I drove to Olympia, Washington a few nights ago to pick up about two thousand comic books for a friend of mine. She lives in Texas and her dad died earlier this year. He left his stash of comic books for her in his will. I drove up there, picked them up and brought them back, not knowing what was in the collection.

I don’t collect comic books anymore. There was something about having my brain receive all the oxygen that it should have had (my BiPAP machine, which forces air into my lungs at night) that caused me to lose my sentimentality about comic books. But even when i was collecting, i never felt the need to go and buy the really old comic books that were originally sold for 12¢, 15¢ or even 25¢.

There were many, many titles published then with Jack Kirby at the helm and as i type this, i have several hundred of those books just a few feet from me.

I cracked a box, grabbed about 10 books and using ComicsPriceGuide.com as a general indicator, two of those books are valued at $400 (for Near Mint condition and the price is theoretical). Since then, i’ve pulled out a few books here and there and looked them up. Some early Batman, Justice League, Thor, Avengers, vintage X-Men, lots and lots of Disney stuff, some Charleston titles too.

Check out the constantly expanding gallery here.

It’s nostalgic for me. I’m not the sort of geek that starts his sentences with, “Yes. Well, ACTUALLY!” But there are millions that are. You can usually find them by the fact that they list Firefly as the best television series in the history of civilization, their shitty rapist glasses, their creepy pedo beards (what in fuck is it about PDX that makes pedo beards so popular?), the fact that they worship anything related to Star Wars and they list Robert Heinlein as their favorite author of all time ever in the entire history of mankind. They might also fuck plushie animals and attend cosplay events.

Nonetheless, it’s kind of interesting and impressive to what is left of my comic book geek persona. Most of these books are in incredible shape due to the fact they’ve been laying flat for the better part of thirty years, so they’re in as good of shape as they can be without having been bagged and boarded. The paper used then was newsprint and other than one issue, i haven’t seen any silverfish damage.

I have no idea if Kelly and Shelly will be able to get the amount of money for them as they’re supposed to be worth. I am hoping there’s enough money to be made for them so that Kelly can pay for a year or two of Hannah’s (her daughter) college. I’ve put all the boxes into storage down the street from the UPS store but before i send them off, i’m making it a point to crack each box and rifle through a few issues. I have to say, they’re pretty bad. I can hear brain cells committing suicide by trying to read a few pages. Ugh.

If i keep going, i’ll begin starting my sentences with, “Yes. Well, ACTUALLY!”