Comic Book Resources

Send Us Your Shelf Porn!

Welcome to another edition of Shelf Porn, where we can’t get enough photos of full bookcases. Today’s shelf porn entry comes all the way from Cardiff, Wales, in the UK via Mr. Norman Heffernan. Norman’s got quite an extensive collection of (mostly DC-focused) material to share with you, so I’ll spare you the usual spiel and cut straight to the chase …

Just to give you a brief history of my collecting, I started, again, in 1989 aged 33 2/3rd, after a hiatus of some 15 years.

I had given up in my late teens upon discovering beer, women and the joys of live music, though not necessarily in that order, when my father was diagnosed with terminal cancer. The Dark Knight Returns had been featured in a Sunday paper in the UK and when I saw the book I had to have it. It took me back to being 9 again, when your dad is immortal and will be around forever.

A friend of mine at work then introduced me to the Killing Joke at the local comic shop. This was an eye opener for me. I didn’t know such places existed and most of the customers were of a similar age to myself. I was in heaven!

I initially thought I’d just collect Batman as he had been my favourite as a kid but I quickly moved on to Green Lantern, Flash, Justice League, Superman, (there’s a bit of a DC bias you notice) and then to licensed stuff such as Terminator, Predator, Starship Troopers, Robocop etc.

I’ve dabbled with Marvel from time to time I enjoy the Silver Surfer, the early X-Men and stuff like Marvels but have stuck mainly to mainstream titles that take me back to being a kid again.

I’m a Radiation Protection Tech for a local hospital, which can be quite stressful so my hobby is a great way to unwind.

I also still go to live music, blues mainly, and hold a 2nd degree black belt in Jujitsu but that’s enough about me.

My comic room is the front bedroom of my house, taken over after our loft conversion for my eldest son. There are 5 shelves of bagged and boarded comics from floor to ceiling running the length of the room on one side.

Above the PC is a selection of toys from my collection with a nice piece of Mike Collins art from detective 754.

To the left of the PC is my display cabinet with my black and white statues and more toys on the wall.

Also on that side of the room is my main bookcase with my Archives and hardback graphic novels and yet more statues.

I suppose I’ll have to wait for my son to move out to claim the loft, so I can display more of my collection, currently languishing in boxes in the loft crawl space behind my son’s room.