Welcome once again to Send Us Your Shelf Porn. Our guest this week is Marc Mason, newly established PR guru for NBM and proprieter of the Comics Waiting Room Web site.

Remember, you too can be a featured Shelf Porn guest. All you need do is take some photos of your burgeoning comics collection and send them to me at cmautnerATcomcastDOTnet. Feel free to include as much or as little info about yourself and your collection as you like.

And now here's Marc ...

I enjoy this feature very much and thought I’d give it a shot. At this point in my life, I now have over 2000 graphic novels (not to mention plenty of regular comics). Thanks to being a reviewer, my shelves are overflowing! While plenty of these books weren’t review items, many were books I got in trade for comics I no longer wanted or needed. Not sure how this works, but I’ll try to hit some high points…

I don’t own too many action figures, but it just makes sense to have Steel guarding the S-Z shelf. Included here: all of the TRANSMETROPOLITAN, Y THE LAST MAN, STRANGERS IN PARADISE, and SHE-HULK volumes. This bookcase probably has more “mainstream” material than any of my others.

The front part of the alphabet for regular trade paperbacks. Things here include all of the JOHN BYRNE FF VISIONARIES, all the MADMAN trades, each of the volumes of FLIGHT… as you can see, I’m stacking right now because I have no room to add anything new. This problem is only growing as the months pass.

Hardcover land starts here. Plus, over-sized trades, some digest-sized collections and more. In the lower right, you’ll see a ton of minicomics as well. I also have all of the Minx line sitting here. And if that isn’t cool enough? How about statues of Merv Pumpkinhead and the Black Widow? I contain multitudes!

Top row, over-sized hardcovers. I’ll come back to those later. The regular shelves contain 6x9 and smaller books. This is easily the most eclectic bookcase in my collection. Lots of stuff from Oni, Fantagraphics, First Second, NBM, and Top Shelf to be found here. Bottom left you’ll see all the books I have from Lewis Trondheim’s DUNGEON series. I worship Trondheim. Massively. Upper right: statues of Spider Jerusalem (my personal hero) and Harley Quinn. Again- expecting consistency from me isn’t a good idea. J

Couple hundred manga volumes, anyone? Apparently I need to shelve that NOBLE CAUSES book- no idea why that’s sitting there.

The Marvel Essential is probably my favorite format running right now. Plus, it allows me to get the comics I had (and loved) as a kid back into my hands at a cheap price. Also living here: some of the COMPLETE PEANUTS volumes, as well as the complete BUFFY and ANGEL series on DVD.

I’m missing a couple of CEREBUS volumes. The guy I traded with to get 13, 15, and 16 didn’t have the others. Drat.

Top shelf here: the Grant Morrison NEW X-MEN omnibus hardcover. I am certain this is the heaviest book I own. Bright side: potential murder weapon (should I need one).

Back to the over-sized hardcovers. One of the things I love about comics (and my collection in turn) is the eclectic nature of what I enjoy. In a row here I have: the COMPLETE FAR SIDE, the ABSOLUTE edition of Warren Ellis’ AUTHORITY, Fantagraphics’ first POPEYE reprint, and a Chris Ware book. Fun!

Further down this shelf, THE PRO shares space with STRAY BULLETS, THE BOYS, COMIC BOOK TATTOO, and THE PHOTOGRAPHER. Anyone ever tells you that comics don’t have something for everyone, they’re lying. Or ignorant. Set ‘em straight!

A closer look at over-sized trades and the minicomics. Still waiting on one more volume of COMPLETE OMAHA. As for minicomics… they rock. The purest form of comics out there. Anyone can fold a piece of paper in half, write and doodle, hit Kinkos and put their work in front of people. How can you not love that? Even when they suck, you have to respect the effort.

Over-sized manga and the smaller omnibus format Dark Horse and IDW are using. Have I mentioned how much I love omnibus-type books?

Smaller hardcovers. The Ted McKeever books from Image came out really nicely.

So yeah, I have a lot of graphic novels. And running Comics Waiting Room, along with being the p.r. guy for NBM Publishing, means the collection is only going to grow larger. But I don’t see it as a burden- I’m really fortunate to have been able to read and own so many wonderful books. I wish the same for everybody out there reading!

Hello and welcome once again to Send Us Your Shelf Porn, the only Internet comics column where you, the reader, have the chance to be King (or Queen) Geek for a day! Wouldn't you like to be King (or Queen) Geek for a day? Sure you would! So send me photos of your comics collection, be it large or small, along with any commentary/explanations you see fit to give, to cmautnerATcomcastDOTnet and I'll post them here so everyone can go "Man, I always wanted that book. Howcum he has that book and I don't? Life is so unfair."

This week our special guest is Ryan Kirk of San Antonio, Texas, who has managed to accumulate quite an impressive array of books. Take it away Ryan!

My name is Ryan Kirk, and these are my shelf porn pics. I'm not a prominent blogger or anything, I do post on Comic Book Resources (under Ryan K), for whatever that's worth. I live in San Antonio, TX and work for the state. Well, that's enough biographical info, I'll talk a little bit about my pictures.

The main shelf is the bulk of my collection. It's made up of three cheap, 5-shelf bookcases I bought at Wal-Mart. I mounted them together and to the wall. As you can probably see, they're not made of the sturdiest of material and in some ares the shelves are dipping from the excessive weight. I'll have to upgrade eventually, but that'll have to wait. For the most part the books are organized alphabetically by cartoonist. From Abel, Jessica to Yang, Gene Luen. Of course not everything on those shelves is the product of a single creator. All of my Alan Moore and Grant Morrison books are listed under their names, because they're the reasons I have the books in the first place. In the case of Catwoman: The Dark End of the Street by Ed Brubaker and Darwyn Cooke, I put the book under Cooke, because (no offense to Brubaker), I like Cooke more. There's a couple other ones like that in there. Seems like a bit of a strange system now that I write it out, but it works for me.

On the third section of the main shelf, after Mr. Yang's American Born Chinese, I have my collection of anthologies. Mome, a couple Kramers Ergots, Non 1-5, etc. On the shelf directly below that I have books about comics in no particular order. Biographies, history, guides. It's an area of my collection I'd like to expand one day.

On top of the bookcases I threw up some books that just wouldn't fit anywhere else. Kramers Ergot 7, some of the big Acme Novelty Library issues, Fantagraphics' Popeye collections, Brian Chippendale's Ninja. Then I tossed some smaller books in front of them like Lone Wolf and Cub and Fantagraphics' Peanuts collections. At some point I'd like to integrate LW&C, Peanuts, and the rest of those smaller books into the larger, alphabetical collection. But that'll require more shelf space, which I'm basically out of as it is.

The bottom shelves of the three bookcases that compromise the main shelf, are filled with the books that would otherwise destroy my flimsy set-up. IDW's Library of American Comics, Gary Panter, The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics. Basically anything too heavy, or slightly too tall. Again, I'd like to integrate everything but the art books at some point in time. It bothers my OCD to have them separated.

The manga shelf is also alphabetical by cartoonist, or in the case of books with an individual writer and artist - by writer (sorry artists, I had to make them fit into my system somehow). These actually all were part of the main shelf at one point, completely integrated with their American and European counterparts. But at some point something needed to give on that main shelf, and separating the manga seemed like a decent enough idea. Again, in my OCD utopian future, they will be reunited with my comics from the rest of the world. Except for maybe the Akamatsu books, which I really should just hide under the bed or something.

At the top of my closet, I have my collection of Marvel Essentials and DC Showcase Presents. I really love the value of these books and the way they look all lined up together. A couple of years ago, I had a standing order at my LCS to pull every one of these that came out. But when Marvel and DC started releasing 2 a month, I couldn't keep up with even browsing them. So now I haven't bought any in a couple years except for at used bookstores. Down at the beginning of the line there are my collection of Dark Horse's Chronicles of Conan and Savage Sword of Conan reprints. And some Vampirella Chronicles from Harris.

Rather than have Chris repeat what's already on his blog, I asked him if he could give a quick tour of the collection and maybe go into a bit more depth about how how he organized his collection, shelving issues, organizational challenges, etc. He graciously sent me back the photos and text below.

Before we look at his shelves, however, I want to issue a reminder. Shelf porn begins and ends with you, the reader. If you want to keep this feature going, then we need contributions, be your shelves barren and propped by concrete blocks, or hand-carved out of mahogany and filled with every treasure imaginable. Send you pics to cmautnerATcomcastDOTnet. You'll be glad you did.

Now, on with the show --

The tour begins in my home office, one of three areas in my apartment where I have found space for the various bookcases that hold my collection. Situated in the front of my two-flat apartment, this room has a nice spherical shape and a southern exposure, which meant I could fit a couple of shelves in a nice little arc. One of my many obsessions involving my collection is the categorization and grouping of my books by broad subject area. These shelves hold a combination of alternative and international comics (on the left and in the center), independent (on the right), and author grouped materials (center right). The half-shelf in the center allowed me to fit in in one more bookcase and while not blocking the window. It nice to let light into your batcave every once in awhile.

I like being able to work surrounded by books, but it is also good to have a little breathing space. My first attempt at a home office in a previous apartment was in a thin, long room where in order to squeeze in both a desk and as many bookcases as possible I ended up so boxed in by bookcases I almost literally couldn't turn around. Now I can actually push my chair away from my desk without running into Batman: No Man's Land or Madman collections . Above my computer my prized possession: an original Frank King Gasoline Alley strip. It was originally given to my Grandfather by Mr. King, who was his second cousin. Both my mother and uncle also received strips from King when they were young. I was around these long before I really knew who King was. This is probably what I'll grab first if I ever have to quickly escape a fire.

Two of my "author" shelves, these focusing on Grant Morrison & Alan Moore. I lucked into some real finds back in the mid-90s when a local shop was having a massive sale and I was able to grab such finds as a full run of the Titan Zenith reprints as well all of their Moore collections. Alan Moore is one of the few creators for whom I am willing to shell out a little extra for a nice edition. Other groupings include P. Craig Russell, Mike Mignola, and Paul Pope. I used to have more, but I have cut down on the number of creators I try to maintain all inclusive collections for.

The short shelf doesn't really have a consistent theme yet. Right now it is my most recent books along with my run of Mome and the Fantagraphics' Ignatz series. The bottom shelf is a reference shelf of TwoMorrows books and other artist and non-fiction books.

All of my bookcases are cheap, standard items purchased from Ikea. Not to turn this into an unpaid advertisement, but these easily attainable pieces have let me build and shape my library on an ongoing basis for not too much money. They have two standard models: a cheaper bookcase which is less adjustable and on the weaker end of the "wood" spectrum, and a sturdier, more expensive piece which allows more flexibility in regards to shelf spacing. I mostly go with the cheaper versions and have had to perform a certain amount of customization on them so that I could add extra shelves. The extra shelves let me me create these more precisely sized shelves to fit manga sized collections or other books of non-standard size. I hated having all that extra space above books or having to mix tiny books with larger books. Since you couldn't by shelves separately I endued up buying extra bookcase and then cannibalizing the shelves to add to and customize my existing bookcases.

The nice thing about customizing your own shelves is that you get to do things like create a shelf that fits nothing but Dark Horse Comics' Lone Wolf & Cub's collections. And the full run fits perfectly across the shelf, with room for two more. Maybe it is a little too precise a size for a shelf, because now I need to purchase two items that will fill out two-books worth of empty space and can't think of anything to use.

Here you can see my prep work for adding extra shelves. These less expensive bookcases only provide you with three adjustable shelves and a limited number of holes with which to adjust them. In order to add extra shelves I had to measure out even spacing for the new holes which matched the general layout of the existing shelving, and then drill extra holes which would fit the little metal pegs which hold the shelves. I had plenty of extra pegs from other pieces, since they are fairly standard across the Ikea world. It was a very hit and miss process for me, considering how weak my DIY skills are. I felt incredibly proud that I was able to pull it off as well as I could. Of course, if you want a heavily adjustable bookcase you have to pay for it; or build it yourself.

This is my "for public consumption" bookcase (actually two bookcases as I had a little room to add the half-width case on the left). These live in the living room and contain a selection of material that has been specifically gathered to provide a public face for my collection. I hate to say the "least embarrassing" material, but certainly the more show-off books. "Least embarrassing" can mean many things. Today it means my Love & Rockets collections, various Art Of books and Absolute volumes, some more New Yorker-esque material (Seth, Jonathan Lethem, Charles Burns), comic strip collections, books about comics, and, for some reason, my Dark Horse Comics media collections. I guess you hit the two ends of the spectrum by displaying Chris Ware on one shelf and Aliens vs. Predator on the next. I do contain multitudes.

I use the high end bookcases for use in the living room. These not only have stronger shelves (important if you are going to use them for giant, heavy hardcover volumes) but a more complete set of holes for use in precisely adjusting shelves. This means I can more easily size shelves to fit the Peanuts or Walt & Skeezix collections precisely, and still have room for a giant shelf of really tall volumes (like the larger Acme Novelty issues or a sweet European Geoff Darrow hardcover). It still isn't big enough for the Sundays With Walt & Skeezix book which lives on top of a bookcase elsewhere in the apartment.

This room is a bit of a bonus for my current living situation: a small room at the back of the apartment that I have been able to make into an actual library. When I first moved in I completely filled it with bookcases, but my recent efforts to curtail my buying habits and weed out my collection means I should be able to add a bed and make it into a kind of guest room/library. These three shelves contain most of my mainstream and genre fiction. The case on the left is superheroes and few remaining media oriented collections (still haven't been able to weed out my various Aliens/Predator Vs. books). That one bookcase is all that is left of what was once about three bookcases worth of Marvel & DC collections. When I re-prioritized, those were the hardest (or maybe the easiest) hit.

This skinny bookcase was purchased because I had exactly that much space left on a wall in my last apartment. It is also the perfect size for the Essential and Showcase collections, and is sturdy enough to hold Marvel oversized hardcovers. The one problem with the cheaper bookcases is that the shelves really can't hold the weight of heavier books, except on the bottom or center shelves which are non-adjustable and thus more reinforced. But when you pay a little more, they are able to take a little more without buckling or needing replacement every few years.

The shelf on the left is the "genre" shelf, containing mostly Vertigo collections and other horror, western, or crime collections. The center shelf has some of the premiere DC & Marvel collections. I'm a huge fan of recent Premiere Classics series from Marvel and have to fight an urge to purchase every single volume (all in the Direct Market limited editions of course) in order to have a complete & consistent set of spines. The wooden racks on the right hold my regular comic book collection. I purchased these a few years back when I was living in a garden apartment and wanted to get the boxes up off of the floor and away from the damp. Two of these racks fit perfectly (if a bit precisely) in a walk in closet I had at the time. They are a perfect size for "shortboxes" but have almost no stability. I hope to find a more permanent solution at some point in the future, but for now I just wrap the end facing the wall with bubblewrap so I don't do too much damage from the constant bumping.

While I'm a child of the ’70s it was the 1980s when I came of age with comics so I have the strongest sense of nostalgia for that era. I have been extremely pleased by the amount of reprints of prime Eighties material we have seen over the past few years and that has certainly fed my my need to return to that era. I guess it is just another sign of aging that I am willing to drop $50 on a premium collection of Nexus or Mage or Secret Wars II, but we all have to embrace our my baser instincts sometimes.

The bottom shelf of the Eighties Case contains collections that were actually released in the 1980s, back when the larger format "graphic novel" size from Europe was the standard rather than today's comic sized or manga sized collections. Flipping through the Starblaze Elfquest collections in the back of a Crown Books at the mall was some of the earliest comics experiences. Some of my prized possessions here are the Tim Sale Thieves World series from Starblaze and early Mage hardcovers found at a used bookstore when I first moved to Chicago. The Marvel hardcovers are out of place on this shelf, but I've had to use them to fill in space where available after the culling. Consistency would want them all in one section, but needs must.

Cereblog

Talk about ambition. Leigh Walton and Laura Hudson have created a new comics site, titled Cereblog, devoted to (as you may have already guessed) Dave Sim's seminal (and just a wee bit controversial) series Cerebus. Their goal? To dual critique all 300 issues, one each week.

Cerebus: A Diablog (or sometimes Cereblog) is an ongoing close reading in two-part harmony. Neither of us was born yet when Cerebus was launched, and neither of us has previously read very much of the series. We’re curious to see what Dave Sim’s work, in all its twisted glory, has to say to a new generation of readers. Grab your own copy and read along with us!

All kidding aside, so far they seem to be off to a strong star. Here, for example, is Leigh on issue one:

What’s interesting about the “Cerebus is an aardvark” juxtaposition — seemingly the point of the comic — is that the comic largely doesn’t notice. The opening few pages of this issue, when the human characters are shocked to see a warrior aardvark riding a horse and entering a bar, comprise pretty much the only time in the series (I think) when the comic draws attention to the conceit. “Thought later he would be called the finest warrior to enter our gates, at the time, he was but a curiosity…” “I can’t serve YOU here… YOU’RE A…” etc. But then he’s hired by two thieves to join their heist, with a minimum of hesitation, and that establishes the treatment for the rest of the book: Cerebus is funny-looking, and he’s recognized as an unnaturally skilled warrior, but he’s not a dog walking on its hind legs or anything.

Please join me in wishing them the best of luck. By the time they get to Reads, they'll need it.