How many comic books (physicial copies) in your collection?

[bminor]

I am guessing over 10,000 give or take. I haven't counted them since about 1979 or so.

[tronvillain]

I'm not sure. Only a couple of thousand, I think. Ridiculously, mostly nineties stuff since that's when I started buying comics, with some late eighties and various other bits and pieces.

[SuperScrounge]

I think it was over 5000 the last time I counted.

I did start a list of comics, but that got lost in a computer crash and I didn't feel like redoing it, but there have been a bunch of Free Comic Book Days, Halloween Comic Fests, and at least one library sale where I got a big haul of mostly '90s, and a few '80s, and '00s comics that have probably bumped the number up a ways. So maybe somewhere around 7,500?

My oldest comic (also PD) is from 1960, which just missed the cut-off date for here, but a scan is up at CB+.

[Robb_K]

Of paper originals issued between 1939 and 1964 for the North American, I probably have between 3,000 and 4,000, and for Dutch and a few hundred Belgians(Flemish) probably about 2,500 to 3500, with much smaller amounts of Warner Bros, MGM and Walter Lantz Cartoon-based.  The European are mostly Disney from 1949-2010, mostly Dutch Disney, with several hundred Danish Disney, and few hundred German Disney, plus a few hundred other Dutch, Danish and German other Funny Animal comics.  I also have several hardbound book sets of the various long runs of cartoony comics from those same periods.  The digitals, in addition to covering all that I have on paper, also include roughly 7,000 - 8,000 cartoony Human-figured comedy titles (many originated as newspaper strips), plus American Funny Animal comics that weren't sold in Midwestern Canada when I was young, plus some Dutch and Belgian titles I couldn't afford to buy in addition to what I was buying (just because of sheer volume). Plus, I have several British newspaper strips in digital format (ranging from the 1950s through the 1970s).
The paper issues and hardbound books are split up between my homes in The Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, and USA(mostly by language of the books matching the country of storage.  So I can't gather them all together to toss them all up in the air and let them fall on my head!    I don't have the space to store them all in one place, in any case.  Same is true for my phonograph records and books in general.  All my walls in every domicile are covered with bookshelves.

I'll never have the energy, nor time left in my life to make a list of what I have (comics or records). 

[Yoc]

Wow, I can imagine how your place looks Robb.
I own perhaps six long boxes.   

[Robb_K]

(1)Wow, I can imagine how your place looks Robb.
(2)I own perhaps six long boxes.   

(1) 4 places. 3 on one continent, one on another.

(2)  But, I'll bet you have several thousand issues on digital.  Thanks to you and Warner & crew, Boutje and a few other websites, I have probably 3 times as much on digital as on paper.

[Yoc]

Two continents.. Wow!
Oh my yes, I'm a digital fan now.  Soooo many more books and so much less space needed.
I'm a happy camper. 

[paw broon]

Despite coming late to digital anything, I am now a fan of digital comics and have so, so many. But there is nothing to beat the look, feel and smell of a physical, cheap paper, comicbook, imo.
As for how many physical comics I have - haven't a scooby. Lots of shelves and boxes, stored, unlike Robb's collection, in one small corner of Scotland.  Space became a problem a few years ago and digital seemed the answer. But a lot less than 40 years ago.  I had to sell off a lot.
The physical stock includes not quite complete runs of the mainstream British pocket libraries; a good selection of Pearsons pocket library output (for anyone who's interested, there are a lot available on CB+); selections of various Italian and French pocket libraries, Diabolik, Kriminal, Sadik and a few other neri; and French issues of The Spider and Steel Claw as well as Super Boy and Tenax.
A lot of Dell westerns - I do love a good Dell western, particularly the photo cover issues.
1 shelf of GA titles, multiple shelves of The Phantom, Australian, British, Scandinavian, German, American, Spanish............
Lots of old Spanish, Dutch and British titles - not the weeklies, that way lies madness
American S.A. titles incl Batman; Detective; Worlds Finest - although a lot of these last 3 are late '50's to '70's, occasionally '80's - I don't read a lot past that.
Non mainstream titles, Southern Knights; Justice Machine etc.
But digital is a different story.  Tb upon tb.
I am old so I suppose nostalgia plays a part in my preferences, but, really, can you beat a Murphy Anderson drawn Hawkman; an Adams or Aparo Batman? an Eisner Spirit? a Fine Ray?

[Yoc]

Hi Paw,
Thanks for sharing!  Sounds like you've got yourself a pretty cool collection there.
I too enjoyed some of the 80s independents like Justice Machine along with Hate, The Tick and The Elementals.

For modern comics, I'd HIGHLY recommend 'Astro City' title from Kurt Busiek/Brent Anderson/others with amazing Alex Ross covers.
It's been around since 1995 bouncing around a few publishers.  It's with Image now and they're releasing all the previous issues as TPB collections (the first is called 'Astro City MetroBook') while new books slowly come out.  The title is the closest I've seen to capture the SA fun of DC and Marvel.

Stay well,
-Yoc

[joecomix]

Only a few thousand. I once had a collection of 30,000 comic books, but I have since sold or traded most of them and replaced them with comics on other media - microfiche, CD, DVD and reprint collections. I have more now than I ever had, but not in physical condition.

[Yoc]

Hi Joe,
If you happen to have any that are pre-1959 please give our Wanted List a look.  It's searchable along the left side.
We're always hoping to fill any holes or upgrade older or incomplete scans on the site.

Click here for our ALL-NEW Wanted Comics List

If you have something let us know, we do have trusted scanners that can safely scan your books for posterity.

-Yoc