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Imagine your worst case scenario, your house burns down with your comics inside it. After some time you restart your collection, but your trying to rebuild what you have? Do you know why? While it's never happened to me, I thought I might figure out why I'd rebuild my collection.

I’ve never put a lot of though into it but what would happen if my home caught on fire? What if it happened while I was away? I wouldn’t be able to save anything. I’d come home sift through the wreckage, and look for my long and short boxes; they would probably be burnt to a crisp. I would do some crying, some mild depression would set in, and then I’d move forward. I’d locate my comic inventory and get started on rebuilding my deceased collection.

A part of me would want to reclaim everything I’ve lost. I’d scour auction sites, fifty-cent bins, and comic shops to rebuild my collection. I’d probably do it without thinking about it. Hoping this never happens to me, writing this column does give me some space to “think about it”. Why would I want to restore my collection? What drives me to recreate it versus starting a new collection? Who burned my house down? Oh wait, that’s a question for another column.

While the monetary value of my comics might be a part of it I can’t say my drive would entirely come from recouping financial gain. There are many things from my past that are worth something today but I’m not scouring to replace those things because of their financial value. My comics are just different somehow. Does it have to do with growing up in a capitalist society? Do I only feel good if I have stuff around me? Yeah, a little, but I don’t see my comics as just stuff or objects.

They are more than stuff or objects; I’ve spent a lot of time picking up comics weekly. I’ve even bagged and boarded them.  To see that all wiped away in one night is just… I’d rather not dwell on that idea. Then again, there are a lot of things that I have allowed to go to waste after putting effort into it. I used to play a musical instrument but now if I picked it up I couldn’t play it. I don’t find myself longing for the days for when I played music, even if my musical instrument survived the fire.

What else is there what drives me to rebuild my collection after I’ve lost it? A part of me wants to believe that by rebuilding my collection I’m rebuilding some aspect of me. Artists create art, writers write, collectors collect, why shouldn’t I let that collection be a part of defining who I am? If I was to rebuild my collection it wouldn’t be just my collection I’m building it be me rebuilding that aspect of my life again. While I may never find all the books that I’ve lost I will have reclaimed a part of my identity tied to that collection. Something I care about enough to think of it as helping describe who I am.

While I pray I never have a fire and never lose my collection, I know that with my collection there lies an aspect of who I am and who I’ve become. I’ve said enough in previous columns about how important comics are to me and many others.  I will say that if my comics ever disappear I know that a part of me will find them again. Not the exact ones that I owned but the ones that help tell who I am.