Comic Book Resources

Send Us Your Shelf Porn!

Before you sit down to watch for the President’s State of the Union Address tonight (you are going to watch it, right?), why not cleanse the palate with some Shelf Porn.

Today’s SP comes once again from the land Down Under, i.e. Australia, courtesy of writer and blogger Ryan K. Lindsay. Must be something in the water there that makes everyone produce such great collections. Whatever the reason, I’m not complaining. Click on the link and you’ll see why …

My name is Ryan K Lindsay and here’s my nerd porn. I haven’t the most hardcore of collections, but it gets me through those cold writing filled, tea fuelled nights. I am an Australian writer, and have written a back matter essay for Brubaker and Phillips’ Criminal, it appeared in the November issue, which was the second part of The Sinners arc. The essay was called Australian Noir. I have also previously pitched a comic mini with Justin Greenwood (of Resurrection with Marc Guggenheim fame), to which Justin did some amazingly fantastic work. My other writing is wickedly fantastic, just no one else really ever sees it, but one day…oooh, boy, one day.

Anyway, it’s not show us your name-drop porn, so on with the shelves.

This is my main comic book shelf, everything else has to run space with the normal everyday books, not that Philip K Dick or Clive Barker ever really come across as everyday fiction. Everything is located in my office, where the magic happens; if you think writing while listening to comic podcasts and checking emails is magic.

Going down the shelf, the top tier is reserved for my favourite Horn Head. I have always been a massive Daredevil fan and am slowly making my way towards owning all of his appearances, I have well over 240 issues of the first volume, and every single one of the second. Favourites there include the Elektra Lives Again HC in great condition, A French reprint of the Spider-Man/Daredevil mini, and the Predator’s Smile paperback. A few stories are in trade, some are done in monthlies, so get the bag treatment. Note: On the right is the Marvel comic in which I saw real print, thanks Mr Brubaker.

A shelf down sees my Marvel trades. I grew up a Marvel boy, thanks to my oldest bro, and so have always kept an eye on the Marvel U. The Marvel History book on the left has a little noise panel so you can hear Stan ‘The Man’ Lee discuss his thoughts on many different things, it’s awesome. Tony Stark keeps all safe so I hopefully will never have to break the glass. The little Marvel box on the right is Marvel lunch bags, at $1 a box I had to have some.

DC has slowly won me over, especially with their great Vertigo imprint. Most of the selections are pretty cliché, but they’re also awesome so I’m glad to give a home to them all. Tell me you wouldn’t want to own them all?

My miscellaneous shelf pic is a little blurry, sorry. Here goes all the Image and other publishers. Some of my favourite stuff is down here, so Michael Myers keeps the horny teens away from my mint trades, because nubile young babysitters can often be found around my comic shelves (wait, what?). Also, on the right is a Robotman comic, I love that strip.

On the bottom shelf I am trying out a little ‘short box’ experiment. I use printer paper boxes and set the shelf above at just the right height. They pull out well, give me the option from looking above and filing through, and I just printed off my own little title card. Yeah, such a nerd I make my own little forts for the comics.

Just another shelving unit, two shelves of which will interest you more.

These little holders take on the titles which I currently get in monthly format. The first three house over two years of runs for those titles, Incognito (my choice for comic of 2009) sits with other Criminal and Casanova issues, Fantastic Four sits with other Marvel fare like Spider-Woman and Weapon X, and Daytripper works with other titles like Stumptown, Viking, and so on.

My crime shelf has a stack of Duane Swierczynski, who is massively a smart writer, and plenty of Hard Case Crimes as I slowly pick them up from random book sales.

Here are all the shelves together and the greatest monologue ever, as written by Kevin Smith.

Here’s two quality figures, Ash and an old Leia as Boushh figure, which I have just always loved.

A silk print of a great DD cover, and note the fine foam Wolvie claws, for the new movie, I won off Twitter. No, I didn’t wear them to the movie when I saw it.

My reading space, boring patch of white wall, but great blue futon, excellent chest which doubles as a leg rest, and a Frank Frazetta poster on the wall. Oh, also some Sean Phillips original art.

Sean Phillips had to illustrate for my essay in Criminal, so my wife bought the two pieces as a wedding present for me. She’s awesome, and so is he for his personal note to us. The other piece sits in our lounge room, a real piece of art.

My comic chest is pretty full, childhood treasures and modern masterpieces all dumped together, and seasoned with the greatness I often find on eBay. Shown are five ‘random’ classics I love for many different reasons: Cap’s Streets of Poison was one of the first story arcs I ever read, still like it today, The Thing had a comic about the further adventures of MacReady and it’s not perfect but it’s pretty awesome, Ben Templesmith signed two copies of Dead Space for me when I met him in Sydney, legend, the Strange Tales first appearance of Nick Fury as a super-spy and HYDRA, well worth the few dollars it cost me on eBay, Astonishing X-Men was part of one of the best crossover events in years (am I being sarcastic…am I?), and Weird Fantasy because all those old EC comics are greatness. Comics not shown: Pizza Man; Radioactive Man #1, and Tomb of Dracula #11.

My cluttered writing space. I love seeing other peoples’ desks, it’s always an insight. I try to keep my area tidy, though not always succeeding. I have post it notes in lots of spots for many different reasons. I have a DC Science Comic Cover calendar. More Frazetta on the wall with his Frost Giants, and the original Evil Dead poster, well not the actual original but a copy of it. And two great little things on the display area up there.

Mitch Breitweiser did a sketch of Iron Fist that I managed to nab off him, and I also own the first issue of Daredevil, a true copy. I only read it with tweezers that I burn in a flame first. I don’t want the oils on my fingers damaging such a piece of history, haha.

So, that’s my nerd room. Thanks need to go to my wife for letting me have it, so long as all my business stays out of the lounge room she is happy. Hope you enjoyed the tour; now, snacks in the kitchen, score! If you ever want to come back you can catch me getting my nerd on in my blog where I discuss my life as a writer, and the nerd things that distract me from my goals, or you can follow me on Twitter, @ryanklindsay

Enjoy.