In this case, CRIMES you have PERPETRATED against the physical properties of a comic book!

Have you...

taken a comic apart to make paper hats for the neighborhood dogs?

used a comic as a coaster? a fly swatter? back scratcher?

Confess!

Confess!!

**No action figure confessions, please.**

Okay, okay. Here goes:

I didn't take the best care of my earliest comic purchase, but I still have them and they're each in one piece. Doesn't matter though 'cause I claim immmunity under the Golden Years rule. Which as you know forgives a whole lotta sins in the first couple of years of comic-ing.

On the other hand I am completely guilty of cutting a picture out of a comic and using it on a card. (This was five years ago, mind you.) I have also intentionally thrown away a few comics (also a few years ago). Including the cut-up one.

While in sound mind, I confess to have up comics for wrapping paper. I also eat sloppy food while I read them, consign some to plastic bags in a damp cellar and even have thrown some out.

I have been tempted to compost comics, but don't want to use the good ones and am concerned about imparting bad vibes to the compost if I use the bad ones i.e. those which are disliked. (Are there bad comics, or only misunderstood ones?)

I've fallen asleep in the tub while reading a couple of comics...

In my youth, I would tear out the ads that were all back to back. They used to be printed perfectly so if you tore them out at the staple, the front and back of each side of the page was ads.

I let people scribble on them. You know, writers and artists and such.

I filled reams of tracing paper with sketches from comics when I was little. Eventually I caught on that I was indenting the covers I traced,and limitetd myself to copying from interiors... at least on the books that were my favorites.

And I still have that copy of S&LSH 224 where I drew battle damage on everyone with red magic marker...!

Wouldn't want the worms to become IMAGE-conscious, would we?

Are these crimes against the physical comic books or against the medium itself. I'm guilty of both.

My best friend Jim used to fold them twice over (to 1/4 their size) so he could fit them in his pocket and therefore sneak into his house without his mother knowing he was reading more of those "JOKE BOOKS" (her term, always spoken in a harsh, derogatory tone of voice).

The crimes, if any, are esthetic, and they're mostly inside the books, and I didn't perpetrate 'em

But I confess to being fed up with the Grit and X-Ray Specs ads, and to tearing out those back-to-back ad signatures in my VG condition, to-read-until-it-falls-apart copy of "Superboy" 226, Dawnstar's debut.

(As I've noted before, that's my fourth copy of five for that issue. The fifth, NM condition, is bagged and boarded. The first three, out of my 20s' and early 30s' self-embarrassment over actually reading some comics, ewww, I threw away {tsk tsk})

Put me down for this one as well. Man, I ruined a lot of Who's Who this way, back in the day.

Jamie

Oh I still tear out any ad pages that are back to back if the other half of the page (as in across the fold) are also both ads so in effect removing four pages but just one piece of paper. you can't do it often, but occasinally they'll have four pages of ads in the centre of a comic and they come straight out. I don't see that as a crime though.

I also have quite happily thrown away comics that i don't want or have duplicate copies of and stuff. And I dropped my copy of Mad Love in the bath. Luckily it didn't get to wet so even though it's slightly warped it's still perfectly fine for reading.

Of course I should also say I'm not at all precious about my comics either. I do have them bagged but only so that they sit on the book shelves more easily. other than that though I don't worry about them. I buy them to read them so I don't care if they end up not being in perfectly good nick. if I'm not likely to reread them I don't keep them. If I am going to reread them then, well, they're going to get a bit dog-eared over time so why worry? Not that I have any comics that are actually worth any great amount of money though (that I'm aware of). I have BoP #8 (I think. The first Babs/Nightwing date issue) which apparently is meant to be worth ten pound or something but it's not exactly going to pay the kids college fees.

In the mid 1970s, I used to carefully cut Element Lad appearances out of my Legion comics and put them in one of those sticky photo albums.
I have no idea whatever become of it, though.
Hopefully, it's still somewhere in my mom's basement.

Oh, the tracing. I had the cover image from the X-Men where Jean becomes Phoenix, bursting out of the water, traced and colored and hanging on my fridge.

I also would trace outlines from Marvel Universe and then use them as completely different pictures. Spiral, minus four of her arms, was a neat variation on Storm. Wonder Man, all hidden under plate armor, was a knight, for a D&D game (I liked his pose).

The worst crime against comics was not committed by me, but by my cat, who thought my box of comics was comfortable place to curl up and deliver a litter of kittens. Such a trend-setter she was, all '90s and Image-y, with those bloody covers. Ew. I remember the one on top was unsalvageable, and had Dawnstar and Wildfire on the cover.

When I was a kid I had a couple of DC Limited Collectors' Editions that I cut the characters out of the covers and hung up in my room... I had the JLA and JSA characters from one and Superman and Flash from another one... I also drew a mustache on Lightning Lad and Shadow Lass on another one that I still have...

I also used to cut out the figures ... and play with them like action figures .. and I would draw over the scenes making up new scenes ... I remember Green Lantern used to get really butchered.

but this is way worse ....... I was over my friends house in junior high, watching tv, and i saw him cleaning out his nails with the edge of a comic book cover (gross!) I promptly asked him if i could have all his comic books, (he said i could have them before)

Now that I think about it, maybe I shouldn't have got them ... who knows what he did with them !

This is the one I saw him cleaning his nails on:



It's beautiful, and the story is great! Why would someone clean out their finger nails with this????

So ... maybe this isn't real a *crime* story but more more of a *rescue* story. oopsie.

That's hysterical!

I too used to do the paper-dolls/action figurey thing with images cut from my comics. I could just kick myself!

Im assuming Freida Fingernails ended up gay... no straight little boy cares if his nails are dirty...

I have ripped back covers off. Tore out ad pages and thrown out unwanted second stories. Then had them turned into Hardcover books.

A crime to some...an awesome way to read comics for me.

I did make a couple of paper hats from comics. I did use quarter box comics though.

I accidently dropped a Mister Miracle comic in the toilet once.

I ordered things from comics - Grit, Seed and card selling kits, subscriptions. I always cut out the order form from the actual comic.

I filled out those Answer Man/Daily Planet crossword puzzles in ink. (Looking back, my handwriting was really bad).

I hung comic books on a cork bulletin board - poster style - using thumb tacks.

GASPPPP!

I am reminded... I recently placed a used tissue on top of a comic... that didn't end well!

Fortunately it was the DC New 52 promo giveaway comic!

Carbon paper...lots of carbon paper. Copied my favorite Legion drawings from the Earthwar saga. Since replaced those copies a long time ago.

So, so many jokes here.

I've certainly wanted to rip out those second advertisement stories or the huge multi-page ads with super heroes pimping productS. I hated buying a thick comic and then when i get home its not extra story but pages of extra advertisement!!!!!

Power Boy SMASH!!

I will not ask how this tissue was *used*. neither will anyone else.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Peebs...you are almost too close to asking there!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

He turned out to be straight ...

I think my worst crime, because of quantity of crime not quality, is i never bag and board my comics. I just pile them high on a book shelf ... which leads to some minor bending ....

I have most in boxes, but again not with bags and boards, so there might be some lean and bending. Also, the boxes are just stacked on top of each other ...

If not bagging and boarding is a crime, then I've been guilty for 40 years. I just keep mine in boxes and 97% look good as new. The other 3% were from my younger days when I had more time to reread comics.

Over the years there have been some incidents where the tape on the plastic (for bagging) rips up the cover a little bit. There is only one notable one though, a crime I committed at age 16 or so: I screwed up the cover of a newly purchased Giant Sized X-Men #1.

I can't even bring myself to reread it, the memory is too painful. I felt guilty for weeks and weeks.

I have used pages (and occasionally covers) from comics as wrapping paper for gifts. I won't tell you the titles or issues though, because it would just make you cry.

^Wow, I've heard of such crimes but have never seen it! I'm really curious about the issues in question!

i use to take an ink pen and ink over the already inked and colored pages.
and i use to cut the page up and make collages out of lot of my old comics

I don't really consider this a crime, since it was a mercy killing, but I just used JLA#1 and Legion Lost #1 to line the kitty litter pan (to rough and sickening to wipe my own @ss with). And in case you think I am just being snotty, I want to assure you that I REALLY DID do it. It is the only thing they are fit for as far as I am concerned. Darn! Should have taken pictures and emailed them to DC... wonder if they are still recognizable enough.....

As long as you paid for them, they won't care, lol.

Maybe I'll mail that actual comics back to DC.... hmmmm.... Should I send them in care of the editor or the individual writers?

[leaps out of Time Bubble, arms a-flailing wildly]

So were the kittens all named after Legionnaires then? Because that would be FAB-ulous!

As for me, mostly my crimes consist of giving away great books that I just plain don't have the space for. There are actually cute, house-shaped boxes with latched doors around the city that make this easier. They're up on posts, like old-time mailboxes are. You leave something to read, and take something to read in return if you want to.

Once I started seeing magazines in there, along with actual books, I figured comics were fair game, too.

I could be about ten thousand times more ruthless in clearing stuff out of chez_cleome, and still not get close to removing as much as I ought to.

I still love you, Comics. I just can't afford to be Capital-L IN LOVE with you anymore.

Not bagging and boarding for me too.

And I once let my copy of LSH v4 100 get wet. *shudder*

Plus I cut out the pin up pages...

I bought a new copy though

I don't always bag my comics when I put them in the boxes and they get bent out of shape.

Hear me brothers and sisters, for I have sinned against comics! Not in that way... jeez... you guys... Do I hear an Amen?!

"Get on with It!"

Close enough.

As a small child, very small I hope...I cut out some ads for bubble gum because separating the ad from the book would make it real. Clearly.

I have taken the free gifts from the covers of #1s and *used* them without thought for their premium value decades later!

I have read Teen Titans in the bath. The Wolman and Perez ones too!

Oddly, when a couple of comics did get mould, they were bagged and boarded, and not the Titans ones. But I threw those Giffen JLA's away! Fortunately it was into the teens of the book, and it was already starting to lose a little of it's appeal.

A magic marker has burst over a late issue of JLA... and I have not replaced it!

I spent an afternoon tracing figures from Who's Who...like everyone else probably.

I'm worse at keeping comics in order now than ever. My Legion books are all out of order now. This led to my great sin of spilling coffee over an issue of the Great Darkness Saga!

It has also led me to recently stand on an issue of Promethea, mangling the cover.

I have sold comics without conducting due diligence on the buyer to see they would be well treated.

I just hope you can forgive me these sins and that I probably own every Ambush Bug appearance.

>one tar and feathering over Ambush Bug later<

Be like that then.

thoth, you really should go to comics confession more often. This was quite a backlog and may take a while to process.

But y'know that Dev-Em is smiling from wherever he is now.

So, that was last weeks sins against comics. This week's sins...



Great pic Teeds!
- Julie Lad

I confess to taking my comics out into the garden to read in the sun. Exposing them to all the radiation our sun could throw at them. It was the Legion Index too.

I NEVER bag and board. Ever!

they ask me every week at the comic store. The answer is always ... a polite but firm


NO

Recently I started buying my kids Angry Birds comics, because we all love the movie that came out. The crimes have not been quite as bad as when I bought them some Uncle Scrooge or TMNT comics last year, but let's just saw there have been numerous misdemeanors.

Same here!

So I was telling my Dad about this thread and he told me a story I had never heard before, and the reason is its probably his most shameful crime he's ever committed against comics (or kind-of comics, more pulp magazines).

In the mid-60's when he was either 13 or 14 (so 1965 or 1966) he was in a grocery store with one of his buddies and to kill boredeom they were skimming the various magazines that the grocery store sold.

Digression: like everyone from that era, he always talks about how corner stores and pharmacies and other places sold comics on the newstand. But for some reason, certain grocery stores would not sell comic books. Instead, they had large displays of magazines.

Anyway, back then there was like a thousand magazines, more than today, including a whole genre of movie monster magazines. My Dad, a big fan of Hammer horror then (especially at that perfect age of 13 or 14) was looking through a random Warren magazine--either Creepy or Eerie--and was SHOCKED to find out it contained black & white comic book stories. He was then even more shocked to find that his beloved favorite comic artist, Steve Ditko, had a 5 or 6 page story in it. Within, he discovered that you could send away for the prior issues of the magazines through a subscription with the company itself. Having a paper route and priding himself on always having money, he promptly did this. Over the course of the next few months, he sent away for the entire runs of Creepy and Eerie up until that point, which was like #8 or something like that. Over the next few years, as his comic book habit waned for the first time, he still managed to keep up nearly complete runs of Creepy, Eerie and then the first few Vampirellas too.

Then, in 1970 he stopped collecting comics all together. He would not come back until 1981. His numerous Silver Age comics were boxed, bagged and stored away where he would eventually reconnect with them, fill in the gaps and complete his collections.

However, the various Warren magazines received no such treatment. Not bagged, they were crammed into a cardboard box and tucked away somewhere in a very messy basement through the ensuing decade. Somewhere along the way, the basement had some light flooding and all of those beautiful Creepy and Eerie magazines were brutally damaged by water.

It was only in the 80's when he realized what he had and what had been ruined that he understood the true nature of this crime.

As an aside, some of them still survived. I remember finding them randomly in my teens and wondering what they were. They're in pretty poor condition but that's better than not having them at all, I say.

This thread...bringing families together in guilt and horror!

The cover just came off an issue of Comic Book Artist! By itself! Sure, I was *holding* it at the time, but only barely.

No, not that I was bare while I was holding it. That's a different confession thread.

But it was so flimsily put together that 20 years of throwing it in and out of storage seems to somehow have caused wear and tear!

I cut up my comics to make toys for myself as a kid so I could develop my own adventures. The collector looks back and shudders, but I had so much fun

I used to do that witth football stickers. I had leagues so it was more "real". Dollies action figures for my comic adventures though.