I Don't "Collect" Comics. I Read Them.

This past week while discussing hobbies with some neighbors I mentioned that I read comics. One of the neighbors said that he also 'collects' comics and proceeded to rattle off a laundry list of classic and valuable books he owns. I asked him what he's reading now.

"Oh I don't actually read them. I just collect them." It was then that I realized that I may be different.

I don't collect comics.

I (generally) don't bag & board. Most of my comics sit in various boxes strewn about my living space. The stack of books on (or under) my nightstand is usually around a foot tall. I have no earthly idea how much money any of my books could fetch on eBay. It then struck me that the difference between 'collecting' comics and 'following' comics may be the reason that the general public still views them as kids stuff.

Gamers don't collect video games, even the ones with libraries of games that number in the triple digits. The friend everybody has that buys half a dozen DVDs a week is a movie buff, not a collector. For whatever reason the term collector has developed a negative connotation.

A collector sits in their basement gazing longingly at their mint-in-box toy action figure collection. A collector spends his or her weekend scouring flea markets and garage sales for that one rare coin/stamp/Hummel/vinyl record. A collector is obsessive, compulsive and creepy. In other words: Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons.

I know most comic fans are nothing like Comic Book Guy. You (probably, hopefully) know that most comic fans are nothing like Comic Book Guy. But the average adult too often hears "Collector" and immediately pulls up a mental image of an obsessive, emotionally immature fat guy. That image isn't going to draw many new faces into comic shops.

The rank-and-file comics fan, who buys the books for the stories and the characters and the art, has to stop calling themselves collectors. Leave that label for the people that seal their books up in Lucite, never to be read. We read comics. We follow comics. We are comic buffs. We are aficionados.