Rose tinted glasses.

Last week, I wrote about the fact that, due to having another child on the way, I was engaging in a mass clear out of my comic books in order to make space.

This week, I thought I'd talk in a little more detail what how much of a pain the arse I'm finding that process.

The reason I'm finding it such a hardship comes down to one simple dilemma; is the comic series I'm considering for keeping actually worth my time and space?

Here's the funny thing, in the last six to nine months since I began the process of reading through my entire collection, I've discovered that many of the comic runs and series which I believed were a shoo in for keeping are actually below the standard I deem acceptable for saving.

As such, this has gotten me thinking, do we as comic readers wear rose tinted glasses when it comes to older runs and series which we haven't read in a while?

A case in point. I used to own Gail Simone's Birds of Prey run which exploded out of Brightest Day (and led into Flashpoint) seven years ago. Now, Brightest Day was a highlight of my DC reading at the time as I collected the Brightest Day main series, Justice League Generation Lost, Green Arrow, the Flash and, of course, Birds of Prey (I have an Atom one-shot too, but I'm not counting that).

Now, as I was doing my initial scan through my collection, deciding what series I should consider going, I came across all of these runs and made my decision based on how I remember enjoying them. Therefore, Green Arrow was a guaranteed sale (it was an awful run in my opinion), Flash and Brightest Day were on the fence (I recall Flash starting well but falling short while Brightest Day had good parts but not as a whole) while Justice League Generation Lost and Birds of Prey I recalled being stellar series that I was going to keep for sure.

However, when I got to reading Birds of Prey, I discovered/realised that it actually wasn't as impressive as I had initially remembered. The opening couple of story arcs were interesting enough and the covers by Artgerm were absolutely gorgeous (I especially love the issue 11 Catman/Huntress cover). However, by the end of this re-read I had reached a point where these issues just weren't grabbing me like I thought they did.

So, was this a case of 'rose tinted glasses', was I simply remembering these comics with a fondness because they were a part of the past; similar to how people look back at the 70's and 80's as a great time (although in reality it probably wasn't all that great when you lived through it)?

In fairness, it does have me wondering if maybe it's less about reminiscing kindly about the past as it is my ever changing tastes, like Ted (from How I Met Your Mother) finding a shirt he once hated now looked good on him. So maybe Birds of Prey was great when I read it then but, due to my change in tastes, it's good qualities are now wasted on me?

In the end, I'm not sure how classifying the reasons for such changes in opinions ultimately helps me, simply because it makes me doubt my opinion of literally every comic book I own and means that I will have no choice but to read every single one to determine what of my collection can stay and what can go.

And I thought my time was at a premium before just from reading the new stuff.

A MAJOR culling of my collection.

Since getting back into my groove, this is something which I have wanted to talk about here. I'm pretty sure that I've written about this previously and, if I did (I've scanned back and can't find anything myself), it was most likely not on the scale it is now.

However, I didn't have the same incentive as I do now.

This is because I (to the extent that it's actually 'my wife') is expecting our second child!!!

Unfortunately, in this world of dulled expectations, I am now bringing a second mouth to feed into a world where I'm paid less than I need and live in a house which only contains three bedrooms.

The third of which houses my comics.

This is why, several months ago I had started the arduous/fun? task of re-reading my entire collection in order to determine what comics within my collection would stay and what comics would have to go. The thing is, as I've read through series after series of Marvel, DC, Image and the rest, I've had two realisations:

1. The number of comics I could conceivably keep is far less than I first believed.

2. The number of series I can't bear to part myself from is considerably more than the number I can actually keep.

As such, I'm finding that I'm having to seriously brutal in the critique of these comics in order what stays and what goes. For example, Some comics I am finding to be truly epic, or engrossing or enjoyable and so these titles are on my 'keep' list. Meanwhile, series which I dropped part way through or which I re-read and find not to be as enjoyable as I remember them (something I'll get into in greater detail another time) are placed on the 'go' list.

However, I've found that this method has not been without it's problems as no comic series (well, at least very few) are consistently enjoyable and has me questioning how far I need to go to follow the above mandate.

For example; I recently re-read Uncanny X-Force for the first time since it finished six years ago. I found the first 18 issues of this run from Remender, Opena and Ribic to be absolutely gorgeous and fantastic and many other words I'm can't really recite. However, the second half of the run I found to be lacklustre in comparison (although it picked up from issue 24 until the end) and no comparison with it's first half.

Meanwhile, I also re-read Demon Knights by Cornell, Venditti and Neves which, while not as truly epic and mesmerising as X-Force (in my opinion) was more consistently enjoyable over it's 23 issue run.

So, how do I decide what should go here if the choice came down to it? The series which peaked high but fell often, or the series which, while not epic, kept steady throughout?

It only gets more difficult the more I think about it as I could always just sell parts of the series which I didn't get on with. Therefore, with Uncanny I could keep 1-18, sell 19 onwards and keep 24 until the end if I wished. But then, what happens if that missing segment, while not a great read, contains some important bit of narrative which informs the rest of the story. Like ripping the middle 10 pages of a book.

A suggestion which has been made to me (by that fountain of knowledge Matt Garvey) is that, as the comics are already bagged and boarded, they should be protected enough to have them stored in the attic. Now, this is a pretty good suggestion, ruined only by my own concern for my clumsiness. This is because, I'm remarkably clumsy and my attic has no floor. Therefore, I can easily envision my foot going through the ceiling and that is a situation I cannot afford. But also, I love comics too much to place them in the attic where they might (I stress 'might') be destroyed by the elements, especially if they get forgotten about. This then makes me wonder, if I did place them up there then would I ever see them again or would my son find them while cleaning the house after my death and say 'I didn't know Dad had these?'

In the end, I thinking selling them to other people is the best choice (albeit I don't sell them for much) out of all other options as it allows others to give them a good home and enjoy a story I am done with.

But what of the titles I truly enjoy? In truth, I've discovered in these last six months that re-reading a single issue series in full is a rather laborious task and so it does make me wonder whether moving them to trades might be a good plan (another conversation for another time) or possibly even moving fully to digital (again more on that later). This might be the way forward for me, although I would like to find some middle ground so I'm still supporting print.

That said, I've still got six months to decide. More importantly though, I've got to get back to clearing that new nursery.

Holiday reading part 3.

So hear we are. Part 3!! I really didn't expect to spend as much time on this as I have. I guess I really had a lot to say.

However, there are other things I want to be doing with my time (I have a few other things I wanna blog about as well as I want time to script some story ideas I've being thinking up recently) and so this will be the last part (God willing).

Anyway, back to what I'm talking about.

So, after spending some time in the Valiant Universe, I decided to switch lanes at that point and moved towards a graphic novel I'd read previously. Star Trek Volume 1 retells two classic Original Series episodes from the perspective of the Kelvin Timeline crew as in Where No Man has Gone Before, which sees Kirk's friend Lt Mitchell acquire godhood at the edge of the galaxy while, in the Galileo Seven, Kirk, Scotty, Bones and a small crew become stranded on a primitive world.

I had previously read this title a couple of years back and enjoyed it immensely but, upon re-reading it in a similar fashion to Werewolves of Montepellier earlier, I found the impressiveness it imbued on me had subsided somewhat.

Of course, that's not to say that it wasn't a good, enjoyable read this time around, far from it. However, upon revisiting it I struggled to get as invested. Not that I found anything wrong with it as Mike Johnson wrote two competent stories and Stephen Molnar offered solid art.

However, I think that the thing which got me about them was that both stories were not only based on original episodes but I thought they were also almost scene for scene identical to those episodes (which I hadn't watched until after first reading this title).

Of course, as I've been saying, there was nothing wrong with this book, it only didn't appeal to me and gives me little incentive to keep reading this series.

After my little jaunt into Trek, I decided to return to the Marvel Universe with my final two reads and started off with Black Bolt Volume 1, which saw the King of the Inhumans star in his own book as he found himself trapped in a prison from which no one could escape and his immense vocal powers subdued to allow him to speak for the first time (that I know of anyway).

Despite, having seen (and received) recommendations for this book, I was unsure what to expect. However, much like with Ninjak and X-O Manowar, I was really glad I took the dive and give this title a shot. I've always liked Black Bolt and thought of him as an intriguing character, but to here him say what he thinks for a first time really helped to make him a much more interesting character. Saladin Ahmed really put together an awesome story which not only did I enjoy but also made me think and ask questions about some of my beliefs, particularly parenthood.

I think what really made this stand out also the supporting cast, Absorbing Man in particular, who felt like they bounced off of Black Bolt and each other to make some really great dynamics. In fact, possibly my favourite scene was the conversation between Absorbing Man and Black Bolt as they sit chained up with death creeping up on them.

Then, there is Christian Ward's artwork which, although I found a little unusual to look at to start with, won me around as I read on. I think this is because while it gave the entire world the characters were presently inhabiting a very alien look to it, he maintained their very human look, even going so far as to make them look sympathetic in my eyes. Of course, when it then called for going for the nines with the alien looks then he more than succeeded, as evidence with the great look where the Absorbing Man absorbed an alien weapon.

I really loved this book in the end and as such, the second volume was added to my pull list immediately after reading.

And so, that reached us to my final read of my holiday, which was Luke Cage Volume 1 by David F. Walker and Nelson Blake II. This saw Luke summoned to New Orleans after learning that the man who gave his powers, Dr Noah Burnstein, was dead. However, upon arriving for the funeral Luke discoveries that he is not the only recipient of Burnstein's legacy, although this 'brothers' may not be quite as calm as he is.

I had decided to pick up this after recently reading (and enjoying) Power Man and Iron Fist. Given that both titles were written by Walker, I figured that I would also get on well here. However, I didn't find this to be as I struggled to maintain enjoyment of this title as I read it. Of course, there again didn't appear to be anything particularly wrong with either the writing or the art. Indeed, Walker seemed quite adept at capturing Luke's voice as he sounded exactly like he would in my head while Blake gave us some solidly gorgeous work which reminded me of somewhere between Jamie McKelvie and Jonathan Luna.

Unfortunately, for some reason, I just couldn't get engaged with this story, making me think that unless he's on tv (I really did love the Netflix series) or teaming up with Iron Fist, maybe Luke Cage isn't my kind of character.

And there you have it! All seven of my comic book reads from my holiday last week and the thoughts to go with them. Admittedly, it wasn't all great reads from my perspective, but I'm glad I got to try them because (and to put a positive spin on it) you have to read a little of everything because you'll never know what you will enjoy.