[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6jY9i6enuY[/youtube]

Andrew's wife needs to shut her yap, put on that Star Sapphire costume, and get her butt in that kitchen!

Now, there is a man who enjoys Green Lantern.

And you forgot to add "make youtube video."

That guys a total completist, but he couldn't bring himself to put Ganthet's Tale in there.

That would drive me absolutely nuts to sort those comics like that.

My X-Men comics are sorted that way.

Do you have a complete collection? How long did it take to do that?

I think it's kiinda neat to be so totally focused on one character. If I was gonna collect/arrange any of my books that way, it'd be the FF.

With DC, it's gotta be tough. I tried to do my Superman trades that way, but there are so many contradicting stories but they're still within the same continuity. For example, all the version of Krypton -- you got Byrne's version, Loeb's version (basically silver age style), Waid's version and now Johns' version all in stories that are still all in continuity. So, should I put Man of Steel or Birthright or whatever at the front of that order? Cooke and Sale's Kryptonite is supposed to be the first exposure of Superman to Kryptonie in continuity but then in Byrne's run it wasn't until he met Metallo.

For a character that is more consistent, I'd probably go with Thor.

So...what if you have an "untold tale" that doesn't take place at any specified time?

What if Cyclops and Wolverine guest star in two different books during the same month? Which one comes first?

What if one issue has a back-up story that occurs at a much earlier - or later - time than the main story?

What happens with stories contradict previous continuity (That probably happens more with DC, but I'm betting that there are Marvel examples, as well.) ?

Spider-man: One More Day.

You have to have a whole wing of your house that's decorated to look like the fires of Hades.

Any professionally-trained archivist can tell you that there's often a difference between physical and intellectual arrangement. Say you arrange everything alphabetically by title. That's your PHYSICAL arrangement. Then, you go to the computer and create a list of the same titles by story order. That's an INTELLECTUAL arrangement: It doesn't necessarily reflect the physical order, but it still gives you the information that you need without physically rearranging the books. The intellectual arrangement can still note the actual physical location, it's just not listing the listing the comics in the order in which they're stored.

For Example:

Let's say that PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #Whatever is a flashback story that occurs before AMAZING FANTASY #15. On your computer, you might list the comics as follows:

Item #1: PETER PARKER THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #Whatever (Located in Box 510)
Item #2: AMAZING FANTASY #15 (Located in Box 1)

Note that this list tells you where the comic is actually stored, so you can easily retrieve it when you need to.

Basically: This is what Linda does with her comic "play lists," except that Linda actually works with digital copies. It's the same concept, but your play lists are just reading lists and aren't ordered according to the physical arrangement. (I think that Linda's play lists actually make neat use of digital technology, but I'm not actually talking digitally here.)

(Maybe I should note that I have both a library science and a history degree and DO work as an archivist. I don't want to say where, since this is a public board.)

You may be thinking that this is more work than it's worth. I dunno, though. It seems to me that actually arranging comics by story order might take MORE work. Personally, I'm too lazy to make lists, but I do arrange everything alphabetically. Generally speaking, the simpler your filing system is, the better it is. Amateurs often try to overcomplicate things.

It only goes up to 1991, Claremont's last issue.

And much of it is reprints and Masterworks.

And then I also have some stuff that was published post-1991, but that takes place somewhere from 1963-1991, and that stuff is inserted where it goes in story order.

I'm pretty sure Man of Steel isn't considered continuity anymore.

Except for his Bizarro, maybe, could be wrong about that.

As far as I can tell Superman continuity is a disordered mash up of contrivance and contradictions. As is most comics. Which is kinda why I pulled away from the hobby, I still like the medium, but I really don't care for a great deal of the subject matter.

I choose a gap between two issues where it seems logical for it to have taken place in, and I put it there.



I choose something that creates the most pleasing reading order, particularly for someone who was maybe reading stuff for the first time.

Example -- three stories all set between Uncanny 201 and 202:

Marvel Fanfare 33
Alpha Flight 33-34 (two-parter)
X-Men: Heroes for Hope one-shot.

You could put these three stories in any order, as they are all self-contained and none of them reference another. But AF33-34 has long flashbacks involving Logan, Heather Hudson, and James Hudson. Then Heroes for Hope has a passing reference by Wolverine to "the Hudsons." So anyone reading in the above order would be like, "Oh yeah, the Hudsons, from the story I just read."

Marvel Fanfare 33 sees Magneto reunited with Lee Forester, who he seemed to be missin' a bit in New Mutants 35 (which is in between X-Men 200 and 201), so I put the reunion with Lee as early as possible in the sequence.

And that's how you get the above order.



Then I typically default to the numbering. "Classic X-Men" has backups that kind of shift around a bit, but it's much easier just to keep Classic X-Men in number order, and keep a document that also tells where the backup tales sit. (Like the document you describe in your later post.)

You're right, one does need a document. If a story is set in a gap between pages of another comic, obviously I don't insert the one comic inside the other. I just have a list of where it goes. (And really at this point, I can remember anyway.)



I'd need an example. Do you mean two stories set in the same time period that don't match? If it's really egregious and contradictory, I pick the one I prefer and the other one does not get read. If it's minor stuff, I am fine with it.

If it's a story that out-and-out retells an earlier one, but with huge changes, I usually default to the original and don't bother with the new version. But I think you're right, this more a DC thing than a Marvel thing.

Whatever works, sure. For me, the only way I tend to read my X-Men collection is in story order, so it is more convenient to have them stored that way.

When a read order is
X-Men 200
New Mutants 35
X-Men 201
New Mutants 36
X-Men 202
New Mutants 37
X-Men 203
New Mutants 38

etc., it would be way more work for me to go into an X-Men box, then an NM box, then back, then back again, four times. I'd rather have them integrated so I can just pull the next thing right out of the box.

Trying to organize a DC series like this truly WOULD make my head hurt!

I admit to being a Marvel fan, but still...I honestly don't get DC sometimes. I DO think that they have some great characters, but they seem determined to ruin them. It seems that they reboot Superman every two years...and there's a new Green Lantern or Flash every six months!

Ah, well. That's a tangent, I guess.




A-ha! You need a list!

Point to me!




Well..if that does work for you, then great.

One question, though: How often do you reread your collection?

Personally, I find that I see things differently over time. If I had reread my comics ten years ago, I probably would done something like what you suggest. Today - I absolutely do not include later stories set in earlier continuity. To me, those are sort of "fakes," because they're not really of the era that they depict. My only point, there, though, is that tastes change and that you might look at these stories completely differently in five or ten more years. That's why I prefer the "simple is best" approach. I file alphabetically by title and leave it at that.

Well, I was re-reading the X-Men collection on a fairly regular basis, because of the blog series.

But it is sort of a "living document." If a new comic comes out set in the olden days, I'll read it first to see if I deem it "worthy" to get added to the grand chronology. Or I might buy an old back-issue and decide to slip it in there. (Example, I just bought a couple of Marvel Team-Ups that featured X-characters, and had to decide where exactly to put them.)

I also re-arrange and re-order. Usually during every re-read I'll find something that I feel like tweaking. Part of the fun, for me! (And yeah, it does get changed on the document first, but -- since this usually happens while I've got the issues out and am re-reading them, it's not too tough just to switch the physical comics around as well.)

Theoretically I am reaching the perfect, Nirvana-like arrangement of the collection. At which point it will transform into pure energy and ascend to a higher plane of existence, and I'll have to start over.

You're doing it wrong, Doot.

I hate thinking of things that way. I'm putting my fingers in my ears and singing a hardy "la la" sound.

Well...I guess I can't argue with that!

What way?

That fake chronological way.

Oh, who I am kidding? It's you I reject.

Err ...