Bizarre Things I Have Found In My Collections #1

An irregular, in many senses of the word, feature I will put on this blog.  As I go through my various collections, I am struck by the very strange things that have managed to find their way into our popular (and not so popular) culture.  Here, I will showcase some of these oddities.

The first is a back cover ad from the February 1981 issue of Warren's "The Rook" magazine.  The main character of this magazine is the grandson of H.G. Wells' time traveller from The Time Machine.  This back cover ad, which ran on numerous issues of the magazine, has nothing to do with that.  Though the products that are being advertised are from another science fiction giant, which, one assumes due to copyright infringements, goes unnamed.  See if you know which it is....

Two things: One, the "[E]xciting adventures from the disco to the outer limits of space" sound just brilliant.  And two, I think I'd really like one of those jackets.  They look pretty badass.

That's it for this installment.  Next up, an ad for Saturday morning cartoons from a 1967 Superman comic book, featuring Moby Dick, action hero whale of the seven seas!

Welcome

It seems that I have a pretty good track record for starting blogs, but not necessarily with keeping them alive.  So we'll see how this goes.  Maybe I collect blogs.
I have recently finished a course at the University of Calgary entitled "From Books to Dust: The Practice of Collecting," taught by Dr. Stefania Forlini.  It got me seriously thinking about my own practices of collecting.  Perhaps that's the best place to start.

I am an inveterate collector.  There.  I've said it.  I am fascinated by things that are collectible.  I know I'm not alone in this.  I primarily collect comic books, though have also delved pretty seriously into action figures, Lego, books, cards, card games, records, superhero movies, etc, etc.  I fully expect that in 20 years, I'll be featured on a "Hoarders"-style television show.

What I hope to do with this blog is two things:  First, I want to think about what exactly it is that I'm doing as a collector.  Why am I drawn to the things I'm drawn to, and, more generally, why are those of us who collect drawn to the practice?  I want to think about the nature of the objects that we collect, and the nature of the objects that are collections.  And what those collections do to the objects that comprise them.

Second, I want to put my collections out there for all to see.  I'll be posting pictures, and lists, and musings on the specific collections.  As I said, I've recently finished a course looking at collecting, so I do have an academic interest in the practice, but I'm also a collector, and we like to display our collections.  For the most part.

So, expect essays.  Expect photographs.  Expect reproductions of want-lists, reviews of great places to find great...stuff, expect anxiety over not having nearly enough space to house my vast arrays of things.

Disclaimer: Nothing that you will see on this blog is for sale.  I apologize to any fellow collector who sees something on here that needs to be in his or her own collection.  I'm happy to keep my eyes open, of course, but the things I post are part of my own collections.