YouTube Comic Community: The People, The Books, and What It Means to Me!

(YouTubers reading this, I’m sorry I couldn’t include everyone but it would have been hundreds of pages long so I had to pick and choose)

Comicvine.com is an excellent place to write blogs (such as this one), communicate with fellow geeks, and a community type of feeling. One thing that comicvine doesn’t offer is the ability to develop real life, face-to-face relationships with people. The place where that is happening is YouTube. Sure sure, when you hear YouTube you automatically think of ridiculous videos of people getting hurt, doing stupid things, funny cat videos, music videos, and what not, but there is a secret side of YouTube that many don’t know about. It in fact hides communities of people who share some sort of interest, and one of those happens to be a community of many lovely people that love comic books!

The comic community is a place where hundreds of comic fans make videos showing off their hauls, reviews, live comic shows, and various other forms of geeky entertainment. For the most part, everyone in the community gets along and discusses their comics over twitter, comments, private messaging, or even in Google+ hangouts. It’s an excellent place to really build relationships with people who share the same love of comics as you do. The people in the community have no judgment of what other people like and take everyone’s opinions into account. Sure we have our DC, Marvel, and Indy people but we all mesh in a great fashion. The people in the community are so great they are always willing to help out each other start or help each other finish runs by sending each other comics. Joining the YouTube Comic Community was one of the best decisions I have ever made and I have made some friendships with people that I would take bullets for. And the best part is, it is easy to join and is a very welcoming community.

Around last November (2012), I began getting really into collecting back issue comics and had no idea what direction to take. Since I had no one else in my life to really influence my collecting, my answer was research! I created an account on this lovely website and began to post forum questions asking people to help me get started somewhere. Around that same time I started looking up comic collection videos on YouTube. I watched a whole bunch of them but it never really hit me that all of these people posting these videos were all communicating with one another. It wasn’t until I stumbled upon three amazing YouTubers that I put all the pieces together. These three men were;

Daken Howlett (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UClS9kIl1kf-Dm76DKmD6pXA),

Ricks Ageek (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCl9_OkHBCi2Iq70DiOAuJQ),

and the Great Legend himself, RDowdy95 (http://www.youtube.com/user/rdowdy95).

I started watching all their videos on a regular basis, kinda sitting in the shadows and admiring the books they have and the knowledge that they had. Unfortunately, Rick sold his collection and decided to start collecting toys but he makes great toy haul videos! It wasn’t until January when I saw a video that Daken posted where he talked about his collection resolutions to start the New Year and I thought to myself, ‘I really should join YouTube and learn from these amazing people.’ On January 11^th of 2013 I made my first three videos; an introduction, my first comic collection video, and a comic resolution video. I reached out to Daken to let him know that he inspired me to make videos and to see if he could help me get established in the community. I reached around to a few others and then saw that I gained a few subscriptions which I never expected to get very many at all but we’ll get to that later. The first person to really reach out to me was RDowdy and he really helped me get my name out and I was able to start making some friends, and really learn about the community.

There are two men that everyone must know when entering the community and those are the two godfathers, as we like to call them. We have a man that is the speaker of the community, who isn’t afraid to speak his mind and shoot down the trolls, and a man that I have the upmost respect for; Hippyscollectables (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9HGbH95YlL7Y_HmAiau8bw). Hippy has supported me from the start and is just a really fun guy to watch and talk to. He is just a great person and his collection and comic knowledge is amazing. The other guy has probably the biggest collection I will ever see in my life, is an absolutely humble and big hearted person, and is downright hilarious when on camera and that is nobody other than CaptainStrangelife (http://www.youtube.com/user/captainstrangelife). His comic knowledge is outstanding and his collection is so big that there is no word I can describe it with! He is such a nice guy and unfortunately I haven’t been able to really have many conversations with him but I always tease him about having a drink one day. I am lucky to be able to consider both of these guys as my friends.

A staple of the comic book community is the live shows. RDowdy holds his own Comic Book Friday every Friday night, just to give an example. I happened to be invited to my first live show on February 7^th of 2013 and it was there I met some people who I consider some of my best friends in the community. The show is called Super Friends and it airs on Thursday night on my favorite plumber’s channel, Matt F (SofaKingMatt) (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq4FyRRTGVr2eSvSqUJWHFQ). Matt is just an awesome guy all around. He is the biggest Green Lantern fan that I ever come across and he is one of those guys that you can have the most awkward conversations with and it really isn’t awkward, just a festival of laughs. At the time, his partner in crime on the show was a guy I think extremely highly of and that is DaCostaDCcomics (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5AN5KbY8DZ6c7KohtdNI0w). Johnny is a joker, and is one of those guys that really made the community experience enjoyable for me early on. He was always there to talk to and really just made me feel the most welcomed and I can’t thank him enough for being a such a great guy. Not to forget to mention that he and I both love Batman, even though he loves Jason Todd and I like Dick Grayson. Johnny currently holds his own live show, in which I guest on sometimes, called Batchat. I don’t need to really say what they talk about right?

Near the end of February I started talking to three of the best friends I have ever made:

Scott or RunningWithComics (http://www.youtube.com/user/RunningWithComics),

Frank or Frank ComicNoob (http://www.youtube.com/user/frankkoutoulas),

Nate or TheDarkNate40 (http://www.youtube.com/user/TheDarkNate40).

Frank, Nate, Scott, and I met just by kinda commenting back and forth on each other’s videos. In late February, Frank messaged me and brought up the idea that we should start up our own show, since we were both new readers/collectors and thought we should make a show for the new fans like us. It was funny because I was thinking the exact same thing and was literally going to send him a message that same day. After we talked for a bit, we had the idea that we would try to make a trio with Nate. Nate was all for it and the rest was history, 3 Guys 1 Live Show began its trek. Or did it? No it didn’t! 3 Guys 1 Live Show was only a couple issue mini-series that was replaced with the actual on-going series, 4 Guys 1 Live Show, in which we brought in the man named Scott! The four of us just started talking all the time and since we started doing the show together back in March, we have formed a bond that has brought us into a family. We all consider each other brothers and would do anything for one another. But yeah check out the show every (well mostly we have missed like 3 Tuedays) Tuesday night on my channel at 8pm EST.

On our show we began to make friends by inviting guests to join us. A few include our favorite Canadian twosome of Kevin, Thespins1390 (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMhDuQp1hC5i89u8QNzXL4A) and Tim, Vamplew444 (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgoxz-RNyFf3ej7lfEmSwnw). They both post weekly haul videos and occasionally (by occasionally I mean almost never) have their own live show, Baxter Building Banter. Kevin is a very intelligent and down to earth guy and Tim, well he is just a crazy drunk. Just kidding, Tim is one of the most hilarious guys I have ever talked to and is a great friend. Through the show we were able to get close to our boy WELLINGTON, theComicBookLowdown (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIAwXh0EmTdrsuRxc_xVk-Q). Wellington is a funny dude, and even though we haven’t been able to chat to often lately, he is still one of my good buddies within the community. And of course our boy MacHammer (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYylwHHi2c0s6XTSdv0kTOg) who is a fun guy to talk to and is all-around a great guy. He has a great sense of humor and really is knowledge about the books that he reads.

Our community even has its fantastic female crowd! Reader1717 (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLgAwJd0ZDdwjg2CYCZd4kw) is one of the kindest people I have had the pleasure to get to know in the community. She is so humble and really cares about the people in the community. She has one of the warmest hearts and I can’t say enough good things about her. She is just straight awesomesauce! LahRasa (http://www.youtube.com/user/LahRasa/featured) is another one of these amazing ladies that help round out the community. She has a great love for her books and is excellent at reviewing the books she reads. She is an extremely talented artist and is one of the great people in the community. My last featured female is Sarah Smash (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMlh58SpJR21NDRY1rtmNrw). I recently just started watching her videos but she is a great person as well. She has an awesome nerd room which she just showed off recently and her love for the characters is inspiring. She has a great sense of humor and is enjoyable to watch, and I can’t wait to get to know her! These aren’t the only ladies in the community but just the few I have had the pleasure to really get to know.

There is a great collection of people in the community that aren’t in the United Stated. There is a vast community of friendly people across the pond such as,

DrMonkeyBot (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC022-DHtzXnz5wHioQqq0YQ)

TheHulksBigToe (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnV-WHN2hsZrvarYh9l6b3g)

Klaus Schnell (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9tJ5Yl0QwZ7yZFVvG0zrLQ)

Just to name a few of the many. DrMonkeyBot is just one of the calmest and intelligent people to watch on youtube. His knowledge is incredible and he is one of the kindest guys in the community. TheHulksBigToe is great as well and is just another one of those guys with a sense of humor that makes you laugh. And we both also happened to be on huge Green Arrow kicks at the moment. Klaus is probably one of my favorite guys to watch in this community. He loves his Leffie and music, and the videos that result are just amazing. He is a great guy and fun to chat back and forth with.

There are so many people in this wonderful community that I’m gonna miss a whole lot of them but I’m quickly run down some people that you need to check out and give them kind words as well:

Gimpy204 (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9GfyKapJzsXz4qBVoMWd7Q), now this guy will make you pee your pants he is so funny. He does his haul videos drunk and it makes for some of the funniest videos in the community. He is a good guy and I can’t wait until that day we can actually sit down and have a hangout together!

Oddfellowsthoughts (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIHWLy2cuINhU_58XLBYYWw) is a comic book encyclopedia. This guy’s knowledge is completely outstanding and I look up to him in so many ways. I have the upmost respect for this guy and his knowledge. I hope that one day I can amass half the knowledge he has in his head.

Sleepreader666 (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuXUnx3SfZc5O5a24gz6qmg) is another one of those extremely intelligent guys that I look up to. The way he can articulate his words and talk about comics is astonishing. He has a heart filled kindness and is one of the most welcoming members in the community.

Koestenbraumstar (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvh23HEbrVHjTCzCkvwaOqA) is just an all-around great guy. He is very kind and accepting to new members, and he has one of those knowledge bases that not only spans the realm of comics but also into movies, tv shows, and much more. I can’t say enough good words about him!

Foolkiller5150 (http://www.youtube.com/user/FoolKiller5150) is one of those guys that I look up to. He is such a great collector and his collection is massive! Plus we are both big baseball fans and also happen to be huge Yankee fans. His Yankees collection made my jaw hit the floor.

Mongostomptime07 (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfAr5XiBWutY46fRdTuR7Dw) is a great guy and he has been gone for a few months but we would text each other every now and then to see how each other was doing (until I busted my phone and lost his number) but I hope he comes back soon.

Solid4stBend (http://www.youtube.com/user/solid4stbend) is one of those silver and bronze age brought up guys that knows so much about comics. I love watching his videos and learning something from him.

Ynotart (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSh0mDTuBQZuDWaiLKk-gPA) is a kind-hearted and soft spoken guy (Until you piss him off, then he tells what's up) who really appreciates the art that goes into comics. He collects titles that I would never think of collecting but the way he talks about them sparks my interest and is just an all-around great guy.

ComicBook Nostalgia (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE_njpzbhgfzv39E583WAiw) is just really into collecting. I mean the amount of books this guy brings in is amazing! He puts out some of my favorite videos and is also a member of the armed forces and I respect everything he does for this country and all he contributes to the community!

I know that I am missing way to many people but quite frankly, this blog would never end because that is seriously how many great people interact within this fantastic community of comic book lovers. I joined the community not expecting too much with my channel and today I hit 300 subscribers and have made tons of friends in which I can share my love of collecting with! The best part about it all is anyone can join! If you are interested in the community and need somewhere to start, just post a video and comment on one of my videos and let me know to check you out your channel.

Oh yeah here is my channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheIncredibleCJ

DC or Marvel? This is the question that every comic fan asks one another. Usually they have a preference for one over the other but sometimes they don’t prefer either. When I am asked this question, my answer is always DC. I really like Marvel too but if I had to put all of my money into books from one side or another, it would most definitely be DC’s side (pretty much is already that way).

My pull list today consists of 19 books (maybe 20 we’ll see) and 16 of them are DC, counting the Wake, and only two of those being Marvel. The last is Saga but come on now that book is awesome. My pull consists of so much DC for two reasons, the majority of the books are only 2.99 and they ship only once a month so I can afford it. Being a broke college kid that loves to read comics, I have to be able to keep my pull at a manageable level with how much I spend per month and Marvel will double ship 3.99 books and that kills me. The price to read one double shipped Marvel book is the same price as almost three DC 2.99 books that are just as good if not better. I love many Marvel characters but I can’t afford to spend my money on them especially when I can get DC characters that I love the same, if not more, for a much better price. The only two books I get from Marvel currently are 2.99 titles that come out once a month, Daredevil and FF. Daredevil I would pay 3.99 for because that book is amazing every single month! FF is a great title as well, it is just straight fun. I just recently dropped Fantastic Four but I think I might pick it up of the shelves on light weeks since it is only 2.99 also and has the potential of tying in with FF very soon.

In my opinion, I also think DC puts out much better quality books. When I look at DC, I see a company reviving or stepping up characters that were forgotten or simply not cared about, and putting out extremely good stories for them. Aquaman has been one of DCs most consistent titles since the New 52 launched. The Flash has been amazing as well and not to forget the revival of Green Arrow by Jeff Lemire and the amazing run that Gail Simone is having on Batgirl right now. When I look at Marvel, I simply just do not see that kind of quality. I have tried numerous Marvel titles but the quality I feel I am getting for the price is just not what I would expect. I recently dropped Superior Spider-Man because I was getting sick of all the buildup and mediocre stories I was getting that were going nowhere. Dan Slott has been teasing with the Green Goblin since early on and continued to tease for several issues and it just pissed me off so I dropped it. With that drop I was able to add 3 DC titles and stay within budget, get more stories, and be happier. I tried Avengers, New Avengers, All-New X-Men, and a few others but I just couldn’t get into them. DC has the titles right now that grab me the most.

When it comes to back issues I am split completely down the middle with the both big companies. If you watch or have watched my most recent collection video, you can see how my back issue collecting ways are split down the middle. I was working heavily on completing the entire run of the original Defenders series and have almost completed it but have recently slowed down due to how hard it is to find the remaining issues and the price they go for when I try to get them. I recently picked up a huge chunk of Green Arrow issues from volume one and two, and by huge I mean 85 issues worth between the two volumes. I always pick up Batman back issues when I see them and that collection is growing quite fast as well. I keep a note book with all the titles I want to try to collect and it is split pretty much down the middle for DC and Marvel. As much as I love the DC characters and titles, Marvel had some of the best silver and bronze age books. I want to collect full series of Amazing Spider-man, Hulk, Daredevil, Fantastic Four, and so many more to go along with my obvious DC titles of Batman, Detective, Flash, Teen Titans and so on. I absolutely love the hunt of finding deals on back issues. I have been focusing more on my DC back issues lately but I seem to vary back and forth between titles.

If you made it this far I thank so much for reading and just want to reassure that all this is based in my opinion and I have no problems with varying opinions. I love comics and general, and I enjoy both companies but my go to company is DC. Thanks again!

My name is C.J. and I collect comics. Comics are one of my many passions in life and collecting comics is by far my favorite hobby. As a young kid in the 90s my love superheroes began with the fantastic superhero cartoons like Batman: The Animated Series and Spider-Man. But it wasn’t until the end of my senior year of high school that I started collecting comics.

At my high school, every senior has to pass a project called a Senior Interdisciplinary Project or S.I.P. for short. Every senior got to pick a topic of their choice and study three disciplines related to that topic and put together a 20-30 minute presentation to show a panel of judges who determine your grade. My topic of choice was my favorite childhood hero that many people know and love, Batman. I chose the three disciplines of Film, Popular Culture Icons, and of course the big one, Comics. I knew my way around the Batman films pretty good so I didn’t have to do much there, it just gave me an excuse to spend money on the Batman movies that I did not already own. Popular Culture Icons was simple because all I had to do was define the topic and say what it means to be a “pop culture icon.” Now the one that was going to be the hardest for me was comics. I always wanted to get into reading and collecting comics but there were no comic shops around me and I never had anyone in my life influence me to buy comics. I loved superheroes growing up but it just never struck me to buy comics. But this project changed me.

The experience of the S.I.P. project is different for everyone but for me, it was definitely a good experience. When I got into the comic side of the research I was digging into places that I never thought the discipline would ever take me. I started out looking into the basics like when was the first comic book published, a brief history of the two major companies, and things like that but then I started digging into the lore of the character and his story built history. I found myself spending hours reading the wiki pages on Batman and the crazy things that writers have put him through over the years and how he has evolved since his early gun slinging, free killing days as a crime fighter through the campy 50s and 60s and all the way up until his dark yet morally against killing persona he has today. I was reading about his major story arcs like Knightfall, A Death in the Family, Year One, and so on and I began getting more and more interested. I found this site and an account (not this one) and was reading the wikis of not just Batman but his supporting cast, the characters of the Justice League, to Spider-man, to Dr. Doom, and so on. I had a very good character knowledge base for a non-reader before this but I was hooked. I began reading the very few trades that my school had in the library and my love of reading comics began to grow.

The first trades I read were Year one, and the Dark Knight Returns. After I picked up each one, I didn’t put them down until I was finished reading them. I immediately was lost in the beautiful story telling process that takes place with limited wording and beautiful art. I have never been a reader of books. I was one of those kids that would read Cliff Notes or Sparknotes, and lie about the amount of pages read for homework because I simply just cannot get sucked into a book. To me they have always been just words on a page but comics are art, not only with the obvious drawing but the way writers and artists collaborate to tell a story with dialogue boxes and pictures. So I set a goal for myself and that was to begin a collection of my own.

In April of 2012 my quest began. I went to the only place in my area that was possible to find comics with hopes of getting some to show to my panel and that day my hobby was born. I was able to find a few comics for about 3 bucks apiece which to me was expensive and with my newly acquired knowledge there is no way I would spend that now but I’m glad I did. I bought Batman Legends of the Dark Knight 4,5, and 8, and Detective Comics #608 (also my first key, first appearance of Anarky). After my S.I.P. was over and I was awarded the third highest grade in the class, I began searching for the best way to start collecting.

My first stop was to determine which books that were coming out now that I wanted to read every month and at the time I was pretty broke (still am but I manage) so I limited myself to four titles I would want to read the most. Since the New 52 had only been out for a few months I was able to start back tracking so being a huge Batman fan, I decided to jump on Batman and Batman the Dark Knight. I also went for Justice League and threw in a side book, Green Lantern. I chose Green Lantern because I always enjoyed the concept of the character and with the movie being out I figured why not. They trick was trying to catch up on these series since they were quite a few issues in but I was able to catch up getting pretty much all the 1^st prints for cover price. Green Lantern and The Dark Knight were easy to find but with the big Batman hype with the Court of Owls storyline and Justice League starting over, the 1^st prints were tough to get a hold of. But I was able to catch up grabbing a 4^th print of Batman #1 and a 3^rd print of Justice League #1. A week or two later I was able to snag a Batman #1 first print for 5 bucks and a few months back I was able to steal a Justice League #1 out of the dollar bin at my local shop (I know I said there wasn’t one but I’m getting to that). I didn’t have a steady income or an income at all at the time so I had to buy my books every now and then because the majority of my money went to my gas tank. I also jumped on the Avengers vs. X-Men event which looking back I wish I picked something else up it is what it is.

One way I was able to get caught up on these books was through my birthday which is where I really consider my start of collecting. I had my parents let me fill a cart with a hundred bucks worth of comics from Lonestar Comics where I was able to get the majority of the issues I needed for cover price and was able to get character value packs, where you get 18-22 issues of a select character or team for $8.95. I grabbed a Spider-man, a Daredevil, a Batman, a Justice League, and a Green Lantern pack in that order. With those books I threw in bags and boards to round it out. My collecting was very scattered across many different titles and at the time I loved it. I began ordering grab bags from Midtown Comics and more value packs from Lonestar and I watched my collection turn into a big mixing pot of different titles because I had no idea what I was doing or what I wanted to collect.

The school year finally winded down and I graduated high school, college was set, and the summer of 2012 was upon me. That summer, I began reading and posting blog posts and forums on Comic Vine, and continued my research of characters trying to find a focal point of where to begin with my collecting ways. I was thoroughly lost on what to do. I had probably two long boxes full of a random assortment DC, and Marvel titles and I had no idea what to do. That is when I began looking at comic collection videos on YouTube near the end of the summer and I began seeing exactly what collecting was. It wasn’t about the amounts of books that you had; it was about collecting the series and characters that mean the most to you and getting the comics that interest you and not what others think. I was pretty much put on hold with collecting back issues for a while because it became a struggle just to get my regularly releasing new books, mixed with buying my college dorm supplies, a laptop, fixing up my car, and all of the other things that comes with being an 18 year old male with a part-time and girlfriend (at the time anyway). Like I was saying, I finally discovered what collecting was near the end of that summer and when I got to college I would spend a good amount of time in between classes watching YouTube videos and trying to find what it was that I wanted to collect. It was pretty much useless because I am a huge superhero fan and pretty much like every single one so my collection will grow endlessly with superhero titles.

In about October of 2012, I discovered that there was a comic store in the city that I was going to college in and I was excited. I went there one Wednesday and picked my releases off the shelf and bought my regular titles. I had some more money thanks to refund checks on my loans so I could afford to get my books on time. After a few Wednesdays of going to the shop, I decided to start my pull list there to avoid the possible situation of not having a book be there when I went to pick them up. I was grabbing some books, like tie-ins and stuff, off the shelf still but my main four titles would be there ready every time they came out. I slowly began to expand the titles I would pull trying to test new reading waters.

While all this was going on I was still watching lots of YouTube videos and that’s when I realized that there was an actual comic book community filled with readers of all levels that get on and show their pick-ups, their reads, and share their collecting habits and knowledge of what they love. I was timid at first to join this community of collectors being as new and less-knowledgeable of comics as I was but in January of 2013 I decided it was time. I figured that these people in this community would be able to give me the insight and direction I would need to really feel like a collector. I opened my channel with an introduction, my collecting in the new year resolutions, and a video showing off the collection I was able to amass over roughly 8 to 9 months of buying grab bags and what not. That collection video can be seen at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ILABZVjcU4&feature=share&list=PLlFHw5SbICK-3AI-XR9WV6CMC8ycW8KFb

I was the only person that I knew that collected comics so I had no one to talk to about them. I could have general discussions with my dad who enjoys superheroes but who hasn’t read a comic since he was a kid isn’t the same as talking to someone who is reading the same things as you or things you might want to try. Joining the community was one of the best decisions I have ever made towards my collecting ways. I finally had people that were considerate and wanted to help me find my way of collecting. My collecting finally began having a direction. Here is my channel page:

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheIncredibleCJ

The first run that I was set on collecting was the original Defenders series. I know it is weird how I after I started with being a Batman guy and considering myself a DC guy that I started my first focus on Defenders. I started there because I found that I owned the first six issues of the most recent 12 issue Defenders run by Matt Fraction and I despite the majority of people, I really enjoyed it. I did my research and found that I wanted to collect to the Defenders. I am currently under 30 issues away from completing that series, and have since took a break in collecting Defenders due to the bad luck of finding the remaining issues I need. But my collecting was on some sort of track finally. It progressed slowly in this collection update:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afclQXbWTF4&feature=share&list=PLlFHw5SbICK-3AI-XR9WV6CMC8ycW8KFb

In this community, I was able to meet some really awesome people and I even helped make a live show that airs on YouTube Tuesday nights at 8pm (explicit content) with three of the coolest guys I have ever had the pleasure to talk with. The idea for the show was sprung by Frank (Frank ComicNoob on YouTube) and I. We were both two new collectors just starting out our collecting and we pretty much simultaneously thought of making a show. We knew we needed one person to start this show with and we looked toward another new collector, Nate (TheDarkNate40). We began chatting about what the show was going to be about, when we were going to do it, and what we were going to name it. The first two were easy, we wanted to talk about the books we read the past week, and what we were picking up the next week. That decision made for the perfect night of Tuesday since it was right before new comic Wednesday. We had a few names floating around like Young Collectors, playing off Young Justice, and the College Society since we were all in college but it came the show night and nothing was decided. I had computer issues while attempting to get the show started up but Nate saved the day getting it up and running under the title, 3 Guys 1 Live Show and it stuck ever since. I know I said earlier that I met three awesome guys, and then there was RunningWithComics, Scott. Scott was one of those guys that all of us talked to regularly so we asked him to join us to make a Foursome and if you can add, 4 Guys 1 Live Show. We all have grown to be like brothers considering the age spacing we might as well be that way. Scott is like that older brother that looks out for us all and is there to talk about anything, Frank is that second oldest that messes with you all the time but would do anything for you, Nate is the best of the both being the second youngest, and I’m the baby of the bunch. Check out the show, you might understand what I mean. Unfortunately Nate’s grad school schedule prevents him from getting on the show now but he’ll be back, so watch some of the older shows as well.

It wasn’t until April of 2013 that I discovered this antique mall in a town about ten minutes away from my college that has hundreds of back issues for 12 book for 10 dollars and I began going there whenever I had a nice chunk of change to spend on comics. It was there that I amassed the majority of my Batman collection. I found tons of issues from the main title and was able to finally get on track for the series that I always thought I would have started to collect. Mixed in that bunch, I picked up some Incredible Hulks, Nightwing, Amazing Spider-man, JLA, and some other mixed titles. My Batman main title collection is well over 100 issues (might even be over 150 now) and I’m finally working toward something. The most recent video is from May, another one will happen January 2014 after Christmas, this is where my collection videos stop for now:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ9t_MDP6wY&feature=share&list=PLlFHw5SbICK-3AI-XR9WV6CMC8ycW8KFb

Being a little over 18 months into my collecting, I couldn’t be any happier with the way my collection is going. My pull list is up to about 20 books a month, with like 16 of them being DC. I am currently focusing on collecting Green Arrow (all volumes) back issues and picking away at my Batman run from 400-713. My collection has been brought back up to over 1000 books after thinning out the majority of those titles I stupidly acquired from all the grab bags. The collection looks like I have a focus on select titles while keeping a few in mind for later on.

I highly suggest joining the YouTube comic community and if you want to start out just shoot me a message on here or on YouTube and I will gladly help you get started. If you made it this far, thanks for listening and I hope you will share your story with us as well!

Things I left out (this could have been double or triple in length):

• · My issues with determining what I was going to use to preserve my comics
• · The titles I read now and what I tried and didn’t like
• · Short boxes or Long boxes?
• · The reasons why I don’t get Marvel books
• · Why I love DC

Maybe I’ll save these for another day…