Man Cave Monday: New Year’s Resolution
One of the reasons I founded this Longbox Graveyard blog was to keep myself on track as I sorted through my vast comics Accumulation. The idea was to hold myself accountable to the continuing job of shedding old books and organizing what I elected to keep.
As the Longbox Graveyard continues well into its second year this mission hasn’t stalled out, exactly, but it has changed a bit. Attempts to sell my comics haven’t been greatly successful (though you can help me out by checking out my bulk comics deals, or buying a select single issue). eBay has been a continual disappointment and I’m just about ready to grant a general amnesty to about half of my remaining comics (and trash the rest).
Either way, the “organizing the collection” phase of the Longbox Graveyard experiment is moving towards its end game. So what’s next?
I’m thinking about substantially remodeling my section of the garage to better house my comics, and to create a living space where I can better appreciate and enjoy what I’ve got.
The current space is just short of a disaster. My books are better organized but you’d never mistake my garage space for someplace where you’d like to crack out a book, sit down, and read.
I have a vision for the way I’d like things to look, but I will keep that to myself for now. This post is all about the “before” — a shameful exposé of how far I’ve let things go. As my Longbox Graveyard posts helped keep me focused on curating my comics, I hope these occasional Man Cave Mondays will keep me on track in the year ahead as I face the very big job of transforming the garage.
The first step will be clearing out the existing space, installing closing cabinets, applying some fresh paint, and doing something about the floor. I may also be putting in a wall …
would like to replace this shelf space with an actual wall
Wish me luck!
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Posted on January 7, 2013, in Man Cave Monday and tagged Comic book, mancave. Bookmark the permalink. 17 Comments.
dangvozden
Paul O'Connor
Kris (not Chris)
markginocchio
miloapama
Dean Compton
Moya
ryanmcswain
Longbox Graveyard 
Good luck! I just went through this myself (switching rooms, porting my entire game collection up from the garage, etc) and it’s worth the effort.
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Congrats, Dave, you are my North Star!
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Before you throw out your comics might I suggest reusing them, wallpaper maybe? I used some old comics do decorate an table. All I used was a product called modpodge and a brush and basically glued them down. Better then seeing them entombed in a trash can.
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I’ve got a box of mangled comics — cut up, missing covers, etc. — that I’ve set aside for those kinds of projects. Do comics pages work with something like Modpodge? I would think a thin, double-sided comic book page would bleed through when it got wet with the glue.
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the ink for the most part doesn’t bleed, but you have to be careful with how much you apply, the paper rips and sometimes you can see through it.
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Sounds like I should practice on some scrap before I commit to something I want to keep. This is a good suggestion for my obsolete and damaged books, thank, about all I could think to do with them was to get a button maker.
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Another vote for modpodge madness. Last month I re-did the kitchen table with beat-to-hell old Jack Kirby books. (Yes, I have better copies of them.) The biggest challenge: keeping the pages smooth. They have a tendency to get these sort of welts and blisters. But, compared to doing the same thing on the same table three years ago with polycrylic, it was much, much smoother. Polycrylic seems like it might be more durable (because it’s from the manly hardware store not the girly craft store) but it just takes longer to dry and makes all the pages super wrinkled.
And button maker sounds like a fine idea too.
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Holy Hannah, it’s turned into Krafting Korner here at Longbox Graveyard!
Thanks for the practical advice, Mars, and I know you are an artist yourself … which mean both that you know what you’re talking about, and that it may be more difficult than you think for a layman such as yourself. But what the heck, I will give it a try — it’s a better fate for a cut-up copy of Marvel Two-In-One than the dustbin, even if I completely gack the projects.
And I expect to see photos of that kitchen table on your site sooner rather than later.
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The key to organizing is SPACE
Sort
Purge
Assign a home
Containerize
Equalize
Keep us posted.
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Unfortunately for me it is more like …
(S)hift stuff around ineffectually
(P)retend I am making progress
(A)spire to the unattainable in my blog
(C)rater hard when those aspirations come to ruin
(E)vade responsibility when it all ends in tears
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actually, your set up doesn’t look half bad. it may not be barnes and noble, but it looks fairly decent. seems pretty bright and somewhat organized. not bad.
you should see my nightmare!
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It’s all on the continuum, of course … unfortunately my design aesthetic steers close to Kubrick’s 2001 so I expect everything to be sterile and minimalist and white and without a single thing out of place. And so I am doomed to always be a little appalled by my garage Accumulation, but maybe I can turn it from a mess into a planned mess, a kind of rolling state of splendid decay. At the least I hope to come out of this with a more comfortable and functional space.
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