I quit collecting comics in 2003. It had been nearly 16 years since I started buying comics on a weekly basis, over 800 consecutive weeks. Buying comics was so important to me that if vacations were going to be planned, I needed to make sure that there would be a place for me to get my comics. When I visited prospective colleges, one of the most important questions I asked was “Where’s the nearest comicbook store?” Hell, when my grandfather died in 2000 and I spent a week in Florida for the funeral, I still found time to go to a comicbook store and get my weekly fix.
So why did I stop? Part of was necessity. My first job out of college was for an advertising company in New York City. I was let go in April 2002, and the job I took after that came with a significant cut in salary. In 2002 was spending $30 - $40 dollars a week on comics; that kind of spending was out of the question on my new budget. Also, honestly, I think by that time I was just getting tired of the weekly ritual, of the collector mentality that said “You must buy this!” At some point in the first half of 2003, a week came where I did not by a comicbook, and I have been (mostly) sober for 450 weeks since.
