Comic Sanctuary

In fall of 1997, Lorie and I got married and I moved into the small house she bought in Martinburg, WV the year previous. Moving has been a pain for me ever since my college years because my comic book and toy collection had been steadily growing for quite awhile. Never more so than during my pre-Lorie bachelor years. We identified a small room in the back of the house as my new 'comic book sanctuary' and I set everything up.

Lorie's matron of honor, upon seeing my comic book sanctuary for the first time, uttered the immortal words: "I wouldn't marry him."

The idea here is this: why do some men feel the need to carve out their own room in the house? Their "man space". It's not just for comic geeks; it's for computer people and hunters and fitness freaks and sports idiots. Even the ladies like to have their version of their own space in the house. For some women it's a scrapbooking nook. For my mother it's the entire kitchen, if not the house itself. For my wife if it's anything it's the 'workbench' area, which is wherever her tools are currently lying around.

When I moved in the idea of the comic sanctuary was in part having my own hobby space and in part just having storage space. Much of my stuff ended up getting sold off or stored in a closet during that year. I didn't care at the time and I don't care now. It was a good move, even if the collection ended up being in the tiniest room of the house.

In late 2005 and early 2006, our limited efforts at finding a bigger house were proving fruitless. I was working full time and Lorie was mostly doing day care jobs. So she was heading up the project of finding something that would fit the family. After some discussion and some planning, we decided to build an addition to the house. Not just any addition, but a massive, two-story monstrosity that would double the size of our current house. It was Lorie's dream project. We arranged the proper loans and contractors and everything and decided to get what we wanted, NOT necessarily what we could afford at that moment. We would have the contractors put in the shell and start finishing it out ourselves as time and money were made available. Construction work began on the addition in summer of 2006. We had just become a family of five and desperately needed the hope of future space.

In 2009, Ashton was nine, Katie was eight, and Alex was three. We still weren't any closer to actually being able to use the house addition. Ashton and Katie were sharing a room and Alex had a small bed in our room. The situation was becoming more and more inappropriate by the day. I decided to lose the comic book sanctuary. It wasn't an easy decision, and I discussed it with no one. I couldn't discuss it with anyone. It had to be my thing; my responsibility. So one day, I grabbed a box and started packing up while the rest of the family watched in stunned silence.

The major part of the collection was boxed up moved out to an unfinished room in the addition. Lorie quickly got to work on a bunk bed that she had gotten through her wheeling and dealing. And soon Katie had her own room and Ashton and Alex took up shop in the bunk bed between two towers of comic book long boxes in the smallest room in the house.

It was the right thing to do.

In the fall of 2012 the finishing pieces of the addition finally started to fall into place. Lorie, who has been busting her butt on this project for years, finally finished off the flooring in the sun room, master bedroom, and new comic book sanctuary. We were actually able to use the sun room as a place of escape and quiet morning zen over Thanksgiving. And we had two Christmas trees this year; one in the living room and one in the sun room.

What I like best about the sun room is the feeling of minimalism. I don't really want anything in there other than furniture. I want to take in with me a few things for while I'm in there, and then take them back out with me when I'm done. It's clean, empty, peaceful, and focused. It's glorious in its minimalism.

Part of the fall's projects was for me to move every long box full of comics into a hidden closet under the addition stairs. Stacked neatly and out of the way, the long boxes fill that small space and no longer seem to be in our way. Ashton and Alex were very glad to have the two stacks out of their room.

In fall of 2011, I went completely digital with my comic reading, downloading new comics every Wednesday onto my iPad using the Comixology app. I love it. I no longer have to worry about driving to the comic store, spending a boatload of money and being tempted by the stock of the store, bagging, boarding, storing, filing and the never ending struggle of moving comic book long boxes. Time spent on maintenance for the physical collection had overtaken time spent actually reading comic books. Now, the physical part of the collection is in a dusty, unused closet under the stairs and my steps are much lighter for it. The digital comics I read and care about go with me everywhere I go. It’s the best part of the future.

In January 2013, Lorie started the final push of completing the addition and I went upstairs and started the project of the all-new, all-different comic book sanctuary. The first step was to move all the boxes of collection pieces into the huge closet that's in the comic book sanctuary. This left the main room free for cleaning and furniture arrangement. Next was to move stuff that still remained from the closet in the boy’s room into the closet of the new sanctuary. I moved in a couple of display cases, a couch, some bookcases, and proudly displayed my 1941 floor radio.

As I worked on this, thoughts occur. Thoughts constantly beleaguer my brain. I had spent 20 years accumulating stuff. And during this consolidation and clean up, found stuff that I hadn't laid eyes on in the 15 years that I've lived here. What was the use in that? I obviously wasn't missing it.

I've been enjoying the minimalism of the sun room and the efficiency of digital comics so much that it was time to start thinking about setting up the new sanctuary for the current and future Chuck, rather than the Chuck-of-excess that existed ten years ago. It was time to reduce.

My entertainment is completely digital now and I want it that way. I don't even buy DVD's or CD's anymore, much less comics. There's no attractiveness in clutter, and I've felt that way about the collection for a long time. I remember clearly sitting in the old comic book sanctuary before digital comics feeling stressed and overwhelmed by the size of an out-of-control collection that never seemed to stop growing. Now there can be efficiency in choosing what to read, watch, and listen to because it's all in files moving around portable devices, rather than clunky physical objects prone to damage, loss, fire, flood, disaster, and the practical reality of housing an entire family in one house. And recent lessons in the accumulation of collection pieces has taught me the value in being selective in purchases rather than jumping at buying something because I may never see it again. Plus, I no longer feel the void of unhappiness that I did in my bachelor years. A void I tried to fill with meaningless purchases.

So, I'm going to slim my displays. I'll only be displaying what's truly important to me. I won't be holding onto things in boxes hidden in closets just so that I can say I have them. There will be no more Mego dolls shoved out of the way because I need to set up the latest display of accumulated action figures hot off the shelves at Wal-Mart. There will be focus in the collection brought in the same way as it's been introduced in my reading and music. Not minimalism, not maximalism... just focus.

That’s the long-term goal, anyway. Watching Lorie work on this addition for six years has taught me that something worth working towards doesn't have to happen right away.

Thanks,
DCD