No more childhood comics

[wardrobe86]

My mum's house suffered a huge house fire and all my childhood comics were destroyed, beanos from 1992 through to 2000 and busters from 1997 to 1999, annuals from 1972 to 2004. Has anyone else lost comics due to a fire or flood etc

[Peter Gray]

That a reality check....I'm really sorry to hear that..
also many other things like photo albums lost..what a horrible time for you all..

A fire would mean I would lose all my art work I've done..though some are saved on the internet..and my large comic collection..Dad's painting..childhood drawings..

In the end as long as my Wife and I are safe that is the most important..though a very hard lesson..it would be very hard..

[wardrobe86]

luckily no one was hurt and photo albums survived as they were downstairs, i am urging my mum to get those onto a digital format. But yeah a fire just wipes out all possessions, my mum now owns no clothes and the insurance companies aren't quick to replace things either.

[Digifiend]

Wow I wouldn't wish that on anyone. I'd be gutted if that happened to me. Hope your mum's insurance pays out quicker than you're expecting, and that in the meantime her neighbours and community rally round to help.

[brisey]

In the great storm of 1987-I lost my 2000AD collection which included a newsagent preview of 2000AD-all non-strip pages were filled with randomly typed gobbledygook.

My dad had moved them into a shed for some reason.

[r3tr0_gam3r]

Thats terrible, one of my worst fears. Its good to know nobody was badly hurt, and I hope you can get things sorted.

[felneymike]

I echo Retro Gamer. Ever since i started building up my comic collection i've been extra careful about fire prevention, turning things off at the wall, for instance. Still i can only do it in my own room and not the whole house at the moment, but it's a start.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

First and foremost: sorry to hear about your family plight, wardrobe: human safety comes first and foremost, obviously, human beings come before any comic from any era.
However, I have thought of the possibility of flooding/fire, etc, and I try to be careful: no cooking after a few bevvies, for example!
In an extreme case, you could put your absolute irreplacable comic-faves in a fire-proof safe! [wish I'd done that in 1969 with me SPARKYS: it would have saved me almost 4 decades of yearning; the 'itch' to see these comics again only subsided 3 years ago!]


I agree that old photos are easily scanned, and multiple copies on disc be distributed to other family members. Scanning all those pages of comics, though.......has anyone anywhere ever done this?

[Niblet]

Sorry to hear your bad news, Wardrobe, I can imagine how devastating that would be. Thankfully no-one was hurt - that's the most important thing.

I mentioned on another thread that I store the overflow from my collection in my shed, and a few months ago realised that the shed roof was leaking. Fortunately, none of my comics in there were damaged, but this set me thinking about digitising my collection. As a result, I recently started a completely mad project to scan my entire collection. This will take years - I'm aiming at scanning 2 comics per day. It takes me about an hour to scan one 32-page comic.

Currently, I'm backing up the files on my second hard disk, but I intend to copy them onto DVD then store them with my house deeds at the bank.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

An ambitious---and very forwards-looking---idea, Niblet! Who knows, if WW3 ever rears it ugly head, your digi-scans may be all that remain of comics history for future generations........

[Phoenix]

Scanning all those pages of comics, though.......has anyone anywhere ever done this?

I know two people who have been busy doing just this over the last few years with their collections of DC Thomson story papers, text and picture versions. However, they have also been then selling off the originals on eBay. Personally I haven't entirely bought into this digitisation of print, and although I'm very much in favour of backing computer files up, I just cannot place all my trust in the medium. So if I were ever to attempt it, I would have to hang on to my originals as well until such time as I no longer needed or wanted them.

[philcom55]

I know of one older person who copied all his Victors, etc. to disc because he didn't think he'd be allowed to take the originals with him to a retirement home.

- Phil Rushton

[Phoenix]

I know of one older person who copied all his Victors, etc. to disc because he didn't think he'd be allowed to take the originals with him to a retirement home.

Sadly I don't think it's a question of whether he can or can't take the papers in with him. By the time he takes up residence his collection will almost certainly have had to be sold to help fund the outrageously high fees for board and lodging. I was sorting through one of my piles of newspaper cuttings this afternoon, and I came across an article about a woman who had gone into one of these retirement homes. She had been given a private room and had been there for over 900 days without ever going to the communal lounge. As the article didn't indicate that she had a computer with her and some discs containing her collection of Girls' Crystal, I think we can reasonably assume that she wasn't very happy. I think it is a worry for us all. Every time I struggle to remember a word that years ago I would have remembered automatically, without even being aware I was remembering it, I think of that highly-intelligent novelist, Iris Murdoch, and the way she slowly lost it, and then I wonder whether I had genuinely forgotten it or whether the pathway to that word in my brain has been corrupted. Time will tell, I suppose!

[Lew Stringer]

I know of one older person who copied all his Victors, etc. to disc because he didn't think he'd be allowed to take the originals with him to a retirement home.

- Phil Rushton

You can take what you like up to a certain amount, as the idea is to make the room as familar to home as possible. I suppose a small box of comics would be acceptable that one could keep out of the way in the wardrobe, but not piles of comics everywhere naturally. (Even then, one would hope that the cleaner didn't throw them away as "rubbish" which would be a strong possibility they would.)

However, one only goes into a care home as a last resort, when there's no one able to look after you and you're incapable of faring for yourself either due to physical or mental incapacity. By which time comics would probably be the last thing you'd miss.

Lew

[Phoenix]

By which time comics would probably be the last thing you'd miss.

On the other hand, Lew, if you are entering your second childhood comics may well be the first or even the only thing you would miss.