Set Description:
This write-up is woefully outdated, I'll update it one of these months...
”SECDEF (Secretary of Defense if you don't like acronyms)”?! I guess you may be asking yourself “what happened to President?” Well after a long, thorough, sometimes arduous assessment of my collecting vs. life goals and a debate on capitalism vs. collectorism, I reached two definitive conclusions:
1 – I still have a grudge against the bone claw era. As I’ve previously chronicled, Wolverine 61 was the first ever comic I bought and I was immediately hooked at the ripe old age of 9. I quickly started collecting in earnest, both back issues and buying new releases off the rack around issue 69 or 70. But as I was fully delving into the Wolverine storyline, X-Men 25 happened. To this day I still remember reading that book and desperately wanting to yell “DO SOMETHING!” at all the other X-Men. As I watched Wolverine’s day get quickly ruined by Magneto, Jean Grey was sitting idly by saying “Let’s see where Magneto is going with this...” and the rest of the team was off getting lattes at the Avalon food court. Suffice to say, I was terribly disappointed with “Fatal Attractions” and the direction it took the Wolverine story. I kept collecting back issues here and there but didn’t buy a new release until 2001, when I walked across the train tracks from work to my local comic shop and most fortuitously opened up a Gold Foil Wolverine 145.
2 – Mint or Signature Series, what’s my end game? Ultimately, Signature Series, because I think it’s the best way I can pay homage to all the writers and artists who made some of my all-time favorite comics happen.
Ergo, I figured President was no longer appropriate, but SECDEF is still a pretty sweet gig if you can get it. With that said, don’t take this as an “I wish I never had…” missive, because I will never regret all the time and money I put into assembling the collection that spent two separate runs at the top of the registry. The journey that this collection set me on was well beyond worth it, from all the great people I met to the simple joy of flipping through the back issue boxes or perusing eBay for the next high grade finds. If there’s one thing that has consistently brought me enjoyment no matter what life threw at me (and it has certainly found ways to throw at me!), it has been comic collecting.
So while I’m no longer aiming to stay on top in the Wolverine (1988) category, I'll be aiming to keep as many of the books that I truly want to keep long term. How that shakes out hopefully won't be hindered too much by my available storage space.
The full details of each particular book’s journey are available within the individual issue descriptions; just click through to see my little anecdotes about each. The pictures are the best I can manage while keeping my camera flash from hindering the photos (unfortunately my scanner's surface area can't capture an entire CGC book), so enjoy!
And I’ve tried to include accolades whenever possible to those who helped me acquire a particular issue, but I’d like to send some immediate thanks out to Keegan Conrad of Comics to Astonish and Rich Henn (my excellent facilitators who are responsible for every SS 9.8 I achieved on books submitted from my own collection) as well as registry members frostking, Professor Pecora, Jimmy Mint, worldsbestcomics, JSantucci81, and rmolina for our regular banter and occasional transactions. A hobby is even better when it’s shared.
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