, so he's opting to give them to someone who would appreciate them more than he's able.

Now I'm faced with three challenges. (None of which are ones that I really mind facing, though.) First, I need to transport all the books from his place to mine. He's in no rush to get them out of the house, so this will probably occur one or two boxes at a time over the next six to twelve months. Second, I'll need to rework how my own comics are stored. The shelving unit I made for my existing collection is just about at capacity already, so it will definitely need to be expanding to absorb Dad's. Third, I'm pretty far behind on reading the comics I already have -- I can't imagine racing through his not-insubstantial collection too quickly.

All in all, though, this will be great timing as I'll be able to dramatically expand my own collection of independent comics quickly and put the marvel and DC books of old behind me more dramatically and conclusively.

Yea, me!

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