I Just Want to Read the Sinestro Corps Book... Is that so Wrong?

On Wednesday, it was Tax Day here in the U S of A, which naturally lends one to think about finances. As I've stated in the past, we're living on the cheap these days, as we work to get Mrs. The Jim through school and into a Big Money (No Whammies) type of job. Until such time, we're living off of student loans and doing our best to spend as little money as possible. Of course, there are things that we really need to replace, but we're just standing pat and hoping nothing falls apart. Our mattress probably needed to be replaced four years ago, and she desperately needs another car instead of her ancient Honda CRV; however, there's not much we can do right now.

We can't really afford to get items we need, so we definitely can't spend much money on fun stuff. Mrs. the Jim isn't allowed to go wild on house decorations, travel, or luxury purses. For me, however, my biggest sacrifice is my comics.

While I've always loved comics, cartoons, and super heroes, I never really collected comics or read them much as a kid. I think the first time I started up was around when I hit 30. (That says something about me, although I'm not sure what.) The first two trades I purchased were Batman: Haunted Knight and Watchmen. A solid start, to say the least.


Because I started so late, there's a ton of books and back story out there for me. And, of course, I'm an OCD-level completist, so I have to start from the beginning and work my way forward. That means I can't just pick up a random Flash or Green Lantern book. No, I have to start from some arbitrary starting point and work my way through it. If there's a book I'm missing, everything goes on hold while I track down that book. I've been looking for a particular Green Lantern book for over 2 years now that's out of print. I may just have to skip it and move on.

When I was on my own with no real expenses, I had probably gotten up to around $100 to $200 a month on books ... that adds up! Given our current financial situation, though, I might spend $200 in a year, and that's only because of the occasional gift card.

What compounds the issue is that it's not like the comic companies have stopped printing books. I'm years behind of current continuity, so I have to avoid comic book web sites and blogs most of the time just so I don't spoil anything for the future. I don't even know what's good these days, because looking into that will probably ruin books I'll buy in the next decade!

There's so much stuff I'm jonesing for right now. I need to buy the rest of the Cerebus books, which would probably keep me busy for nearly a year (it's a LOT of material). Y the Last Man has been finished, and I need to buy that whole series, due to pure awesomeness. I just finished 52, so now I want to keep going with all of the DC stuff, but there's no way I can afford that commitment. Fables, Bone, The Walking Dead ... there's about a hundred things I need to be reading!

I bring this up because last week I discovered that along my route to work, unbeknownst to me, there's a comic book shop. This is not what I needed. It's like an addict having to pass a crack house every day to work. (OK, maybe not. Maybe it's more like a dude passing a book store, and not really something that's addictive and deadly. I might just be exaggerating there.) I don't exactly have the strongest willpower in the world, and now I have this twice-a-day reminder of what I'm missing? It SUCKS!

I'm thinking about applying for Comics-Buying Stimulus Funds, but I don't think they've started that program yet.

Until next time,
The Jim