Had a talk with a silver age collector that shifted my whole view

I was at my local shop last Saturday and this older guy named Dave who's been collecting since the 60s overheard me complaining about variant covers. He asked why I even care about the cover when the story is what lasts. Said he's got Amazing Fantasy #15 but doesn't even display it because the pages matter more. It hit different because I realized I've been treating comics like baseball cards lately just flipping through to check condition. Now I'm actually reading a whole run of Tomb of Dracula from a dollar bin and it's way more fun. Anyone else have a talk with an old school collector that made you rethink your habits?

2 comments

2 Comments

harper_wells15h ago

Dude that's awesome. @rivera.keith I love the hot dinner line, that's going to stick with me. My buddy Pete has a copy of X-Men #1 that looks like a dog chewed the corner and he still treats it like his prized possession because he actually read it a hundred times as a kid.

rivera.keith15h ago

...that Dave guy sounds like the real deal. I had a similar chat with an old timer at a con who pulled out a beat up copy of House of Secrets 92 and said "this book has been read more times than most of us have had hot dinners." Made me realize I was spending more time worrying about spine ticks than actually enjoying the damn comics. Now I buy dollar bin stuff and read it on the bus, cover gets bent, don't care.