Mark Brassington

The idea of a title is to sum up the post and give away enough to peak your interest into reading beyond the title.

This post is not going to be what you think.

This post is about growing up in the sense that I know the right thing to do but not growing up so much that I am leaving my inner (and outer) geek behind.

It’s no secret that I am a big comicbook fan, I have been reading comics since I was 14 (I’m now 30), when I left college and got a real job and with that income I used to spend in the region of £100-£150 a month on comics. Which to most people probably seems crazy and if I did that now I would imagine my wife would go crazy and not in a good way.

I have been spending that much on comics now for what seems like an age and even when my wife became pregnant I managed to kerb my spending down about £70ish a month while still living in clouds thinking that I would be able to keep my habit alive. Once my daughter was born and the maternity leave kicked in I realised that this was no longer an option.

I tried to buy a few here and there in the beginning but I soon came to realise that I just couldn’t buy comics at all. Zero comics – every month. It was hard and I used to have to get them for birthday presents and Christmas but that good at first but then once they were read I wanted to read the next issue…reaches for change in my pocket…only to realise I will just have to read the spoiler-filled reviews online.

Also while being a married couple who have a mortgage means that you get less help from the government (we were promised family credits for married couple pre-elections – where are they??) so like the rest of the world one full-time income and maternity pay and eventually part-time pay was and never will be enough to support a family and living costs.

So with “Great Power Came Great Responsibility” – I had to do (and still do) something that hurt a lot. I started to list my comics on eBay and sometimes at less that the price they deserved. You see during this bad economy everyone is looking for a bargain and therefore a lot of my comics now sit in other people’s homes and many I have had the pleasure in speaking to during the selling process who are no doubt giving them a good home.

Most of my comic collection has been sold from what was a collection that could have been well over ten thousand comics. Now when I list comics I do feel slightly sad but I have become slightly cold to the prospect as well.

But really what is more important – comics that sit in box that have been read once, maybe twice, or keeping my family with a roof over our heads and food on the table? Because believe me there have been more times than I can count in the last few years when the sale of my comics have helped see us through. My family will also come first and my geek habit as much as I love and enjoy will also come second.

I recently returned to comics in September 2011 with the relaunch of DC Comics and collect just a small amount of comics every month with the bill not going much above £30 a month which I think is a much more reasonable amount to feed my habit.